Adams Division Semifinal Game 1

Tonight the series begins, Bruins vs. Sabres at the Aud - feels like 1989 all over again. However, B's lose, 2-1. Goal by Recchi, a nice wrister off a rebound of a Chara shot. The Bruins played a good 2nd period, but that's about it. The Sabres came out hard, as you would expect, and it seems as though in the playoffs, you have to withstand that first 10 minute rush the home team usually has the in the playoffs. Vanek scored pretty early, so the momentum swung to Buffalo for the remainder of the 1st period. The 2nd period was a different story. I almost got my coveted line brawl, as there was a scrum in the corner and every player had a dance partner. No real punches were thrown. Later on in the period, ex-Hab Craig Rivet summoned his inner Canadien and killed our rally with a bomb that beat Rask high-blocker. Boston outshot Buffalo and got 1 goal. The 3rd period was mostly quiet, as the Sabres just played keep away. 6 shots for the Bruins in the 3rd, pretty weak.

• Steve Montador (above, pictured) was 2nd in TOI for the Sabres with 24:18.
• Saturday's matinee is on NBC I believe. NHL, still trying to win new fans from the US, showing a game featuring 2 teams from the northeast.
• The refs gave Buffalo 5 power plays and the B's penalty kill held firm.
• Admittedly, I didn't pay much attention to the 3rd period. The pushback by the B's was limited to start the 3rd...it was oh vee ay: OVA.
• Here's Cam Neely knocking Lindy Ruff to the ice in 1988. Good stuff. Wouldn't you rather see this on the Jumbrotron than, say, the helmet shuffle? "Here's a clip of one of our VPs pounding on the opponent's head coach." Then play "Battery" or something at jet-takeoff volume.
  

B's win

Bruins beat the 'Canes today, 4-2. They set a new NHL record by scoring 3 shorthanded goals in 64 seconds' time, all on the same power play. It was pretty unbelievable. Goals by Paella, Wheels, Begin and an empty-netter (first EN goal in what seems like forever) by Lootch. Bergeron made a game-saving play by sweeping out an errant puck from the B's crease when Rask went off after a delayed penalty. Wheels passed to Ryder, who of course missed the pass, then it bounced off the wall and towards the empty net. Bergy tracked that shit down and saved the game, maybe the season.

• Staal and LaRose were takin' liberties all night, I was waiting for someone to give them a tuneup. Alas, it was not to be. My thirst for sports violence is unquenched - all I wanted this season is a line brawl.
• Row 10 Wheeler hater is turning into Row 10 Wideman hater as well.
• BC just beat Wisconsin to win the NCAA Championship.
• Leafs just beat MTL in OT. B's to play Sabres or Devils in playoffs, it looks like...
• Draft Lottery on April 13. Look for Minnesota to be all over that shit.
• Penner & Hamill were just called up from Providence.
  
• whoa. WHOA. you should see Don Cherry's suit tonight. My TV just exploded.
• Walking to the rink today, I was hoping I wouldn't have to see any Whaler fans. As soon as that thought entered my head, some pasty-white Whaler fan power-walked by me. It was the only Whaler fan I saw and it was still too many.

Quite possibly the saddest subset of the human species: The Whaler Fan. (swiped from NYT)

Sabre Rattling

Last night, the B's won, 3-1. Really slow game to develop. Goals by Satan, Wideman (no, really), Chara. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure, that there are "Wideman Hater" t-shirts out there these days. WOW. Apparently Mike Milbury had something to say about the overall Wideman hateration during the intermissions, that the fans had to leave him alone.

• Power play continues to be powerless, going 0 for 5.
• Hard to believe that Gaustad (78 PIM) wouldn't rumble with Thornton when Thornton wanted to.
• Sobotka tried to engage Ex-BC punk Nathan Gerbe in a fight, but the linesmen broke it up, giving each 2 mins for roughing .
• Let's say Satan gets 15 shifts a game. For 14 of those shifts, I hear Minnesota cursing under his breath because Satan is unable/unwilling to be physical or play defense. That 1 other shift, Satan usually scores. Normally, I figure you'd get rid of the guy, but seeing as how the B's have 1-20 goal scorer, I guess we can't be too choosy.
  
