Round 2 - Boston Vs. Carolina

davetherave wrote:Curious to know what our GMHockey folks think going into tonight's fun fest...

B's will win and force a Game 7.

When Carolina plays at their best, they win. Letting in those 3 early goals was a recipe for disaster. I expect the Canes to close out the Bruins tonight.

shabbs wrote:

davetherave wrote:Curious to know what our GMHockey folks think going into tonight's fun fest...

B's will win and force a Game 7.

I tend to go with Shabbs on this one...with the game going to OT, of course and a fluky goal--by somebody like Shawn Thornton--winning it in the second OT period.

Not making this prognosis as a prediction, but rather, a credible scenario.

I dunno, Carolina hasnt lost 2 games in a row all playoffs and seem to bounce back big time. Dont forget the majority of this team is only 3 years removed from the cup and can draw on a lot of expierence.

I'm hoping for Boston but my head is saying Carolina tonight... hope I'm wrong here.

I think Boston finally found "something" last game and won't let go of it now. They strayed for a few games... but have re-found themselves.

Gentlemen, I think we agree this is a tossup.

I agree with that too. It's going to come down to goaltending and expierence IMO, if Carolina gets the better of both, I think it's over.

Boston is still young and made more strides this year than anyone thought possible. A lot like the Hawks, even if they lose this series it was a successful year for that franchise and they are only going to get better and deeper, especially with Fernandez coming off the books and Rask coming in.

If the cap does indeed increase, expect them to make a serious pitch for J Bo or another UFA D man to add to an already deep blueline.

The other thing is that both of these teams are extremely well coached.

I am really looking forward to seeing the Julien Vs. Maurice-Francis chess match.

davetherave wrote:

shabbs wrote:

davetherave wrote:Curious to know what our GMHockey folks think going into tonight's fun fest...

B's will win and force a Game 7.

I tend to go with Shabbs on this one...with the game going to OT, of course and a fluky goal--by somebody like Shawn Thornton--winning it in the second OT period.

Not making this prognosis as a prediction, but rather, a credible scenario.

If we go to OT... I'm feeling a goal by Savard.

Maurice is an extremely under rated coach and his rep took a hit because of the 3 years he had in Toronto under a poor GM. Good on him for taking an struggling team this far, but a good goaltender will always make a coach better than he is.

Boston 4, Carolina 2

	1	2	3	T
BOS	2	2	0	4
CAR	0	1	1	2

Final

7:00 PM ET, May 12, 2009, RBC Center, Raleigh, North Carolina

Top-seeded B's handle Canes to move one step closer to capping series rally

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP/ESPN)-- The Boston Bruins played an entire season to get to this point: a winner-take-all Game 7 in their building.



With those high stakes, the NHL's top remaining seed wasn't about to get caught up in settling a score. Instead, the Bruins moved a step closer to giving the Carolina Hurricanes a different kind of knockout punch.

They evened the Eastern Conference semifinals and sent the series back to Boston for a decisive seventh game by beating Carolina 4-2 Tuesday night.

"We've been working hard all year to get home-ice advantage," center Patrice Bergeron said. "And there it is, and we have it."

Fast Facts


• For the second time in the last three games, Mark Recchi opened the scoring for Boston and added an assist in the second period for his first multi-point postseason game since 2007.
• The Bruins are one game away from coming back from a 3-1 series deficit for the first time in team history (currently 0-20 in series when trailing 3-1). It's only the second time in team history the Bruins have forced a Game 7 when trailing 3-1 in a series (lost in 2008 conference quarterfinals vs. Montreal).
• Thursday's Game 7 will be the Bruins' first against a team other than the Montreal Canadiens since the 1990 divisional semifinals, when they beat the Hartford Whalers (forerunners of the Hurricanes).
• Carolina is in danger of losing a series when leading 3-2 for the first time since the team moved to Carolina from Hartford (currently 6-0).
-- ESPN Stats & Information

Mark Recchi had a goal and an assist. Marc Savard scored before leaving in the third period with a minor leg injury. Steve Montador and Chuck Kobasew added goals, Bergeron had two assists and Tim Thomas stopped 31 shots in his second straight victory.

