Boston has a chance to step on the throats on the New York Rangers today. They say that a playoff series is never a real series until the home team loses, but I hope that doesn't happen until Game 3. Boston was the better team during Game 1, especially in overtime. Hank can come out and complain about his offense all he wants - it's not like Boston lit the scoreboard either. 

If anything, Lundqvist should be mad at himself. That Krug goal was softer than a sneaker full of newborn baby shit. 

But hey, I'm not one to complain about "the best goalie in the world" being as sharp as a Playschool kitchen knife. Like I said in the Game 1 recap, if the Bruins can take advantage of Hank being off, then they're in the driver's seat. He'll steal games, especially against a team where Braden Holtby and James Reimer stole games against them. 

What really sucks about this whole thing is that it's a fucking matinee game. Fuck NBC and their love for afternoon hockey on the weekends. The good news is that the Bruins were actually good in afternoon games this year. In 9 games, Boston was 6-3, which is a complete turn around from their usual awful pre-6pm games. 

But now the real questions start like: 

• What Bruins team are we going to see? 
• Will they have the Game 1 hustle or the Toronto Game 2 hustle? 
• Where the hell is Tyler Seguin? 
• Will the Bruins have a Red Bull IV attached to Jaromir Jagr?
• Will the Young Guns be be able to show up in consecutive games?

It's the same thing - the Bruins still haven't shown the ability to play consecutive 60 minute games. In fact, its debatable they have played one 60 minute hockey game this entire post season. I know the "Miracle on Causeway St" was unreal, but they were also down 4-1 and were playing like absolute dog shit. 

I still think that Boston can take it. The Rangers aren't a very good hockey team, especially until Tortorella. They played timid in the first game, especially in the first period, like they were scared to give anything up. They never really attacked Boston, which is surprising because Boston's defense should have been easily exploitable given their youth. 

But if New York wants to worry about collapsing in the defensive zone and blocking shots instead of actually putting shots on Rask, you won't hear me complaining. While we're on the topic of Rask, he wasn't particularly sharp in Game 1 either - especially on Stepan's goal. 

But hey, you can't lean on your goalie in every game. Sometimes you need to actually need to do something for yourself, which was what the Bruins did on Wednesday night. 

After the jump, the rest of the preview...

So thanks to Dan Ryan for coming up with the idea of the "Overly-Attached Chara" meme, we decided to have a quick photoshop expo for our readers. The last time we did one, it was a huge success. So let's get to the memes, shall me? 

Here was the original picture:

(Note, there's a lot of images so if you have slow internet - you may want to welcome yourself to 2013). 

Thanks to everyone who sent in images. They were all pretty awesome. 

Oh dat Chara. 

Found at last minute I'm doing the recap and no PS at work so...YOLO

There were periods of that game last night where my have had to make sure I had a pulse because it was a snooze fest. This was what we were expecting in this series though because of the way these two teams play. Their style is so similar that it leads to a boring, shot blocking type of hockey game. Oh well. There's only one piece of advice I can give you: 

Seriously. Remember the Capitals series last year? It'll be relatively the same thing. Low scoring games that will more than likely go into overtime. Last night's game had 50 total blocked shots, 29 blocked by the Rangers and 21 blocked by the Bruins. It's just going to happen. With all of that said, the Bruins took game 1 home in overtime because Henrik Lundvist let in some of the softest goals I've ever seen him allow. 

It was bad for him, great for the rest of us. 

Seriously - Lundqvist was not sharp last night and the Bruins capitalized on it. Good teams do that. Good teams beat good goalies when they aren't sharp. We all know Lundqvist has the ability to steal hockey games and he probably will, which makes my point even more crucial. 

Then there were the Bruins' Young Guns who stepped up last night. 

After the jump, the rest of the recap...

If you're not familiar with Game of Thrones, well then shame on you. This is a play off of "Bear and the Maiden Fair" a popular song in Westeros. 

A bear there was, a bear, a bear!
All black and gold and covered in hair!
Three forwards, a goalie and a Chara bear!
They checked and scored, right to the fair!

Oh sweet he was, and pure, and fair!
Rick Nash with honey up in his hair!
Chara smelled him on the summer air!
Rick Nash with honey up in his hair!

From there, to here. From here! To there!
All black and gold and covered in hair!
He smelled Henry on the summer air!
The bear! The bear!
The Rangers fair!

