The Blame Game

If it weren't for the fact that there's always a losing team, Shank would have nothing to write about.

Damn straight, prescient commenter - this is a constant refrain in these parts. It also helps a lot to pin blame on one guy, Bill Buckner style:

It was a holiday festival at the Garden Monday. It’s not every day the home team wins and you see a guy score four goals in one game.

With lots of families on hand for the Columbus Day matinee, David Pastrnak found the back of the net four times and the Bruins improved to 5-1-0 with a 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks. Brad Marchand, the goat of Game 7 in June, had assists on two of the goals and seems to be on a mission to get back to the Cup Finals. Marchand has five assists and four goals in the last five games.

How big of a goat is he, Shank?

And then it all went away in the final seconds of the first period when Marchand, after making a faint effort to check Blues winger Jaden Schwartz, inexplicably skated to the bench in the closing seconds of the period. This left the Bruins shorthanded, and Alex Pietrangelo took a pass from Schwartz, skated free toward the net, and potted a backhand past a defenseless Tuukka Rask.

My hockey buddy John mentioned this one salient fact - St. Louis physically beat the shit out of the Bruins in that series. I did pick up on that when I was watching it, but John's assessment makes it official. Yes, it's another ill-informed Bruins column that he manages to whiff on.

Rare As A Diamond

Here's something you won't see again for a while - Shank writing a positive story on the Boston Bruins!

TORONTO — You’ve got to love the Li’l Ball O’ Hate.

Playing without star linemate Patrice Bergeron (late scratch, upper-body injury), Brad Marchand broke a 1-1 tie with a goal late in the second period and paced the Bruins to a 3-1 Game 4 victory at Air Canada Centre Thursday night. The Bruins lead the series, 3-1, and will have a chance to close it out Saturday night at the New Garden.

Boston’s diminutive Puck Provocateur invariably stands tall in the big moments. On a night when the Bruins didn’t have much jump, Marchand put them ahead and made everybody forget that they got outplayed in the first period.

The standard game recap & player quotes follows this section. In that sense, you have seen this before, many times!

Bonus - Larry Bird Watch!

In a weird way, Marchand reminds me a little of Larry Bird. Larry Legend was a foot taller and far more dominant, but both are vintage trash-talkers who save their best stuff for in-game interactions. Like Marchand, Larry didn’t do a ton of talking off the court, but he was in the ear of his opponents on a nightly basis.

What's a hockey column without a comparison to a basketball legend? It just wouldn't be the same...