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Unbelievable: B's make history in Game 7 win |
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Ty Anderson
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As I begin writing this, it’s 2:34 a.m. in Boston.
I left the TD Garden a little before midnight, hopped on a smelly Orange line, got in my car, and drove fast enough to make it home by about 12:30 a.m.. I’ve stared at my laptop screen for well over an hour now -- two hours, actually -- and yet, here I am without any clue as to how I can accurately describe what I just witnessed in Boston. I can’t recall the last time I’ve watched a Game 7 involving the Boston Bruins (or just about any team for that matter) without stopping to say, “Hmm, well that’s strange.” When it comes to the game of hockey, I’ve always felt that Game 7s and strange happenings go together like black cats and Halloween. You don’t understand why it’s happening or what it all means, but you acknowledge the oddity as such.
Tonight, in the most painfully simplistic way I can state it, was strange.
It was strange that the Bruins, a team that at one point held a 3-1 series lead over the Toronto Maple Leafs, were in this situation to begin with. It was strange that the Leafs’ James Reimer became a bona fide stud in net with his back against the wall (Reimer came into Boston with 72 saves on 74 shots -- a .973 save-percentage -- faced in elimination games). It was strange that the B’s coach Claude Julien trusted his depth enough to play Matt Bartkowski over the apparently ailing 35-year-old Wade Redden in a Game 7.
But nothin’ was stranger than the Black-and-Gold rolling over and dying on home-ice against Phil Kessel, yes -- Phil Kessel, and the Maple Leafs.
Or so I thought.
(It’s 3:00 a.m. in Boston.)
It was over when Toronto’s Nazem Kadri struck in the third period to extend the Leafs’ edge to three with just 14:31 to go in the game. The Bruins, a team that despite its seemingly minor flaws established one of the league’s most dominant home presences’ in 2013, was about to go out like gutless, spineless frauds. Their record wasn’t indicative of who they really were and changes were coming to the Hub after what was undoubtedly going to be the club’s second straight first round exit.
After duping fans into a return to Cup-life for the second straight spring, heads were rolling.
Barring a catastrophic collapse by Reimer and company, the B’s were donezo.
Agitation came when Nathan Horton connected with 10:42 to go. “Sure, you score now,” an annoyed fanbase cried out, accustomed to the 2013 Bruins’ typical “too little, too late” act. And for over nine minutes, such appeared to be the case. But then came that wish-you-could-hide-it optimism when a 6-on-5 attack led to another late-game goal for the Bruins’ Milan Lucic. The Bruins, with 82 seconds left in their season, were once against setting their fans up for horrific tease that’d end with morning water cooler talk headlined by, “If only they put that effort forth earlier.”
There was no way that the Bruins could find lightning in a bottle again and score a second goal with the goalie pulled. You’d be crazy to think that it was anything beyond a fantasy.
But before I could blink, with Lucic beginning it all with a great keep-in, and with the 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara screening the 25-year-old Reimer, a Patrice Bergeron blast unbelievably found its way to the back of the net.
“We really felt like we had enough time to do it,” Bergeron, who finished the night with six shots, said after the game. “We moved the puck real well. We opened up a lot of plays by staying poised with the puck and knowing where guys were going to be around us. It was a great play by all of us there. One was at their spot where they needed to be.”
The floor beneath my feet in the press box shook. I couldn’t hear anything other writers were saying. I watched as a sea of gold towels, black-and-gold jerseys, and Bostonians rallied around one another, high-fiving, hugging, and jumping up and down in a scene or pure pandemonium.
(It’s 3:27 a.m. in Boston.)
Forcing overtime as a crowd rose to their feet with thunderous cheers, there were no words to explain what had just taken place at the Garden. But as an overtime intermission saw the Garden crowd sing along to “Don’t Stop Believing” in preparation for their third straight round one, Game 7 overtime, it would be a strange set of events that led to Boston’s breakthrough moment. With skate issues keeping right wingers Jaromir Jagr and Nathan Horton on the bench, the snake-bitten Tyler Seguin found himself back with Bergeron and the 5-foot-9 Brad Marchand, and most importantly in front of the Toronto net. Jamming about with Jake Gardiner and Cody Franson, chaos erupted in front of Reimer once more, and this time it would be Bergeron that struck -- again -- beating a sprawled out Reimer.
In a scene impossible to imagine a mere half hour ago, the Bruins did the anti-Bruin. They scored the big goal. They completed the big comeback. Bergeron, a player that missed an open net during last season's Game 7 overtime against the Washington Capitals, capitalized on a golden chance. Amazingly, the B's didn’t squander yet another opportunity to move on. In fact, the Bruins made comeback history, becoming the first NHL team to ever win a Game 7 when trailing by three in the third period. After years of criticism, and on the heels of flops in the previous two games that prompted talk of a summertime blow-up to spark better on-ice efforts, the B’s flipped the script, and sent the city in absolute jubilee.
