Throughout the game I'm going to be updating this with thoughts, observations, Star Wars references and whatever else I feel like writing. Please mix things up in the forum but do so responsibly as name calling can hurt feelings. I would've posted this thread ten minutes ago but I was in the middle of a boss battle in Final Fantasy: Crisis Core and I had to get out of it to find a save point. Apologies...
Well the CBC broadcast has taken an interesting and controvertial turn as Ron MacLean just described Boston as "Montreal's meat."
They're now announcing that Ward will be playing with Chara and Wideman is out. Kessel is out and Sobotka is in. Good move Claude.
And they're playing what sounds like Rod Stewart in the Bell Centre in order to get the Montreal crowd pumped. I guess it works considering the crowd last game.
I give the anthem performance a 6/10. She knew the words and was on key for most of it but the tempo was too slow and I didn't like how she tried to spice some of it up. Call me old fashioned but I think the anthems shouldn't be sung like a Britney Spears concert. I'll give this to her though: she looked calmer in front of that crowd than Thomas did last game.
The game has now been going for almost two minutes and the Habs have yet to score. Phew.
Really though, Boston is looking much more calm than they did on Thursday. It's good to see.
Peter Schaefer seems to be stepping up again as he has been good around the baords. He and Hnidy are still coming to play.
Most of the pressure has been on Price so far but he looks like he's game for it. Thomas has yet to be seriously tested.
Now a scrum has broken out with the Bruins' fourth line on the ice. I hate when stuff like this happens. If you have a problem with someone then fight them. Don't paw at one another.
Lucic, Metropolit and Ward are looking much more physical than they did last game. I don't know what they did between the last game and this one but I think they may have tried to get themselves real mad by watching Mad About You reruns.
The first power-play of the game comes with a hooking call on Markov. The Bruins' power-play is looking pretty good but they just can't seal the deal despite a bunch of scoring chances that made my heart pop out like a cartoon character's.
Mark Stuart just stood behind the Bruin net waiting for his teammates to get set up. The pause lasted long enough that the crowd booed. Stuart looked like he was having a flashback to Nam and after all that time, he just managed to skate for two feet and pass the puck to a Hab. Good work guys.
Petteri Nokelainen is flying around all over the place tonight.
The Bruins will be on the power-play after a bunch of miniature programs designed to make you purchase things that you may or may not need.
Well there goes another power-play, wasted...
Say what you want about Wideman but it would've been nice to have him taking a shot on Price instead of Hnidy.
Chara takes a penalty and CBC cuts back to the same Bud-Light commercial that I see 10344 times a day about whether or not sports shows are too commercialized. I don't understand why beer commercials need to have so much talking in them. The stuff practically sells itself. All they need is a still shot of a glass of beer on the screen for 20 seconds and it's sold.
So Chara is now sitting in the box and Kostopolous did his job in getting him there.
The Habs are gaining the zone on the Bruins exactly the way they did last game: by firing it down the boards and collecting it on the other side of the rink. Never-the-less, Tim Thomas ears his keep and kills the penalty off.
As Metallica blares in the Bell Centre, the announcers announce that tonight is a sellout. Coincidence? Probably.
Just when it was looking like the Bruins might actually get out of the period without giving up a goal, Roman Hamrlik fired the puck past Thomas who looked like he had the reaction speed of a baby sloth. Here we go again.
Shane Hnidy heard the buzzer but decided his job wasn't done and he starting mixing it up with Hamrlik. Shane's efforts are duly noted.
The second period has begun and Reich and Higgins are in the box for roughing.
The Bruins are looking pretty good again but if they don't score, it doesn't matter how good the rest of their game is.
Kovalev just skated all the way around the Bruins' net holding on to the puck. The Bruins' Mark Stuart, instead of trying to actually hit Kovalev, tried to outskate him and take the puck. That didn't work out well since Kovalev then sent the puck on net and it ended up getting fired underneath Thomas by Sergei Kostitsyn. The most disgusting thing about the whole sequence wasn't Kovalev's puck possession but the fact that Kostitsyn actually scored on his second chance on Thomas and the Bruins just stood there staring at him. I don't understand why unless they really just don't care about winning.
Nokelainen is now going to the box and the struggle continues.
2-0 Montreal.
The Bruins haven't toally turtled but I can't help but feel they're just going through the motions at this point. They seem to be able to get a hold of the puck this game but then they don't get infront of the net with it.
Streit is now going to the box and the crowd sounds less than satisfied. You know what? No one cares what they think. No one.
