Tim Thomas Came Back For This?

When NESN's broadcast opened tonight with shot of an empty BB&T Center only a few minutes before the opening faceoff, you realized that this event wasn't as nearly charged as you hoped it would be: Tim Thomas (37 saves) made his first start against the Bruins but he'd probably like to forget it as the Panthers lost 3-2.

Reilly Smith helped Boston (4-2-0) avoid overtime and a pretty bad choke job by scoring a clutch goal with 59 seconds left in regulation. His first of the season was assisted by Patrice Bergeron and Torey Krug. It never should have been that tight since the B's opened up a 2-0 lead on Florida (2-6-0) in the first period but cruised until the Panthers scored one in the second and one in the third to tie it at two.

Like most of his teammates, Tuukka Rask (27 saves) wasn't at his best. The Panthers are so bad that they drag you down to their putrid level if you're not careful. Daniel Paille scored 3:45 into the game, his first of the season, from Dennis Seidenberg (who sprung him) and Matt Bartkowski. This looked headed to blowout city as Dougie Hamilton added a power play goal, also his first of the season, at 12:47 from David Krejci and Zdeno Chara.

Kris Versteeg gave the Panthers some life with a goal at 12:32 of the second period. All hell broke loose, well not really, when something called Jesse Winchester (which totally sounds like a porn name) poked in a loose puck with six minutes left in regulation. Circle November 7, that's when Thomas will make his first depressing appearance at TD Garden for Florida. Seeing him toil in obscurity in Sunrise, FL was a painful reminder of how much fortunes can change in professional sports. How the mighty have fallen if you will.

This was the first game of a three-game road trip by the B's. They are in Tampa Bay (5-2-0) on Saturday (7, NESN) against the Lightning (who they beat 3-1 in the season opener). They have to clean things up against them because if they have as many lapses and defensive mistakes, the Lightning could actually make them pay unlike the Panthers who struggle to do anything positive.

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19 years in the making: Bruins sweep the Flyers and move on to Eastern Conference finals vs. Tampa Bay

For some reason, I was totally confident going into Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers last night.

With a commanding 3-0 lead (just like last year), I felt like this Bruins team was different and the shadow of last season's epic demise was about to get forgotten.

My premonitions couldn't have been more right as the Bruins won 5-1 at TD Garden to sweep the Flyers and erase the demons of last season. It's a new team and a new season, time to move on.

Boston advances on to its first Eastern Conference finals in 19 years and they'll have home-ice advantage against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The final score is misleading since the B's added two empty-net goals but Boston led for a majority of the game and gave their skittish fan base reason to believe that they would get this one done in regulation.

The only bad news (there always seems to be some with this franchise) for the B's is that Patrice Bergeron-their MVP so far (not named Tim Thomas)-suffered a mild concussion on a hit by Philly's Claude Giroux. It looks like he's out for the Tampa Bay series, opening the door for Tyler Seguin to get his first NHL playoff experience.

I am beyond bummed for Bergeron. He has almost had his career ended (twice) with nasty concussions. Nobody deserves that but especially not him. Fingers crossed that he can recover and his career wouldn't be further affected. It makes me sick to think how well he has played in this playoff run and how he's probably done for it no matter how far they go.

With the power-play scoreless streak finally ended in Game 3, the biggest issue facing the Bruins was getting Milan Lucic off his personal goal-less streak. Mission accomplished as Looch put in his first two of the 2011 playoffs and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Lucic gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 12:02 of the first period on some tic-tac-toe passing with linemates Nathan Horton and David Krejci on the power-play. All he had to was redirect it in.

The Flyers showed some fight as Kris Versteeg (1st of the playoffs) tied it up at 13:22 of the second period. Mike Richards assisted on the goal but it was all thanks to Brad Marchand who gave the puck away at center ice, allowing Versteeg to basically walk in alone on Thomas (22 saves).

Right after Bergeron went off with his injury in the beginning of the third period, Johnny Boychuk (2nd of the season) scored what turned out to be the game-winner and series-clincher. Michael Ryder sent it back to Boychuk at the point and the put it up high over Flyers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (22 saves), who got the start for the first time in the series.

Lucic scored his second of the game at 15:03 after a nifty pass in the neutral zone from Horton sprung him. Marchand (5th of the playoffs) scored his empty-netter at 18:04 from Mark Recchi and Rich Peverley while Daniel Paille (2nd of the playoffs) got his at 19:35 from Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton.

Exhale. So yeah, your Boston Bruins are one of the final four teams left in the NHL playoffs. One series win away from the Stanley Cup finals. Eight wins away from breaking a 39-year Stanley Cup drought. Heady stuff.

