My Bruins Diary: These Bruins Don’t Blink

Every once in a while my urge to write about the Bruins overtakes my edict to keep this a Patriots football-only blog. Now, with the Bruins taking game one of the Stanley Cup finals, it’s time for another edition of My Bruins Diary.

Your regularly scheduled Patriots programming, featuring me white-knuckling it thinking about the tight end situation will return tomorrow. Today, it’s Bruins.

In truth, since moving back to Boston I’ve been more heavily involved in the Bruins (and hockey in general) than the Patriots. I’ve enjoyed producing videos for CLNS last season and Bruins Daily this season. The Bruins give access to blogs that the Patriots don’t and I’ve been lucky to be in the press conferences and locker room soaking it all up. It’s hard not to feel especially close to this team and it’s been a joy to see how well they’re playing.

Hockey and the Bruins were my true love as a kid, simply because I was far better at hockey than I was at football and the Patriots stunk.

Getting an up-close look at such a good hockey team has been a pleasure, and now to see them crushing it in the finals is a joy.

Most impressive to me about this Bruins team has been that they don’t blink. Last night, down 2-0, it almost seemed like we were going down a predictable storyline… with 10 days off the Bruins just were flat. A loss in Game 1, no big thing, too long a layoff, let’s go get game 2, etc.

But just as we were about to accept that, the Bruins completely took over, led not by the top line that they might’ve been over-reliant on at times earlier in the season, but by the grinders.

Connor Clifton, Charlie McAvoy, and Sean Kuraly scored the key goals, but every other player chipped in some small way. Maybe the Perfection Line wasn’t dominant, but they had their chances and Marchand finished things off with the empty-netter.

The first period Blues looked like a Cup finalist should. They’re a close mirror to the Bruins. They might be a bit behind the B’s on offense, but exceed them in size and depth on defense. The goalies are mostly a wash, both playing lights out and making difficult saves. These will all be one-goal games.

The Bruins flipped a switch in Game 4 against the Blue Jackets and have not lost since. They were inconsistent against Toronto, clearly the most offensively talented team they’ve faced this post-season. It took them a bit to adjust transitioning to the heavier Blue Jackets.

Once they found their “heavy” game the matchups all fell their way. Gone were the offensive Lightning, Capitals and Sharks. In were the Blue Jackets, Hurricanes and now Blues.

In third period after third period, the Bruins have put the hammer down, winning eight-straight and counting. Four lines, six D and Tuukka playing out of his mind.

Don Sweeney made all the right moves this season, as Marcus Johansson and Charlie Coyle have both made significant playoff impacts. Having Coyle under contract for another year makes him even more of a steal.

I don’t see any reason this Bruins team isn’t going to stop now. Why should we? They’re playing their kind of hockey that’s won them a ton of games the last two years and should ride it all the way to another Cup.