BOSTON – The Bruins wouldn’t have won Friday night’s epically cathartic Game 7 against the Tampa Bay Lightning two or three years ago.
They certainly wouldn’t have captured it last season when injuries and offensive ineptitude proved too formidable a tag team partner for their hockey dreams.
Simon Gagne's overtime goal -- his version of a flying elbow of the top turnbuckle -- that completed the Bruins' collapse against the Flyers last season accentuated that point. But nobody truthfully thought the Bruins had a chance at the Stanley Cup last year.
This season, the Bruins have landed in the perfectly sweet spot with their team development, and they've been able to fulfill the promise of this year while healing the wounds of yesteryear’s postseason flops.
“I felt like from the very beginning of the season that we had some unfinished business this year, and I’ve been saying it all along,” said B’s captain Zdeno Chara. “You just got the feeling that it was in here. Guys were really hungry in the playoffs, and now we’re just going out and showing it.”
The Bruins showed their desire and revealed exactly how they're able to perform whem they’re firing at full efficiency: stout and punishing defense, airtight goaltending and opportunistic offense capable of stinging even the stingiest of opponents.
It all came to a perfect crescendo when Nathan Horton banged home the only goal of the night with 7:33 to go in the third period, and the Bruins carried out a flawless Game 7 at TD Garden with a 1-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It was a Herculean effort from Tampa goaltender Dwayne Roloson that stymied the Bruins attack headed into the third period, but Boston’s unrelenting, unflappable approach from a group of maturing hockey players eventually proved too strong.
Roloson made 37 saves on the night, but one shot off Horton's stick was the killer.
“With the heartbreak from last year and the year before and with the Patriots doing it, the Red Sox doing it and the Celtics doing it, we wanted to be up in the same caliber as them,” said Milan Lucic of Boston’s other three sports teams capturing championships recently. “I think the main thing was that we weren’t frustrated. [Roloson] made some big saves and he really robbed us. There was no coming to the bench and saying ‘F this’ or ‘F that’, or guys getting frustrated with themselves.
They certainly wouldn’t have captured it last season when injuries and offensive ineptitude proved too formidable a tag team partner for their hockey dreams.
Simon Gagne's overtime goal -- his version of a flying elbow of the top turnbuckle -- that completed the Bruins' collapse against the Flyers last season accentuated that point. But nobody truthfully thought the Bruins had a chance at the Stanley Cup last year.
This season, the Bruins have landed in the perfectly sweet spot with their team development, and they've been able to fulfill the promise of this year while healing the wounds of yesteryear’s postseason flops.
“I felt like from the very beginning of the season that we had some unfinished business this year, and I’ve been saying it all along,” said B’s captain Zdeno Chara. “You just got the feeling that it was in here. Guys were really hungry in the playoffs, and now we’re just going out and showing it.”
The Bruins showed their desire and revealed exactly how they're able to perform whem they’re firing at full efficiency: stout and punishing defense, airtight goaltending and opportunistic offense capable of stinging even the stingiest of opponents.
It all came to a perfect crescendo when Nathan Horton banged home the only goal of the night with 7:33 to go in the third period, and the Bruins carried out a flawless Game 7 at TD Garden with a 1-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
It was a Herculean effort from Tampa goaltender Dwayne Roloson that stymied the Bruins attack headed into the third period, but Boston’s unrelenting, unflappable approach from a group of maturing hockey players eventually proved too strong.
Roloson made 37 saves on the night, but one shot off Horton's stick was the killer.
“With the heartbreak from last year and the year before and with the Patriots doing it, the Red Sox doing it and the Celtics doing it, we wanted to be up in the same caliber as them,” said Milan Lucic of Boston’s other three sports teams capturing championships recently. “I think the main thing was that we weren’t frustrated. [Roloson] made some big saves and he really robbed us. There was no coming to the bench and saying ‘F this’ or ‘F that’, or guys getting frustrated with themselves.
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