On Monday night, the Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-1, to take a 2 game lead in the NHL Eastern Conference Finals. The high scoring Penguins, who had averaged over 4 goals a game in their previous two playoff series, have managed only one goal in two games against Boston’s goalie Tuukka Rask, and the rest of the Bruins.
The beatdown started early in this one. I turned on the game 45 seconds into the first period, and Boston was already leading 1-0. A goal by Brad Marchand 28 seconds into the game, started off the scoring. The Bruins added goals by Nathan Horton and David Krejci, before the Penguins finally got on the board, near the end of the first period. Brandon Sutter scored for Pittsburgh with 34 seconds left in the period to reduce the deficit to 3-1. However, 25 seconds later, Marchand scored again, to put the Bruins back up by 3 at the end of the first period.
Neither team scored in the second period, but that was the Penguins’ best period of the game. Patrice Bergeron scored just 27 seconds into the third period, to give the Bruins a commanding 5-1 lead. Then late in the game, Johnny Boychuk finished off the Penguins with another goal to make it 6-1, with 1:24 remaining. The fact that the Bruins won both games in Pittsburgh is one thing, but to outscore them 9-1 in those games is shocking.
Pittsburgh pulled goalie Tomas Vokoun after giving up the third goal in the first period, and replaced him with Marc-Andre Fleury, who Vokoun replace in the first playoff series, because he was stinking it up in front of the goal. With this vote of confidence tonight, Fleury responded by giving up 3 goals himself. Who will the Penguins start in goal for Game 3? Vokoun, who had a bad game, but is 6-3 in the playoffs, or Fleury, who won a Stanley Cup Championship 4 years ago, but is 2-2 this year in the playoffs, and has the worst stats of any playoff goalie this year? I say they need to go back with Vokoun.
This series will go to Boston for Wednesday night’s Game 3. All the Bruins have to do is win 2 of the next 5 possible games to win the series, 3 of which are at home. With Rask playing as well as he has, and the Penguins unstable in their goal, Pittsburgh’s star-studded line-up better start scoring, or this series could be over fast. The darling of the NHL, Sidney Crosby has been almost invisible so far in this series, besides bumping Rask after a period ended, and mouthing off to 6’9″ Zdeno Chara in Game 1. Chara looked amused as he looked down on the whining Crosby.
I picked the Penguins to win the series, because I didn’t think the Bruins could shut down Pittsburgh this badly, especially in their arena. Ever since Boston came back from a 3 goal deficit in Game 7 in the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs, they have been on fire. Including that game, they have gone 7-1, and have the most powerful scoring line of the playoffs with Krejci, Horton, and Milan Lucic. This line has combined for an amazing 49 points, and are a +43 in the playoffs. Crosby has 15 points, but is a -4 in the playoffs.
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Sports With Frank Thomas
