Boston Bruins on Paper: Semi's with Habs opens Thursday; "KIL" line focused and ready

Milan Lucic was in tears.

Hard to imagine, right?  The left winger for the top or "KIL" line for the Boston Bruins, the man that Bruins' play-by-play man Jack Edwards sometimes refers to as a "Freight Train on skates", sobbing like a little boy that had his feelings hurt in a schoolyard scuffle...

...in 2003, Lucic was a kid - not the power forward with the cool nicknames that he has now - but a 14 year old growing up in Vancouver, devastated by not being selected in the 2003 Western Hockey League draft.

"He'd look at the computer every five minutes to see if anyone would pick him up," his mother, Snezana Lucic told the Vancouver Province in 2008. "Nobody picked him and at the dinner table that night he started crying. I asked what was wrong and he said, 'Nobody drafted me. I feel like quitting. I'm going to quit.'"

We've all been there, whether it was being told either directly or indirectly that we weren't good enough - be it in sports, our jobs, school or just life in general - and hopefully all of us had support from family and friends, but it takes more than that.  It takes a resolve to do what you want to do with your life.

"I told him that he was so much better than that." Mrs. Lucic continued, "I told him that his father and I were here to support him. If that's what you want to do (play hockey), someone is going to notice you, someone is going to pick you up. It was touch and go then. He was really disappointed."

Of course, it all worked out, the young Lucic was picked up by the Coquitlam Express of the Junior A British Columbia Hockey League, took his lumps and disappointments that year between not making the Express team out of rookie camp, but eventually ending up on the roster five games into the season...

...then made his debut with the WHL Vancouver Giants for the playoffs and played the entire next season for the Giants before being drafted - finally, someone wanted him - by the Boston Bruins with the 50th overall selection in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.

The acceptance did something to Lucic.  In much the same way that rejection brought out the tears and doubt in 2003, being drafted in the second round by the Bruins in 2006 brought out the fire and confidence as Lucic tore up the WHL the following season, scoring 68 points in 70 games and capturing the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as the Memorial Cup MVP.

After the tournament, Lucic signed his entry level contract with the Bruins and made the roster out of camp, and the saga of Milan Lucic has been well documented ever since...

It's tough to look at the 6' 4" 240 pound Lucic and try to remember that he is just 25 years old, the junior member of a Bruins' top line that includes future Hall of Fame inductee Jarome Iginla and being centered by fellow seventh year veteran David Krejci, the Krejci/Iginla/Lucic (KIL) line combining for 73 goals and nearly a third of the Bruins point total for the 2013/14 NHL season...

...a season that saw the Bruins ascend to the pinnacle of regular season success, taking the Presidents' Cup by one point over the Anaheim Ducks as the team with the best record in the league, and now preparing to meet the hated Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Semifinals after dispatching the Detroit Red Wings in the quarterfinals.

And it's Lucic's perseverance stemming from working through his early disappointments in Juniors that gives him such confidence in his game, and perhaps why he seems to carry a chip on his shoulder out on the ice - and also maybe why he and the rest of his Bruins' teammates seem to truly appreciate being involved in a seven game series with the rival Habs, cementing their names into hockey lore with each shift.

Game one in the series is slated for 7:30pm on Thursday evening at TD Garden in North Boston.

"So another Original Six battle that we get to be a part of, and a lot of hatred between the teams, the fans, the cities when it comes to this kind of rivalry. So we expect them to bring their best." Lucic said of the Canadiens, being careful not to upset the precariously placed apple cart of hate between the two rivals before the series even gets started.

Krejci, however, wasn't as diplomatic in his preview.

"They obviously got some little guys, so they like to play with the puck." the Czech centerman panned to NHL.com.  "They play fast and shifty. But I feel like, especially my line, I know we're going to be the line that's playing with the puck a lot,"

"It's going to be up to them to stop us." Krejci continued, lamenting his team's lack of aggression in the Red Wings' series. "We're going to be trying to make something happen and I'm going to try to have the puck on my stick all the time. That's going to be the difference between Detroit and this series."

