This recap is going to suck. We're telling you right now. We still can't even put enough words together for what happened last night.

That one hurt. Again.

It was one of those games where you felt like the Bruins beat themselves rather than the Canucks beating the Bruins. For 98% of the game Thomas was a beast again. Then on Vancouver's first goal, he probably should've saved that. No big deal we said.

In the second period, the Bruins finally scored after a more than four period drought. Lucic finally got on the board. Then Recchi scored on the powerplay. Seriously. On the powerplay. We didn't make that up.

The Bruins had some swagger, some confidence. Then the third period came. Boston went into their patented, bowel loosening prevent defense. A HUGE mistake against Vancouver. The Canucks were pressing. A stellar Tim Thomas and, to be honest, a lot of luck kept the Bruins slim lead. But the way the Canucks were playing and with the mental mistakes the Bruins were making... you know it was only a matter of time.

Then the Bruins had the bright idea of leaving Daniel Sedin all alone by the side of the net. Tie game. Then the third ended. Overtime.

We were confident. The Bruins have excelled in overtime during these playoffs.

About ten seconds in we were baffled and horrified watching Tim Thomas leap after Alex Burrows. There was no reason for Thomas to do this. Chara was on Burrows. If Thomas had just stayed in his net....


We told ourselves it was okay. Chara would use his size and strength to send Burrows to the ice. Even if he had to take a penalty it was worth it. Chara would cover for Thomas' epic mistake....


And just like that, the game was over. A play that has kind of defined how the Bruins have dug themselves a giant hole in the Finals. Before we even settled in the game was over.

Everyone around you probably sat there in silence, utter disbelief as to why any of that happened. What the hell was Thomas thinking? What the hell was Chara thinking? You didn't want to watch the replays but you did. There had to be something you didn't see, right? But there wasn't. As much as Thomas is the biggest reason the Bruins are where they are, he gift wrapped that goal for Burrows. And then Chara gave him some cake.

A lot of people are angry, saying Burrows shouldn't have even been playing. Whatever. Just excuses. Once again the Bruins could have had a win, could have struck a blow against the mighty Canucks and gave it away.

Bottom line... the Bruins let the Canucks off the hook. Again. Unforced turnovers directly to blue jerseys. Defensive breakdowns. Types of mistakes you absolutely 100% cannot make against a team like the Canucks. Now the Bruins have to win four of the next five.

We're not going to pretend or lie here. Things look grim. But this series isn't over. Anything can happen. We just have to continue to believe.  Add a comment

It has been a long, long three days. Every Bruins fan woke up Saturday hoping it was 8pm.

As well as the Bruins played Wednesday night, they missed a golden opportunity. Tim Thomas played out of his mind. The defense was great for 59 minutes. If the Bruins had come into Vancouver and stolen Game One, that would have been a HUGE mental advantage for Boston.

Instead, their powerplay failed them again, even during a long five on three, and the Bruins decided shooting from long distance was the bees knees. Not exactly a recipe for success.

Vancouver fans and media on both sides are threw a lot of stats at you after Boston's loss. The odds and history, according to these people, say the Bruins have a roughly 20% chance of winning this series. We're not buying that.

Vancouver is by far the best team the Bruins have faced these playoffs. Boston has scored just one goal in their last six periods of play. But these Bruins are resilient. They have shown a great capacity to bounce back from a loss, even devestating losses. If we listend to history and statistics there would be no reason to even play the games. Just hand the Canucks the Cup, right?

These Bruins won't. They'll come out on fire tonight. They'll be like hungry bears coming out of hibernation. They didn't come this far to just roll over.


After the jump.... we don't need to explain to you how important this game is....

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While our Sedin Gnome ad is causing a ruckus up in Vancouver, Canucks fans failed to see the gnome rebellion happening right before their eyes.


He's perfect for neutralizing the Sedin Wonder Twins ginger gnome magic.

He's got the crazy eyes, man. If we were Henrietta or Danielle Sedin we'd watch our backs. Just sayin'.

Props to@ bodichecker for sending us the link. Bruins gnome statue from FansEdge.com. Add a comment

No suspension for Hungry, Hungry Alex Burrows. This isn't a surprise. We didn't think Burrows would get suspended in the Stanley Cup Finals.

But the reasoning was downright retarded.

"After reviewing the incident, including speaking with the on-ice officials, I can find no conclusive evidence that Alex Burrows intentionally bit the finger of Patrice Bergeron." 

What they mean is "It's the Stanley Cup Finals and we don't want to suspend anyone if we can help it. We want the Cup to be won on the ice."

Which is understandable. That's why we're not surprised Burrows got a free pass. But we would've like the league to have come out and just said that. Oh and also -- HE BIT A GUY! Is Burrows teething still?


