Bruins can’t be distracted by Boucher’s mind games before Game 7
Regardless of how Game 7 goes, no one will be able to accuse Boucher of not doing everything in his power to have every angle covered and give his team every advantage. While Julien might have the smooth, shiny head, it’s Boucher who has the glare, scar and brainpower to turn a rag tag franchise into a Cup semifinalist and keep his team on track even when down 3-1 in a series against Pittsburgh or down 3-0 in a Game 4 against Boston.
The Bruins have done an exceptional job throughout this postseason of blocking out outside distractions. The circus-like atmosphere in Montreal, which was amped up 10 fold in the aftermath of the Zdeno Chara/Max Pacioretty collision, didn’t send them off course. Starting out a series in the hostile environs of Philadelphia, with the ghosts of last season’s collapse looming over them, barely slowed them down on their way to a sweep.
Now they’ve overcome the talent gap they have up front against Tampa Bay and got by without Bergeron when he was injured. They’ve reached Game 7 despite every attempt by Boucher to soften their resolve with a turn of phrase or praise.
To let Boucher’s mind games get to them now would put everything they’ve worked for for eight months to waste. The temptation is huge, but they can’t let anything by a Game 7 victory be first and foremost in their minds.
The Bruins have to keep their heads and keep their razor-sharp focus on hockey. Because if they’re going to try to win the mental battle with Boucher, they’ll lose.
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I’m not a Claude hater. Far from it. But Boucher is a hell of a coach, and just doing his job here.
Bru it did pay off to have Chara there-that was where he was when krejci scored the one and only Bruin’s pp goal of the game.
I thought Horton did a nice job putting that pass in to Krejci-I don’t think the defense or Roloson expect it (and they shouldn’t since 99.9% of the time they just pass it back to the point).
If they put weapons in the hands of “fans” what do you expect…the NHL has to deal with this cause now that its been done,it will only get bad..real real BAD.
I’m gonna be here on Saturday morning basking in the glory the the B’s will pull out all the stops and GET IT DONE>>>move on its a game.
GO BRUINS GO!!! ALL OF EM.
Blame it on Lightning ownership and Bud Light. I guarantee if that happened in Boston we would have thrown them too.
They handed those paddles out last night, they weren’t aiming for Krejci, they were just wasted. The ones who held onto theirs made downtown Tampa sound line a massive billiards room….
I’ve seen them do that exactly twice Jangles. Both times in the same game and it was Kessel both times, so that gives you an idea when it happened. Brick called it the “Old Russian Red Army” entry. Worked well both times in getting in and setting up the structure, but have yet to see it utilized again.
One thing the Bs could try is to stagger their entry. They look like one of those dommed hockey-games from the arcade. The line up three forwards directly across with a dman rushing. How in hell can you expect to get through? They need to have a forward rushing from the rear with speed to use for entry. Pass to him – let him either choose to carry or dump and fetch. This straight line across stuff is ridiculous!
Leave it to lame-ass Tampa fans to throw little tennis rackets on the ice after a hockey game.
Yes, I said LAME-ASS Tampa fans.
I don’t think the B’s give a rats ass what Boucher says. Julien wants to make sure that the TB coach doesn’t get into the officials heads.
Why isn’t Recchi parked in front deflecting shots? Last season more than half of his goals came from deflections. That is his offensive talent. If he’s not going to do it he shouldn’t be on the ice.
Regardless of who is out there for the powerplay, it has been the worst part of the Bruins game since the playoffs started. You can only cite ‘a full effort or play 60 minutes or Tim Thomas was average tonight or line X or player X’ so many times. The fact is that with 0 ppg against Montreal and a glimmer here and there against Philly and TB, the PP is the issue.
If you don’t score on your powerplays, its an issue. If you do score on your powerplays, you negate the any success of the other team because you have pulled closer, even, or passed them on the PP.
8.2% does not cut it and it never will. Not even in the regular season. Not in midget. Not in bantams. And especially not when you’re one game away from playing for the cup.
JULIEN NEEDS CHARA MOVING ON POWER PLAYS – Every power play with Chara is equal to a 4 on 4 and the Lightning are taking full advantage of this. They know Chara isn’t moving anywhere so it gives them the confidence to win the one on one battles. Julien needs 5 moving skaters on a power play NOT 4 !!
BACK TO BASICS – should also mean zero tolerance for incurring penalties. THIS IS THE PLAYOFFS BOYS !! That nonsense is ok for the regular season but you might as well stay home if you’re going to give the Stanley Cup to another team !!
i like chara at the net during the PP, though it has yet to pay off. they need to dump the dump. TB is too fast. they just get there first and pitch it out. boston rarely can get into any kind of formation. its sad to draw that many PP and not be able to capitalize.