It would seem that the 27-year-old pivot is suggesting that he was not satisfied with neither his performance in the series with the Red Wings, nor his line's - though the Bruins won the series handily, a point driven home by the remarks of Red Wings' captain Henrik Zetterberg after his team was eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday

"They really stick to their structure, they have been doing that for two to three years now and they know it works. I think experience and patience," Zetterberg said of what makes the Bruins so good, despite Krejci's disappointment. "I think if we look at them, they roll four lines, they do the same things, they get the puck out, they get the puck in. When the other team gives them an opportunity, they take advantage."

Krejci echoed what Zetterberg said, citing consistency and confidence.

"We've just got to trust the system and go out there and do the job." Krejci said. "I think we have a pretty good team here, and if we'll do our homework right then we should be able to get some results."

So between the pissed-off Krejci, the deeply emotional yet brutish Lucic and the ever-smiling, just-happy-to-be-here persona of Iginla, expect the KIL line to pick up their game a notch or two - which, to hear Krejci tell it, sounds like very bad news for the Canadiens.

"It is impressive." Zetterberg continued in his praise of the Bruins, whom he feels taught his young team a valuable lesson. "They are a good team, but they know how to win, they have been there. I think we have to realize how to play in the postseason, and if we do that and we really believe in what we do, we would have gone longer."

Really believing in what you do is why Milan Lucic is in the National Hockey League - and why the Bruins are the favorites to be hoisting the Stanley Cup in just a few short months.

Boston Bruins eliminate Red Wings; set sights on hated rival Canadiens

Detroit Red Wings' coach Mike Babcock finally made good on his promise to concentrate on his team's superior speed advantage over the bruising Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon.

Problem is, he made that same promise before Game 3 and Game 4, but instead ended up getting caught up in the physical, heavy game that favors the Bruins - and the results were predictable.  In fact, for the first four games of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals series, the Red Wings hit everything in black and gold that moved, initiating a bit of gamesmanship in the clutches...

...but also setting a physical pace that they could not maintain for sixty minutes - but in a matinee performance at TD Garden in North Boston, they eschewed the rough stuff and played Detroit Red Wings' hockey, cranking on the afterburners, skating clean to preserve their energy and at times putting the Bruins' back on their heels.

It still didn't matter.

Eriksson celebrates his early goal...

Tuukka Rask stopped 31 of 33 shots on goal, also recording one assist, to win his fourth straight - Loui Eriksson, Zdeno Chara and Milan Lucic providing all the offense Rask would need and Jarome Iginla added an empty net strike for good measure as the Boston Bruins eliminated the Red Wings in five games, winning the clincher by a score of 4-2.

Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg found twine for Detroit, Datsyuk logging his third of the playoffs - which accounted for exactly half of the Red Wings' offense in the series - and backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson was strong, allowing just one score at even-strength as he dropped his second straight while filling in for flu-sticken starting goaltender Jimmy Howard.

Boston now prepares to meet the hated Montreal Canadiens in the Conference semi-finals, the two Original Six franchises meeting in the post-season for the 34th time.

The speed and the puck-handling prowess of the Red Wings was evident from the opening faceoff, but neither played a part in either of their goals - rather, Bruins' defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Chara made life easy on both of Detroit's veteran snipers - Boychuk getting crossed up on Datsyuk's rebound score and taking out Rask before he had a chance to make the save, same with Chara on Zetterberg's tally as he clipped Rask in an attempt to get between his goalie and the shooter...

...and Iginla and Lucic are psyched over the game winner

...In effect, both assisting in Red Wings' scoring plays by interfering with their own netminder, to take nothing away from Detroit's effort as they managed to keep Boston's defenders busy in the attacking zone, but hurt their cause by failing to muscle their way into the slot for rebounds and by committing a dozen turnovers on the offensive end.

Conversely, the Bruins were - well - the Bruins.  That's usually enough, and Saturday was no exception.

