It was the first playoff game of any kind in Boston since late October, when the Sox came back from a seven-run deficit in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series against Tampa. And it was worth the wait.
Our town was badly in need of some good news. Celtics playoff hopes were crushed early yesterday when Doc Rivers went on the radio and announced that Kevin Garnett is done for the season. At dinnertime, New England sports fans got a jolt of perspective and fear when it was learned that eternal kid Danny Ainge (only 50 years old) had suffered a mild heart attack and was recovering at Massachusetts General Hospital.
It was time for the Bruins to do what they used to do on a regular basis: make everybody feel good.
The Bruins delivered. It was 2-2 midway through the third, but just when it was looking like we might be in for a dreaded overtime, Chara - the biggest man ever to lace 'em up in the NHL - blasted a slap shot past helpless Habs goalie Carey Price. The Big Slovakian, you might remember, set a record with a 105.4-mile-per-hour slapper at the All-Star skills competition in Montreal in January. This one might have been a mere 100, and poor Price looked like Bob "Beetle" Bailey staring at a Rich Gossage fastball.
"The monster was waiting back there with his stick touching the roof," said Bruins center Marc Savard.
"See an opening and go for it and try to shoot it," Chara said softly.
"He's our heart and soul, and I can't say enough about him," coach Claude Julien said. "I like the way he led our team tonight, and it's quite appropriate he scored the winner."
Phil Kessel potted an empty-netter in the closing seconds, then there was a predictable melee at the buzzer, but Chara's power-play goal goes down as the top moment of the postseason's first night.