The Bruins were kept to the outside for most of the power-play and they failed to produce any solid scoring chances. Andrew Ference had the best chance to shoot the puck but he decided he would rather gently brush the puck towards the net instead. I guess he was hoping everyone would be fooled by the change-up.
Now CBC is trying to retain their viewers by attempting to convince us that if the Bruins think positively then everything will work out. What's more likely is this blog will degenerate into a string of expletives by the third period.
The power-play is again limited to the outside. The best chance the Bruins had was a slapper by Chara which went straight into Price's chest. In fact, the Habs had a better scoring chance on the Bruins during a 2 on 1 breakout early in the power-play. Krejci and Schaefer also had chances but at no point was Price in danger of letting them by. This is rapidly becoming sadder than the scene in Gone In 60 Seconds where Nick Cage's Shelby is destroyed. Brings a tear to your eye.
And Carey Price makes a nice save so the crowd starts chanting, what sounds like, "Gerry, Gerry, Gerry!" I swear.
Tim Thomas was foreced to make a decent but ugly save on one of the Kostitsyns as Kovalev sprung him with a great outlet pass.
Mark Stuart now sits in the penalty box. Taking penalties in Montreal are a mix-bag. On the one hand you're going to be short handed. On the other hand you get to hear the Imperial March. It's almost worth it.
In the second intermission the CBC has pulled Ward out of the room to interview him. It's funny. For such a gritty d-man, he gives one heck of a polished interview. He can fit cliche after cliche in there and he doesn't pause. Heck of a job.
For anyone looking for something to watch in between periods, Spike TV is playing the Empire Strikes Back in a pleasant surprise that will no doubt be the best part of my evening.
Against my better judgment, I've turned the TV back to the game for the start of the third. The Bruins are actually coming out pretty strong but they're still sabotaging themselves in the offensive zone by shooting from poor angles.
Just as I wrot ethe previous paragraph, Schaefer and Nokelainen drove to the net and got a rebound from Price. Schaefer poked the puck into the net and bingo, it's 2-1 Habs. That's the type of hustle this team needs.
The Bruins are fighting harder than they have in the rest of the series. They must realize that if they lose this one, it's pretty much officially over.
They're actually even starting to get quality shots on Price despite the fact that guys like Savard and Murray have been totally invisible. The Bruins' third and fourth lines seem to be the deadliest tonight.
Next up: Bruin power-play. This is a big one.
Instead of putting the hot hands on the ice, Claude Julien has put out Savard and Murray (the guys I just said have been invisible). The power-play has looked totally useless and ineffective.
Kovalev just had a clean break away on the Bruins' net and missed high-glove side. Ward shoved Kovalev off to the side and Kovalev slashed him. This put Kovalev into the box and gave the B's a two man advantage.
The Bruins made no mistakes this time. They won the face-off and Krejci ended up burying the puck off of a pass from Krejci.
Game tied 2-2.
The Canadiens managed to kill off the remainder of the Kovalev penalty.
This is the first time in my life I've ever turned off a Star Wars movie and not regretted it.
This is truly frustrating. The Bruins finally have tied the game up. They have the momentum on their side and what do they do? They start playing passively and then they take a stupid penalty on the fore-check. Habs go on the power-play next and the Bruins need to start using their brains more.
The Bruins go right back to shooting themselves in the foot as Metropolit trips Ryder and gives Montreal a five on three power-play.
Somehow, someway, the Bruins managed to kill off all remaining penalties. The B's had some lucky bounces and some nice plays to break up the Habs' passing game but I am still amazed that this game is tied.
And just as I write that, Shawn Thornton high-sticks Kostopolous and there will be another penalty. And it's a double minor.
This game is going to overtime after some of the most intense hockey action I've ever seen. The Habs failed to score despite all of their chances and Markov, with less than a second remaining, rung the puck off the post. I'm sure several ambulances have been dispatched in the New England area.
Well there's a delay beginning OT because "the ice is wet". Ok then.
Bruins start the first OT period short-handed. They did a good job of killing the first penalty when Jeremy Reich dumbly tripped up a Hab in the Habs' zone. The Habs will have another two man advantage and if that doesn't seal the deal for them, they will have a normal power-play for a little under two minutes afterwards. Just a brutal, brutal penalty to take on the part of Jeremy Reich.
And Jeremy Reich's penalty ends up costing the Bruins the game as they drop to 0-2 against the Habs in the playoffs. Kovalev with the game winner.
After coming back from a two goal deficit, the Bruins effectively shot themselves in the foot by several stupid penalties in a row, all of which came in the Habs' zone or away from the play.
-Gerz
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