There’s an old saying that goes like this, “The series doesn’t start until someone wins on the road.” I absolutely love that saying. Anyone who knows me, knows that I look at every series in any sport through the same lens. But in hockey, there’s a theory that I believe in even deeper than the whole winning-on-the-road thing.
I always love watching how a team will respond to their first loss of the playoffs. Even if a team sweeps through the first couple of rounds of the playoffs, I still want to see how they’re going to react when they lose a game. It’s easy to play well when things are going well. Just think about any individual game—everyone looks good when you’re winning 5-1. But what about when you’re losing 5-1? Some would call it pride, others would call it heart; I call it responding to adversity.
Through 4 games against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Bruins effort has been an EPIC FAIL
The Bruins easily swept through their 1st Round series against the Montreal Canadiens (they won the 4 games by a combined score of 17-6). Even if the series featured one of the best rivalries in the league, Montreal never did enough to put the outcome in doubt. The Bruins played like they had the confidence of the best team in the Eastern Conference. But let’s be honest, it’s not like the Canadiens ever did anything to make the Bruins question their superiority. Comeback victories aren’t all that impressive when you’re already up in the series 3-0!
Following up their total domination in Round 1, the Bruins won the first game of their 2nd Round series against the Carolina Hurricanes. But that was the high-water mark of the playoffs thus far. In Game 2, the combination of a great road game by the Hurricanes and a pathetic effort on behalf of the Bruins led to an embarrassing 3-0 shutout loss. Once they lost, I was eagarly waiting to see how they’d respond to the adversity of losing their hard earned home-ice advantage. Bruins fans are STILL waiting.
In Game 4, the game was tied at 1-1 going into the 3rd period. When the game was up for grabs, it was the Hurricanes (not the Bruins) that took the game by the throat and played like they owned it. Shouldn’t it have been the team that was down by a game in the series that came out with desperation in the final period?
NESN announcer and Bruins homer Jack Edwards was talking about how it could be the last broadcast of the year. For the entire last 4 minutes of the game, it sounded like someone killed his dog! After Staal scored the 4th goal of the game for Carolina, Edwards started making excuses about how it could have been different if Matt Hunwick was in the lineup. It wasn’t like Zdeno Chara or Dennis Wideman were out of the line-up! Hunwick is a good depth defenseman, but he’s just that: a depth player. Winning organizations don’t make excuses, period. Not even their announcers.
Brian Rafalski has been out for the entire 2nd Round series– but you don’t hear anything about it from Detroit. No excuses, they have just been playing through it (and he’s an All-Star). Maybe if the Bruins team would stop Jussi Jokinen or Eric Staal when it mattered, they wouldn’t be making excuses. Maybe if the Bruins players that were on the ice for Games 2, 3 and 4 played with a little more urgency, their announcers wouldn’t have to start making excuses for them in the middle of a series.
Honestly, I was shocked how quietly the Bruins went down in a game that could very well determine the fate of their season. No fights, no rough stuff—nothing to show that they even had a pulse. That would be disturbing for ANY team, but for a team that built its success on physical play, where was it when it REALLY mattered?
Some people will say that they aren’t bringing the same intensity that they played with against the Canadiens. I disagree. The problem was they never got punched in the mouth against Montreal (figuratively, not literally). They were like that basketball team that looks great when they’re up by 20 points, but always struggles down the stretch in a close game. When the Hurricanes took the play to the Bruins for the first time in the playoffs, a good team would have responded the next game with an elevated energy and execution level. Say what you want, but while the Hurricanes have stepped on Boston’s throat, the Bruins have regressed.
Carolina has seen tasted adversity and they kicked it to the curb. Unfortunately, the Bruins have been unable to do the same.
Matt Reitz is the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com and former NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports. When he’s not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he’s usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It’s a never-ending job.
