"We believe in ourselves," said defenseman Zdeno Chara. "But the job is not done yet. It's very simple. We can't afford to lose another game. It's desperate hockey."
Claude Julien's skaters are attempting to do what no Bruins team has done in 20 previous tries: come back to win a series after trailing, three games to one. Milt Schmidt's Bruins couldn't do it in 1947 against the Canadiens. Bobby Orr and Friends couldn't do it against the Rangers in '73. Cam Neely and Ray Bourque couldn't make it happen in '95 against the Devils.
So it's up to Chara and Tim Thomas to boldly go where no Bruins have gone.
"From the time we fell behind, three games to one, our goal was to create Game 7," said Julien (who enjoyed one of those Bill Belichick nights in which everything he touched turned to gold). "We're there now. We need to decide what we're going to do with it."
This is an odd series. It's 3-3, but none of the games have been truly close. There was one overtime contest, but anyone who was there will tell you that Carolina dominated that one. The scores of the other five games: 4-1, 3-0, 4-0, 4-1, and last night's 4-2. NESN's Jack Edwards compared it to the 1960 World Series, which went seven games but had scores of 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0 - all Yankee wins. The Bruins need to remember that. The Yankees outscored the Pirates, 38-3, in three victories but lost the series.
Winning a Game 6 on the road is never easy, and the Bruins' task was compounded by the disturbing events at the end of Game 5, when Hurricane Scott Walker delivered a cheap shot to Aaron Ward and was barely penalized ($2,500 fine) by NHL discipline czar Colin Campbell.
The Bruins were steamed at the way it was handled by the league and must have been doubly annoyed during the Game 6 pregame skate, when they heard the Carolina public address announcer tell fans that the Canes showed they would not be "pushed around" at the end of Game 5 in Boston. The obvious inference was Walker's sucker punch, which was interpreted locally as an honorable deed.