“That’s one thing you’re going to remember probably for the rest of your life, because it was such a comeback that everybody probably thought that we were done and showed what kind of character there is in this dressing room. Never say die, more or less,” B’s defensemen Johnny Boychuk said of the B’s historic comeback.
(It’s 4:05 a.m., and it’s time for the second round in Boston.)
Depth rises to challenge as B’s lose Seidenberg in first
If we’re to believe what we see with our eyes, we’re left to think that there’s a good chance that Andrew Ference’s year is done. The 34-year-old defensemen, seen at the Garden before tonight’s game in a walking boot and on crutches, was obviously unavailable for tonight’s Game 7 showdown against the Leafs. And following the pregame skate, the B’s were also without the services of the veteran d-man Wade Redden (undisclosed). And to make matters worse, the Bruins lost No. 2 blue-liner Dennis Seidenberg just 37 seconds into this one. To simplify: A nightmare that made its way to the Boston defense.
But in the playoffs, heroes are born from opportunities, and the 24-year-old Matt Bartkowski seized that opportunity. In what you could honestly say was probably his first career game without seriously sheltered time-on-ice, the Pittsburgh-born d-man struck with his first career goal, and the B’s knew that an enlarged role for Bartkowski wasn’t just a bonus for Julien and company at this point -- it was a necessity.
“[Bartkowski] steps up and gets a huge goal for us here, and it’s his first goal in the NHL and it ends up being a big one in a Game 7, and when three defensemen go down and you need guys to step up, and as a five-man unit there for two periods they really stepped up and played well for us, especially with Bart and Dougie [Hamilton] who don’t have much playoff experience,” Boston winger Milan Lucic said of the Bruins’ inexperienced blue-liners. “They were able to step up, and we’re a team that relies on everyone and everyone needs to be pulling their weight.”
On Seidenberg, Julien confirmed that they’ll know more in the morning, and noted that while Seidenberg skated before the start of the second period, he was kept out to avoid not only aggravating the injury, but also preventing the German-born defensemen from becoming a liability out there in what was an incredibly fast-paced Game 7.
Rising Leafs gave Bruins their all
The Toronto Maple Leafs are guilty of blowing a three-goal lead in the third period of tonight’s game, yes. They’ll go down as ‘chokers’ like the 2010 Boston Bruins, but that’s not fair. The Maple Leafs, in their first playoff appearance since 2004, gave the Bruins everything they had, and nearly won. For all intents and purposes, let’s acknowledge the fact that just about nobody picked this team to do anything in the postseason (especially against the Bruins), and let’s not pretend that we still actually believe that the Leafs are fraudulent playoff players. Come on, admit it: The Maple Leafs are legit.
I, like just about everybody out there, thought that the Leafs were vastly outmatched by the B’s at the start of this series. I practically scoffed out of my chair during their Game 1 showing, when the Leafs left James Reimer out to dry, and I underestimated ‘em. Even the Bruins underestimated ‘em.
“I think after Game 4 we did. I don’t think once the series started we underestimated them,” Lucic admitted, adding, “That’s why we had a 3-1 lead after four games, but after that it just seemed like it was almost like a bit of we did underestimate them a bit and when it felt like we deflated them in that Game 4 overtime goal that wasn’t the case at all. They came out and played hard and gave themselves a chance to win and thankfully for us we were able to come out with a win here.”
In 2008, I watched the injury-hobbled, undersized, overmatched Bruins push the one-seeded Montreal Canadiens, a team that absolutely owned them throughout the regular season, to the absolute brink. The Bruins overcame an 0-2 hole, then a 3-1 hole, and ultimately forced a Game 7 only to get blown out at the Bell Centre.
But it wasn’t the loss in Montreal that left people in Boston talking about the Black-and-Gold. Instead, the talk revolved around the fight they showed in their return to the postseason. Despite the vast difference in on-ice talent and resumes, the Bruins proved that they could hang with the league’s elite, and I believe that that’s exactly what the Toronto Maple Leafs did in this series.
“You can’t walk away from here without honestly and sincerely giving the other team credit,” Julien said of the 2013 Maple Leafs. “They had us on the ropes, we’re not going to sit here and lie, they had us on the ropes. They’re a team that believes in themselves. I saw a team with a lot of players getting out of their comfort zone and doing what it took. I have no doubt they’ll grow from that.”
Up next...
It’s that ole’ Boston vs. New York thing. The Bruins’ will move on to the second round for a showdown with Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers. The Bruins went 1-0-2 against NY in 2013, and found moderate success against Lundqvist and company this season, but didn’t face ‘em after Feb. 13. The series will begin this Thursday night in Boston.
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