Who didn't think the Bruins would win Games 1 & 2 in Pittsburgh by an aggregate score of 9-1? Haha Boston followed up Saturday's 3-0 victory in Game 1 with an absurd 6-1 pasting of the Penguins in Game 2 tonight at CONSOL Energy Center. The B's took a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals back with them to Boston for Games 3 and 4 at TD Garden.
I'm not just being a Black and Gold honk when I say that this one was over after the first 20 minutes. Boston blitzed Pittsburgh with four goals in the opening frame and the Penguins' revolving door of goaltenders nor turnstiles/parking cones on defense could do anything to stop them.
Other than the final score, this win will be remembered most for Brad Marchand's heroics. He scored on a breakaway 28 seconds into regulation after stealing Sidney Crosby's weak pass attempt and skating in on a breakaway. Pittsburgh's Brandon Sutter finally solved Tuukka Rask (26 saves) at 19:26 but Marchand answered by stomping on the Penguins' throats 25 seconds later. His snipe over Marc-Andre Fleury's glove made it 4-1, it was Marchand's fourth goal of the postseason from Patrice Bergeron and Jaromir Jagr.
Boston has completely exposed Pittsburgh's overrated defensemen, looking at you Kris Letang (-3 in Game 2), and left their pair of overmatched goaltenders-Tomas Vokoun and Fleury in a Zamboni puddle in the corner. Nathan Horton made it 2-0 Bruins at 14:37 after he tipped Torey Krug's shot from the point then followed up his own rebound. David Krejci scored his NHL-best (tied with Chicago's Patrick Sharp) eighth goal at 16:31 after some beautiful passing between Horton and Milan Lucic.
Krejci's goal prompted Vokoun to get pulled but Fleury also allowed three goals (albeit when the game was already out of hand) so how can you choose between those two bums at the moment?
We keep waiting for Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jarome Iginla, James Neal, Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis or Letang to do something positive but so far, they've combined for a grand total of zero points and they are collectively -19. Is this real life?
Bergeron wrapped it up 27 seconds into the third period after a sublime pass from Jagr. Johnny Boychuk assisted on Bergeron's fourth goal of the playoffs. Boychuk completed the barrage with his NHL-leading (for a defenseman) fifth goal at 18:36 from Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell.
At least the Penguins showed a heartbeat in Game 1, I can't say they did the same in Game 2. It was almost as if they packed it in once Marchand made it 4-1. The pressure of being the Eastern Conference favorites all season appears to have taken its toll on this mentally fragile squad. Many will be quick to compare the Penguins to the Canucks of 2011 but the difference there is that Vancouver won the first two games at home before falling apart in Boston and losing Game 7 on its home ice.
As the Bruins have showed countless times in the past decade alone, anything can happen in the NHL playoffs. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, they have really put themselves in a tough spot. We convinced ourselves that they would come out much better in Game 2 but it turned out that they played way worse than Game 1. Pittsburgh is light years ahead of the Rangers in terms of talent and pedigree but if they lose Game 3 on Wednesday (8 p.m., NBCSN), I'm confident the Penguins would similarly roll over and make this a short series.
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