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The first game of this highly-anticipated 7 game series with Montreal was fantastic, to say the least. As a Bruins fan there were concerning moments but at the same time there were plenty of areas that stood out.
The Bruins had to weather the fist period jitters as Montreal started quickly. The first minute of the game belonged to Montreal offensively and they carried the play until Milan Lucic stepped on the ice and clobbered a Montreal player about 1 1/2 minutes in.
After weathering Montreal’s storm Boston scored two terrific goals in the span on 90 seconds. The first goal came at the tail end of a power play when Phil Kessel took the puck from the left circle and skated toward the net. Carey Price made the save, but David Krejci made a terrific tip under Price’s glove just before he could cover the puck up for a whistle and the puck squirted free to the left of the goalie where Kessel was there with a wide open net, and he buried it.
After the follow shift Milan Lucic’s line came out and as Lucic chased a soft dump to the right he quickly passed the puck to the side of the net, where Michael Ryder passed the puck in front to a wide open Krejci, who proceeded to beat Price high, who had little chance of stopping the puck.
After this however, Montreal had a nice cycle that culminated in Montreal having a man open to the left of Tim Thomas who had no chance to stop a wicked wrister to brin the Canadiens back within 1.
After the first period the Bruins’ real weakness emerged: the Bruins don’t seem to be any more skilled then your average hockey team. Perhaps above-average is a fair assessment. While their number one goalie is Vezina-worthy, the Bruins are simply deep, not the most skilled team in the world.
The reason this seems evident is that all through the 2nd period until 10 minutes into the 3rd the Bruins and Canadiens were essentially even. The Bruins normally out work, and out-hit their opponents, but having fallen off this trend, Alexi Kovalev found time and space a ripped a bomb of a shot that found it’s way to the top corner of the net to tie the game at 2 towards the end of the 2nd.
At 10 minutes into the 3rd, however, the Bruins managed to go on the powerplay thanks to some excellent work by P.J. Axelsson, and the Bruins subsequently went on the attack. Just under a minute into the powerplay Dennis Wideman ripped a shot that hit square off the post and almost ricocheted into the net off Price, but he managed to grab the puck just before it crossed the line.
Less than 20 seconds later however, Savard camped to Carey Price’s right side passed the puck to Chara who bombed the shot inside the let post to give the Bruins the lead for good.
The next 9 minutes were generally even, and with 17 seconds left in the game Lucic stole the puck at center and fed Phil Kessel who potted his second of the game into an empty net to ice the game.
At this point, however, Montreal decided it was an appropriate time to rough up the Bruins and they decided to cheap-shot the goal scorer-Kessel and a small scrum developed.
At this point, though, some comic relief was administered. Alexi Kovalev wanted some action in this scrum, but a brilliant fan grabbed his stick from him through the camera hole in the glass and proceeded to engage in a tug of war with the Canadien player.
The stick eventually broke, and the fan proceeded to taunt Kovalev. Not only did the fan take the stick, or at least prevent Kovalev from having it, he also removed him from the scrum that was going on.
Don’t mess with Boston. This city loves their team, and cheap shots like what was happening in that instance will only result in your losing a few parts and pieces along the way, if not your pride as well.
In the end it was a terrific first game of the series, and a good win for the Bruins. As for that fan who stole the stick, brilliant. My hat’s off to you!
