Bruins Need to Avoid Hangover

The news yesterday that Aaron Rome of the Canucks will be suspended for 4 games (he cannot play again in the Stanley Cup Finals) was well received in the Boston area.  Following the news that Nathan Horton has a severe concussion and will not play again in the series it seemed only fair that the man responsible for sidelining him should also remain out.

The news is also good for the Bruins in another way.  With Rome being removed from the equation the Bruins can focus solely on hockey tonight in Game 4 rather than seeking retribution for their fallen teammate.

Boston obviously used Horton as a source of inspiration throughout their resounding 8-1 Game 3 victory Monday night and it showed through in their energy and physicality over the final 2 periods.  An adrenaline shot like that can be helpful to teams at times and the Bruins seemingly took full advantage in Game 3.

Motivational factors like that typically can only help teams in spurts though, not over the long haul.  The Bruins have proven that over the course of this season multiple times:

12/2/10: The Bruins routed Tampa Bay 8-1 at the Garden in Marc Savard's return to the lineup.  Two nights later they went to Toronto and lost 3-2 in a shootout, beginning a stretch of 5 losses in 8 games.

2/3/11 and 2/9/11: The Bruins defeated the Stars 6-3 on February 3 at the Garden in a game which saw the Bruins score 4 first period goals after being sparked by 3 fights in the first 4 seconds of the game.  They followed that up with a 2-0 home loss to the Sharks two days later.  February 9 was the infamous 8-6 home victory over Montreal.  That game featured 182 combined penalty minutes, 13 fighting majors, and 7 game misconducts.  Two nights later the Bruins were routed 6-1 at home by Detroit and ultimately lost 3 straight before righting the ship.

3/24/11: The Bruins routed Montreal 7-0 in a much anticipated matchup at the Garden following two-plus weeks of reaction (and some may argue overreaction) to the Zdeno Chara hit on Max Pacioretty and its fallout.  The Bruins clearly emptied the tank that night because 2 days later, again at the Garden, they were shut out 1-0 by the Rangers in a lackluster effort.

The Bruins even suffered in the playoffs following their emotional sweep of the Flyers in the second round.  They inexplicably came out flat in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals and lost 5-2 to Tampa Bay at the Garden.

The good news is that the Bruins were able to eventually get back on track in all of the previous examples.

The bad news is that they do not have any margin for error tonight like they did in the previous situations.

Going back to Vancouver down 3-1 is not an option for this team.  They have been resilient time and again this postseason but it would be an extremely tall order to expect them to win 3 straight games, including 2 on the road, with 2 cross country flights added to the mix.

The emotional boost was great for one game but they cannot expect to let it carry them for the rest of the series.

The opportunity to seize control is within reach for Boston.  Vancouver seemed intimidated last night and they proved Luongo is far from invincible.  The Bruins even made sure that the Canucks did not leave the game with any positives, answering their lone goal of the game with 3 more of their own in the final two and a half minutes.

This is a must win game to show that they can bounce back from an emotional win and exert the same type of pressure on Vancouver again.
    
The Bruins have answered just about every question their critics have had this postseason.  They have another opportunity to answer one tonight.

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