Bruins DieHard: Passive B's Need To Get Aggressive
BOSTON (CBS) - The Boston Bruins are about to host their first Stanley Cup Finals game since May 24, 1990. It's an exciting time for the Bruins and their fans and yet there is this skepticism and negativity surrounding the first two games in Vancouver.
Why is everyone, as far as Boston fans and media, being so ridiculous about what's going on in these Stanley Cup Finals? Do people really want Shawn Thornton to go back in the lineup and beat the hell out of either Maxime (the expletive) Lapierre, or Alexandre Burrows and remove a possible scoring threat such as Tyler Seguin? Would that make everyone happy? Should Tim Thomas all of sudden change his style of playing goal just because of what happened in overtime of game two? Does anyone think that Claude Julien will change ANYTHING that has brought him four wins away from a Championship, or two wins away from dismissal!
Absolutely not. The Boston Bruins simply need to do the things that got them to the Finals. They need to play better in the neutral zone and for goodness sake, stop turning the puck over period.
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The Bruins need to reverse a disturbing trend in which they have become very passive late in the game.
Too many times the Vancouver Canucks were able to exert their will and get Boston back on their heels. From the 11:35 point of the second period in Game 2, when Mark Recchi gave Boston their only lead of the Finals 2-1, the Boston 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 Roberto 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.
This has to change. Cliché as it sounds, Boston needs to play a 60-minute aggressive game and push the Canucks back where they are the ones turning the puck over and the Bruins getting quality scoring chances on Luongo, who has really not had to make many tough saves in this series!
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All during the regular season and into playoffs the Bruins have been able to comeback and make things equal. Tonight we need to see those types of results because Vancouver has been the best team in the National Hockey League all season long and so far, they have the results to prove it!
The Bruins have not won a Stanley Cup Finals game at home since 1978 when Bobby Schmautz scored in overtime (no, I didn't need to look this up) to beat the Montreal Canadiens in Game 4 in overtime.
Tonight would be a nice first in a long time and hopefully the start of something big!
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.