"Basically, I'm trying not to let them get anything to feed off of," Thomas said.

The Bruins led 2-0 barely 5 minutes in and made it stand to win their second straight since falling one loss shy of elimination. The reward: A trip back to Beantown for Thursday night's Game 7, their first at home since losing in the first round to Montreal in 2004.

"From the time we fell behind 3-1 in the series, our goal was to create a Game 7," coach Claude Julien said. "We're there now. ... Getting to Game 7 is one thing. Now we've got to decide what we're going to do with it."

And there wasn't even any need to retaliate for what they considered a sucker punch thrown by Carolina's Scott Walker near the end of Game 5.

Matt Cullen and Sergei Samsonov scored for the Hurricanes. Their first losing streak of the playoffs has put them in danger of blowing a 3-1 series lead for the first time in franchise history.

"I believe in this hockey team. I really do, and sometimes that means you say unkind things to them because you expect more and better out of them," said coach Paul Maurice after his postgame speech was described, perhaps sarcastically, by defenseman Tim Gleason as "uplifting."

At least Carolina is used to playing Game 7s. Each of the Hurricanes' previous three playoff series dating to the 2006 Stanley Cup run also went the full seven games, and they won all three.

"It seems like whenever you counted us out was when we played our best," captain Rod Brind'Amour said. "So I'm sure everyone's counting us out right now."

Cam Ward stopped 15 shots and allowed four goals for the second straight game. In four previous starts after a loss, he was 4-0 and had allowed a total of four goals.

The series between one-time New England rivals received a jolt of bad blood two nights earlier, when Walker dropped Aaron Ward with a right cross that led the NHL to fine the Hurricanes forward $2,500 but not suspend him.

The injury didn't cost Ward any playing time either; he logged about 20 minutes while playing with a shiner around his left eye. But the Bruins promised to never forget what they felt was a cheap shot.

For now, though, they were content to do their talking between the whistles.

Boston had two goals before the Hurricanes registered their second shot on net.

"They came in tonight and kind of blew us out of the water," Gleason said.

Bergeron set up the first goal by dumping the puck to Recchi, who tapped it in for his 50th career playoff goal and third of the series. Montador then made it a two-goal game with a slap shot from behind the left circle.

"Every team's going to tell you they want to score the first goal -- you feel a lot more comfortable, and the first goal certainly made us feel confident," Julien said. "Then we got that second one, [and it] just seemed like we had lots of confidence."

Cullen scored the Hurricanes' first goal since Game 4 when he flipped a backhander over an outstretched Thomas nearly 3 minutes into the second period. But Savard restored the Bruins' two-goal advantage roughly 6 minutes later with a one-timer that clipped the near post and went in for his fourth goal of the series.

Game notes
Savard has points in four straight games. ... Carolina LW Ryan Bayda was back after missing two games with the flu. ... Recchi skated in his 150th career playoff game. ... The Hurricanes' four-game winning streak at home was snapped.

Do or die tonight... winner moves on... loser goes home... B's take this one.

this one comes down to two monumental showdowns, Thomas vs Ward, Staal vs Chara, who blinks first?

SensFan71 wrote:this one comes down to two monumental showdowns, Thomas vs Ward, Staal vs Chara, who blinks first?

Don't know if Ward is blinking or closing his eye altogether. 8 goals in the last two game while his mates are outshooting bear (get it? out shooting bear).

Head to head...

wprager wrote:

SensFan71 wrote:this one comes down to two monumental showdowns, Thomas vs Ward, Staal vs Chara, who blinks first?

Don't know if Ward is blinking or closing his eye altogether. 8 goals in the last two game while his mates are outshooting bear (get it? out shooting bear).

he he that was great, you planned that didn't you?

Honouring flag and family


Don Campbell/The Ottawa Citizen, Thursday, May 14, 2009

The father of Bruins coach Claude Julien doesn't just wear the colours of his son's team on his sleeve, he flies it over his Navan home.

The guest list out at the Julien homestead in Navan for tonight's Game 7 between the Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes is down significantly from what it was for Game 7 last spring between the Bruins and Montreal Canadiens.

In fact, no one is invited.