Eriksson gave the Bruins an early lead, taking a Dougie Hamilton feed from deep on the right wing, shoulder-faking the one-timer to draw Gustavsson up into the slot, then dragging the puck to his backhand for the easy flip and a 1-0 lead three and a half minutes into the game, one of two power play goals on the afternoon for Boston.

The other one came with just four seconds left in the second period, just moments after Datsyuk tied things up with a man-advantage score of his own.

After a relatively clean skate for the first 30 minutes, a flurry of penalties marred the last half of the second frame, Datsyuk's tally coming with Lucic in the box for high sticking with a little over five minutes left in the period - then an Eriksson interference penalty coupled with a Johan Franzen holding infraction and a Brendan Smith cross check gave the Bruins a brief four on three man advantage...

...Chara finding a clear shooting lane in the high slot and giving Boston a lead that they would not relinquish - Torey Krug then picking off a Red Wings' clearing attempt on the left wing just over four minutes into the final frame and escorted it down the boards until Lucic was in place in the low slot to Gustavsson's glove side, then firing a centering pass across the crease that Lucic slapped in for the game winner.

Zetterberg's goal gave the Red Wings some late life with just under four minutes remaining, but a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty on Tomas Tatar stalled any plans for a comeback as the Bruins played keep away for the two minute minor, then held off the Red Wings for the final minute, who had pulled Gustavsson for the extra skater - Lucic taking control of a David Krejci faceoff win in the defensive zone, hitting Iginla at center ice who found the empty net for the dagger.

Special teams played a big part in the Bruins' win - as it had all series - the Red Wings managing just one goal in their seven power play opportunities while Boston converted two of six - and the Bruins also held advantages in most statistical categories including a wide margin in both hits and faceoff wins...

...advantages that Detroit held in the first four games of the series as they tried in vain to match the Bruins' physicality - proof that it really didn't matter which way Detroit played it, they simply couldn't breach the heavy layers of the Bruins' structure, hard as they tried.

Next up, the Montreal Canadiens, who can play the physical game with a hop in their step - and pose a very stout and very real challenge to their longest and most despised rivals in the Bruins.

Iginla pots game winner in OT; Boston Bruins take 3-1 series lead over 'Wings

The Boston Bruins aren't that difficult to figure out.

They are physical.  They are resilient.  They come straight ahead and hammer you for no other reason than to eventually take away your will - and if your best shot isn't enough to put them away, well, Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena happens.

It was about midway through the second period when the Bruins started to take control of their Game 4 matchup with the Detroit Red Wings in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals series - having already yielded goals to defenseman Niklas Kronwall and centerman Pavel Datsyuk, when the Red Wings started to look spent...

...their high energy, frenetic pace giving way to Boston's heavy-footed, even-keeled puck control game - the pucks that they were having trouble getting to along the boards early in the game starting to find the range, the middle of the ice that Detroit's speed game offered them now closed off, and the backcheck of the Bruins turning into forced turnovers and transition offense.

No, the Boston Bruins are not that hard to figure out.  Trying to stop them is the tough part.

Down 2-0 through half of the match, defenseman Torey Krug ripped a slap shot from the high slot to get the Bruins on the board, Milan Lucic tied the game early in the third and Jarome Iginla ended it 13:32 into overtime, answering the Red Wings' best shot in typical Bruins' fashion, taking both a 3-2 win in Detroit on Thursday night, and a 3-1 series lead headed back to Boston.

The Red Wings gave it everything they had through 60 minutes, going all-in for a game they knew they absolutely had to have, having lost two straight and in danger of being down 3-1, even pulling team captain Henrik Zetterberg down from the press box to provide more offensive fire power and perpetual healthy-scratch Todd Bertuzzi to be a physical presence.

But Zetterberg was clearly less than 100% returning from back surgery and Bertuzzi, while initially making a big-time screen in front of Boston Goalie Tuukka Rask, was eventually neutralized by the physicality of the Bruins, who made sure to punish the 39-year-old Bertuzzi every time he tried to front Rask in the low slot.

