Thoughts prior to Game 3...

I’ve felt throughout these playoffs that the Bruins are a team that is only as good as their opponent allows them to be. It’s not a team that will dazzle with offensive skill. They rely on solid, unspectacular defense and Thomas’ acrobatics in goal. This is a team whose power play for the most part has been designed around using arguably their best player (Chara) as a giant annoyance in front of the goalie. Their isn’t anything pretty about the Bruins style of play. If Thomas isn’t excellent, the Bruins have difficulty winning. Thus far in the Final, I feel as if the Bruins haven’t been particularly good or particularly bad. They’ve been only as good as the Canucks have allowed them to be. I still don’t think we have seen the Canucks best effort. For the most part, I thought they were fairly lifeless for most of Game 2. It was right off the face-off prior to their second goal that they suddenly came to life. Their power play hasn’t looked anything like it did against the Sharks, and their defensemen, particularly Bieksa, haven’t impressed me. I think we’ll see the Canucks best effort tonight in Game 3. For the Bruins to win, Thomas is going to have to steal this one.

Will the “biting” incident commentary ever cease? Milbury wouln’t shut up about it in Game 2. With Burrows scoring two goals, Lapierre taunting Bergeron with his glove, and Julien now jumping in to question the sportsmanship of the Canucks, it seems as if this is going to hang over the rest of the series. Personally, I cracked up when Laperierre offered Bergeron the chance to take a bite with a big smile on his face. One thing that has been on my mind recently is whether or not this disciplinary decision would have been different had Colin Campbell still been at the helm. I never like Campbell. I thought he did a terrible job establishing any sort of standard with his disciplinary decsisions, and I am thrilled that he is gone. The one good thing he did was step down before his son’s team started playing in the Final. In the past he recused himself when disciplinary decisions involved his son’s team. Big deal. To me, this is the equivalent of having a judge recuse himself from a criminal case involving his son and leaving his law clerk in charge. The people making the decision in Campbell’s office were still working for him! The appearance of impropriety was still there, and it never sat well with me. I think the league got this right. I’m just amazed people are giving Burrows such a hard time when it was Bergeron who shoved his fingers into Burrows’ mouth. Maybe someone will shove his fingers into Mike Milbury’ mouth so he’ll shut up about it already.

Game 3 should be great tonight. The Bruins will be desperate as they certainly want to avoid going down 0-3. We will see if they are capable of reaching another level. Thomas’ aggressiveness is still something to watch. He and his teammates are saying all the right things, but I wonder if he’s starting to question if he’s being too aggressive. I’m actually surprised that the Canucks haven’t been more vocal in their complaints. I thought for sure Thomas was going to get a penalty with approximately 11 minutes left in Game 2 when I watched him skate beyond the top of his crease, outside the blue paint, and directly into Daniel Sedin, sending him head over heels. If the refs are going to let Thomas get away with that, they’ll let him get away with anything. They need to be awfully careful about calling any goalie interference penalties on the Canucks as it appears that most of the interference is actually initiated by Thomas. I’ll take the Canucks to win 4-1 in their best offensive performance of the series.