New Kids on the Block

FAIRFAX, VA - Last season our Boston Bruins blew a 3-0 series lead over the hated Philadelphia Flyers.  They also blew a 3-0 lead in Game 7 to finally lose 4-3 and get kicked out of the playoffs.  But that was last year's squad.  There was no Adam McQuaid, Brad Marchand, Gregory Campbell, Tomas Kaberle, or Rich Peverley. There definitely was no Nathan Horton or Chris Kelly last year, but all seven were there tonight when our Boston Bruins took the much more hated Montreal Canadiens.

Our Bruins flew out of the gates when Johnny Boychuk took a "booming slapper" (props to Bruins' announcer Jack Edwards for the horrible phrase) from the blue line that found its way to the back of the net only 3:31 into the game. Only 2 minutes later the 800-year old dinosaur (or the 43-year old Mark Recchi) scored 5:33 giving our Bruins a very comfortable lead. The rest of the first was all Canadiens, but just one goal by Yanic Webber on the power play 9:49 in.  The second period was all Habs but again just one goal to show for it, by Tomas Plekanec on the penalty kill 5:50 in.

Then it happened, the third period started with the "Habs Suck" chants shaking the legendary Boston Garden. It was all Bruins all the time. For the first 17 minutes there were no penalties, and the Bruins had the puck for 14 of those minutes. 9:44 into the third Chris Kelly, a newbie, put home a rebound and the crowd went beyond nuts, our Bruins had the lead again 3-2.  It was so crazy that the tv screens were shaking, because the Garden was literally shaking. 17:23 in, the usually brilliant Patrice Bergeron took a very stupid penalty by high sticking defenseman James Wisniewski.  40 seconds later P.K. Subban, the new most hated Canadien and the man most boo-ed by the Garden faithful, scored a power play goal to tie it up.

The game went to overtime.

Our Bruins carried the momentum all the way to the 5:43 mark when the puck slid out to the Bruins point where Nathan Horton took a huge slapshot over the shoulder of Carey Price and thus sending the Habs back over the border. In the process he shut up all the critics telling the Bruins it was going to be another playoff collapse like last year.

The horrible and for some reason well-known "New Kids on the Block" originated in Boston, possibly our lone shameful fact.  Horton and Kelly are helping to make the phrase New Kids on the Block something to cheer for in the greatest city of the world.