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Rask silences Rangers, critics with series win

May 26, 2013, 3:50 AM ET [109 Comments]
Ty Anderson
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The stats were staring Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins in the face. Failing to send the New York Rangers packing at Madison Square Garden in Game 4, the sky was once again falling in the Hub. Rask, the epicenter of the Bruins’ second round choke against the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 and holding a 2-8 record and .890 save-percentage in his career in ‘closeout situations’, was once again facing questions about club’s inability to be among the league’s elite closers.

The second round criticisms -- outdated or not -- weren’t going anywhere.

Another loss and panic would (once again) ensue in the Hub. But as the Bruins and Rangers took to the TD Garden ice for today’s pivotal Game 5 showdown, the Bruins did anything but back down.

Unlike in year’s past, the Bruins stared the critiques of their style right back in the face, laughed, and did what they’ve done all series long -- they played their brand of hockey.

Put in an early hole when a soft call victimized David Krejci and paved the way for a Dan Girardi power-play blast (his second goal of the postseason), an ability to survive the helter-skelter opening frame proved to be more than pivotal for Claude Julien’s squad.

Sticking to their stay the course approach and early period pressure on the Blueshirts, the Bruins’ ability to use their speed advantage over New York continued and ultimately led to the club’s first power-play opportunity of the night when Mats Zuccarello was forced to prevent a scoring chance for the Black-and-Gold with a hook on the ever improving Tyler Seguin.

Throwing an advantage that went 2-for-4 in Game 4, and scored their third goal of the night a mere just seconds after their man-advantage expired back out there, the breakout for the 22-year-old Torey Krug continued when the undersized blue-liner jumped on a great dish from Seguin to blast his fourth goal of the postseason by Lundqvist, knotting the B’s and Rangers up at 1-1.

Tying him for the league lead for goals by a defensemen with Johnny Boychuk and the Kings’ Slava Voynov, it just another day in the life of the 5-foot-9 blue-liner’s Eastern Conference Semifinal series, a series that included four goals and five points in just five games.

“There’s no doubt he was magic for us in this series,” said Julien. “To score that many goals and show the confidence that he showed playing in this series is pretty outstanding. He’s shown what he’s all about. We said ice in his veins and that’s what he’s got.”

Warming up the vocals of 17,565 screaming locals as chants of ‘Lund-qvist’ came from the highest points of the building’s seventh level on down to ice-level, the momentum was undoubtedly coming from the Boston bench and at the Rangers’ embattled goaltender with each rush.

Following a shift that included an absurd five shots thrown the 31-year-old Lundqvist’s line from the Krejci line (including a Krejci tip that went just wide), it was clear that they were looking for the all important next goal.

But they certainly didn’t expect it to be as easy as it was.

The beneficiary of two New York turnovers from Roman Hamrlik right to the stick of Danny Paille, Paille’s ability to burst to the net with speed with Shawn Thornton did everything necessary and more for Gregory Campbell to glide towards the net and bang a loose puck home for his second goal of the playoffs, putting the B’s up 2-1. For a fourth line that struck for its third goal of the series, with the Rangers’ inability to contain all four of the Bruins’ lines proving costly, the Paille-Campbell-Thornton burned a frustrated King Henrik once again, this time putting the Black-and-Gold in the driver’s seat of an elimination game on home ice.

“We’re a team that counts on everybody and just because they’re our fourth line doesn’t mean that they can’t produce,” B’s winger Milan Lucic told reporters following the game. “They’ve shown that they’re an important part of this hockey club. I think they definitely stepped the most in this series so they deserve a lot of credit.”

Skating to the room with a 2-1 edge and just 20 minutes away from their second Conference Final in three years, the Rangers’ final hurrah came with a Ryan Callahan breakaway attempted stoned by the 26-year-old Rask, a much needed exclamation point on a series for a Boston netminder that’s failed to receive the credit he undeniably deserves despite outdueling a player widely regarded as the best in the world through an easy-looking five-game series.

