Looks like us Bruins fans need to eat a little bit of humble pie because last night's game was atrociously hard to watch. The Bruins fell to the Canucks 6-2, ending our 4 game win streak and dropping our record to 22-9-2.
I'll say this for the Canucks: they are still one of the most annoying, whining, obnoxious teams the league has to offer. It doesn't help that their fans are just as obnoxious (chanting Boston Strong at us, really?), but that's another lecture for another day.
But solely speaking in terms of the game play itself, the Canucks played a good game. They found ways to take advantage of the holey defense we had last night, they kept pressure on Rask and they just kept burying the puck. They definitely found ways to get under our skin and stay there. Combine all this and you get the horrid score we saw last night.
I'll say this for the Canucks: they are still one of the most annoying, whining, obnoxious teams the league has to offer. It doesn't help that their fans are just as obnoxious (chanting Boston Strong at us, really?), but that's another lecture for another day.
But solely speaking in terms of the game play itself, the Canucks played a good game. They found ways to take advantage of the holey defense we had last night, they kept pressure on Rask and they just kept burying the puck. They definitely found ways to get under our skin and stay there. Combine all this and you get the horrid score we saw last night.
The Bruins on the other hand played an absolutely horrible game. We do have to take this with a grain of salt though seeing as everyone was recovering from the flu and we still have a ton of injuries. But that definitely isn't an excuse. Our defense was basically non-existent, our offense couldn't keep the puck in the zone or find ways to lift the puck past Luongo. We let the age old rivalry get under our skin.
Along with all that, Tuukka Rask was not even close to where he normally is when he plays. Last night was the first time since February of 2012 that Tuukka Rask was pulled. Not that we should use it as an excuse (because he certainly isn't) but he was overcoming a bout with the flu, which may have slightly contributed to his poor performance. Basically, our illnesses. our injuries and our inconsistency shot us in the foot last night.
But there were some positives in the game last night. The Iginla-Kessler fight was a beautiful one to watch. Iginla absolutely dominated that fight, getting some great hooks in and getting Kessler to turtle (which isn't really surprising because let's be real, the Canucks really love their turtling and their diving). And we cannot forget the performance for everyone's favorite little ball of hate. Marchand was not having any of the Canuck's nonsense and made no qualms about reminding them about who the better team is. Let's relive the glory that is our favorite honey badger, shall we?
Along with all that, Tuukka Rask was not even close to where he normally is when he plays. Last night was the first time since February of 2012 that Tuukka Rask was pulled. Not that we should use it as an excuse (because he certainly isn't) but he was overcoming a bout with the flu, which may have slightly contributed to his poor performance. Basically, our illnesses. our injuries and our inconsistency shot us in the foot last night.
But there were some positives in the game last night. The Iginla-Kessler fight was a beautiful one to watch. Iginla absolutely dominated that fight, getting some great hooks in and getting Kessler to turtle (which isn't really surprising because let's be real, the Canucks really love their turtling and their diving). And we cannot forget the performance for everyone's favorite little ball of hate. Marchand was not having any of the Canuck's nonsense and made no qualms about reminding them about who the better team is. Let's relive the glory that is our favorite honey badger, shall we?
We also can't forget his little lifting the cup gesture he made a few times last night. Now, Claude Julien definitely wasn't happy with Marchy's little display, saying "the perception it gives our organization is not what you want to see with those kinds of things...that's definitely not something we will accept in our organization." And this is all very true, but Brad Marchand is known as the little ball of hate for a reason. But I'll leave it at that.
Besides Marchy and that fight, the only other highlight of the game was Reilly Smith. This kid was not about to stand for a shut out. He came out of this game with the only two goals of the night (and this was after he too battled the flu). The first goal he was unassisted when he backhanded it past Luongo. The second goal Boychuk and Seidenberg got the assist when Smith took the wrist shot to bury the puck.
Overall, this game was a miserable one and very hard to watch as a fan. But it's only one game and it's still early in the season. There is no reason for us to be worried about this loss, considering even with all of our injuries and illnesses we are coming off a four game win streak. It was only a matter of time until we suffered a loss. Now it's time to look at the problems we had during this game, correct them and prepare for Tuesday's game against the Flames.
Until then,
Keep calm and Bergeron!
Overall, this game was a miserable one and very hard to watch as a fan. But it's only one game and it's still early in the season. There is no reason for us to be worried about this loss, considering even with all of our injuries and illnesses we are coming off a four game win streak. It was only a matter of time until we suffered a loss. Now it's time to look at the problems we had during this game, correct them and prepare for Tuesday's game against the Flames.
Until then,
Keep calm and Bergeron!