On a general scale, things just don't get better for a sports fan than the words "Game Seven", and absolutely nothing beats a series finale in the National Hockey League - and you don't have to traipse through a time portal any further back than last season's Eastern Conference quarterfinals match between the Bruins and Maple Leafs to understand why...
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| Physical play should rule Game 7 on Wednesday night |
...but while fans are emotionally invested in the outcome of each game, the players have to keep their emotions in check, but to listen to Thornton tell it, one can just feel the excitement oozing from every word.
“You can let it tighten you up or you can really feed off the fact that this is what you trained your whole life for, these situations,” Thornton gushed “That’s kinda the way I’ve approached it. This is awesome. This is the best time of year.”
That about sums it up for everyone - and Thornton, the Bruins' self-appointed P. K. Subban agitator and team spokesman, makes it sound like Christmas, the first day of spring and the first bite of a real Philly cheesesteak all rolled into one.
“It’s Game 7,” Torey Krug said of he and his teammates finding the urgency missing from their play in Game 6. “If you don’t have it, there’s something wrong with you.”
But, how does one find that level of intensity for a Game 7 after melting like a s'more early in Game 6?
“I think it’s kind of how we played in Game 5,” defenseman Dougie Hamilton reminisced. “I thought we were playing pretty desperate in that game, and it isn’t about changing our game, it’s about focusing on the details and working hard and focusing on the things we’re good at. It’s about having a good start again, obviously, and not having to try to come back and to try to play with the lead.”
Bruins' Projected Lineup
Forwards
Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith
Matt Fraser - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton
Defensive pairings
Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski - Johnny Boychuk
Torey Krug - Kevan Miller
Goaltenders
Tuukka Rask
Chad Johnson
Chad Johnson
One person that feels the same way as Thornton is Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban, but for more sinister reasons.
"It's going to be great," Subban said, though not exactly going in the same direction as Thornton, the already despised face of the Habs raising the bar of hate even higher. "I can't wait for the crowd, the noise, the energy in the building. I can't wait to take that all away from them."
Come to think of it, that may be why Thornton is so looking forward to Wednesday night - the chance to send Subban and his cohorts on vacation. Violently.
Subban has been - unquestionably - the best player in this series, but in games four and five was held in check by the Bruins, who took the risky avenue of playing him tighter at the point -and punking him at every opportunity - when previously they had given him plenty of space to operate, not wanting him to use his superior skating and excellent puck handling skills to get behind their defense...
...and part of the desperate measures that the Bruins need to take in Game 7 is to get back to being physical with Subban and try to take him out of the offense - something that Canadiens' coach Michel Therrien doesn't think can happen, given the gravity of the moment.
“P.K. Subban’s been phenomenal since the playoffs started, even at the end of the season,” Therrien said. “He’s a gamer. He’s a guy that will bring his team to a new level, another level when the games count. He’s been a leader on the ice.”
Canadiens' Projected Lineup
Forwards
Max Pacioretty - David Desharnais - Brendan Gallgher
Michael Bournival -Tomas Plekanec - Tomas Vanek
Rene Bourque - Lars Eller -Brian Gionta
Travis Moen - Danny Briere - Dale Weise
Defensive pairings
Josh Gorges - P.K. Subban
Andrei Markov - Alexei Emelin
Nathan Beaulieu - Mike Weaver
Goaltenders
Carey Price
Peter Budaj
It goes without saying that the crowd at TD Garden will be wild, and while nothing the Bruins' P.R. staff can pull out of their top hat of technology is going to top the incredible psyche job that the Canadiens' pulled off during their pre-game spectacle (you have to admit, that kid lighting the ice "on fire" is pretty wicked) - just unfurling the Bruins' banner and Rene Rancourt signing his guts out and giving his traditional salute to the military and his "Stump Pump" fist pump does the trick...
...which doesn't impress Subban at all, his comments regarding the crowd at the Bruins' game telling one all they need to know about how he plans to deal with the hostile crowd.
"I don't give them that credit," Subban said on Tuesday. "I go and play the game. I play to win, I don't care who's there, I don't care if there's nobody in the stands. I'm going there to win. It's irrelevant to me."
"I hope that it's a hostile environment, it makes it all better."
After saying something like that, Subban will become even more of a target than he normally is in Boston. Will he be able to back up those words? Will he wilt in the face of the hostile Bruins crowd? Will Thornton soak him down with an industrial-sized water bottle this time?
The only way to shut down the crowd in Boston is to jump out to a big lead, and sometimes even that doesn't work - again, reference back to the Maple Leafs' series last season - but leave it to the level, shiny head of Boston coach Claude Julien to reduce the game down to basic human fundamentals, to break down the brand of urgency and desperation that is needed to win a Game 7 against their most hated rival.
“I think desperation is going out there and giving it the best shot you can,” Julien quipped, calmly. “The last thing you want is regrets. And if you hold back the things you know you can do, and you don’t leave it all out on the ice, then you have regrets. So, that’s what desperation is all about, leaving it all out on the ice and you can walk away knowing you gave it your best shot.”
With a better focus and a few gratuitous bounces, there shouldn't be any regrets - only a trip to the Conference finals where the New York Rangers await the winner of this match...
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