In the regular season Burrows gets a game or two. Stanley Cup Finals? Not so much.

It's a douchy move. How many scrums and face washes happen every game? You see one or two bites a year. Dumb. Grow a pair, Burrows.


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Our buddy Dani over at Benched Whale blogs about the Vancouver Canucks. She interviewed us for her blog, so we figure we'd return the favor. If you're looking for a Canucks fan/blogger to follow and read, Dani's a great start. She also roots for the Lightning, so she was one game away from having a huge bi-polar Stanley Cup.

Here are her views of the Stanley Cup Final. Note: Interview was done before Game 1. Not sure if that matters or not.


DOY: What's been the Canucks strength in this post-season run?

BW: Some of the players, er, Kesler, has been able to come up big for the team when the Sedins were being shut down. If Kesler hadn't decided to win the Nashville series himself, we wouldn't be in this SCF today. And if you look at the final win over San Jose, Luongo came up huge for the team keeping them in the game even though he faced over 50 shots. So having players step up their game when the team needs a win has been the biggest strength for the team.

DOY: Who on the Bruins scare you the most in regards to the Canucks facing Boston?

BW: The monster on your blue line. I think it's accepted that Chara will put a strangle on the Sedins' offense but his size and potential to injure a player freaks me out.

DOY: How would you describe the Canucks playoff run so far? It looks like they've gotten a little more solid with each round.

BW: The Canucks have had quite the storylines in their playoff run so far. They had a Game 7 OT win over their nemesis, the Blackhawks, a Luongo benching, Ehrhoff and Rome going out with injury, and players scoring on one leg to tie up games and send it to overtime. Basically, it's been magical

DOY: Obviously the Canucks have a lot of offensive threats -- has anyone surprised you with how they're playing (either good or bad)?

BW: I've been surprised at Maxim Lapierre. When Gillis acquired him through trade at the deadline, my first thought was to his play during his time for Montreal where he was a yappy penalty taking machine. He is still yappy, but he's not talking many penalties and has been great in the faceoff circle. He's not as good as Manny was in faceoffs, but he's been doing a great job so far.

DOY: On CBC Vancouver we were asked if we thought Habs and Leafs fans should root for Boston because "Boston's more like a blue collar Canadian city than Vancouver." It caught us (Justin) off guard so much that he accidentally called Canada ugly. Other than Justin not being allowed in the country anymore is this really an "issue" up north? We just figured the Habs fans have slit their wrists after seeing the match-up and Leaf fans are so nose deep in a sand trap they don't even know what's going on anymore.

BW: I don't really care who the rest of Canada cheers for, neither do I think they need to cheer for Vancouver just because we are a Canadian team. It's like when Calgary was in the cup final, I was not going to cheer for them just because they are Canadian. So if they want to pick a team to cheer for that's great for them, but I don't care either way who they want to win.

DOY: Vancouver is a pretty big favorite in this series but some VAN writers look like they're already making excuses for when the Bruins win the Cup. Are VAN fans this nervous or are the team writers just as crazy as some of our Boston scribes?

BW: No, Vancouver fans are not nervous for the first time in these playoffs. I think there was way more uncertainty going into the 1st round then there is right now. Even though Vancouver is the favorite, I think we also realize that Boston is a good team and its not going to necessarily be an easy win.

DOY: Biggest key to either team's victory will be....?

BW: Goaltending but maybe that's just an easy answer and I expect that the goaltending should be at at least adequate. So if the goaltending remains at least average, the key for both teams will be to stay focused on their system and just try to outwork the other team. Vancouver will look to roll their lines off offense and try to capitalize on the powerplay and the Bruins will need to stick with their system of defense first, physical play.

DOY: Series prediction. We're assuming you're going with Vancouver

BW: It's been a long time coming for Canucks fans, and since the confidence is high, I'll predict that the Canucks win in six. Thomas will be able to steal two games by himself, but the Canucks are the better team coming into this and I think that will help them in a longer series. 


Thanks again to Dani!  Add a comment

When the Canucks scored last night, my wife took the usual position of SWAT gear and riot shield ready for the black and gold tornado that was about to tear through our living room. To her surprise, when the game ended, I looked at her and said "its bed time" and didn't throw my usual 28 year old temper tantrum. I don't know why this happened because when Boston played Tampa, our living room was at Defcon 4. It could be that the Bruins played so well last night that having a goal scored in the final 30 seconds didn't really surprise me.

Many people were expecting the Bruins to get their doors blown off in Game 1. We've heard it all...Ryan Kesler is amazing, the Sedin twins are the best thing to skate on frozen water, Roberto Luongo is so good the Vezina Trophy is being renamed "The Lou". People were predicting outrageous scores. I saw 6-2 Canucks, 5-1 Canucks, 7-0 Canucks. It's amazing to me that people who are "supposed to know hockey" don't really know the game at all.

