Again, I was a third period game watcher, so I can only talk about that, but here are some of the tweets from the first two periods that I liked and kept me going:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/jtbourne/status/77183601908776960″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/buccigross/status/77192786708938752″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/ryanclassic/status/77190356155904002″]

Good stuff, good stuff.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/gsdgsd/status/77175422026137600″]

Hey, what?  HEY!!! There’s hockey going on! What the hell!!!

 

Some other thoughts:

– Manny Malholta looks awful.  And I only mean his eye.  But wow, WHAT A MAN!  It doesn’t matter what he did on the ice, he is the story of the season.  I know they liked him in Columbus, they liked him in San Jose, but they LOVE him in Vancouver.

– The goaltending is often great, but Luongo and Thomas are showing what the advantages and disadvantages of playing deep in your net and away form your net are, respectively.  You could make an instructional video out of this.

– That second goal against the Bruins was ugly.  Just mind-bendingly bad.  There wasn’t a single Bruins player who was happy where they were on the ice.  They should have to watch video on that goal like they were Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange.

– I see a lot of new Canucks jerseys in Toronto.  No wear and tear, no fading, no fraying.  Just saying.

– Dog of the night?  Either Andrew Ference or Zendo Chara.  I’d like to see them fight for the title.  Hell, they should have to fight for it.  It would be the most battle either one of them showed.

 

OK, it’s time to talk about the last goal.  There were about four things wrong with that goal.

– You win the face-off, and immediately try to punch it forward through traffic?  The one thing you see in the NHL versus any other league is the willingness to keep possession of the puck by skating into your own zone to buy time.  The Canucks were great at taking the passing lanes away and putting pressure on the Bruins had the puck in their own zone.  Still, bad choice.

– Tim Thomas chased the puck.  How do you chase that puck?   This was a flash of the Winter Classic, when Thomas went for the check against Scott Hartnell when Danny Syvret was shooting the puck.

Find the missing Thomas.

– Chara. Chara, Chara, Chara.  You were beat. You were right there.  No one wants to take a penalty in overtime, but if there ever was a good penalty to take, that was it. Clutch, grab, whatever it takes.  That’s not the play you want to make.

– Why were Chara and Ference on the ice together?  Do you think that will ever happen again in this series?  Has that EVER HAPPENED?

Guess who isn’t smiling now?

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Claude Julien in his post game presser (I didn’t DVR this, and can’t go back easily, so consider the ‘quotes’ paraphrased):

‘I don’t know if it’s about them taking over in the third period’   …… Um, we do.  They took over.  No, your team handed it over.

‘I don’t think we’ve played like we can.’  I agree.  Boston is better than this.  The stats for Boston weren’t bad for a regular season game, but not good enough against the Canucks in the Finals, who are playing up to their abilities.  They might even have another gear.  They are playing like the team that they are, while the Bruins are playing like they are waiting for the break to end.

‘Zdeno didn’t loose the game tonight.’  I think he split the honors 70/30 with Thomas. But I’m starting to wonder if Chara is injured.  He was floating on the second goal against, and turning the wrong way over and over.  I wonder if he’s injured.  Leg or knee injury, what’s the over under?

 

By the way: Marty Turco , looks great as a broadcaster, but does the job like he tended goal.  #boom.

 

Final thought of the night:  Tim Thomas is good at bouncing back from bad games.  This time, we will have to see.  As much as he has been hung out to dry, he has made plenty of mistakes, and he probably knows it.

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For your Stanley Cup Finals Dead Blog Challenge bonus material today, check out Copyblogger.com’s 7 Tips for Falling in Love with Your Blog All Over Again.  If you haven’t been tending to your blog like you should, and feel guilty about it (like I did), you will like this.