Waiting for Nothing

Talk about being blue-balled.

I waited and waited and waited for this day to come. Since a week ago when the regular season ended. Since a month ago when the Bruins clinched. Since a year ago when....well, we won't go there tonight. I waited and waited and finally the day came. Game 1 of the 2011 NHL playoffs started tonight.

But even though the wait for this game felt like an eternity, the wait during the game felt even longer.

The Bruins spent 60 minutes piss-farting around the ice tonight and came up completely empty. Did Carey Price steal the show and win this game single-handedly for the Habs? Ehh Maybe, but I don't think so. Price did play well, but it was well enough. People are going to say that the Canadiens won tonight because of the stellar play of their young netminder and that the Bruins were doomed from the start. Falsetto McFalsenstein. If anything, Carey Price just prevented the Canadiens from losing tonight, but he really didn't need to do much. 31 saves, and most of them were in his chest. Many of the opportunities that the Bruins had to score (cough, Marchand) failed because the Bruins (cough, cough,) failed to finish the play - not because he made a spectacular save. I also think I counted 5 times when Chara shot the puck straight into the chestticles of Price.

I won't lie, the Bruins managed to keep the puck in the Montreal zone for much of the game. I'm sure the puck possession is something ridiculous - maybe even 2:1 Boston. The whole second period looked like it was a game of half-court pondhockey on Lake Montreal. Yet, the Bruins couldn't do anything but play grab-ass in the offense zone. Turnover after turnover. Missed shot after blocked shot after no-shot. Nothing. And let's be honest, the Canadiens were NOT playing offense and they were barely playing defense. Really, there was no excuse for a loss tonight, let alone zero goals...

If we learned anything from this game it's that Lucic may need to be benched. I don't know. I'm split on this decision. I'm usually against sitting one of your better players because of a slump. But I'm not sure Lucic is in a slump. I think he just might be getting lazy. I mean, if you're going to say that Carer Price single-handedly won the game for the Habs, you have to say that Lucic single-handedly lost the game for the B's. And I'm not just referring to the second goal (in which, he really did blow). He played like an donkey all night. Stiff hands, slow feet, poor stickhandling, marginal decision-making. Where's the 30 goal scorer we saw this year??? If we can't get him for the playoffs, can we at least get the balls-to-the-wall corner-crashing, slot-screening forechecker we saw before this year??? Julien sat Kessel in the '08 playoffs when he was playing like a donkey, so who knows...we may be seeing Seguin after all...

Looks like I'll have to wait a little longer to see some serious playoff hockey.