Halfway through the opening period and the Bruins down a man after Justin Florek took a high-sticking double minor, the Red Wings scored the game's first goal just four seconds into the power play, Kronwell driving the puck past Rask from above the right circle directly from a Datsyuk faceoff win, Bertuzzi preventing Rask from seeing the puck until it was already past him...

...Kronwell returning the favor just over four minutes into the second period, picking up a puck that Rask had directed behind the net off of a Justin Abdelkader offering, sliding a pass to Datsyuk who had drifted into the low slot and easily beat Rask into the net that he vacated to stone Abdelkader.

With eight minutes gone and Bruins' defenseman Kevan Miller in the poke for retaliating against an Abdelkader hold just 13 seconds earlier, Bertuzzi joined him for interference on Zdeno Chara, the team skated four-on-four until Miller's penalty expired, Krug crushed his shot from the high slot in the waning seconds of the brief Bruins' power play.

That was the beginning of the end for the Red Wings.

Krug's goal had a horrific effect on the crowd and, subsequently, the Red Wings themselves as the Bruins slowly began tilting the ice in their favor - but missing several point-blank chances at Detroit's backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson throughout the rest of the period, though Gustavsson's luck ran out just over a minute into the third...

...Bruins' centerman Carl Soderberg taking a perfect Dougie Hamilton stretch pass and racing down the right wing, escorted wide of the net by Red Wings' defenseman Brian Lashoff - but just before the big Swede passed behind the net he slipped the puck to Lucic, who was point-blank on Gustavsson's glove side, and he jammed it through the five hole for the equalizer.

Shift by shift, the Bruins slowly took control of the pace of the game, spending more and more time in the attacking zone, Marchand missing an opportunity to pot the game winner into a wide open net late in the period - and by the time the game reached overtime, the Red Wings were completely on the defensive, and it was just a matter of time before the Bruins found dirty ice.

That happened with six and a half minutes left in sudden-death, Dougie Hamilton ripping a shot from the penalty box side dashers and Jarome Iginla redirecting it from the right circle, sending it in on Gustavsson, who could do nothing about the puck deflecting off of defenseman Danny DeKeyser's skate for the game winner.

Joe Louis Arena cleared out quickly after Iginla ended the game, perhaps too disappointed to realize that there probably will not be another game in Detroit this season, their Red Wings being down three games to one and headed to Boston for Saturday afternoon's elimination game at TD Garden - but at least they can be consoled in that coach Mike Babcock had the right idea...

...his game plan perfect through half of regulation.  But how hard is it to prepare a game plan for the Bruins?  Babcock knew what was coming and prepared his team the best he could - and it wasn't enough.

No shame in that, though, because these Bruins are so fundamentally sound, so well conditioned and so well coached that it almost seems unfair.  Almost.

Bruins punk Red Wings; quarterfinal series level at one

Boston forward Reilly Smith celebrates the eventual game winning goal in a 4-1 win over Detroit

In Game one of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals between the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings, the Wings' clogged the neutral zone and limited the Bruins to just 25 shots - seven below their season average - and the Bruins collectively knew that wasn't going to get the job done.

“I know we have to get more pucks to the net,” Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien quipped, capturing the essence of the obvious on Sunday before the game “I know we need net-front presence - that’s something that always needs to be done."

As usual, Bruins' Brad Marchand was in the middle of many scraps...

The Bruins equaled that entire shot total from Game one by the end of the second period on Sunday, establishing plenty of net-front presence and, predictably, buried the Red Wings with two early goals and cruised to a 4-1 win at TD Garden in North Boston - tying the best of seven series at one apiece.

The series now shifts to Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, where games three and four are scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday nights respectively.

Rookie call-up Justin Florek scored his first NHL goal for Boston, who also got goals from Reilly Smith, Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara to effectively double-up the combined goal output for Detroit in this series after being held scoreless in Game One.

