Boston Sports Then and Now

The Boston Bruins and New York Rangers are set to collide in the semifinals of the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

While some of us fans are still thinking about the “miracle on causeway”, the Bruins turn their attentions to the New York Rangers. The Rangers moved on to the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs after beating the Washington Capitals in 7 games. The Toronto Maple Leafs certainly challenged the Bruins in a variety of ways during their first round playoff match-up. Had it not been for spectacular comeback, the B’s would be sitting at home watching this series with Toronto in their place.

The Rangers are whole different type of animal, they pose a greater challenge to Boston in a bevy of areas, and the Bruins will have to bring a much better effort overall if they hope to keep up. I am going to break down the preview into three areas and discuss the advantages, and disadvantages both teams have in this series.

Forwards:

I think the Bruins match-up really well here. David Krejci leads the NHL in playoff scoring right now, and his linemates have been excellent thus far into the post-season. Milan Lucic has all but erased his miserable regular season with an impressive showing, and he is currently ranked 5th in the NHL playoff scoring leaders. Nathan Horton has also been up to the task with 4 goals, 3 assists, and a league leading +11 in the post season.

The real question here is the rest of the Bruins offense. Patrice Bergeron’s line with Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand was basically none existent in the first round against Toronto, and it wasn’t until game 7 that they finally contributed offensively. Seguin finally broke his scoring slump against the Leafs with an assist on Bergeron’s series clinching goal. Hopefully it lit a fire underneath him, and the rest of that line. Seguin has been reportedly playing with Rich Peverley and Chris Kelly on the third line in practice, while Jaromir Jagr has been moved up in his place. I think creates more balance throughout, and will take pressure of the young winger, while letting Jagr have a more important role in the top six. The Bruins’ bottom six was invisible against the Leafs, and to beat the Rangers they will need to elevate their play, and give Claude Julien the ability to role all four lines.

It has been somewhat of an unexpected season for the New York Rangers. The off-season addition of Rick Nash had many thinking the Rags would be an elite Eastern Conference team. Unfortunately for New York, inconsistent play from some pretty big players led to some pretty big changes. Brad Richards hasn’t been the same scoring machine he has been throughout his career since joining the Rangers, and was virtually non existent throughout the first round against the Capitals. In his debut in New York, Rick Nash was better than expected. He scored 21 goals, 21 assists, and a +16 in 44 games. Unfortunately he has yet to turn his good regular season into post season success. He only registered 2 assists in the Rangers’ series win.

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April 28:

On April 28, 1947, winger, Grant Erickson, was born in Pierceland, Saskatchewan. He played just six NHL games over two seasons and two of them came with the Bruins in 1968-69. He managed to score one goal in his limited time in Boston.

Bruins players tap the phrase that has united the city in the last week.

Sometimes history takes decades and decades to create and sometimes it happens in the blink of an eye or in a 12-second span. The tragic and unfortunate events that hit Boston last week will undoubtedly be forever etched into the history of the city, but they won’t be remembered as its darkest times. Instead, the people of Boston and the world will remember the completely selfless actions of strangers running into danger as well as the unrelenting work done by our law enforcement agencies. Let’s now jump forward to this week in Bruins history, which features a record-setting achievement for one of the best ever, an interesting comment from a rival GM, a pair of overtime thrillers to stun the Canadiens and coach’s birthday. This is This Week In Boston Bruins History: April 21-27. 

Fans at TD Garden this past week.

April 21:

On April 21, 1970, the Bruins beat the Black Hawks, 4-1, in Game 2 of the NHL Semi Finals. This was their third of 10 straight wins and they went on to win the Cup.

On April 21, 1974, they beat Chicago with an 8-6 victory in Game 2 of the semis to tie things up at a game apiece. The B’s would go on to win the series in six, but would lose to the Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals.

On April 21, 1991, Ray Bourque picked up two assists in the team’s 3-2 win over the Canadiens. With the two helpers, Bourque passed Phil Esposito as the franchise’s new all-time leader in postseason assists with 103.

On April 21, 2010, the Bruins beat the Sabres, 3-2, in double overtime in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series. Former Sabre, Miroslav Satan, scored the game-winner on the power play 7:41 into the second overtime.

On April 21, 2011, Michael Ryder won Game 4 of the Bruins’ first-round series against the Habs with a goal at 1:59 of overtime. Ryder had three points on the night and helped the Bruins come back from 3-1 down in the second period. The goal tied the series at two and of course, the Bruins would go on to win it in seven.

April 22:

On April 22, 1979, the Bruins swept the Penguins with a 4-1 win in Game 4 of their first-round series. They had finished the season 43-23-14, but were eliminated by an overtime goal in Game 7 against Montreal in the next round.

On April 22, 1980, Boston was eliminated in Game 5 of the second round of the playoffs with a 4-2 loss to the Islanders. It was the final game for coach Harry Sinden and he finished his coaching career with a record of 153-116-58.

On April 22, 1999, the Bruins opened the playoffs with a 2-0 win over the Hurricanes as Ken Belanger and Rob Dimaio scored goals. Byron Dafoe posted the shutout and the B’s would win the series in six after falling behind, 2-1, but they lost to the Sabres in the next round.