Sealing the deal with perhaps the most determined looking empty net goal you’ll ever see, Campbell’s second of the night did the trick, as a sellout crowd rejoiced, threw their yellow towels on the ice with glee, and cheered as the Bruins’ ability to bounce the Blueshirts in five games put the buzzwords of chokers, closers, and collapses back on the shelf -- for now.

Give it a rest: Rask, Bruins stepped up with opponent on ropes

In 2010, the Bruins let their second round series slip four times in a row, ultimately falling to the Flyers in seven games. In the first round this year, they let a 3-1 series edge over the Toronto Maple Leafs become a 3-3 series, and escaped first round elimination with an unprecedented, historic comeback capped by Patrice Bergeron’s overtime tally. And yes, the Bruins failed to eliminate the Rangers in four games despite the stranglehold they had on this series, but it’s time to can the ‘they can’t close teams out’ chatter. I mean, for the love of God, this series is over if Rask doesn’t fall on an invisible banana peel late in the second period of Game 4’s loss.

The Bruins, despite a perceived advantage for the Blueshirts in the cage, were much, much better than the Rangers in this series. They gave Game 4 away, absolutely, but their response in Game 5 was the true measure of what this team’s all about. Like many of the doubters out there, I assumed that this was going to be a B’s squad that disappointed their fans once again this spring, but their newfound heart and cohesion as a complete, 20-man unit has been something marvel at.

Even if it’s taken a few rounds of postseason play to get to this point.

“You build momentum but also with a little bit of luck your team is fresh. You have momentum and some other teams move into the next round and then they are banged up more than they were the round before,” Julien noted of a playoff club’s chemistry during deep playoff runs, and the Bruins in particular. “There are a lot of things that happen the further you go into the playoffs. Right now we have been fortunate enough with the injuries that we have had players come in and do a real good job where nothing has changed from our team and hopefully that continues.”

With goals from all but three of their forwards and two defensemen, the Bruins’ ability to soldier on into their second trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in three years has been predicated on the philosophy they put into action two summers ago: A 60-minute team effort.

“Looking back to Game 7 with eight minutes to go, it’s really hard to predict we’d be in this position now,” said center Gregory Campbell. “But with the character we have on this team and the experience and the leadership, I think we’re very deserving of being here. We’ve had some ups and downs throughout the year, and we’ve handled it well and really worked hard to get to this position.”

Through the ups and downs of postseason play, one of the few constants has been the exceptional high level of play put forth by the Bruins’ ace in net, Tuukka Rask. Despite premature labels that depicted the Finnish goaltender as somebody simply incapable of winning meaningful hockey games, Rask has been everything you wanted and more out of a playoff goaltender in 2013, with monstrous stops, as shown by tonight’s lead-saving breakaway stop on Callahan early in the third period of play.

“My heart stopped for a second, but, no, we have Tuukka back there and he loves to play in pressure situations. He made a great save,” B’s defensemen Dennis Seidenberg said when asked about Rask’s huge save in the third period. “Again, it’s great to have him back there. He just spreads a certain amount of calmness back there, or confidence. It just helps everybody on the ice.”

Rask? Numerous big stops and a .940 even-strength save-percentage through two rounds?

Count it.

In fact, it seems that everybody but those of us inside of Boston have noticed the Bruins’ ability to bear down and implement a style of play that’s not effective, but downright dangerous to go against this time of year.

“I think Claude [Julien] and that staff has done a heck of a job with their club. I can’t believe some of the people, how they second-guess him, just being in the city for a few days, and the type of job he’s done here,” New York head coach John Tortorella said. “That’s a good team. They’re very well-coached, and they’re seasoned. They’ve been through it before, and I give them a lot of credit, as far as what they’ve done with their club. They’re a good hockey team.”

Julien? Another series win and league recognition as one of the game’s better coaches?

Count it.

Game, rational thinking hockey people.