Florek started the scoring seven-and-a-half minutes into the contest, picking off a rouge outlet pass from Detroit Goalie Jimmy Howard, who had come out from between the pipes to play a slow roller coming down the high slot and couldn't repair back to the crease in time to prevent Florek's quick sniper from finding twine...

...then Loui Eriksson positioned himself in front of the net to play a rebound off a Patrice Bergeron offering, drawing Howard far enough out of the crease to allow Smith an alley behind the besieged netminder - Eriksson relentlessly chopping at the puck and eventually jarring it loose, making it trickle behind Howard where Smith jammed it into the net for a two goal lead that Boston took into the room at the first intermission.

...while Zdeno Chara merely toyed with the spunky Red Wings

But not before tempers flared and several skirmishes broke out on the ice - and although no actual fights ensued, the Bruins announced loudly that they were not going to let the Red Wings control the pace of the game as they had in Game One, Chara and (of course) Brad Marchand right in the middle of the action.

The Red Wings did come out on fire in the second, looking to counter the violent physicality of the Bruins by playing the body more and taking several free shots at the Bruins on open ice, helping to tilt the ice in Detroit's favor, the Red Wings eventually cutting the Boston lead in half with six-and-a-half minutes left in the frame...

...but tempo-setter Lucic stole back the momentum from Detroit with a dagger of a goal late in the period, exploding across the blue line with a pass from Torey Krug and dropping the puck back to a trailing Jarome Iginla, who gave Howard a shoulder feign before returning the puck to Lucic who fired a one timer that Howard got a piece of with his stick, but was only able to cause it to tumble into the net.

With the score 3-1, the Bruins proceeded to punish the upstart Red Wings, scoring once more on Chara's chop job in the crease, Red Wings' defenseman Brian Lashoff unable to move the hulking Bruins' captain from in front of the net - in stark contrast to game one when the 'Wings kept the crease clean all night long.

Boston Netminder Tuukka Rask again was solid in net, allowing only a Luke Glendening gloved-hand redirection and stopping the other 34 Red Wings' shots while Howard got to only 25 of 29 Bruins' shots - and while the 29 shots was still below Boston's season average, 18 of them came in the frenzied first period where the Bruins' took control of the game and the series...

...while the Red Wings took to long range sniper shots at Rask, outshooting the Bruins - who were more interested in punishing the Red Wings than generating offense after taking the two goal lead - by a count of 25-11 in the final 40 minutes.

So the Bruins offense that won the President's Trophy and clinched home ice advantage throughout the playoffs showed up in Game two on Sunday after being conspicuously absent in the series opener, with the opportunity to take back that advantage that Detroit took from them waiting at Joe Louis Arena, where Boston has lost four straight...

Boston Bruins on Paper: More physical play required against Red Wings' "Gauntlet"

From the time a hockey player is in his early teens, the Gauntlet Drill is one of the most intimidating practice rituals in all of the sport.

There are two variations of this drill, the first being when the coaches have the players form two lines parallel to each other in close proximity then have players take turns handling the puck between the lines while the players on either side use their sticks to try and disrupt his rhythm and check the puck away...

Patrice Bergeron and the Bruins have to solve Detroit's Gauntlet

...while a more physical version is created having the players line up about a body's length from the dashers while a player skirts the boards handling the puck, the players in line taking turns trying to body check the puck handler into the boards.

The Detroit Red Wings put the Boston Bruins through a similar drill on Friday night, setting up their own real-time version of the gauntlet in the neutral zone at TD Garden, stick checking and body checking the Bruins with fervor, taking away all forward momentum and at the same time taking away the home ice advantage that Boston had earned throughout the regular season.

Now, if the Bruins want to take back what they've earned, they have to take back control of their home ice on Sunday afternoon - and the only way to do that is to physically take it back by breaking the gauntlet and getting pucks in deep, where the Bruins superior physicality can manifest itself.

In truth, the Red Wings' speed advantage is almost completely negated by the tactic of clogging the neutral zone, but when they can limit the Bruins to just 25 shots and only a handful of actual scoring chances with a gauntlet line, their chances of beating Boston increases incrementally, as frustration infiltrates the Bruins' structure and they start pressing bad position.

