Another Foggy Stanley Cup Game At The Garden?
BOSTON (CBS ) - You won't hear too many complaints when the temperature in Boston climbs into the 90's and the Boston Bruins are still playing hockey.
Except for maybe a few when it comes to the ice conditions inside the TD Garden.
The high temperatures and humidity are once again wreaking havoc on the Garden ice on Monday, and the Garden crew will have to do some extra work ahead of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final to make sure it's in tip-top shape.
With temperatures in the mid-90's in Boston, the Bruins held their morning skate with a light fog coming up off the ice. The conditions for Monday night's Game 6 could be similar to those that plagued the venue in Game 3 last week, when players made it known the warm conditions outside caused a slow ice surface inside.
Read: Julien 'Feeling Confident' Patrice Bergeron Will Play
But you won't hear the Bruins complaining about the conditions or a little fog as they enter a must-win Game 6.
"It wasn't bad. We'll skate around it if it gets foggy," center Chris Kelly joked after the morning skate. "I don't think the ice works in anyone's favor when it gets bad."
Boston center David Krejci admitted that things were "a little bumpy" on Monday morning, but that won't make a difference come game-time.
"It's going to be the same thing for both sides, so it doesn't really matter," he said.
"If there's bad ice you have to keep the game simple, which you try to do anyways," added defenseman Dennis Seidenberg. "You want to play a straight-line game, especially when the ice isn't at its best."
Read: Bruins-Blackhawks Game 6 Preview
Bruins head coach Claude Julien will make sure that point is hammered home prior to the game -- no matter what the conditions.
"Those are conditions you have to play with this time of the year," he said, noting things could get worse when 16,000+ fans are added to the equation later this evening. "Both teams will tell you the same thing; keep the game simple and try to avoid those mistakes from over-handling pucks in those kind of conditions."
Less-than-perfect conditions is nothing new to the Bruins and their fans when it comes to the Stanley Cup Final, as the old Boston Garden had similar situations back in its heyday. In the 1988 Cup final between the Bruins and Edmonton Oilers, a heavy fog clouded most of Game 4 of the series until a power outage in the second period caused the game to end in a 3-3 tie (Edmonton went on to sweep the series). Then again in Game 1 of the 1990 Stanley Cup Final between those same two teams, a toasty Boston Garden lost power -- causing a delay in the triple-overtime win by the Oilers.
The Bruins have plenty on their plate already, facing possible elimination after Chicago's 3-1 win in Saturday's Game 5 gave the Blackhawks a 3-2 series lead.
Read: 4 Keys For Bruins In Game 6
But when it comes down to it, the Bruins aren't paying much attention to the conditions of the ice on Monday. They just want to make sure when they look back on Game 6, that they left everything out there -- foggy and soggy conditions or not.
"When you are in a moment like this, it's definitely nothing to save it for," said Lucic. "You don't come this far to lose, right? I mean it would have been easy to quit two months ago in that game seven against Toronto when we dug deep to get ourselves through that game. There's no reason why we can't dig deep and find a little bit extra to get ourselves through this one."
Tune in to every game of the Bruins-Blackhawks Stanley Cup Final on 98.5 The Sports Hub — the flagship station of the Boston Bruins. Pregame coverage begins at 7 p.m. with full postgame reaction and analysis after every game!
