Before Game 2 had even started, the Boston Bruins were already cooked. Zdeno Chara spent Friday night in a hospital due to dehydration and he was a last-minute scratch for last night's pivotal game at TD Garden.
Some teams might use their Captain's absence as motivation but oh no, not our Bruins. The most fragile team in the NHL and maybe all of sports completely folded under the pressure (as always) and fell flat on their face in a depressing as hell 3-1 loss.
Montreal now leads the series 2-0 as it shifts to the Bell Centre for Game 3 tomorrow night.
All five goals that the Canadiens have scored so far in the first two games are direct results of egregious turnovers by the Bruins in their own end.
To make matters worse, Boston spotted Montreal two goals last night in the first 2:20 of the first period. After Game 1's debacle, I said Game 2 would be all about the first goal.
Well 43 seconds in and Mike Cammalleri scored from James Wisniewski. At 2:20, Montreal was on a power play when Mathieu Darche scored from Cammalleri.
You couldn't possibly script a worse beginning and just like that, the Bruins were done in the game and probably the series. They've never won a series (in 26 tries) after being down 0-2.
Carey Price is a good goaltender but the Bruins are making him look the second coming of Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek. Price stopped 34 shots but once again, Boston failed to get bodies in front of him or capitalize on the few rebounds he allowed.
He made one spectacular save as he robbed Milan Lucic with his glove after Looch was set up right in front of the net.
On the flip side, can we agree that Tim Thomas is simply a regular season monster? Much like Claude Julien is a regular season coach? Up to this point, how can we say that either does anything but pee down their leg in the playoffs?
The Bruins finally got on the board with their first goal of the series at 7:38 of the second period as Brad Marchand fed a perfect tip in to Patrice Bergeron. Mark Recchi also assisted.
Unfortunately, all that hard work was nullified by Thomas (23 saves) who gave up a juicy rebound right to Yannick Weber. He scored at 17:21 of the second period from Lars Eller and Roman Hamrlik. That was it, you knew the Bruins had absolutely no chance to recover from that.
Honestly, they are done. Short of Julien being fired today and Tuukka Rask getting the surprise start in Game 3, I don't see how this team can overcome all their playoff shortcomings. The Canadiens are playing with more desperation and heart while the Bruins continue to add new head-scratching chapters to their pathetic legacy.
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