“I think it definitely made us realize that we all needed to pick it up and step up for him,’’ Daniel Paille said. “He’s been great for us all playoffs. Obviously, to lose him at this point hurts us. It was nice to see us all come out.’’
It was no coincidence, then, that the Bruins played their sharpest after one of their best players went down. After a scoreless first period, the Bruins busted Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final open in the second with four strikes — two even-strength, one on the power play, and another shorthanded — while executing the game plan that has always been in their DNA.
They punished the Canucks. They smothered their best players. They turned to their goaltender to make timely stops. And whenever the Canucks were clinging to the cliff’s edge, the Bruins, without a shred of mercy, stomped on their fingers and sent them to an 8-1 demise.
There were countless stars. Tim Thomas (40 saves) was one stop away from a shutout. Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg helped turn Henrik and Daniel Sedin into the Doublemint Twins (two total shots). Mark Recchi scored two goals.
But at night’s end, the game jacket presented after every win to the player who contributes the most hadn’t moved. Horton was its last owner, courtesy of his winning goal in the 1-0 win over Tampa Bay in Game 7 of the conference finals. Last night, the jacket remained in Horton’s stall.
“Guys were a little nervous about Horty and worried about him,’’ Brad Marchand said of the mood after the first period. “We still had a game to play. We really wanted to get the win tonight. We made sure to refocus and do it for him.’’
In Games 1 and 2, the Bruins treated the puck as if it were pyrite instead of platinum. They fumbled it away in the neutral zone. They didn’t dump the puck into areas where their forwards could hunt it down. They didn’t get enough speed rolling through center ice to make the Vancouver defensemen backtrack.