• Sobotka 6 for 11 from the faceoff dot.
• We had a pretty annoying Buffalo fan in Row 14 last night. A drunken "Let's go Buff-a-lo" chant every 30 seconds. I'm not exaggerating, either. He did start an almost entertaining chant of [clap clap clapclapclap] "DEN-NIS WIDE-MAN!" The section got into it for a few moments.
  
• Row 12 sat in Loge 5 last night. Our apologies to those well-heeled denizens of Loge 5. We let him out of his kennel last night and his unwashed self managed to escape and then wander into the Loge.
• Minnesota dislikes the Wisconsin Badgers ("they're rodents!") and I dislike the BC Eagles, so we're about to punch ourselves in the face over the Frozen Four matchup.
• Dave Goucher (radio play by play guy for the B's) looks like Steve Carell. Well, he did last night anyway while announcing the Bruins fans awards (Lester B. Pearson, Elizabeth Dufresne, John P. Bucyk - won by Recchi, Bergeron, Thornton).
• Last night ended Minnesota's boycott of home Bruins games. It was the first B's win he's seen in person since, yup, the Winter Classic.
  

Jeez.

Michael Ryder can't do shit. Did you see the flurry in front of Caps goalie Jose Theodore, where Ryder aimed for Theodore's pads from point blank and hit them? I was listening in the car at that point, and Bob Beers was just astounded by Ryder's inability to do anything right.
So yeah, the B's lost in OT to the Caps, 3-2. The Caps were resting some folks and were looking ahead to the playoffs already, so they really weren't trying. The B's played a decent game that was fun to watch (of what I saw). Goals by Bergeron (filthy move on Theodore) and Wideman (no, really. It was a slapshot after a faceoff win with 1.6 seconds left in the 1st period).

• 28:39 of ice time for Wideman. HORRIBLE.
• Sobotka was 6 of 9 from the faceoff dot. VINDICATION! as Brick and the other guy (Versus telecast) discussed Sobotka's hot streak on faceoffs last night. Something like 77% in his last I dunno 10 games or something.
• B's are now with 85 points, still in the playoff hunt...
  
• Stuart's got cellulitis (don't they always joke about this ailment on House, M.D.?), Seidenberg's on suicide watch with 15 stitches on his wrist, and ahhhh Ference and his glass groin are still on the mend.

B's Blow 3 Leads; Leafs Still Blow.

Ayup, B's lose tonight to Toronto, 4-3 in sudden-death overtime. The B's blew 3 leads, never trailed in the game until 49 seconds were left in the overtime session, where Ryder dove into Thomas to prevent a pass (and prevented the pass), knocked Thomas down, and Kulemin had an empty net to score the winning goal.

• Boston goals by Recchi, Sturm, Bergeron. Actually, they may have changed the scoring on the Recchi goal and it's actually Bergeron's.
• Thomas had a good game, made some crazy saves, but let in a wicked softie to Wayne Primeau. I was actually going to reserve some space in the post-game blog post about how RIDICULOUS it was to have Primeau's name bandied about in trade deadline talks. The pride of Whitby, ON: he's got hands like bricks, can't do anything but get in the way, maybe knock some folks around. Then he scores on Thomas on a 2-on-1 break.
• Still no word on the Cooke hit from league sheriff Colin Campbell. On Toronto radio (590 the Fan or something like that), Campbell made it sound like it wasn't that bad of a hit.
  
• With no Chara tonight, Wideman looked exceptionally retarded out there. Kessel smoked him at least twice for breakaways on Thomas.
• Ryder is still a shithead and remains View from 311's doghouse. Today, he was witnessed performing kegel exercises between shifts.
• The ACC played 2 Tragically Hip tunes during the game: "Fireworks", which mentions Bobby Orr; and "Fifty-Mission Cap", which is related to the Leafs never winning the Cup. The TD Garden? We play songs that bring fear into the heart of the opponent and have everything to do with hockey, like "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive. What should they be playing? I nominate "Blood and Thunder" by Mastodon.