On April 22, 2009, the Bruins completed a four-game sweep of the Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs with a 4-1 win in Game 4. Ryder had two goals and an assist for Boston.

On April 22, 2012, Tyler Seguin scored the game-winning goal 3:17 into overtime to force Game 7 of Boston’s first-round playoff series against the Capitals. It was Seguin’s first goal of the playoffs and it came from Milan Lucic and David Krejci. Five Bruins had multi-point afternoons in this one, including Seguin, Lucic, Krejci, Andrew Ference and Rich Peverley.

Tyler Seguin forced Game 7 with this goal.

April 23: 

On April 23, 1960, Claude Julien was born in Blind River, Ontario. In six seasons as head coach of the Bruins, Julien has won 254 games, which is good for the second-most in team history and, of course, he led his team to a Stanley Cup championship. As an NHL coach, Julien’s teams have gotten points in 60 percent of his games, which is the 17th-best all-time among coaches.

On April 23, 1982, the Bruins beat the Nordiques, 6-5, in overtime of Game 6 of their second-round series with their first win since Game 2. They would drop Game 7, however.

On April 23, 1989, Cam Neely and Michael Thelven combined to score the fastest pair of goals in Boston playoff history as they lit the lamp just seven seconds apart in the second period of their 3-2 win over Montreal in Game 4 – their only win of their second-round playoff series.

On April 23, 1995, they won their fourth straight game, 5-4, against the Rangers to improve to 23-16-3 on the season. Neely had a hat trick in the game, but this team failed to make it out of the first round of the playoffs.

On April 23, 2011, Nathan Horton scored at 9:03 of the second overtime as the Bruins beat the Canadiens, 5-4, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. It was the 12th-longest game ever played in Bruins’ history and it prompted Montreal’s Max Pacioretty to tweet that “this game was longer than Marchand’s nose.”

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You know what makes Mondays better? A little bit of Bruins history. It’s fun, it’s counterproductive and I bet you will learn a thing or eight about the team you root for on the ice. As April moves on, historic Bruins’ teams are fighting through the playoff grind while others are just beginning their championship push. This week’s product includes a couple pairs of teammates who were born on the same day, a Stanley Cup victory, the final games for a handful of coaches, the final game for one of the best defensemen in franchise history and of course more than one playoff loss to the Canadiens. This is This Week In Boston Bruins History: April 14-20. 

The boys who won it all in 1939.

April 14:

On April 14, 1974, the Bruins swept the Maple Leafs in the first round of the playoffs with a 4-3 overtime win in Game 4. They would go on to lose to the Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals, however, after a 52-win regular season.

On April 14, 1980, the B’s clinched their first-round series against the Penguins with a 6-2 win in Game 5. They scored a total of 14 goals in the final two games of the series and advanced on to play the Islanders, but would lose in five to the eventual champs.

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Tyler Seguin celebrates what turned out to be the game-winning goal.

It looked in the first like it would be an easy win for the Bruins as they jumped out to a strong 3-0 lead. The Devils made things much too interesting, however, as they scored two in the second and two in the third. It ended up being a late goal from Tyler Seguin that was the difference in the game as Boston held on for the 5-4 victory and overtook the Canadiens for the top spot in the Northeast Division and second spot in the Eastern Conference.

Anton Khudobin made just enough saves (24 to be exact) in his first career start against the Devils. Nursing a 5-3 lead late in the game, Matt D’Agostini scored just his second of the season to cut the lead to one with 37.0 seconds left. Just after the Bruins had killed off a Seguin penalty and after No. 19 had a chance at an open net, New Jersey capitalized with Martin Brodeur on the bench, but that is as close as they would get as they lost their eighth straight game.

“We really took our foot off the gas and they came back,” said Seguin after the game. “[They] gained momentum and almost stole one.”

The Bruins used three first-period goals on seven New Jersey first-period giveaways to jump out on top in a period when they were short handed for 6:33 of the first 9:02. Four penalties against the Black and Gold, including two five-on-three situations, didn’t matter as Boston capitalized with two shorties in the period from Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell.

Just 1:10 into the game, Campbell, playing on his new line, got the Bruins on the board as he jammed in a backhanded rebound after a Brodeur save on Jaromir Jagr. With the puck bouncing all around in the New Jersey end, Jagr was able to control it with three Devils around him and get the shot off. Crashing the net, Campbell picked up his third goal of the year and first in 22 games with the only assist going to Jagr.

Then, with Johnny Boychuk and Zdeno Chara in the box for tripping and delay of game, respectively, and Patrice Bergeron obviously not available, the Bruins killed off a five-on-three situation for 1:27 just over three minutes into the game. Andrew Ference and Chris Kelly were huge for the special teams as each came up with a big block and the team got some help from the left post. New Jersey was in the Boston zone for the entire span of the five-on-three, but couldn’t take advantage of the Bruins’ two best defenders sitting in the box.

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Believe it or not, they were still playing hockey this time of year in the ’30s and in one particular year, the Bruins were enjoying a run to a championship. Also featured in this week’s turning back of time are the final games for a number of coaches, including Claude Julien‘s predecessor, a record-setting loss, a double-digit playoff win streak, one now-enemy’s glorious final game and, of course, a multitude of playoff defeats at the hands of the Canadiens. This is This Week In Boston Bruins History: April 7-13.

April 7: