We still don't know what the hell happened. When the Bruins went down 4-1 we wanted to grab a box of kittens and punch each one in the face. (PURRGERON NOTE: I hope Jon loses both of his testicles for that comment)

The Bruins we had seen for the last month of the regular season and through much of this series could not, and according to their attitude on the ice, would not come back from this. Even when they made it 4-2, you just thought yeah great I saw this in Games 5 and 6 too. Too little too late guys. 

Then something happened. Maybe Toronto's incompetence out weighed Boston's earlier incompetence. Maybe the Bruins finally realized Reimer gives up rebounds like Justin gives out handies to dudes at steam punk festivals.

Maybe Julien finally realized he was being badly outcoached by a guy that was giving Colton Orr WAY too much ice time. Whatever happened, the Bruins finally found a spark. Everyone that was slumping on the team was suddenly unstoppable.

Bergeron finally showed up. Lucic finally showed up. Horton finally showed up. The defense finally showed up (much to Tuukka "I'M SUPER FUCKING AWESOME" Rask's delight). Something finally, FINALLY clicked and for ten unbelievable minutes we all saw the Bruins we were waiting for. 

And what happened, then? Well, in Boston they say... the Bruins small hearts grew three sizes that game. And then...the true meaning of the playoffs came through, and each Bruin found the strength of TEN Bruins... plus two!

Whatever happened, we're glad it did. And we're glad we were wrong. If any of you try to sit there and say you know the Bruins would pull it off after they went down 4-1 you're either a liar or the biggest homer ever. Not with the way they had been playing. Now we just have to hope they can keep that intensity against the Rangers. Whoever comes out of that series is going to beat up BAD.

Isn't it crazy how similar these pictures are? (Stick tap to Michael Hurley)

After the jump...AND WE DON'T MEAN OFF THE TOBIN!!!

Holy shitballs what a third period.

Part of us feels a little bad for these Leaf fans, mostly 'cause growing up in Boston we've totally been there. You're day will come one day, Toronto... maybe. But for now, here are some great pics/video fo stunned Maple Leaf fans and players. Enjoy.

Not sure if crying or taking a shit...

You can't see my tears if I wear sunglasses

Lost among the millions of pictures swirling the Internet this morning of Bruins fans celebrating and Leafs fans dejected is the news that the Bill Masterton Trophy nominees have been named. 

From Wikipedia:

The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. The winner is selected by a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association after each team nominates one player in competition. It is often awarded to a player who has come back from career– or even life-threatening illness or injury.

McQuaid underwent surgery in October for a blood clot found in his collar bone. 

As much as I want McQuaid to win this, I'm all for Josh Harding winning this award - who came back during the playoffs after a tough battle with MS. This is an award where whoever wins, all three nominations are well deserved. 

I honestly had no idea we'd be here right now. I had this series done, circled on the calendar as the final blow being last Friday because the Bruins were feeling it. I picked the Leafs in six, but after the first four games I thought there was no way that Toronto fights back. 

Then Game 5 happened...

Then Game 6 happened...

And here we sit. The Bruins fanbase (at least the ones on Twitter) are cutting each other's throats like it's Game of Thrones. One camp is overly positive and one camp is overly negative and the stragglers just don't give a shit. It's literally madness right now. 

So the Bruins will fly back this morning because of a plane malfunction and isn't that just a perfect image for how this series is gone? The team is flying high and then they land and can't get their motor going. 

I know that I'm pretty negative and it's basically becoming a staple of mine - but where is the positivity in this? Has anyone watched the team lately? Outside of Tuukka Rask, who is constantly showing up and performing? Even David Krejci has quieted down after he became "THE BEST IN THE WURRRRRRRRRRLD!!!!one11!!11". 

I wiwsh I could come here and give you guys from "rah-rah" speech that would fire you up and bring some positivity to this, but I can't. I just don't have the energy for what the Bruins do anymore. This is a trend - the Stanley Cup winning team isn't the norm, it's the exception to the rule. Look at the previous years: 

2009: The Bruins are the best team in the Eastern Conference with 119 points and sweep the Montreal Canadiens in the first round. Then Boston goes up against the Carolina Hurricanes and go down 3-1, battle back to tie the series up and lose in Game 7. 

2010: The 6th seeded Bruins beat the Sabres in 6 games and had a 3-0 lead on the Philadelphia Flyers. David Krejci went down with an injury in game 3 and never returned. Boston went on to lose the series in 7 games. 

2012: The 2nd seed Bruins take on the 7th seed Washington Capitals and lose in 7 games in the first round. 