Oh, I'm Marc Staal, I'm pure and fair!
I'll never see that Krejci bear!
I called a knight, but you're a bear!
All black and gold and covered in hair!

Lucic hit him high in the air!
He sniffed and roared and smashed him there!
Boyle kicked and wailed, the Rag so fair!
Lucic bashed him hard and left him there!

From there, to here. From here! To there!
All black and gold and covered in hair!
He smelled Henry on the summer air!
The bear! The bear!
The Rangers fair!

And the bear, the bear!
The Rangers fair!
And the bear, the bear!

Hagelin sighed and squealed and kicked the air!
The Garden sang: My bear! My bear so fair!
And they celebrated Game 1 in the summer air
The bear, the bear,
Beat the Rangers fair!

From there, to here. From here! To there!
All black and gold and covered in hair!
He smelled Henry on the summer air!
The bear! The bear!
The Rangers fair!

And the bear, the bear!
The Rangers fair!
And the bear, the bear!

After the jump, the rest of the preview...

The Bruins, literally, escaped the first round by the skin of their teeth. We already know the amazing story of how it happened. We wrote a recap about it and Patrice Purrgeron wrote an amazing story called "How The Bruins Stole Game Seven". If you haven't checked out Purrgeron's story yet, you're a fool and you need to remedy that immediately. 

So with the second round upon us, I figured I would give you a quick look at the New York Rangers and which bloggers to annoy during the series. So let's go! 

The New York Rangers

After the jump we take a look at the Rangers and give our predictions...

Every Bruins fan down in Boston Liked the Playoffs a lot... 

But the Players, Who lived just North of Boston, apparently Did NOT! 

The Players hated the Playoffs! The whole Playoff season! Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be that their heads weren’t in the game quite right. It could be, perhaps, that their skates were too tight. But we think that the most likely reason of all may have been that their hearts were two sizes too small. 

But, whatever the reason, their hearts or their skates, they stood there on Game Seven, being incredibly lazy with their play, staring down from their bear cave with a sour, un-Bruiny frown at the warm lighted smiles just one bench down. For they knew every Leaf down in Leafville beneath was busy now, hanging a “First Round Victory” wreath. 

"Toronto’s been much better at hockey!" they snarled with a sneer. "Game Seven is done in just ten minutes! Our end is practically here!" they growled, with their bear fingers nervously drumming, "We MUST find a way to keep golf season from coming!"

For, in ten minutes, they knew all the Leafs down in Leafville, the girls and boys, would turn Toronto into a zoo. They’d rush for Maple Leaf second round toys! And then… all the Twitter noise! Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise! That's one thing they hated! The Twitter NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! NOISE as the Boston media and fans over reacted.

The NHL announced their three finalists for the Frank J. Selke Trophy today. The nominees are Pavel Datsyuk, Jonathan Toews and current Selke award winner Patrice Bergeron. 

The Frank J. Selke Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League forward who demonstrates the most skill in the defensive component of the game. The winner is selected by a poll of theProfessional Hockey Writers' Association following the regular season

Remember when Bergeron never got nominated for this despite being one of the best two way centers in the NHL? 

We haven't done a photoshop expo in a long, long time. The most successful Photoshop expo was our "What Is Guy Boucher Holding" expo, so let's try to top that. Thanks to Dan Ryan from SCoC. So this is what we want you to do. 

Use the picture below:

You can click the picture for an even larger image to work off of. If you have ever seen the Overly-Attached Girlfriend memes, we're going on that kind of theme. Here are a couple that Dan himself made: 

But they can be about anything, honestly. Email them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . We will do a post after Game 1 (so Friday morning) and show off the best ones. DOY Staff will vote on their favorite and we will see what we have to give away. 

Stole this from NYRangersblog. I'm sure he won't mind if we do a little copy/paste. 

As you can see, Boston gets 2 days off between Games 1 and 2 and then 2 days off between Games 2 and 3. That could benefit a team that is tired and could be without their top two defensemen. Also, if you're wondering - there will be NO games on NESN. 

Game 1: NBCSN, RDS, TSN
Game 2: NBC, RDS, TSN
Game 3: NBCSN, RDS, TSN
Game 4: CNBC, RDS, TSN

Tomorrow we will have our "Know Your Enemy - Rangers" breakdown. If you haven't read our recap yet - go do it. 
 

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!!!