It's the perfect game plan against the bigger and stronger Bruins - or at least the only one that really has a chance of working - and now it's coach Claude Julien's lot to deal with it.

"It was a tight checking game, but nonetheless, I think everybody's got to find a way to create more, and that's going to be the challenge in this series with two teams playing really tight," Julien said on Saturday "So it's about everybody working a little harder and then gaining your space and doing what you have to do here."

Bruins' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith

Justin Florek - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson

Jordan Caron - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Defensive pairings

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Matt Bartkowski - Johnny Boychuk

Torey Krug - Kevan Miller

Goaltenders

Tuukka Rask

Chad Johnson

Defensemen Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller have resumed skating and the flu bug that ran a very different gauntlet through the Bruins' locker room has abated and all players are clear of the nasty virus - though the after effects of the bug combined with a long layoff may have been part of the reason why Boston was unable to break the Red Wings' trap...

...but there is still no word on the status of forward Daniel Paille nor Chris Kelly, both of whom have been laid up for over a week now, Paille with an upper-body injury (in lieu of a concussion, which the team claims he does not have) and Kelly with recurring back spasms.

Red Wings' Projected Lineup

Forwards

Johna Franzen - Pavel Datsyuk - Justin Abdelkader

Gustav Nyquist - Riley Sheahan - Tomas Tatar

Tomas Jurco - Darren Helm - Daniel Alfredsson

Drew Miller - David Legwand - Luke Glendening

Defensive Pairings

Niklas Kronwall - Brendan Smith

Kyle Quincey - Dan DeKeyser

Jakub Kindl - Brian Lashoff

Goaltenders

Jimmy Howard

Jonas Gustavsson

As mentioned in an earlier piece, the Red Wings are as healthy as they've been all season and got through Friday night's match relatively unscathed - even defenseman Danny DeKeyser, who was the victim of a Milan Lucic cup check late in the second period, but emerged no worse for wear - at least as far as hockey is concerned.

Lucic was fined $5,000 for his attempt at mixing up DeKeyser's huevos, an expensive little omelet that the freight train has no explanation for.

"I don't want to say it was too much frustration. It was kind of a heat of the moment thing where you're not thinking when you do something like that," Lucic said with a sense of embarrassment. "I've been in the years seven years now, and I think I've only done that three times. I don't know why I did that."

Nobody knows why he did it, other than the frustration that Lucic denies, or maybe even an attempt to fire up his teammates, who were having trouble breaking through the Red Wings' neutral zone gauntlet - regardless, they all collectivly realize what is at stake if they can't solve the riddle.

“It’s just one game. We have to obviously play a lot better." top line center David Krejci lamented after Friday night's 1-0 loss. "We have to look at the video tomorrow, and make some adjustments. The next game is going to be important. It’s a bit different if you go to Detroit going in 1-1, or 0-2. So we have to do everything we can and get a win on Sunday.”

And that means being physical and breaking the Red Wings' trapping gauntlet, then making them pay in the form of getting some pucks past goaltender Jimmy Howard.

Game time is set for 3:00pm EST, at TD Garden in Boston.

Boston Bruins not looking past Red Wings, nor their slimy traditions

Hey, look at that big, fat target on the backs of those Boston Bruins' sweaters...

With it being human nature to want to topple the King, it comes as no surprise that the Bruins are expecting their opponents in these Stanley Cup Playoffs to throw everything they have - plus the kitchen sink - at the reigning President's Trophy winner.

Well, maybe not the kitchen sink, but perhaps a freshly slain octopus from Detroit Red Wings fans when the their first round series with the Bruins switches venues to HockeyTown next week - but for now, the worst thing that could happen is a rouge hot dog hitting the ice...



...as happened to Tyler Seguin last season in a game against New Jersey, the offending frank tossed onto the ice just as Seguin approached the goal as the first shooter in a shootout, his goal against Devils' netminder Johan Hedberg disallowed due to fan interference - and while the tossing of expensive TD Garden foot longs will never become a mainstay at any sporting event, the tossing of cephlapods on the ice in Detroit is steeped in tradition, and is actually recognized as such by the league.

