May 21, 2013; New York, NY, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman
Johnny Boychuk(55) celebrates after scoring on New York Rangers goalie
Henrik Lundqvist(30) during the third period in game three of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Boston won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports
For a little while, it looked like the parallels of the 2011 season were going to happen all over again. Then the refs showed up. It’s pretty safe to say that the Bruins have shaken off the confusion from that very odd loss in game four at Madison Square Garden. The Bruins will be playing today at home, where Bruins Nation should give Rangers’ coach John Tortorella the opportunity to come up with new combinations of profanity.
One thing Bruins Nation has missed is NESN’s coverage of the Black and Gold. What we have had to put up with is CNBC’s reporting of mispronounced names, and a flagrant bias of everything Henrik Lundqvist. (Hearing Todd March-and Zay-dano Chair-a has been driving me nuts, anyone else?) One of the members of the bias brigade, CNBC commentator Pierre McGuire did have some surprising things to say about the Bruins.
“I’m telling you guys straight up: People are underplaying how deep Boston is and how good Boston is.” said McGuire in an interview reported by WEEI. ” And the Rangers don’t match up particularly well with Boston. That’s just the reality because they don’t have the same kind of offensive depth, especially down the middle, as they have in Boston. That’s a big problem. You compound that with the Chara factor and with the [Johnny] Boychuk factor in terms of size. You’ve got some very big defensemen. Whatever offensive press you might have if you’re New York, it gets shut down pretty quick.”
It looks like the team from the coach on down has shaken off the bloopers and are ready to finish it out against the Rangers tonight.
“I think there’s certain days; I know you’re not always great at your job sometimes, right?” Coach Julien said to a reporter following Friday’s skate at TD Garden, when asked about the B’s getting the “crispness” back in their game during practice after the mistake-prone loss.Same thing with those guys. You try, right? You muscle through. And that’s what we did yesterday. I didn’t think we were good, we were ‘okay.’ In the playoffs, okay is not enough to win you some hockey games.”
“We’ve proven along in this series that we can be good and consistent. We’ve just got to be good and bounce back tomorrow.”
I’m sure tonight the Bruins will be more focused on situational awareness and it’s doubtful the bloopers of last night’s game will be repeated. Bruins look to end the Rangers season tonight at the TD Garden. No matter what happens, Tortorella’s post game interview should be worth watching.