“No doubt, right now, they’re playing the best,” Julien told reporters of the Rangers, who now lead Boston by nine points in the Eastern Conference standings. “They’re playing like we did last year when we were playing well. Right now, that’s the identity we’re looking for again.”
For sure, that was the familiar refrain from the Garden last night, from coaches and analysts and onlookers: the Rangers are what we used to be. It was almost as if the Bruins, indisputably caught in a midseason rut during The Year After, collectively lifted their heads and looked across center ice, recognizing that the real enemy these last few weeks actually has been wearing black and gold.
Really, isn’t that what this is about? After opening the season with their heads in the rafters - like their banner, perhaps - the Bruins ripped off a streak that again established them as Cup contenders. They won 10 straight, 14 of 15 and 21 of 24. There was simply no stopping them. The Bruins excelled in every phase of the game, from the power play to the penalty kill to their bread-and-butter 5-on-5, playing not as if spoiled by their success, but buoyed by it.
But then, when you are young, the hangovers don’t last as long.
The problem now is that there appears to be a team that wants the Cup more than the Bruins do, which is certainly understandable. By default, the other 29 franchises in the NHL have gone longer than the Bruins since winning a championship. Professional sports are built on cliches that have more than a measure of truth in them, and this is why we know that is difficult to get to the top, even more difficult to stay there.
What we’ve all been seeing lately is simply insufficient, and everybody knows it.
“It’s certainly not good enough for the Boston Bruins,” noted Julien. “Somehow we’ve got to use the road trip here to turn things around.”