And if the Bruins don't win tonight, there's a good chance the father of Bruins head coach Claude Julien may spend all night guarding the Boston Bruins flag that flies in the yard outside his shop at Almar Roofing on Navan Road.

Marcel Julien still hasn't got over the memory of last year's stinging defeat. It wasn't so much the 5-0 shellacking by the Canadiens, but the prank some of his best friends -- or so he thought at the time -- pulled in the aftermath of the crushing season-ending loss by the Bruins.

The elder Julien had invited a dozen or so of his pals over to watch the game and thought nothing of it when the game was over and they all headed out into the dark of night to head home.

A few hours later, he realized what they'd done.

"The next morning, I came out to go to work and my Boston flag is flying at half-mast," says Julien, a spirited 71 years young. "I knew right away who did it ... but I couldn't do anything about it.

"Cars were driving by and would stop stop and ask, 'Hey, why is your Boston flag at half-mast?' and, 'Do you know your flag is at half-mast?' Stuff like that.

"I couldn't do anything but laugh. It was a pretty good joke. But I won't be inviting the same guys back to watch the game."

So tonight it's Marcel and his wife, Bella, in front of the TV -- alone.

In the Julien household, the flag is sacred. Only the maple leaf flies higher, and the only other flag they've flown was a Canadiens flag from 2002-06 when Claude was head coach in Montreal.

When Claude got the Bruins job, Marcel, Claude's brother, Richard, and Henry Vanden Hanenberg, a 30-year-plus employee at the Julien roofing company and a Bruins fan for even longer, went about making the necessary change at the top of the flagpole.

The flag goes up at the start of the season and doesn't come down until the season is over. The family would like to see it still flying in June.

"No one has stolen it," Richard said, laughing. "I guess they're afraid to. Dad keeps a pretty good eye on it."

The Juliens are an old-time hockey family with deep roots after moving from Blind River before the boys could skate.

Dad played when the Navan Arena was still new. "Back in the good, old days," he says.

Sons Richard, who turns 51 this month, and Claude, 49 last month, followed in his footsteps, with Marcel doing some coaching along the way.

Richard was good.

Claude was even better.

Good enough to play in the Ontario Hockey League in Oshawa and Windsor, tough enough to last 12 seasons in the minors and proficient enough to go 14 games in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques.

Neither son could ever get enough of the sport, so they turned to coaching.

Claude climbed the ladder from junior with the-then Hull Olympiques to the American Hockey League to the NHL, with Boston being his third team after stops in Montreal and New Jersey.

He has been at the top with a Memorial Cup win by Hull in 1996-97, and he has been at the bottom, fired in back-to-back years, partway through '05-06 in Montreal and inexplicably the following year when New Jersey was in first place with three games to play.

Richard is behind the bench with the junior C Cumberland Bandits. During the day, he works with his father for the company.

Marcel founded the firm in 1970 or, "39 years ago this month," as he likes to say. He's the only CEO Almar has ever known and, as they say in the roofing business,

Marcel has hung up his shingle.

"I did my fair share," he says.

The life of a roofer is not easy. Richard knows well. Claude once did.

"It's hard on everything," Marcel said. "But it's a good trade. Claude would give us a hand in the summer to keep in shape."

A few minutes away, at J.T. Bradley's Country Convenience Store on Colonial Road, the hot-stove lounge gets hot every morning. The Bradleys have been in business 111 years and, over a coffee or two, they don't need to listen to Pierre McGuire to know what was going on the night before.

Store owner John Bradley is a good friend of the Bruins' Aaron Ward. Scott Walker, who levelled Ward with a punch in Game 5, need not ever think of getting served at Bradley's.

"There's a lot of Boston fans out here," Richard said. "And there's a lot of hockey talk at the store between 6 and 7."

Marcel never had a favourite team until his youngest son landed the job in Boston.

"It was always two or three teams ... plus the one Claude was playing for," says Marcel who calls a perfect night being at home alone watching the Bruins after a full day at the shop.

Julien, the senior, likes every Bruin.

But tough winger Milan Lucic is the first name he utters, followed closely by Orl?ans native Marc Savard, who he has met often. Zdeno Chara is another the elder Julien likes to converse with when he's around the team.

