Bruins DieHard: Biting & Non-Suspensions Don't Lose Games
BOSTON (CBS) - It was just so swift and almost painless.
Shocking, yes! Surprising, no!
Alexandre Burrows opened the scoring, set up the tying goal, and closed out the Boston Bruins in 11 seconds of overtime to give Vancouver a two games to nothing lead in the Stanley Cup Finals!
For the second game in a row the Bruins lost a game that really, they did so many things to lose. Too many times the Vancouver Canucks were able to exert their will and get Boston back on their heels and force the Bruins into turning the puck over time after time after time. From the 11:35 point of the second period when Mark Recchi gave Boston their only lead of the Finals 2-1, the Bruins had no answer for what came in wave after wave from the Canucks. Aggressive would be an understatement as Vancouver had six shots on Thomas the rest of that period and the Bruins managed just one on Luongo!
It was more of the same in the third as Vancouver pressed for the tying goal and eventually got it on yet another Boston turnover. Milan Lucic had the puck on the boards and did nothing with it, and on a shot from the point that was blocked, Burrows slid a nice pass to Daniel Sedin and Thomas had no chance as the puck flipped over his right pad. Boston was out shot in that third period 11-5. Many were quality and too many were on giveaways.
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So many bad things happened in that 11 seconds of overtime beginning with the bad attempted clear-in by Andrew Ference. Thomas, despite being his style, was way too far out of his net and after partially colliding with Burrows, he could not recover. Then it was all over.
Ladies & Gentlemen of the media, it is time to move on from the "Bitegate" controversy? Many thought Burrows should have been suspended for biting Patrice Bergeron's finger in Game 1, but he was not and then went on to have a spectacular performance in crushing the Bruins hope of a win in Game 2.
Read: Stanley Cup Finals Schedule
What it came down to was the fact that Boston didn't do much to avoid the loss. The Canucks did more to come away with the win, especially Burrows. Biting and non-suspensions don't lose Stanley Cup Final Games.
The Bruins have been in this 0-2 hole before this playoff year, but that was in the first round and against a much lesser opponent. But, they will be back here in Boston Monday night where it'll be a bit friendlier and hopefully with better results. Can they dig themselves out against the team that was the best in the league all season long and seem to have it going at the right time? That remains to be seen but they need to play better in their own end and reverse the third period trend of turnovers and not taking it to the Canucks before it's too late!
Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.
