BOSTON, MA – Finished. It’s over. On a day where Boston Marathoners completed the race to its entirety, the first NHL playoff series between reviled cities Boston and New York took the same amount of games (5) as the last meeting in 1973 when the Rangers bounced the defending Stanley Cup Champion Bruins. As Angry Ward commented after the Bruins’ Game 3 victory, “that’s as dominating as a 2-1 win gets“–he may have very well summed up the entire series in those same words. I’m not here to gloat about the series win with more hockey on the horizon and the prospect of a bigger prize but just to relay some thoughts from the past week’s games.
Tory Krug, all 5-foot f*cking-9 of him, set a playoffs record for defensemen with four goals in his first five games and was the difference in the series. The rookie blueliner also knocked the much larger Brian Boyle and Taylor Pyatt on their hinies during the course of action. Freddy Kruger was cinema’s uncontrollable “Nightmare on Elm Street” and Tory Krug the Rangers unmatched “Nightmare on Causeway Street.” The Blueshirts did little more than watch this little guy, who reminded somebody of a young Dino Ciccarelli, skate circles around the rink.
Thankfully, John Tortorella said the better team won the series but added the footnote of injuries making them a “different team.” Dude, come on! Your offense was guilty of grab-bagging it on a nightly basis and led to those poignant words by Angry Ward. Last night’s loss being case and point: the Rangers didn’t sniff sustained offensive pressure until six and a half minutes were left in the game. Still they found themselves only down a goal on the scoreboard but a Belmont Stakes-length away from a victory. The aforementioned flurry of attack lasted all of forty-five seconds… and was all she wrote.
The Bruins 4th line is called the Merlot Line because of their practice jersey color. Symbolic of wine they get better as time goes by in games as hockey grinders physically wear down the opponent. It didn’t matter who was on ice against Paille, Campbell, and Thornton while the line succeeded in getting the puck deep and causing problems for the Rangers. At times the trio looked like the Harlem Globetrotters against the Washington Generals. Outside of Krug, these guys were “1A” in the series; an unsung hero for the B’s is defensemen Adam McQuaid ,whose stolid play is reflected in a +5 rating in these playoffs.
Derek Dorsett appears to have assumed the persona of his new head coach in the short time he’s been a Ranger. The whining, cry-baby was often seen barking at officials or his opponent but lacking the testicles to exchange pleasantries without “turtling” against Shawn Thornton.
Brian Boyle was New York’s most effective skater throughout the series and, naturally, Henrik Lundqvist was their MVP for the series. Surprisingly, the Bruins didn’t have the trouble scoring goals that they normally do against The King. Finally, Roman Hamrlik didn’t look anything like he was for the Capitals last year. But the question for Rangers fans is: Should John Tortorella get the ax?
For Grote2DMax and bosoxbruins04:
West Coast Craig, tomorrow.
