RALEIGH, N.C. - Sometimes things have a way of working out. You had your festive Celtics evening up there, where a good time was surely had by all. The Bruins had the good sense to come up with their certified stink bomb several hundred miles away from home.
I know, I know. They lost, 3-2, in OT. How bad could it have been? Truly, you had to see it to understand. Two of the small number of good plays made by anyone resulted in Boston goals. The game was otherwise dominated by the Hurricanes, who outshot them by a 2-1 margin in regulation (38-19), and who had to miss 8-10 open net opportunities. A final of 8-1 was not beyond the realm of possibility.
Game 3 was a bad deal from the start, as evidenced by my own notes.
First notation: "Early 2-1 rush . . . no good! - Claude making a face?"
This was in the first 20 seconds, and, yes, coach Claude Julien was making a persimmon face. He had seen something he did not like before the game was even 30 seconds old.
Second notation: "Corvo blast stopped @ :54 (scored first goal in Game 2)."
Third notation: "#36 good chance. - CH peppering TT!"
No. 36 is Jussi Jokinen. Do you believe in omens?
Fourth notation: "SOG feels like 0-10 - But it's only 2-3 (5:59)."
The shots on goal count pretty much told you all you needed to know. It was lopsided in Carolina's favor all night.
Fifth notation: "12:34! Big floppy save on #8. Swiped with glove before it cleared line! Too many stops!"
I think you get the point.
Julien didn't want his lads speaking to the media yesterday. That's OK, because the last thing anyone needs to hear are empty words. It sounds to me as if he decided he needed to go into a Bad Cop mode to get his team's attention. I think he would have been angry and concerned even if they had lucked into a victory Wednesday night. There is no way they could possibly defeat a Washington, Pittsburgh, Detroit, or Anaheim playing like that.
No one not briefed beforehand could possibly have believed the Boston Bruins were the highest-seeded team remaining in the playoffs. They won precious few of the much-discussed "one-on-one battles" hockey people love to reference, and they even had the distinction of coming up with the evening's single dumbest play, an absolutely foolish and needless attack on Carolina goalie Cam Ward by the normally level-headed Marc Savard.
There was no need for Savard to ram Ward in the back in the first place. But to do it, and thus negate a penalty (a pretty nasty Niclas Wallin hit on Stephane Yelle), was unforgivable. Savard does not ordinarily do idiotic things like this. Was losing his head like this symptomatic of some larger issue?
I mean, who knows? Are the Bruins feeling the burden of being the highest team left standing? Is some element of self-doubt creeping into their heads? They certainly have not been their regular-season or Montreal series selves these past two games.
The Hurricanes, by contrast, are spirited and energetic. They played a classic seven-game series with New Jersey to get here, winning Game 4 as late as any Stanley Cup game has ever been won (Jokinen's deflection with 0.2 seconds remaining) and coming from behind against mortal lock Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur by scoring two goals in the final 1:20 to win Game 7. They appear to feel charmed.
Now let's take a quick timeout. One thing that has nothing to do with the way this series will go is the crowd at the RBC Center. After reading and hearing about it, I say, now that I have experienced it, "What's the big deal?" It's a routine home crowd; nothing more, nothing less. I must say I'm a little surprised that management orchestrates an anti-referee chant. That's a bit out of line.
Time back in. With the Celtics and Bruins both involved in second-round series, and with them matching up head-to-head Wednesday night, tonight, Sunday, and, if necessary, next Tuesday and Thursday, it's interesting to note their different circumstances.
The defending champion Celtics should not be feeling pressure, because there isn't any. The loss of Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe (not to imply they're equals) means there no longer is any realistic chance of winning it again. They did need to subdue those pesky Bulls, and they did so. Now they can go out and just play, and whatever happens, happens. If there's any pressure in their series, it's on the Magic, who won 59 games and who need to beat the Celtics to validate their season. But they, too, have an excuse. They lost All-Star guard Jameer Nelson Feb. 2 to a shoulder injury. And they began this series without a fine rookie guard named Courtney Lee, who was injured when accidentally struck by Dwight Howard's elbow in the Philadelphia series.
Hey, how 'bout that Eddie House? He must be a good brooder, because he has the knack of bouncing back when things go a bit south for him. Consider his 2008 playoffs, when he was displaced in the postseason by Sam Cassell to the extent of accumulating nine DNPs, including Games 1 and 2 of the Finals against LA. But who came up big in the Game 4 comeback against the Lakers? Eddie House.
This year he was a miserable 9 for 30 in a paltry nine minutes a game in Games 1-6 against Chicago before bursting forth with that dazzling Game 7 in which he scored 16 points on 5-for-5 shooting in 22 minutes. And what can you say about his performance Wednesday, other than it was one of the great off-the-bench scoring outbursts in team history? Eddie's a pro's pro.
And that's what the Bruins need to be right now - professionals. Something is awry. Something is off-kilter. Something is out of whack. They must address it by 7:30 tonight, because they do not want to return home down, 3-1. They need this game and they must win this series, because, unlike the Celtics, there are no excuses.
The Celtics can lose now and people will understand that the Garnett and Powe thing finally caught up to them. The Bruins? Losing in the second round when you've racked up 116 points and now have home ice forever is just not an option.