Abbreviated season led to identity crisis for Torts’ squad

As a lockout wiped a 2012-13 campaign down to a 48-game sprint opposed to the normal 82-game grind, training camps and chances for teams to ‘gel’ were shortened or just thrown off entirely, setting the stage for what would be a whacky year in the National Hockey League.

Yet, while all teams had to face the challenges that came with an abridged season, some were obviously hampered more than others by the year’s lack of ‘team bonding’ moments, and perhaps nobody epitomized that more than the 2013 New York Rangers. Projected by most to an absolute juggernaut given the acquisition of Rick Nash, the Rangers struggled out of the gate, and as inconsistencies plagued John Tortorella’s squad, trades came as a means to shake up what looked to be a stagnant Blueshirts lineup. And in the end, it simply wasn’t enough. The pieces didn’t fit into the puzzle, and the Rangers simply ran out of time. For New York, there’s just no other way to say it.

“I think [our training camp]’s a rigorous training camp, and I think we spend a lot of time building a mindset within it. We didn’t have that, but no other team had it either,” said Tortorella. “Other teams have thoughts on how they run their camp too, and they didn’t have it. It’s not an excuse, I just think we need to build in, in some spots, and I think we’ll be able to get to the identity we want to get to.

“This season, we struggled to really get our personality, just to get our identity,” the Rangers’ hot-headed coach admitted following the loss. “I think it helped when we made those deals (trading for forward Ryane Clowe and packaging Marian Gaborik to Columbus for a trio of skaters) at the deadline. I just don’t think we’re stiff enough. I just don’t think we are.”

One of the greater problems for New York this series (and this season for that matter) really appeared to come in the forward department, as struggles for 2011-12 success stories such as Carl Hagelin, Chris Kreider, and the $12 million man Brad Richards forced certain players (such as a Zuccarello and even to a lesser extent bottom-six forwards Brian Boyle and Taylor Pyatt) to play roles that were simply above their heads.

“I expected more from us, and I hoped for more. But the way the season went, I talked about it earlier: last year a lot of things went our way, and we had a lot of confidence. This year, we had to work through a lot of things to get going, and it came down to the last few games,” Rangers’ goaltender Henrik Lundqvist said. “It was a different season, a different approach. It was just a different feeling the way that this season went. This year, like I said, we had to work a little harder to get the results. Again, I think it’s really important that we have a pretty young team, and that we learn from this. Boston came out flying the first few games, and it was a combination of them playing really well, and us not reaching our top level that you need to beat them.”

Obviously, additional problems came for an already thinning New York squad when Marc Staal (vision) and Clowe were sidelined throughout the entire series, something Tortorella was more than aware of following the club’s second round failure. “Those are two pretty big players for us. You need to try to find a way,” Tortorella said. “I’m not using that as an excuse, but it hurts. It hurt our depth. It put people in situations that, right now, I don’t think they’re ready to handle those types of minutes that there is with those players.”

Victory sets up for war with Iginla, Pens

You knew this was going to happen. You just knew that the Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins were destined for a postseason showdown. It was too juicy of a storyline for it to fall through the cracks.

Despite going a woeful 0-3 against Pittsburgh in 2013, the Black-and-Gold of Boston undoubtedly want a piece of the 35-year-old Jarome Iginla, the man that at the 11th hour burned the Boston Bruins and opted to instead force a trade to Pittsburgh to play alongside Evgeni Malkin and captain Sidney Crosby.

Iginla, in search of the first Cup of his storied career, simply wanted to play with “ two of the best players in the world.” Undeniably understandable given the fact that Iginla’s proved his worth as a future Hall of Fame player, for the B’s, it’s personal. Answering the Iginla snub with the acquisition of the 41-year-old Jaromir Jagr, a man that recorded 439 goals and 1,079 points during his 11-year tenure in Pittsburgh, the angles for this one are simply too sweet to pass up.

But can the B’s stop a machine-like offense of a Pens squad that’s scored 47 goals through a mere 11 postseason games? Well, you know captain Zdeno Chara and a motivated Boston squad are more than ready for that challenge.
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