Don't know too much about the Lightning other than obviously Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier. Goaltender Dwayne Roloson has played well in the postseason but honestly, I haven't seen much of either series (vs. Pittsburgh and Washington). I do remember from the regular season vs. Boston that Tampa Bay plays the slimy style of Montreal. Lots of flopping, diving, crying, whining. Not good. As we saw from the first round vs. the second round, the B's matchup so much better with a team that plays with an edge.

The Eastern Conference finals could start as early as Tuesday night, depending on when the Western Conference semifinals (Vancouver up 3-1 on Nashville and San Jose up 3-1 on Detroit) end, or as late as Saturday. The Hub of hockey is alive and well with plenty of action left for us, what a time to be a Bruins fan.

Bruins make the playoffs for the fourth straight season, when's the parade?

Back-to-back games might be rough on the players and coaches but for sports fans (and it's all about us, right?) it allows us to quickly move on from poor results.

The Boston Bruins' weak sauce 1-0 blanking by the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon was one of the most forgettable games of the 2010-11 season.

Yet last night in Philadelphia, the Bs (42-23-10) beat the Flyers (45-20-10) 2-1 to clinch a playoff spot for the fourth straight season.

The fact that they knocked off the Eastern Conference's top team, who they ahem have some recent history with, made this two points all the more sweeter.

Kris Versteeg gave Philly a 1-0 lead at 4:45 of the first period, his 20th of the season, as a bad clearance bounced right to Mike Richards. He faked a shot and passed to Versteeg who roofed it over Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas (27 saves). James van Riemsdyk assisted on the goal too.

Boston's power play cashed in on not only one but two chances as Nathan Horton tied it at 1-1, 7:40 into the second period. It was Horton's 23rd of the season, assisted by Tomas Kaberle and David Krejci. Krejci won the face-off and drew it back to Kaberle who shot it on Flyers goaltender Brian Boucher (34 saves) but he left a juicy rebound for Horton to scoop in.

Brad Marchand had the game-winner at 16:17 of the third period, from Dennis Seidenberg and Mark Recchi. Marchand had been blanked for the past twelve games (plus the two he was suspended for) but that tally was extra special since it was his 20th of the season in a big spot. Once again, Boucher left a rebound right in front for Marchand to put in the net.

Boston is now firmly in third place in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins are seven points ahead of Montreal, four points behind Washington and six points behind Philadelphia with seven games remaining.

Tomorrow night is another tough matchup as the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks come to the TD Garden. Chicago has 88 points but they're clinging to the eighth spot in the deeper Western Conference. I'll be there and I expect an up and down, fast-paced game.

Bruins give away a win in Toronto

I'm not saying that the Boston Bruins really deserved to win last night since the Toronto Maple Leafs outplayed them for most of the game but still, the B's were 42 seconds away from wrapping up a nice road win at the Air Canada Centre.

Instead, they gave up the tying goal to Kris Versteeg (with 19 seconds left on Patrice Bergeron's penalty) with 42 seconds left in the third period and then they lost in a shootout 3-2.

Boston (14-8-3) still gets the bogus point from making it to the shootout but the fact that Phil Kessel had the deciding goal in that dumb format makes this one tougher to swallow. Oh and we have Toronto's (9-12-4) first round pick for next season too (hell of a trade there Brian Burke) so the more losses the better, much like the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders.

Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas (40 saves; 13-2-2) did not earn a loss by any means. As usual this season, he stood on his head and made as crazy uncle Jack Edwards termed them a flurry of "ridiculous saves."

Nathan Horton broke out of his 10-game scoring slump with an unassisted goal at 4:48 of the first period.

Shawn Thornton got his sixth fighting major of the season after he squared off with AHL callup Jay Rosehill less than four minutes after Horton's goal.

The Leafs' Carl Gunnarsson tied it up at 15:53 of the first period after a lucky bounce and nice passing from teammates Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri.

After a scoreless second period, Gregory Campbell looked to be the hero for the Bruins (his dad must have been so pumped) in the third period when he finished a nice feed from Tyler Seguin (who got it from Johnny Boychuk). Campbell started the play by keeping the puck in the Toronto defensive zone then Seguin hit him with a tidy backhander and he whipped in a wrist shot at 6:08.

In the shootout, Kadri led off and scored but Seguin answered it (he is awesome at shootouts). After Nikolai Kulemin and David Krejci were stopped, Kessel scored and Michael Ryder did not.

The Bruins will try to recover from this swift kick in the balls with a few days off before they host the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, the start of a three-game home set.