Braden Holtby is looking like he is going to be the story of this series. 44 more saves for the rookie goaltender last night. I don't want to take anything away from the kid, to be brought up right at the end of the year and then carry your team in the most pressure filled games imaginable is impressive, but as much as the Bruins carried the play for almost all 60 minutes of the game and seemed to pepper Holtby none stop he had to make very few big saves. The Bruins are making a habit of hitting him in the chest and missing all the juicy rebounds. If the Bruins want to make it to the next round they need to put more pressure on Holtby. 44 shots from the point or the face-off circles obviously isn't going to cut it. They need to drive the net more and get a hold of the rebounds Holtby has been prone to give up. I haven't been Nathan Horton's biggest fan the last couple of years, but this is where the Bruins miss him the most. Horton had no problem recklessly crashing the net and always seemed to find a wide open net to stick a rebound.
If there is any player who shouldn't have a problem with this style of play it's Milan Lucic, but he has been almost invisible so far this series. This team is at it's best when Lucic is skating around hitting everything in site, but he's not do anything. There was one moment in the second period when he led a rush up the ice that became a three on two. He pushed the puck to Bergeron on the wing and then just stopped skating instead of skating hard to the open ice in front of the net. It would have been the perfect give and go, but instead Bergeron got caught to deep on the side of the net with no option to to take a bad angle shot. I'm pretty sure I said the same thing last season, but I can't help but think he's hurt with the way he's playing so tentatively. A Washington player called him a cry baby in front of a national audience and we got no reply. Something just isn't right.
If the Bruins are going to take back this series, something has to change. They have to get to the net and get to the net hard. As good as Holtby has been, they haven't been making things difficult for him. It's time, in front of the home crowd, to make the young goalie a little uncomfortable in that crease.
Some other notes...
-- Is it me or does it look like Ovechkin charges every time he hits somebody? It could just be that he's really fast and strong, but every time I see him going to hit somebody it looks like he came from the other side of the rink at full speed right into the guy.
-- It took until the third period for Julian to finally put Bergeron, Marchand, Krejic and Lucic back where they belong together. Switching the centers was a stupid experiment. Let's hope it didn't cost us the series.
-- I made a mistake last blog. The Bruins top 6 forwards had two points. Rich Peverly had a goal I didn't count. I don't think of him as a top 6 but with Horton out that's the role he's been playing. Still not very good and after last night they still only have 3 points for the whole series. They can't win unless Krejic and Lucic and Marchand start doing something.
-- Washington had one penalty last night! I find it really hard to believe they only committed only one penalty. Add in that Washington won the game on a questionable at best power play and it looks like Dale Hunter's complaining did some good for his team.
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