Oh for sure George. I’d shutter to think how many goals they’d have in this series if it wasn’t for Rollie period. Twenty shots and only one from your second line isn’t going to get it done. That score flattered them last night.
Nifty, I meant the 8.2% PP over the course of the playoffs when they had opportunities to put games out of reach or get back into a game. This could be over already if they even had a PP average close to their season average of 16%
The PP was firing at 20% last night. Matching Tampas 75% was going to be tough. I know if I’m on the B’s I don’t want to start the game. There’s a good chance you’re taking a minus. I’ve never seen a team give up so many goals at the drop of the puck. Ever…… Ever.
If Recchi is off the 2nd line at the end of the game then he should be off the 2nd line the entire game. I’ve been calling for Seguin to play on 2nd line since before the playoffs, and Peverly/Ryder/Kelly line was solid for 2 series.
The 1st line was so good last night I can’t believe they still lost the game. The PP failures may finally have caught up with them.
@RD. That whole thing was a joke. I was insinuating that Jon and Guy got together beforehand to go over that question so that Guy could answer it without looking like he’s making a statedment. I had no idea that at a press conference there’d be questions. Thanks.
Play Caron and send an invoice to Recchi for his ice time, broken plays, glaring at the coach when a PP comes up and the number of sticks he has used this season.
Good summer.
RD, Jack works for a regional company. As annoying as it may it, he’s doing his job with his extremely homer calling. Versus is a national broadcast, they are supposed to be unbiased. It’d be like the CBC giving preferential treatment to the Leafs…Oh wait… ;-D
Nifty…the media was complicit in that press conference? The media is supposed to ask questions…the coach will answer them. You have Jack Edwards doing your games. Bias is something you CAN’T seriously complain about.
Boucher is a good coach, hands down. He was at the memorial cup, coached team Canada juniors, coached the AHL club to a championship and is one win away from the finals in his first year in the NHL. Yzerman deserves some credit for picking up the talent though.
Kevin, as much as you’d like for only the flagrant fouls to be called, ALL the rules have to be followed. Remember the last time the bruins came close to winning a cup and you had too many men on the ice? Well, that’s called breaking the rules and you get a penalty for it. Follow ALL the rules, stay out of the box maybe win a cup this year.
Vinny, you’re comment is hilarious but I can’t believe you guys are complaining about the officiating when you have the more or less physical team and you came out of that game with more power plays than Tampa. It smacks of sour grapes.
Speaking of sour grapes, if you want a guy who can’t pronounce anyone’s name, forget McGuire….Don Cherry!
McGuire’s shtick is that he thinks he’s so clever so he’ll always make it a point to try to pronounce a player’s name like the player says it himself. If you ask Marchand how to say his French name, he’ll say “Marchaaaand” (Like “sand” instead of the french way). Sounds weird but I guess that’s what beaker likes. It gets worse with European players.
Two teams that are exceptionally matched. The difference is the Coaches: Boucher plays the game well, giving the opposition nothing to hang on their wall but compliments. Claude is a whiner who is feeling the fear of repeated failure. BTW: Throwing those plastic things all over the ice at the end were merely incidental paybacks for the stuff Beantowners intentionally heaved at the Lightning players at the end of Game One.
“For a first year coach I’m impressed with the guy to be honest.”
How can you not be? He got the entire team, superstars and all to buy into his system in short time. No doubt new ownership and more importantly new General Management and key pick-ups have a piece in it, but Guy has been the one to get the horses to all pull together.
I have no doubt that the media was complicit in that press conference. I wouldn’t doubt that Guy and Jon Jordan went over that loaded question and discussed the wording. Just kidding Jon. For a first year coach I’m impressed with the guy to be honest.
The Bruins had 5 powerplays and Tampa Bay had 4. So basically… Tampa had 9 powerplays?
I think everyone has had it with Boucher’s press conferences, in game seven let them play, call flagrant fouls but don’t call cheesy penalties like many that were called last night. Last but not least, don’t let Boucher dictate through the media how the game will be called.
Ha ha, yeah, despite it being his job, he is indeed the one who either cannot or will not correctly pronounce those names. One of the many things about him I cannot stand.
Oh well, I do think the Bs and TT in particular will be sharp on Friday. TB’s chance is the same as Montreal’s was, their PP. It’s how both teams forced the game 7. If the Bs keep the PK at better than 75%–and I believe they will–my bet is they take the series.
Fast teams give the B’s trouble. They have too many guys that have to work way too hard to skate with these teams. Skating fast without all your effort allows you to get blood to your brain for other things. Like thinking.
If they let the other coaches comments get to them, then there are bigger problems with this team then a non-producing PP and getting owned on the PK. Which were the cruxes of this game for sure.
