Will Boston Bite Back? Will Vancouver Dive In?

Game two tonight after a two day layoff allowing the finger of Patrice Bergeron to heal after he was bitten by Alex Burrows of the Vancouver Canucks.  Allow me to remind you that there was no suspension for his infraction.  Seems like ever since Canucks general manager Mike Gillis (who always has a constipated look on his face), began complaining about officiating in the opening series against the Chicago Blackhawks, calls have been going the Canucks way.  Makes me wonder if his strategy really worked or not, as many times that kind of blabbering can be worse.

Surely you can tell that there is some bias and animosity in my writing here as neither of these teams give me a reason to cheer.  As I said earlier, I can’t say that I want one of them to win, I rather want desperately for one of them to lose.  Whoever does win, I can only hope that they do it in a way that they can be proud of.  Winning a Stanley Cup isn’t easy.  It takes 16 victories throughout the playoffs to win, with lots of blood, sweat and guts.  A gutless championship isn’t something to be proud of.

I would like to see tonight’s game actually decided by the players playing the game like men.  Not… well…

.girls

little boys.  The diving by the Canucks at just the right time is getting a little bit dramatic.  The curling up into a turtle shell isn’t something I’d be proud of either.  Certainly the act of biting has taken on a whole new dimension.  Should another cannibalistic act take place, their could be an additional rule added to the rulebook when it comes to face washes.  Face washing as you and I know have been around for ages, and involves the act of sticking your smelly, sweaty glove in the face of an opposing player during a scrum, which normally occurs after the whistle blows and play has ended.  The thought of a finger from that glove in my mouth is disgusting and makes me wanna vomit.

All sarcasm aside, the Bruins are going to have to find a way to score some goals.  Roberto Luongo made 36 saves on Wednesday night and while using defenceman Zdeno Chara in front of the net during power plays seemed like a good idea, Chara was exhausted by the third period.  The beating that you take there is not something you want your top defenceman subjected to as you also ask him to be on the ice for over 28 minutes.

Tim Thomas was equally as good in goal for Boston with the exception of Raffi Torres scoring the game winner with less than 20 seconds left.  The thought of that game going into overtime was bad enough, but watching that pugilist Torres get the game winner was nightmarish.  Thomas kept the Bruins in the game and kept the Twins and drama queen Ryan Kesler off the scoreboard, except for a lone assist by Kesler on the Torres game winner.  I have no doubt that the Bruins have figured out a way to contain Vancouver, but they need to figure out a way to penetrate the Canuck defence and get better quality scoring chances on Luongo.

Special teams could play a huge role in this series and Boston needs to get their power play in gear fast, otherwise they could be heading back to beantown down two games to none.  Combined both teams were 0 for 12 with the man advantage, which won’t bode well in low scoring matches.  Dan Hamhuis will not play in tonight’s game after suffering an injury on a hip check from Boston’s Milan Lucic.  Andrew Alberts is apparently getting the call over former Panther Keith Ballard to take Hamhuis’s place.

It’s Saturday night and we have a Stanley Cup Final game.  I should be chomping at the bit to watch this.  Oh sorry, no biting allowed.  Unless no one is looking.

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