Here we go! The start of a series that most people have been hoping for all season. We already discussed the different details of how the teams match up in the series preview so we wont bore you by going into it all again.

As glad as we are about this match up, there are some mixed emotions, mostly stemming from the fans/media.  We all know what happened last year. and it really doesn't need to be brought up or analyzed and more than it has, but expect to hear about it... a lot.  Even if the Bruins pull ahead in the series, there is going to be that asshole that say "Don't get too excited, they were ahead last year too".  There is no stopping it, but there are a few things that can be done to make it more bearable:

1. Set an over under and start betting on it.  Just make sure to set it high enough, probably between 100-200 per game.

2. Turn it into a drinking game.  This is something I'd caution against unless have a VERY strong liver or enjoy the finer points of alcohol poisoning.

3. Spend the whole series with your TV muted, the radio off, your computer off, and in a locked room with no windows (or some sort of cave) in a vain attempt to avoid hearing about it all together.

4. Promptly punch anyone in the face who brings it up, that'll teach the bastards.

One thing about this series that's going to make it more enjoyable than the Montreal though...far fewer online debates over who the "classier" team is.


After the jump, the roster, links, and video. Add a comment

Thanks to some heroics by Nathan Horton, the 2011 Boston Bruins "Redemption Tour" is continuing it's way through Filthadelphia.

We all remember what happened last year. No need to bring up the past. It's there. It happened. It'll be back in the players minds but more as fuel than a hinderance. We've been asked if we think there's any fear or trepidation facing the Flyers because of last year. Our response: No. 

We're looking forward to it.

We said back before the playoffs started that if the Bruins are to win the Cup this year it had to go through Montreal -- beating the Habs on the way to the Cup adds a little extra something sweet to the dish -- and it had to go through Philly -- to make up for that travestyfuck from last year.

This should be a good series. Two teams that play hard, hit hard and play gritty. A little bit more power and less finesse.

April 30 @ Philly 3:00
May 2 @ Philly 7:30
May 4 in Boston 7:00
May 6 in Boston 8:00
May 8 @ Philly (if needed) 3:00
May 10 in Boston (if needed) TBD
May 12 @ Philly (if needed)  TBD
Great schedule. Love that the games are every other day. Fuck you, Lady GaGa.


Not sure who made that graphic. Found it on Facebook. Brierre and Richards jokes never get old.

After the jump... more series preview stuff

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From the creators of the Habs 911 t-shirt presents:

We'll see how long this one lasts before the NHL shits its pants again.

Though there's a better chance this shirt survives the series. Philidelphia has a bit better sense of humor than Montreal, but we're pretty sure a corpse has a better sense of humor than the Habs organization.

Same deal as before. Swing by the Bottom Line Appearal store and order one of these shirts for $15. In the "Add special instructions" line type in YORR. We do get a little piece of the profts, so help fill our "Bloggers that want to move out of their mom's basement" fund by giving us credit.


Rob says he'll have the shirts by Tuesday so pre-orders should arrive by Weds by noon for those going to Game 3 in Boston.

Click here to order.
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* And by Internet we mean guest post on Puck Daddy and two podcast guest spots. Only off by like two.

If you haven't heard/seen, we eulogized the Montreal Canadiens for Puck Daddy today. The comment section is fantastic. Works like this (unsurprisingly): Bruins fans loved it; Habs fans hated it; Leafs fans were neutral but hated that PPP or Down Goes Brown didn't do it since it's their only connection to the playoffs. Everyone else just thinks we're sick bastards. Mission accomplished. 

Apparently people felt we needed to rag on the Bruins in the Canadiens eulogy. Totally missed the point. Also a lot of people think we're stuck in the past because of our punny blog name. And Bruins-Montreal isn't a rivalry. *sigh*

Favorite comment section exchanged (paraphrasing)...

Guy 1: "They kept reusing the flopping joke."
Guy 2: "I thought they were doing one joke per dive. they came up short." 

Well played, sir. Well played. 

We're toying with the idea of doing a "Best of the Eulogy Hatemail" but we're on the fence about it. Flyers start Saturday and we want to focus on the Filth. But we'll see....

We also did two podcast guest spots.

Justin (moi) was a guest on the Houses of the Hockey blog podcast. We talked about Ference 3:16, the Bruins deadline pick-ups and the upcoming Bruins/Flyers series. Give it a listen and make fun of my accent. Go ahead. Do it. 

Not to be outdone, Greg did a podcast for SportsofBoston.com/Rundown. More Bruins playoff talk, of course. Give it a listen and feel free to make fun of Greg for being Greg. Do it.

Both were a lot of fun and we hope to do it again.

More playoff stuff tomorrow. Add a comment

It's official: Ference has turned heel.

