Thursday, January 22, 2009

Game 47 Recap: BRUINS 4 LEAFS 4 SO WIN HOLY CRAP HARD ROCK CAFE IS NOT CHEAP

If anyone reading this was at the ROAR event, I hope you had a good time. Much high-fiving all around.

The pre-game show proved that the NESN crew are ready for the break, as Mike Milbury and Gord Kluzak showed pictures of each other in brown sweaters, followed by clips from their careers. If anyone has the clip of Mike Milbury yelling, "Just another day at the #%$#%^& office! Just pick up your %&^%&^%& paycheck and $^%$& go home," please post it in the comments or email me or something. Hilarious stuff.

But nobody really REALLY cares about what sweater Milbury's wearing. They're here for the game. Or on the couch for the game. Whatever.

The first 14 minutes or so are pretty nerve-wracking. Then Jason Blake manages to get one past Thomas.
0-1. Please don't let us lose 3 in a row when the second two are the Blues and Leafs.

But then Mr. "It was all my fault we lost the last game" decides that he's going to do something about it this time. With 5 minutes to go in the first, and about a minute since the Leafs goal, Blake Wheeler helps move it around the zone, then heads for the front of the net. Luckily, he's 6'5" so he screens Toskala. More importantly, he deflects the puck between his legs and then Ryder shows up behind him just in case it doesn't go in. Ryder doesn't even get to touch the puck.

1-1. I never blamed Wheeler for the loss, but I do like his determination.

The second period led to a Lee Stempniak goal, former player for the Blues (ugh) and then...

Brad May. Of all the people to score against the Bruins, why's it gotta be Brad May?
1-3. End of the second. You've eaten your wings and gone through some beers, so the rest of the game is a little hazy. For a while, someone was calling me "Versus Boy" because they are old and I prefer Versus to JOKESPN.

3 minutes into the 3rd, that reunited Ryder-Wheeler-Krejci line gets set up in the zone. They move it around a bunch and Wheeler sets up in front again after passing it back to Wideman. Wideman tees up, and Wheeler tries to deflect. Wheeler misses, but luckily there's a Leaf standing there and it goes off his skate.

2-3. Could this be the beginning of a comeback?

6 minutes left, now. Bruins on the powerplay. Wideman gets the puck, and the Bruins start moving it around on the right hand side. The D moves a little bit, then a little more, then a little more, then all of a sudden, the biggest player in the league is behind them on the doorstep, and Savard gets a clear pass to Chara, and, well...

3-3. Ok, 6 minutes to go. It's all tied up. Holy crap, that was a nice play by Chara. Look at him, all 6'9" of him, just sneaking in behind the Leafs. Some days he's a Velociraptor, some days he's a giant, but today... Today, Zdeno Chara is a ninja.

Then Ponikarovsky flips it out with less than 4 minutes to go and gets a delay of game. Sweet, another Powerplay, the Bruins have been doing well on-

Crap. Michael Ryder gets hooking called on him. Looks like we're in for some 4-on-4 hockey.

4-on-4 is exciting, and the Bruins are good at it, but they don't score.

This time a high stick doesn't score with .8 seconds to go and we're headed to Overtime. I guess they just don't want to go on break.

The big story about overtime is Martin "I'm generously listed as 5'9" and have a 63" stick" St. Pierre getting called for tripping on what was an obvious dive (through my goggles, at least, but what do I know? I'm watching on a big screen in the Hard Rock Cafe lounge.)

There's 1:40 left, and the Bruins play every second 3-on-4. Looks like this one is going to a shootout.

Shootout results:
Lee Stempniak Scores.
Blake Wheeler answers. Basically uses the same move, but better.
1-1
Tim Thomas stops Hagman.
Krejci misses completely.
1-1
Jason Blake scores.
Martin St. Pierre gets a story written about him.
2-2. Looks like the shootout's going to overtime (vomit)
Toronto sends out Nikolai Kulemin, who's scored 7 goals all year for the leaf. Thomas comes up big.
Commisioner Julien puts out the Ryd-signal.
Oh yeah, I went there. And here it is, just a goal-scorers goal. That's what the commentators would say, right?

3-2. Bruins win the Skills competition, and away they go.

Game.

SO WIN!

vs. TOR: 4-1-0
Record: 34-8-5 (W1)
Away: 17-5-3 (W1)
L10: 6-3-1
January: 6-3-1
I'm so relieved they got that out.
Steve Dangle will review this game eventually, but hasn't yet.
GO BRUINS!

2 Comments:

ScottJaredZimmerman said...

We got the NHL Network feed for the game and missed all the Jack Edwards goodness down here. I would have really liked to hear what he was saying about Tim Thomas last night.

Unknown said...

He did mention earlier about a czech checking the bigger czech at the beginning of the game.

Everything sorta gets hazy, the later the game goes.