Not just a random phenomena, the tradition was started in 1952 by two brothers that owned Detroit's famed Eastern Market who tossed an octopus on the ice at the antiquated "Old Red Barn", Olympia Stadium, the eight tentacles symbolizing how many wins it took to win the Stanley Cup back in the day, when it took just two seven-game series - eight wins - to capture the Cup.

Of course, the team went on to sweep both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens to win the title, ensuring that the random act of the Cusimano brothers became a superstition and a tradition - and the Red Wings organization adopted the image of a purple octopus named "Al" as their mascot.


Two of the beasts now hang from the rafters at Joe Louis Arena during the playoffs, symbolic of the 16 wins that it takes to win the Stanley Cup in the modern NHL

Sushi vs. pressed and formed reanimated pork, beef and chicken spare-parts-on-a-bun aside, The Bruins seem to be pressing their anxiety buttons when faced with the prospect of dealing with a Red Wings team that presents an issue down the middle of the ice with their speed and puck handling abilities, particularly given that the Bruins have struggled in the opening rounds of the post-season for three consecutive years.

"We've got to be prepared to bring our best, because you talk about the last three years, you know the other team hasn't taken us lightly at all and they've given us their best," Bruins' forward Milan Lucic said on Thursday. "we kind of got ourselves into holes and got into a Game 7 overtime situation the last three years. So hopefully our mindset is where it needs to be in order for us to bring our best."

Lucic (center) and teammates are preparing to "Bring our best"...

Lucic also suggested that perhaps the Bruins have been overlooking opponents, though coach Claude Julien dismisses the thought...

...though he does feel that the pressure that the team has faced from the beginning of the season being defending Eastern Conference Champions has helped his players remain focused amid the aforementioned huge target on their backs.

"You know, I think there was pressure even to start this season, just making the Stanley Cup Finals out of the East two of the last three years." Julien pondered openly. "Obviously I think a lot of the pressure was on us throughout the whole season. And it seems like obviously this year we were able to deal with that pressure real well."

"But going into these playoffs, I don't feel any extra added pressure." Julien added, "And you know you don't want to put too much added pressure on yourself. You just want to remain focused and do what you need to do in order to help your team win."

Like...taking the first two games of the series in Boston, a series which begins on Friday evening and continues with a Sunday afternoon matinee before the series shifts to HockeyTown for games three and four next week...

...and if the Bruins can send the dangerous Red Wings back to Detroit down by those two games, no number of octopi thrown on the ice are going to help them against the rugged and heavy clamp-down defense and the relentless forecheck in the attacking zone that the Bruins employ for a full sixty minutes per game - and, as a result enter this post-season as the team to beat if you want to win the Cup.

The Red Wings get their shot starting on Friday night.

Lucic nets two as Bruins clinch top seed in East

So...the Boston Bruins are peaking too early?  Try telling that to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Sure, since shutting out the Chicago Blackhawks last weekend, the Bruins have given up 12 goals in four games - including a couple of goals in the waning seconds of periods - and not looking as consistent as they did during their 16 game point streak, but there's no need to go looking for a reason for it - because there's not one.

photo courtesy Brian Babineau/NHLI Getty Inages

At least, there's not something that needs to be corrected - just a stretch of games against four teams in desperation mode and trying to secure playoff spots combined with Boston coach Claude Julien mixing up his defensive pairings to find the best post-season combinations while giving his greybeards some time off to rest their weary bones.

“We’re in a position to utilize our whole bench,” Julien told reporters, waving off concerns that the team had lost the edge that they displayed during the month of March. “I can guarantee you there are situations there late in the period that if we’re in the playoffs, it won’t be the same thing. Let’s not read too much into that stuff here."