Ference 3:16 is due for a hearing later today for giving the Captain Planet Stunner to some fool.


Apparently, it may or may not be illegal to hold your ground while some dumbass kid skates into you. The guy's a second-line center and doesn't know how to skate. No wonder why Montreal lost.

Really, this would be like us walking into a traffic light because we're checking out some cute girl, get embaressed, and then sue the city. What a joke. 

Ference stood his ground and braced for impact. If you're seeing a head shot you're on crack. This isn't foil fencing. There's no "right of way" and if there was, we're pretty sure Ference had he was stationary and whatshisface was moving.

Mike Hurley via NESN:

The only thing you could say about Ference is that he did nothing to avoid contact and he "stuck" his shoulder out -- as much as you can stick a shoulder out, really, which is about an inch or two. What was his alternative? Lean away and get barreled over?


Habs fans will make it sound like Ference took out a sledgehammer and two-handed Halpern's head.

Don't be sad I kicked your ass, just be glad I didn't kill you.

 
Ference 3:16 says he just whooped your ass!  Add a comment

                                              


Drink it in ladies and gentlemen, it always goes down smooth.  Canadiens are done, and we have not stopped fistpumping since!  What a game it was, it's easy to say now, but I think a blowout might have been a little disappointing.  Two evenly matched teams, in Game 7 of the playoffs? How could it not go into over tiime!?! Fantastic series with an even more fantastic outcome.

Now we look ahead to a little retribution on a cetian team from Philly, but now we're going to take a moment to enjoy this win!

After the jump...we break it all down

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Holy shit. Another Game 7. Wouldn't be a Bruins postseason without one. Time for the Bs actually win one. This chat will either be a place of jubilee or an AA meeting by game's end. A win sends Boston to Philly to work out some more demons. Let's do it.

Links to live feeds

Pre-Game Essentials:

• Our Game 6 recap is worth it for the Patrice Purrgeron-Maurice Richard intermission interviews
• Game 7 preview
• Lucic is a go for Game 7
• WickedGoodSports: NHL Rulings - Coincidence or Conspiracy?
• Time to kill Game 7 demons

Time to Go! Add a comment

"If you want to be a hero, well just follow me" - John Lennon

If there's ever a need for help from the black and gold Gods who look down upon us, it's tonight. For the fourth straight year the Bruins are playing in a Game 7 in the NHL playoffs. Their record in those Game 7's? 0-3. A loss to Montreal in round one, and losses to Carolina and Philadelphia in round two. It's frightening, terrifying and awful all rolled into one. If you haven't read my Gridin Gears piece of Game 6's refereeing, go ahead and read it. I won't be commenting on it much here because I don't want to sound redundant. I also don't want to rile myself up any further than I already was.

This game means so much in the world of hockey it's amazing. The Bruins and the Canadiens are Original 6 franchises who have played each other 32 times in the playoffs. The Canadiens lead the all-time playoff series 24-8, but are just 1-1 against the Bruins in the past four years, which includes a Bruins sweep. Tonight, though, has nothing to do with the past. It has nothing to do with the Bruins 2-4 record against the Canadiens this season. It has nothing to do with Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5 or Game 6. It has nothing to do with the abortion known as the officiating last night.

Tonight has to do with two teams looking to extend their season. Both teams have extremely passionate fanbases that will be disappointed in a loss. Fanbases that has been at each others throats all season. Fanbases that have pulled radio media to turn on each other, for TV analysts to show their true colors and for a hockey game to become more than just a game, but a way of life. People in Montreal bleed the blu, blanc and rouge because of history and pride. They have their car flags, their Ole chant and they cheer when a red sweater falls (and boo when there's no call). People in Boston bleed black and yellow. They're drunks. They believe in aggressive, hard woking, blue collar type of hockey. Although these fanbases are completely different, they have one thing in common: Passion.

So tonight is anyone's game. If the Canadiens can continue their fast skating, diving style of hockey, they'll win. If they can coax officials into ghost penalties and stay on the power play, they'll win. If the Bruins can stay 5-on-5 and out hit the Canadiens, they'll win.

We're down to a one game elimination. The time to hold back is over. If Claude Julien wants to win this game and continue to keep his job, he'll need to coach with desperation. If Tomas Kaberle wants to remain a Boston Bruin, he'll need to play with desperation. If the Boston Bruins want to play in May, they'll need to play with a level of desperation we haven't witnessed since Game 3 of this series in Montreal. The Bruins have been the better team since Game 3 and are 3-1 because of it. Lets not forget, the only reason the Habs scored last night was because they were 5-on-3, twice. Without those power plays, it's a different story.

