First things first I had to put up Game 2 of the Bruins-Canadiens series up since I missed it last time. Once again I poached this video off of ESPN.com.
I hope they don’t mind, since they make it more than possible to link to their videos and I am not passing these off as my own and I am not utilizing any of their bandwidth or storage space.
In regards to my post, though, today was a terrific day. The Red Sox had perhaps their best game of the season while they demolished the Orioles 12-1, the Celtics had a tough matchup with the Bulls once again, but held on for a dramatic 118-115 victory in Game 2 of their series, and the Bruins have grabbed the Canadiens by the throat in Game 3 and are well on their way to their first series win in 10 years.
The Red Sox started VERY early, 11 am EST which is just ridiculously early in pacific time. I don’t think I even woke up until the game was over. But it seems as though, judging from that highlight that Justin Masterson was brilliant, and even Big Papi got in the mix and had a good game for the first time this season.
Big Papi has not looked good at all this season, and based on what I have read, it seems like it’s a mechanical issue. What do I think? I don’t know. I have never hit a home run in baseball so I haven’t the knowledge to see what is wrong. But if the team and David Ortiz are happy, I’m happy.
The Celtics I didn’t get the chance to see either, but I guess it was amazing 
. My dad tells me it was an amazing shot, and it does in fact look to be quite amazing. I wish I had seen it, but I was just finishing up watching the Bruins and didn’t have the chance.
I hate to say it, but not having KG has really bummed me out. I didn’t think they stood much of a chance to win even with KG (Cleveland just looks SO good), but now without them, I’d be surprised if they win more than this series.
There is no guarantee they even win this series. It’s just a lot to hope for.
As for the game of the night, in my opinion, Boston has all but clinched this series, and have looked dominant in the process.
While watching this game, I was disturbed to see (well, actually, hear) all those Canadians booing our national anthem. It’s honestly a disgrace to hear such a thing. I don’t know why they boo, I don’t know if they are trying to send a political statement, but the only thing it tells me is I should dislike Canadians.
So that got me started hating their fans from the very start.
Going forward, at the start of the game, though, those same fans got LOUD. I know the arena holds about 4,000 more people then the TD BankNorth Garden, but JEESH, they are loud.
But after Montreal scored forst, all 21,000 fans instantly shut up as Phil Kessel redirected a beauty of a shot to tie the game at 1 after a bad turnover by Montreal at their own blue line.
Turnovers seemed prevalent for the Bruins, as it seemed Boston turned the puck over at a staggering rate.
The Bruins survived the onslaught of the first period tied at 1, and proceeded to take a 2-1 lead on a terrific effort by the newly-inserted Byron Bitz (in for the suspended Milan Lucic, who had no right to be suspended in my opinion), as Bitz turned the puck around the back boards and found an open Shawn Thornton which proceeded to get buried in the top-left corner of the net.
In the second half of the period, the Bruins got caught running around a bit and took two bad icing calls, the second of which resulted in Montreal’s 2nd goal off the ensuing faceoff.
Rebounding from that disappointment, however, the Bruins had great side-to-side action as the Bruins had two shots from the point rebound to the opposite side of the net, the 2nd rebound leading to Ryder’s wide-open net to shoot at.
At this point I have never heard 21,000 fans so quiet. It was amazing to me just how loud they got when they thought a penalty should be called (namely, whenever a Montreal guy flopped on the ice, which was all the time), yet at the same time they shut right up after that Ryder goal.
They had a couple of “Let’s go Habs” chants, and a couple spells of boos for Zdeno Chara, but overall they seemed silent. I don’t remember the Bruins fans being that quiet during any of their games, and I can only assume Montreal fans were crying themselves to sleep. No other explanation.
In the end, the Bruins hung on and Chuck Kobasew iced the game with a well-deserved empty-net goal for a guy who brought his ‘A’ game. Chuck was a presence all night with high energy, physical play.
Overall I thought the Bruins did well as they performed a LOT better then I expected under the circumstances. I can remember many games where the atmosphere would crush the Bruins.
Perhaps the Bruins were just that good. Maybe we would have shut them out and the crowd earned them those two goals. Who knows? But either way, it’ll require a miracle for Montreal to force a Game 6. I don’t expect the Bruins to win Game 4, but there is no way the Bruins will lose at home after that.
It was a good day for a celebration. Celebrating the commencement of our Declaration of Independence, and doing it in style!