You see, we're used to the Bruins pooping their pants in the playoffs. I'm sorry if that makes me a terrible fan or whatever, but I believe in being a realist. Claude Julien is being out coached by a guy who thinks Jake Gardiner shouldn't even be in the NHL. Randy fucking Carlyle. 

Little to no line changes, no in-game adjustments based on what Toronto is doing. Nothing. I think if Boston loses tonight, Claude is a goner. The sad thing is, it's not all his fault. Chiarelli signed a Stanley Cup winning team to a bunch of long term deals. When you have 90% of your roster locked up to long term deals (the "core", but in all honesty 16 players shouldn't be a core) they tend to pbhase out a coach who has been preaching the same thing for the past 5 years. 

Whenever the season ends, I think changes need to be made to this team dispite how far they make it into the playoffs. 

After the jump...the jump off of the bridge I mean....

Dammit Bruins.

What the HELL happened to you? What happened to the team with heart and desire? What happened to the team that gave their all? What happened to the team that gave EVERYTHING on the ice no matter what? Did that team get replaced during the lockout?

The Bruins have been absolutely DISGUSTING this series. If the Bruins had someone like Fleury instead of Rask they would've been making tee times days ago and Toronto would already be celebrating making it to the second round.

Toronto is a team that quite obviously wants it more. This isn't even up for debate. Boston should be playing like a team with nothing to lose. Instead they're playing like a team that just doesn't care.This isn't an issue that can be pinned on any one player. EVERYONE other than Rask should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

How embarrassing has this team been?

It's one thing to go all out and lose. No team wins 100% of the time. No team ever has. If you watch your team go balls to the wall and still lose, it sucks but at least you know they were trying.  This Bruins team looks like they just don't give a crap. They look like they WANT to be golfing.

Toronto is playing like they should: they're playing like they absolutely don't want their season to end and they'll do ANYTHING in their power to extend their season. The Bruins are playing like they shouldn't: they're playing like they DON'T want Toronto's season to end and they'll do absolutely anything to make sure Toronto advances.

The Bruins have played like a team that bought into their own hype. They have dominated the Leafs the past few seasons and went into the season playing like a team that expected their opposition to just roll over and die. They came out in Game 1 and DOMINATED again. Since then they've played like a team that didn't expect the Leafs to fight back and then had ZERO idea what to do when their opponent wouldn't just die for them.

Whatever. Done thinking about this tonight. The Leafs deserve this series. Don't care what you think about that statement. Bruins have played like zombies. The fact that our dear Bruins REFUSE to respond positively to any adversity or to Toronto's desire should really tell you all you need to know.

Showing up for the last five minutes of a game isn't even close to enough. Not even close.

And if the Bruins do win Game 7, are you really confident they could win again, playing like this, against a team better than Toronto? Not without a heart transplant.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAYS TO OUR MOMS AND ALL OUR READERS WHO ARE MOMS.

You would think that travel alone would have motivated the Bruins to not play today. One would have thought that winning on Friday and taking a weekend off to rest would have this team play their best on Game 5. One would think that you would want to close out your opponent as quickly as possible. 

And then you come to the realization that the Boston Bruins clearly don't care about any of that. 

What a disgraceful game we saw on Friday. It was so bad, Jon didn't write a recap because he was violently throwing up everywhere when trying to put words together to describe that abortion on ice. 

So Boston has given new life to the Toronto Maple Leafs by giving them another breath in this series. I'll go out on a limb and say that if Toronto wins today, this one is over. Boston has been horrible in back-to-back games this season and I believe that tomorrow would be no different. 

This is as must win as must win games come. You can't have a team on the edge of elimination and give them chances to come back, especially with a young team like Toronto who is hungry for a series win. Jesus Christ, winning a series in Toronto, after 9 years of nothing, is basically like winning a Stanley Cup for these people. 

And it's also embarrassing. When you're down 3-1, you are expected to finish your opponent - not let them hang around for games on end. It's like the 2004 Boston Bruins all over again and I don't think I can survive that. 

If Boston is going to win - they need their second line to show up. Brad Marchand has been a ghost this series. Marchand only has 13 shots on goal in 5 games, the least of the three forwards on that line. Seguin leads them with 24 SOG, Bergeron with 22. I would advocate dropping Marchand down to the third line and letting Jagr play with Seguin and Bergeron, but that could effectively kill whatever relevancy Rich Peverley has left in him. 

The only two people you can really count on showing up day in and day out are Tuukka Rask and David Krejci. 

