Bruins Nation

I was planning on writing about how strong the Bruins played. I was going to mention how I thought this team could finally bring the Stanley Cup home to Boston. I was thinking that I would type a little about how if the Bruins play like they did against the Carolina Hurricanes, they could beat anybody. I am not going to write about that.

Unfortunately, what should have been an easy Bruins win very quickly turned into a scary situation. The Bruins took 28 shots through two periods, had a two goal lead, and had a goalie (Tim Thomas) who had saved every puck he saw until 18:57 of the third period. In 20 seconds, the Hurricanes wiped away a two goal deficit and sent the game into overtime. Luckily, Tim Thomas, Phil Kessel (age 20), and David Krejci (age 19) saved the Bruins and allowed the Bruins to take away twe points.

Early in this game, the Bruins showed the fighting spirit that it would take to finally beat Carolina. Two minutes into the game, Jeremy Reich dropped the gloves against Tim Conboy. Reich lost his balance early, but got up and beat Conboy pretty badly. A few minutes later the Bruins scored. On the power play, Marco Sturm made a beautiful pass in front of the net to Zdeno Chara, who tipped the puck in. Later that period, Wade Brookbank and Milan Lucic fought. Neither one got a good punch in, a cleat draw.

Late in the second period, Marc Savard's great slap shot from a distance on the power play went in, and the Bruins were up 2-0 to end the second period. As I said before, everything was looking great. Throughout the third period things were looking pretty good as well. Then it happened.

With under two minutes left in the third (and the Bruins still up 2-0) Tim Gleason put a huge hit on Marc Savard. Milan Lucic took exception to the hit and dropped the gloves with Gleason. Gleason got in a few great punches on Lucic. Gleason winning the fight decisively sparked the 'Canes. First it was Ray Whitney, then it was Erik Cole twenty seconds later. With the game tied 2-2, the two teams went into overtime.

Cam Ward and Tim Thomas made sure no pucks went in either net and the game went into a shootout. Sturm missed the net fisrt. Then Cullen hit the post. Phil Kessel scored for the Bruins, then Tim Thomas saved Sergei Samsonov's shot. David Krejci skated down the ice and scored, giving the Bruins the win.

I was happy that the Bruins won, but I was certainly not impressed. If the Bruins are going to make a run for it all they need to play a full 60 minutes!