Bruins repeat Stanley Cup strategy from 2011: Cole
Boston repeats tactics that worked in 2011
BOSTON — This was the point, two springtimes ago, when the Stanley Cup final tilted for good.
Game 3 at TD Garden, when the Boston Bruins got home, down two games to none to the Vancouver Canucks, and put on their war paint and sang their death song and prepared to dole out punishment and break the opposition’s will.
They did. The final score in Game 3 was 8-1. The next game it was 4-0. They beat the Canucks in the alley and humbled them on the scoreboard, beat them every possible way — and though the Canucks would win Game 5 at home 1-0 on a Roberto Luongo shutout and a strange Max Lapierre goal, it was their last, faint pulse beat in one of the most lopsided series that ever somehow went seven games.
To this day, the Canucks cling to the fact they were one victory away from the Cup. The truth is, it was as likely as winning the lottery. So now we get to see if the Chicago Blackhawks are made of sterner stuff.
They come to town tied 1-1 in the series after a triple-overtime win followed by a singleovertime loss at United Center. Two third-liners — Chicago’s Andrew Shaw and Boston’s Daniel Paille — have been the unlikely heroes.
And the final two-plus periods of Game 2 provided the road map to how the Bruins expect to play the rest of the way: namely, how they played the Canucks.
Boston Strong? Yup. And mean and persistent and ... heavy. Yes, that’s the word for it. They can be brutal. They can leave a mark. They can push the envelope on what referees let go. They can get away, under certain conditions, with crimes that in the regular season would be punished 100 per cent of the time, but they know that the standard disappears in the playoffs.
But they are also incredibly heavy in their game, even if their bodies aren’t any bigger. They take the shortest distance between two points and arrive in ill humour. They have active, heavy sticks.
“At their maddening best, they seem to have four arms and two sticks apiece, and shinpads a foot wide, and there seems to be no room, and no time, to play the puck and no alleys in which to shoot it. That takes speed and commitment and, yes, skill.
“Since I’ve been here, and before, every time I remember playing Boston, that was a big part of the team,” said Paille, “and I’m happy to be a part of a team like that, that not only has skill but relies on grit, too, and I think that helps in the playoffs in the long run.
“It’s just how we have to play. We sensed it against Vancouver and it was successful, and yesterday when we were able to accomplish that presence ...”
The Hawks are adamant the physical play didn’t throw them. The Canucks said the same thing in 2011.
Boston coach Claude Julien said he doesn’t have to verbally reinforce the Bruins’ identity too often.
Maybe none of it works without goalie Tuukka Rask channelling his inner Tim Thomas and holding the fort when the Bruins’ minds stray from the task now and then.
Over to you, Blackhawks. Cope if you can. It doesn’t sound like a day at the beach.