Also if the Bruins don't win tonight, it's probably because they hate their mothers. 

Sons of bitches. 

After the jump the rest of the preview...

BOSTON LEADS SERIES 3-1

Tonight the Bruins have a chance to kill the Leafs' chance of advancing to the second round for good. Tonight, Boston takes a 3-1 series lead into their own arena, with their crowd behind them (although it's debatable is the Garden crowd is even there at times) and David Krejci riding a hot streak that can only be compared to solar flares. 

Boston needs to curbstomp Toronto and finish them. Heading back to Toronto for Game 6 should not be in the cards tomorrow morning. They need to come out there and they need to beat them up physically. They need to take it to Dion Phaneuf and let him do Dion Phaneuf things, like he did in Game 4. 

Tonight the Bruins need to decimate the Toronto Maple Leafs and make them wish they never made the playoffs. 

Sometimes I wonder how Toronto made the playoffs. I guess when you factor in that the Southeast Division is absolutely god awful and everyone outside of the Penguins in the Atlantic seemed to be like "Playoffs?! NOPE! NOPE! NOPE!" it was easy for Toronto to slide their way into 5th. James Reimer has been awful this playoff series, which has benefited Boston. 

(Thanks Dan Watkins)

How Reimer is even still playing in this series is beyond me, but I guess when Bemn Scrievens is your backup goaltender, there's not much else to go on. Reimer is the ice cream sprinkles on the Toronto Maple Leafs' shit sundae, really. The guy has Dion Phaneuf turning puck over in front of him. If you want to look at the reason Toronto is down 3-1 in this series, you need to only look at one thing: 

Turnovers.

(click the image [or this link] for higher res shot)

Look at that. The top four league leaders in giveaways are Toronto Maple Leafs defensemen. I felt the need to bold that statement because it's amazing that something like that even happens. They're atrocious. It's cute to watch people try and defend Phaneuf too. His stats alone, for being the Leafs "number one" defenseman, are comical. 

11 Giveaways vs 0 takeaways. 

If Boston continues to force Toronto the turn the puck over, the Bruins will win tonight. Bank on it. Write it down. Put it on the board. Scrape it into the wall or whatever else the children say these days. 

For those who don't know already - Matt Bartkowski has been called up from Providence last night. I'm not sure what that entails, if Boychuk is really injured after taking that shot off of his leg or is someone else is hurt. We will be updating our Facebook if we hear anything. 

Actually, here's an update from Fluto: 

Bartkowski taking rushes with McQuaid. Would likely go in if Redden, for whatever reason, is unavailable.

— Fluto Shinzawa (@GlobeFluto) May 10, 2013

So Redden isn't skating right now. Could be an injury or could be a little time off to rest his old bones - no one really knows. 

Since today is possibly the last game in the playoffs for the Maple Leafs, how many James van Reimsdyves to we see tonight? Over? Under? I'll start the line at 3. 

After the jump the rest of the preview...

Your Northeast Division Champs, the Montreal Canadiens, got bounced in the first round last night. Thanks, Ottawa. You did good this round. Feel free to do the same to the Pens in the next round, too, if that's who you get.

For those wondering, DOY isn't doing the Canadiens Eulogy this year. We're guessing a Senators blog is. We've been tapped to do another team, though, but you may/may not want to ever see it depending on how sadistic you are.

Season wrap-up presser for Montreal should be fun. DOY buddy @Camfan81 has a few ideas on what we might hear:

Johnny Boychuk was a man among boys last night, especially early in the second period where Boychuk blocked a shot and kept going, obviously in a lot of pain. He would later leave the game and return. 

Our German buddy, German B's fan put this together and it's too good to not share.

Man, fuck Lupul. 

If you missed it last night, let me paint the picture for you. The Bruins and Leafs are battling in a 3-3 tie with less than 7 minutes left in the third period. Toronto is firing puck on net right now and the Bruins are scrambling to get the puck out of their zone. They are finally able to get the puck up ice when Chara is called for a "high sticking" penalty. 

What? I figured it was a case of "2 minutes for Chara being tall", something we've come to expect watching Chara bang bodies around. But then you look at the .gif above and it's clear that Lupul embellished this call so bad that somewhere Michel Therrien was nodding his head and smiling in approval. 

Luckily the Bruins killed that penalty and Dion Phaneuf did Dion Phaneuf things to lead to a Bruins overtime victory. 

But seriously, shit like this needs to start being called - or at least fined after the fact. If you're going to call embellishment (as they did with Lucic in Game 3), make it consistent.