Boston won a lot of the one on one battles last night. but they couldn't finish. They had the chances but, again, they couldn't finish. They are also dreadful on the PP (0-4 last night, 0-19 on the series) and it's been their downfall, especially if they lose by a goal or two tonight.

I'm not going to do the usual stuff. I can't. Bruins need to focus on the task at hand and win this fucking game or heads are going to roll. Add a comment

That hockey game last night was a fucking sham and a mockery of hockey. It was a shamockery! What I witnessed last night was one of the worst officiated NHL games to ever grace the airways. I don't know what the hell happened in Montreal last night, but David Stern (NBA Commissioner for those who are unaware) had to have sent an e-mail to his boy Gary Bettman on how to fix games. I'm not one to attack the referees during a game because it's a hard job, especially in hockey. They miss offside calls, they miss penalties, they're human but last night was disgusting. I don't know where to begin. Oh wait, yes I do.

Let's start out with the goalie interference call on Carey Price at the end of the first period. I tried to find the video but there wasn't one floating around the internet, surprisingly. With the Bruins on a power play, Patrice Bergeron BRUSHES Carey Price who then hits the deck and Bergeron gets hauled away with goalie interference. Later in the game, the Habs are on a 2-on-1 and Scott Gomez absolutely demolishes Tim Thomas, but no call.

And this was the trend of the night. The Canadiens were getting away with a lot of shit (like Subban's cross check to the head of Chris Kelly and Mara's high stick on Rich Peverley) but the Bruins were called with such miniscule things. The biggest injustice of this miniscule refereeing? The phantom slashing call on Nathan Horton while Horton was on a break away. It's amazing if you think about it. There's no doubt in my mind that Horton would've buried that break away, but if you watch the replay Horton gets hooked then gets called for a slash. It's unbelievable! Here's the video:


There's no fucking slash there, unless I'm blind. That play happens a million times a game and suddenly that's a slash? That was the second time where the Bruins PP was negated because of a "penalty" on the Bruins. If someone can legitmatly point out where the "slash" was, I'll listen but to me that's a standard play that happens all the time.

Last point I want to touch on is the Lucic hit on Spacek. Here's the video:

 
Do I believe that Lucic deserved a penalty on his hit to Spacek? Absolutely. Give the guy two minutes in the box and move on. Now, Lucic was being taken to the box when the referee looked over and saw Spacek laid out like he was shoved into a stanchion. The referee then decides to give Lucic a 5 minute major and a game misconduct. Un-fucking-believable. Let's look at the NHL rulebook folks:

41.3 Major Penalty – The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a major penalty, based on the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, to a player guilty of boarding an opponent (see 41.5).

41.5 Game Misconduct Penalty - When a major penalty is imposed under this rule for a foul resulting in an injury to the face or head of an opponent, a game misconduct shall be imposed.

Here's the issue with rule 41.3, it allows the referee to use his discretion when assesing these penalties. Based on the hit from Lucic, that was not a five minute major for boarding, not even close. A lot of people are also saying it's because Spacek was cut on his forehead from the hit. I'm sorry, do you mean cut from his helmet? If Spacek isn't wearing that stupid visor, he doesn't get cut and Lucic doesn't get a major. Major aside, my issue is with the consistency of the NHL officials when it comes to those kind of hits. Mike Richard, Daniel Briere and Raffi Torres all had hits that were worse than what Lucic did and two of those on the wrong end of those hits missed a game or two - no calls and no suspensions. Lucic hits Spacek, who does his best Pacioretty impression, gets the major and Spacek barely misses a shift.

The officiating sucked, plain and simple. 

After the jump, more suckiness!

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This game was terrible in so many different ways. The refs set new lows. The Bruins powerplay set new lows. The Bruins were a better five on five team but there wasn't much five on five play. No idea how their powerplay coach still has a job, evening dating back to the regular season.

This game needs to already be behind you. And behind the Bruins. Hard to say considering how tough the loss was. But Game 7 is less than 24 hours away. It comes down to this again. The Bruins season has ended in Game 7's a lot in the past few seasons. We don't need to tell you that. Going to be an intense scene at the TD Garden Wednesday night.

Might want to call in sick for Thursday now. You're either going to be up until the early hours high fiving your friends and harassing Habs fans or drinking heavily and avoiding anything that has to do with Canada. Even though Canada hates Montreal.

Look the Habs won. Doesn't mean they're not cowardly diving bitches. What a disgrace to the game of hockey. But hey, the Bruins didn't do enough in this game to get by that. Doesn't matter how good or bad the refs are when the Bruins look like they couldn't score on a powerplay even if Roberto Luongo was in net.

After the jump.... Dive, dive, everywhere a dive, shitty powerplays and Purrgeron interviews a Montreal legend......

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