The latest chance for Julien to prepare his team for the post-season came Saturday afternoon at TD Garden, where the hometown faithful were treated to more of the same - the Philadelphia Flyers taking advantage of their superior speed and violent intent early, the Bruins taking the bullies' best shot, then cranking their play into overdrive...

...Milan Lucic scoring twice and Johnny Boychuck ripping the long-range game winner with six minutes and change remaining in regulation as the Bruins flexed their muscles and pulled away from the Flyers in the third period for a 5-2 victory - a win that clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference, ensuring home ice advantage for Boston throughout the Conference playoffs.

David Krejci also potted a goal, Chris Kelly added an empty net dagger and Loui Eriksson dropped four dimes for the second time in his career for the Bruins, who now have engineered a 23-3-4 record since a momentum-shifting overtime loss to the Blackhawks clear back in mid-January, overtaking the Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues for best record in the league in the process.

Now the Bruins set their sights on the President's Cup, awarded to the team that has the best record in the National Hockey League - and with it, home ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  And whether or not that is something that the Bruins should be working toward, it may be something that just can't be helped.

“The biggest thing to focus on is not to get complacent, keep on pushing." newly-crowned Bruins' Seventh Man of the Year Reilly Smith offered. "Most of the teams we’re playing are desperate for playoff spots, so just to keep that mind-set and make sure you’re pushing every night and stick to the things that made us successful the last month or so.”

And what has made them successful is their machine like efficiency and their now all-too-familiar game plan of taking their opponent's best shot, all the while wearing them down with their heavy physicality and then stepping on their throats and burying them in the final frame.

That's a script that has served them well all season, and Saturday afternoon against their nemesis from Philadelphia was no exception - in fact, it was a perfect example.

With the score tied at two coming out of the room for the third period, the Bruins set the tone by using Flyers' goalie Ray Emery for target practice, putting 22 of their 42 total shots on goal in the frame - at the same time wearing out the bullies' defense by punishing them against the boards...

...scoring three times in the final six minutes while starting goalie Tuukka Rask turned away nine of his 24 saves in picking up his 35th win of the season.

Krejci ended a personal 17-game goal drought to open the scoring, tracking down a puck knocked loose from a scrum in front of the net and snapping it in for a 1-0 lead late in the opening frame that the Bruins took into the room at the first intermission.

The Flyers tied it up on a Wayne Simmonds point blank backhanded tip in on the man advantage four and a half minutes into the second period, but the Bruins took the lead right back 19 seconds later when Lucic called for and received a pass in the high slot right in his wheelhouse - the one-timer finding dirty ice for a 2-1 lead...

...but it took all of a minute and a half for the Flyers to knot the score again, a rare Jay Rosehill offering that the checking-line left winger somehow snapped past Rask from a narrow angle, the puck flying over the big Finn's blocker from across the crease - but that's as close as the Flyers would come for the rest of the match.

"We've got to come out and initiate the third period with the game on the line, a tied game here," Flyers coach Craig Berube lamented to NHL.com. "I thought that we competed hard up to then and were in good shape. We have to go out and initiate the third period. We can't sit back and can't let teams match you, and I thought that's what we did."

The Bruins commenced the beatings from the opening puck drop of the final frame, taking control of the pace until, inevitably, the Flyers' defense tired and the Bruins' shots started finding the mark.

In rapid succession, Boychuk let one of his rockets off the chain, taking a one-timer directly off a Patrice Bergeron attacking zone faceoff win - his drive from the point never seen by a shielded Emery - then Lucic potted his second of the game just 30 seconds later, Torey Krug leading a three-on-two into the Flyers' zone and leaving the puck in the slot for the trailing Lucic...

...Kelly logging the empty net goal to provide the final score and an end to the Bruins' first two-game winless streak and avoided thier first three-game streak of the season.

What's left to do for the Bruins?

"Well, it's something, I guess, we wanted to do, but it wasn't really our main goal." Rask said of clinching the top seed in the east. "Everyone knows what our main goal is."

And with the season the Bruins have put together to this point, not accomplishing that goal would be a bitter disappointment, if not a major upset.