Plans -- a Boston win tonight would seem to be a foregone conclusion -- are for Marcel and Richard to get down to Boston, either in the conference final or the Stanley Cup final.

Marcel has been there during the regular season. Richard hasn't found the time.

In the next couple of weeks, they are going to make time.

"If we can get tickets," Marcel says.

dcampbell@thecitizen.canwest.com

Carolina 3, Boston 2

GAME SEVEN, STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS EAST SEMIFINALS
HURRICANES WIN SERIES 4-3

	1	2	3	OT	T
CAR	1	1	0	1	3
BOS	1	0	1	0	2

Final OT

8:00 PM ET, May 14, 2009, TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

Walker's OT score sends Hurricanes to Eastern Conference finals

BOSTON -- Scott Walker scored his first NHL playoff goal 18:46 into overtime to send the Carolina Hurricanes into the Eastern Conference finals with a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.

Byron Bitz gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 7:42 of the first period, and Carolina captain Rod Brind'Amour tied it six minutes later. Sergei Samsonov put the Hurricanes ahead 2-1 at 7:45 of the second period, but Milan Lucic tied it for the Bruins at 6:19 of the third.

Carolina will face the Pittsburgh Penguins, who beat the Washington Capitals in Game 7 of that series on Wednesday, in the East finals.

Walker scored his first goal in 25 career NHL playoff games on a rebound of a shot by Ray Whitney from the right circle. Tim Thomas made the save but couldn't recover in time to stop Walker from batting the puck out of the air and over him.

Walker had been fined $25,000 after punching defenseman Aaron Ward in the face with his right fist late in Boston's win in Game 5.

The Bruins said Walker should have been suspended for punching Ward, who hadn't taken off his gloves.

Carolina finished the regular season on a roll and captured the No. 6 seed in the East. The Hurricanes upset New Jersey in the first round by winning the last two games, including scoring the tying and winning goals in the final 80 seconds of Game 7.

Ward, the MVP of the 2006 playoffs when the Hurricanes hoisted the Stanley Cup, has won all six of his six playoff series -- the last four going seven games.

With the top-seeded Bruins eliminated, the three highest seeded teams in the East and two of the top three in the West are out of the playoffs. Only Detroit, seeded second in the West, moved on with a 4-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.

Boston was trying to accomplish what no other Bruins club has done -- win a series it trailed 3-1. They are now 0-21 in those series, with only two going seven games. The other came last year in the first round against the Montreal Canadiens.

Bitz, a rookie forward, gave Boston the first lead with his first playoff goal. Michael Ryder's shot from the left point hit the back wall and rebounded to the right of goalie Cam Ward. Bitz swopped in and scored into the empty side of the net to Ward's left.

Brind'Amour tied it exactly two minutes after a penalty to Boston's P.J. Axelsson, who was about to leave the box when the goal was scored. Dennis Seidenberg took a shot from 45 feet directly in front of Thomas and Brind'Amour deflected it in.

Samsonov, who spent nearly his first eight full seasons with Boston, scored from Thomas' right by redirecting a pass across the slot from Joni Pitkanen.

Then Lucic tied it when he skated behind the defense and into an open spot at the edge of the crease. Phil Kessel had the puck behind the net, skated out and passed to Lucic, who lifted it over Cam Ward.

Fast Facts



• The Bruins fell to 0-21 in series in which they trailed 3-1, the worst record of any NHL team.
• Five of Carolina's eight playoff wins have been by one goal.
• The Hurricanes improved to 1-5 this postseason in games in which Eric Staal did not have a point.
• The winner of the previous three playoff meetings between the Hurricanes and Devils, who Carolina played in the first round, have advanced to the Stanley Cup finals that year.
-- ESPN Stats & Information


Game notes
Carolina D Anton Babchuk was a healthy scratch after playing the first six games of the series. ... Bitz's first NHL game was against Carolina on Jan. 10. He had an assist. ... Boston's Stephane Yelle played in his 12th Game 7, most among active players. Patrick Roy and Scott Stevens hold the NHL record with 13.