Once a reigning, dominant team within the NHL, the Boston Bruins are facing a downward spiral against a team they swept in the regular season. Carolina took the series lead today after Jussi Jokinen scored less than five minutes into the first overtime, stunning the Boston Bruins and their fans as they moved on to game 4 with a series lead.
The game was looking a lot better for Boston as they came out of the locker room with a lot more zest and firepower than they had before. The team that couldn't get past Carolina goaltender Cam Ward in game 2 finally got onto the board 8:43 into the period after a slap shot from Milan Lucic got the best of Ward.
Boston went into the second period with a 1-0 lead that was soon even upped by Eric Staal, who has been shadowed by B's captain Zdeno Chara throughout the series. Less than two minutes later, former Bruin Sergei Samsonov also scored, bringing Carolina up 2-1. There were a lot of (in my opinion) stupid penalties taken by both Carolina and Boston. For instance, a boarding call on Wallin when he boarded Boston's Stephen Yelle, who also went down with an injury. Yelle got most of the board to his face and was down for a couple minutes before he got up. Then Marc Savard, who could have easily skated clear of Ward, instead hit him and brought him down, causing a goaltender interference call on him. Both penalties went into the third period.
The third period was, at first, good for Carolina. Then Boston seemed to wake up and managed to keep the puck out of their zone pretty well. With less than ten minutes on the board, Boston's Mark Recchi shot the puck past Cam Ward, scoring his first point of the playoffs. This also meant every Bruin now had a playoff point.
The rest of the third was a constant battle for the puck, with both teams giving their all, but both fell flat as the clock winded down and overtime came over them. Not too far away, as well, Pittsbrugh and Washington were in overtime. Washington was winning until Evgeni Malkin shot the puck past Washington's Varlamov to push Pittsburgh up 2-1. But, lo and behold, Washington's Backstrom scored with less than a minute left to even it up. Just as Pittsburgh's Letang snapped a shot past Varlamov off the faceoff and won it for Pittsburgh, Boston's OT was starting up. Perfect timing, in my opinion.
Less than five minutes into overtime, however, Boston's hopes of taking the series lead was dashed as Jussi Jokinen, a driving force behind Carolina's wins, got the better of Tim Thomas and scored. As Carolina's stadium erupted into cheers, Boston players shook their heads in disbelief and Tim Thomas seemed more than frustrated as he skated off the ice. There would be no handshakes during this series, as there weren't during the Montreal/Boston series in round 1.
Boston's play, no matter how great it was in the first period, suffered greatly in the second. The second period plagues Boston and they need to bring more intensity to the game and cover the net more. Samsonov's goal shouldn't have been a goal should Boston's defense have been doing what they should have been doing. Also, Ryder taking an interference call gave Carolina a chance to go up one, thereby tying the score.
Boston's power play is also suffering. They haven't scored a powerplay goal the entire series and their penalty kill is also severely suffering. It seems as if Boston is reverting back to the beginning of March, where it was not just one thing wrong, it was everything. Tim Thomas can't be the goalie he is without the solid defense he's had all season. Though both the defense and the offense had some strong points, they both still fell flat tonight. Claude Julien needs to whip his team into better shape for the playoffs. This isn't a time for them to be slumping.
It seems, however, that a lot of the top teams are crumbling under pressure. Last night Detroit completely lost it to Anaheim and only in the final seconds of the game did they even try to win it. Washington is simply led by Alexander Ovechkin and if they keep relying on him, they're going to fall flat like they did tonight as well. Just as Boston has, Pittsburgh seems to be diverting itself into it's former team. Though Malkin broke his slump of not scoring throughout this series, Pittsburgh needs to bring more focus to their lines as well as more energy to the game itself. Vancouver seems to be the only team that's keeping itself in the game correctly. Though Luongo had an off night during his lost to Chicago, they've been otherwise stable. As Anaheim has as well, mostly led by stellar goaltender Hiller.
Boston needs to wake up and realize that though they may have swept Carolina in the regular season, the playoffs are a whole new season. They need to wake up and start playing some Old Time Hockey and get back into the game. This isn't the time to lose their stide and this isn't the time to rely on coming back in the series if they don't put the effort towards improving their lines.
Claude Julien, stop switching up the lines. One of the main reasons we're losing it the consistent switchups. For once, don't change them and see how it comes out. Go back to the original lines we had in Game 1 and see how it works out. Ever since they've been changed, we've been losing. So stop changing them.
Revert back to the old lines and keep them as in. Also bring back in Hnidy for Montador. He's a better defensemen for this team.
By the way, I've posted a practice picture of Chara before the home opener this year. He looks frustrated and, honestly, I feel him.
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