Scott Cordischi On Sports: Do Or Die For The B’s!
Friday, May 27, 2011
“You play 82 games and a lot of people say, what do you play 82 games for?” said Bruins coach Claude Julien. The answer is to have the home ice advantage for a game like tonight’s.
It’ll be a winner-take-all affair at the TD Garden tonight when the Boston Bruins host the Tampa Bay Lightning in game 7 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference Finals. The winner advances to the Stanley Cup Finals while the loser goes home.
Admit it Bruins fans, if this game were in Tampa Bay, you wouldn’t be feeling too good about Boston’s chances would you? But the game will not be played in Tampa. It will be played in Boston giving us much more hope that it will be our Bruins and not the Lightning boarding a plane for a trip to Vancouver.
Ironically, Boston and Tampa Bay finished with identical regular season records (46-25-11), but because the Bruins won the Northeast Division they were the #3 seed in the East while the Lightning, who finished second in the Southeast Division, were given the #5 seed.
There is no doubt that there will be mixed feelings amongst Bruins fans at the Garden tonight. There will be silent pessimism because of Boston’s 39-year Stanley Cup drought. The B’s inability to produce on the power play is also a major concern.
Conversely, B’s fans should be confident in knowing that this team has followed up a poor performance in the post season with a strong one. Will that be the case again tonight? Who knows.
Tim Thomas also did not have his best game two nights ago in Tampa so we should expect a better performance from him as well. And let’s also not forget that the B’s beat Montreal in a game 7 at the Garden in the opening round of these very same playoffs.
Buckle up! It should be a lot of fun!
-If you were wondering when the Red Sox offense would finally bust out, I think we have our answer.
-The Bruins beat Vancouver 3-1 in their only regular season match-up this year in case you were wondering.
-Carl Crawford, nice to finally see you!
-Dirk Nowitzki reminds me a bit of Larry Bird.
-In case you missed it this week, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said July 4th may be the latest date a new collective bargaining deal has to be in place to not affect the start of the 2011 NFL season.
-As much as we all seem to like Lance Armstrong, is anyone really surprised with the doping allegations surrounding him?
-Guard Dre Evans is the latest PC Friar leaving the men's basketball program.
-As of yesterday, the cheapest tickets you could find for the Stanley Cup Finals in Boston were between $400-$500 a piece for upper balcony seats behind the goal.
-Even though they are the odds-on favorites to win the NBA title, I refuse to root for the Miami Heat.
-There’s something about Guy Boucher that’s extremely annoying.
-And it has nothing to do with that scar on his face.
-It seems like the only way the Red Sox can lose right now is when their bullpen blows the game.
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