Boston is a defensive minded team and last night they showed why. They played their best defensive game of the playoffs last night despite the refs making terrible calls on both sides. Wait a minute, you mean that I'm saying the refs were bad to the Canucks too? Yeah I am. It's obvious that they tried to control the game, but the Bruins penalty kill stood up to the task and killed off every penalty they faced.

In fact, the Bruins penalty kill and defense was so good that the Canucks couldn't get a shot off in the first 12 minutes of the second period. Sure, the Bruins got lucky on a few shots (the shot that rang off the left post comes to mind) but the Canucks were just as lucky. I reviewed my DVR during lunch and Kesler was offsides, but why bitch about it now? We can't go back in time and make the correct call.

Both teams played very well. Tim Thomas was electric in net last night for Boston. Right from the drop of the puck Vancouver tested Thomas with a flurry of shots and Timmy stood up to every one of them. He stopped rebounds, breakaways, one-timers...all except for one because his team left him out to dry. That's really what the game winning goal came down to. It came down to (another) bad move by Boychuk and an ill advised line change that left Thomas alone with two Vancouver players. 99% of goalies won't make that save, it just won't happen.

So the recap is pretty short but that's because there isn't much that needed to be said. The game was so close that either team could have pulled it off in the last minute. I guess we'll have to wait until Game 2 to see how this plays out.

Wait a minute...
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Game starts at 8, we'll get the ball rolling in chat around 7:30.  Bruins have a near perfect record when we host these things, so we're hoping to keep it up!


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Thanks to Jaye for sending us this screen shot of the story on our Sedin gnome photoshop.

Here's that infamous story we talked about for the Van Prov. Looks like they did a bigger story for the paper than online.


Page A3 and in color. Not bad for four guys and a cat in their mom's basement. Also that's a lot of print space to use to call us "childish" and "lame." Haha

Best part is the pullquote:

"We have our green guys, they can have their gnomes. Ours are better. We have original stuff."

Yes... original stuff like the Green Men.


Oops. Oh well... nice try, Vancouver. Thanks for the publicity.

The Bear > Green Men

Can't wait to get an actual copy of this. It's getting framed.

 
Go Bruins!  Add a comment

Earlier we posted some of our own Bruins Hockey Rule ads. Apparently our Sedin Twins are Gnomes is causing a bit if a ruckus up north. So much so that the Vancouver Province wrote a story on it and a local VAN radio station wants to interview us about it tomorrow morning.

Seriously, of all the things this blog has said, done and photoshopped that's probably the most mild "insult" we've thrown out there.

In related news, we've got word that there's a new Bear commercial coming out (no idea when) but it'll probably be like similar to the last one with the Bear and the spray paint. Can't wait.

All this brings us to the point of this post. We were approached by reps of Reebok yesterday afternoon. They're going to give us a couple of shirts to use as a give-a-way.


We've decided that a "Create your own Bruins Hockey Rules" ad would be a good way to give a way these shirts. We'll let winner decide which shirt they want but we're assuming they'll probably want the Eastern Champ shirt.

Contest is pretty self explanatory. Make a Bruins Hockey Rule ad poking fun of the city of Vancouver, the Canucks, the Green Men, etc. You can do video if you want but photoshop ad is easier. Do what compels you.

Winners will be picked by the DOY crew over a case of beer. 

Contest ends on FRIDAY JUNE 3rd at 5pm ET. We want people to get these shirts in time for Game 3 and 4 if they're going.

Email submissions (JPG/PNG or link to video) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject "Bruins Hockey Rules contest."

To make life easier we've created two blank templates you can use. The font we use for these is Adelon but use whatever you want. If you want credit for the image put your name/twitter/email in the picture somewhere. If we get a ton of submissions giving credit to everyone will be a huge pain, so just do it yourself. 

We'll do a post announcing the winners this weekend.

Click the images for high res version.





Have at thee! Remember: Deadline is this Friday, June 3rd at 5pm ET. You have 2.5 days. Kick ass!

Go Bruins!
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Whats this?!? A Bruins game in June?? Usually by this point we have that year's NHL booted up on our Xboxes, tearfully recreating the season that could have been.  Now, we're gleefully playing NHL11, finding new ways to check the Canucks into the boards and trying to injure the Sedins with Chara's slapshot, all the while leaving Thomas out to dry with our pitiful defense.

Speaking of the Sedins, who's ready to hear the T word 1,000 times over this series?!? Yeah the idea of two dudes who shared a womb playing on the same team is kinda cool, but the novelty wore of a while ago...kinda like the novelty of Green Man.

After the jump, the rest of the preview Add a comment