Big and Bad Aren't Back

My ears are still ringing. I don't know when they'll stop. It hurts. It bites deep, that's for sure. You know you are in Boston when your team can squander a three goal lead to blow what was already a mediocre and disappointing season into smithereens. They had this thing. They had this thing a while ago, but you want to talk about a microcosm of a collapse? You want to talk about a game that occurred in the most painful possible way? Haha, we got one last night, Bruins fans.

The Bruins dropped a game 7 do-or-die game to the Philadelphia Flyers in the eastern conference semifinals last night, 4-3, becoming only for fourth team in professional sports history to blow a 3-0 series lead by losing four straight. The ending was fitting for a franchise surrounded by late season slumps and heartbreak. The problem is that the game forced Bruins fans through the entire emotional roller coaster that was the 2009-2010 season all in over again in 60 minutes of hockey. You think that watching a team overperform when they are under pressure just to let off of the gas when things get easier over the course of two seasons is tough? Try watching that happen in one single game that decides whether that team will continue their season or not. This one stung. If there is one thing I've learned, if there's one thing I will take from this experience, it is to never sit back and relax when it comes to this town and it's sports. It is amazing how many people were focused purely on the Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens series just a week ago. Bruins fans were focused on who they were going to play next, and not on the crucial fourth win that was required to face that opponent. Who are we to pick and choose. Who are we to play the hockey Gods when they have smote us throughout our entire existence. We are but lowly Bruins fans, and we have now suffered the consequences.

The Bruins are members of an elite team of only four squads. Their accomplishment? They've all blown a 3-0 best of seven series lead. There was no way the Bruins would ruin a three goal lead deep into the third period last night, right? This was their chance to fight through adversity. But they found a way to blow it, just like they always do. They were strong in every aspect of the game through the first period, when the pressure was the greatest. Their offense was getting quality scoring chances on a playoff-rookie goalie, their defense was keeping the puck away from the net, their physical players were controlling the game, and their power-play brought tears of joy to my eyes. They were the team that beat the Buffalo Sabres and the best goalie in the world in six games. They were the team that dominated the 2008-2009 regular season, they were the team that could suck the life out of their opponents inch by inch, shot by shot, check by check. Then the clock struck midnight...

And they turned into a pumpkin. The Bruins laid down when they hit three goals. They sat their little fannies down with the lead and hoped to coast through forty more minutes of the most important hockey game of the season, and just like always, their strategy didn't work. The B's 14 shots in the first dwindled to six in the second, and five in the third. The game plan that was oh-so-effective in the first was tossed out the window as the B's did what they do best, hope for the best. They could have maintained their physicality. They could have made backup goalie Michael Leighton choke on a flurry of shots. But instead they left it up to fate, and fate bit them where it hurts the most.

It's a shame it happened this way. The Bruins showed this post season that they have the ability to play with intensity, but they also proved that their effort only appears in rough situations. We need to prove that we can play well in the 2008-2009 season? Fine. We need to play well against the Carolina Hurricanes? Meh, we're the number one seed- save your energy. We need to beat the Washington Capitals to get into the playoffs in 2010? Fine. We need to take out the best goalie in the world to advance in the playoffs? Fine. We need to beat the lackluster and injured Flyers to keep it going? Ahh, it'll take care if itself... Oh, it's game seven and we need a win to put them away? Fine. Oh, it's the second period and we're cruising with a 3-1 lead? We can afford to take a little breather. Oh, its the third period and they came back to tie the game three three? Fi- whoops, too late, we blew it.

When will they learn?

Walking down the stairs at the garden last night, I felt a range of emotions. Anger was one of them. Anger at a team that couldn't capitalize on their strongest first period of the season. Anger at a team that couldn't capitalize on their strongest first three games of a series in this postseason. I also felt tired. Tired of the heartbreak. Tired of the lackadaisical play, tired of the mentality of a team that hasn't won the big one in thirty eight years. The Bruins aren't getting out of what they've gotten themselves into either. After the Celtics won it all in 2008, the spotlight has been on the Big Bad Bruins to contribute to a revived sports town. It hasn't happened. Now, with two of their biggest rivals on to the Eastern Conference Finals, the spotlight shines even brighter on their debacles.

The 2009-2010 season was dominated by an Bruins attitude that would make any sports fan cringe. The team dominated the spotlight in situations where they were given no chance to win, and they came crashing down in places where they ought to have succeeded. It is relatively clear that underestimation has led to the Bruins' demise these past few seasons. Last year, they had the best record in the eastern conference. They were golden favorites to end the bad luck streak, and then they failed to perform against an underrated Carolina Hurricanes team. This year, they failed to finish off Buffalo in game 5 of their series, and were subject to one of the greatest collapses in sports history in their series loss the the Flyers. Leaving the garden tonight, Bruins fans' tempers smoldered all the more because of how they were sent home. After being handed a gift of a game seven with home ice advantage, the Bruins cruised to a 3-0 lead before allowing a weak goal before the end of the first period. They allowed two more goals in the second period without any offensive strikes whatsoever. They followed that with a third period in which they fought, but were too late to regain their form. The Flyers took advantage when they could, on a late power play, and ended the Bruins' season right then and there. Sound familiar?

Game seven was a microcosm of the entire series. Play well for three games and then lose focus of the finish line and get caught up looking forward in the next game. Focusing on Montreal lead to two victories for Philly. By the time Boston realized that they still needed a fourth victory to advance, the Flyers had run the series to a game seven. In it, the Flyers took advantage of the Bruins in the way that they took advantage of them all series, by weathering the storm and taking advantage of when the B's were sleeping on the ice.

The theme for the 2009-2010 Boston Bruins was Big and Bad are Back. They are not. That much is crystal clear. Big and Bad wouldn't have allowed a soft goal at the end of a dominant first period. Big and Bad wouldn't have sat back to the tune of six shots on goal in a crucial second period. Big and Bad wouldn't have stopped checking after going up 3-0 in the first. Big and Bad would have kept the pressure up. Big and Bad would not have left they Flyers for dead, they would have pummeled their dead body first. Instead. The Bruins let up. They sat back, and they got shut down. Big and Bad aren't back, and until they are, history will repeat itself, time after heartbreaking time.

Who gets the blame for preventing Big and Bad from returning? They all do. From big Z, who's 'nervousness' was hardly captain-like, to Claude Julian, whose doesn't look capable of raising his voice, to the individual players, the vast majority of whom saw their performance drop dramatically with the outset of the 2009 season.

I've had a lot of practice walking down the Garden steps from the balcony after a brutal loss. I've become pretty good at it. I can point out the dents I've made in the metal ceiling of the staircase or places I've stood at the moments of defeat. At the end of a season, the pain and the heartbreak are at the forefront of any fan's emotions. But, in Boston, when your team is as heartbreaking as only Boston teams can be, there is also a hint of excitement. Not excitement at the prospect of an injured Flyers team as the only hope against the dreaded Montreal Canadiens in the conference finals, but excitement at the prospect of a fresh start. Maybe it comes with the fact that I bleed black and gold. Maybe it comes with the dirty, dirty water. Maybe it comes with the fact that Boston is the greatest sports town in the world. Either way, there will never be a dull season in Boston sports history, and I am ready for the Bruins to enter the fray again next year, when everyone starts at 0, and when everyone has the same shot at the big prize. It sounds ridiculous, but I love following the Bruins, from their mistakes, to their successes, to their ground-breaking acheivements, and to their heartbreaking blowups. Big and Bad aren't back, but maybe they will be come October, and Boston will be ready for it.