Bad B’s

Posted by Mike Giardi April 10, 2008 at 10:18 pm

Its my off-night, but with the Bruins playing Game 1 of the playoffs, the Great Gretzky dog and I settled in for what we expected would be 2-and-a-half hours of rock ‘em, sock ‘em hockey. Two minutes later, the Habs led 2-0, and the dog retreated to his bed for some quality sleep (he was actually snoring at one point). I, on the other hand, felt compelled to watch the final 58 minutes. To say I’m disgusted wouldn’t do that word justice, and I think I’m actually jealous of the dog. I should have caught some Z’s.

The B’s were completely overwhelmed by Montreal in every facet. First, they failed to match the Habs emotion, which was obviously fueled by a raucous crowd. Second, the Black and Gold were like a bunch of 4-years old playing their first organized game of hockey. Ever seen one of those? Its a cluster, and funny when its kids. But you’re watching pros…good grief. I mean, how’s about a little puck possession boys? How about attacking the net? Heck, how about shooting once in a blue moon?? Murray was invisible…Kessel as well, and you can tell Savard has plenty of rust to knock off. The only line that sustained any kind of pressure was the Axelsson, Lucic, Metropolit troika, but that’s not exactly the most “skilled” offensive bunch.

But my biggest issue was defensive zone coverage. When the two most sound own-zone players - Chara and Ward - are not where they’re suppose to be, or not making the correct decisions in their own zone, the Bruins have no chance. Actually, check that. They have one: Tim Thomas. And he didn’t do his Houdini impression tonight.

B’s now trail 1-0 in the series. They need to get their stuff together quickly, with Game 2 Saturday night. Hard to call a game this early in a series a must-win, but given the B’s lack of success against Montreal this season - and last - I’d say it is.