Regarding Versus, what can I say that hasn’t been said already in these posts? I agree 100% with all of you. It’s been like watching Flyer and Lightning home broadcasts, and it’s really getting old. I was thinking that maybe I’ve/we’ve been tainted by Jack’s homer calling, but I don’t think that that’s the case. There really seems to be a bias against the B’s or maybe rather an extreme focus/stroking of the opposition. It doesn’t matter, as it doesn’t effect the outcome of the game, but it’s pretty hard to listen to. I expect it from the other two idiots, because well… they’re idiots, but when it starts coming from Emrick, then I’m really at a loss. Maybe they shouldn’t have their headquarters in an NHL city, which clearly explains the Philly bias, but the love for the Lightning is bewildering. I mean they don’t even have an original goal song for fugg sake!
Just put yourself in Bergy’s mind and try to think what he thinks when he hears that he will be loaded up with Recchi yet again tonite.
Despair, disgust, what I have I done wrong coach, I need to vomit now Andrew, get out of the bathroom.
Onto a more sportive note:
1. Recchi should really be a man and tell CJ he needs to dress Caron rather than himself. I cannot skate with Marchand and Bergy coach, that’s all. Let’s pretend a groin injury…simple as that or lose.
2. Play your best guys, like Seguin for instances..
Nerve mind Claude, I didn’t mean to interrupt your day’s sleep, but there’s a Stanley Cup glooming afar..less and less so… If you’re asking me. Have a nice cloddy day.
I don’t remember ping pong paddles pelting the B’s in the other Tampa games, but maybe I missed it.
At least when fans threw things at TD Garden they were towels.
Hope Krejci comes out hard again on Friday-would love to see him get a hat trick in a winning game at home where the fans will at least acknowledge the accomplishment. The VS announcers didn’t even seem to think it worthy of note.
Oh and McGuire makes me want to scream-from his useless commentary to the way he cannot pronounce Chara’s name (think he is the one who also butcher’s Marchand’s name).
I want to see a B’s victory come Friday so bad, but I hope they stay out of the box.
I keep having to self-edit so I don’t get banned. Suffice it to say that I agree with you guys about the VS announcers. McGuire 20 times more so than the rest.
And does anyone know if it’s a Lightning fan tradition to pelt the opposing team with those plastic things (paddles?) at the end of a playoff game, or did Krejci just get caught in the crossfire of fun when a couple of them hit him in the back of the head?
Oh and there is nothing that bothers me more than to have 10 minutes left in a period and have the announcers talking and chatting as if the game 7 is a done deal. Sure it is very likely that one team isn’t going to come back, but at least let the horn sound before talking about it.
I think the PP is going to haunt this team, if they don’t win on Friday and it may sink them if they do manage to win and still can’t put a good PP together.
I think there were some bright moments for the PP-but it is still mostly too slow and too stationary (but Horton’s pass to Krejci with Chara’s butt in front of Roloson was a beauty).
I do not know why Ward still has a job coaching this most awful sucktastic PP ever seen in a conference final (if there has been worse I am afraid of what it looks like).
This Bruin’s team has some good players-but they have to grind out and play hard to win-and they better come out grinding for a full 60 minutes come Friday, because while I think Tampa has a pretty weak defense, they have some forwards who can strike and score before you know it. They ate Boychuk alive last night.
I thought Kaberle had a pretty decent game though and I feel horrible for Krejci-get a hat trick and still lose the game. How often does that happen?
The writer is making this into something it is not. Can’t find anything else to write about?
Versus announcers and clodd have one thing in common. They don’t know The Kid wears no. 19. I must be watching a different game than the Bruins braintrust. Because Rechi sucks. Old and slow is no way to win the cup. The kid has more zip in his legs than half this team. I would rather see them lose with the best players on the ice than lose with a mindless braintrust. The Kid was getting shots off the annouincers could not pick up. w.t.f.
Boucher clearly has Doc and Edzo, along with everyone’s (least) favorite rinkside turtle, drinking the Tampa Kool-Aid. The ratio of compliments/positive attention paid to Tampa/Boston by the announcers was about 25:1. Made me want to put my head through the television and vomit all over the electronics inside.
I wish the B’s had been tighter on the PK, and had half a brain on the 3 or 4 PP’s where they didn’t get creative and end up scoring. This series should’ve been over after Game 5, because Game 4 should’ve never slip away. There are 40+ year old men in Boston who have waited their whole lives for a cup to come… it would be a shame to have those dreams for this year shattered at the hands of Tampa and its 15-year-old “tradition”. The B’s should all wear tin foil on their heads on Friday so as not to fall prey to the telepa-Guy.
None of this matters.