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Claude Julien: ‘We’ve got to bring our game with us’

 06.09.11 at 12:16 pm ET
By Mike Petraglia

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Now comes the hard part.

The Bruins have turned the 2011 Stanley Cup finals upside down. They have overcome two remarkably heartbreaking losses in Vancouver by not just beating the Canucks on their Garden home ice but running the Sedin twins and the rest of the Western Conference champs right out of the building.

The Bruins dominated in every way possible, outscoring the Canucks, 12-1, in the two wins to even the series and turn it into a best-of-3.

Now, the Bruins have to carry that momentum with them on their cross-continent flight and translate it enough on the Rogers Arena ice on Friday night to give them a chance to win the Cup on that same Garden ice on Monday night.

How do they do it?

“I think we’ve got to bring our game with us, simple as that,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “We have to bring our game. That has to continue in Vancouver. It doesn’t matter where you are, you got to play the same way whether you’re at home or on the road.”

And that mean laying out the hits, doing everything possible to keep the aggressive Tim Thomas in his comfort zone between the pipes, and continuing an amazing run on the penalty kill.

In the two wins, the Bruins outhit the Canucks 67-58 and Thomas stopped a remarkable 78 of 79 shots on goal, primarily because he saw nearly every single one of them. That’s where it gets tricky. The Canucks will no doubt run more bodies at Thomas in front and the Bruins defenseman must continue to clear bodies away.

“I think we just need to be consistent,” added Tyler Seguin. “You saw a game like [Game 3] where many people were saying what if we left all our goals in that one game. But we came out and stayed consistent and we want to keep doing that for the next couple of games.”

The Canucks – who came into the series with the No. 3 power play unit in the playoffs – all of sudden can’t solve the Bruins penalty kill. After six more failed attempts in Game 4, they are 1-for-22 on the man advantage in the series, including a shorthander by Brad Marchand in Game 3.

“It’s going to be very, very important,” Rich Peverley said the need to maintain discipline on the road. “You want to keep them off the power play. Their power play is still one of the best in the league in the playoffs and you want to give them [as few] power plays as you can. At the the same time, if we keep our emotions in check, hopefully, we’ll get our power plays.”

For the Canucks, they appear – from the looks of the last two games – as a talented and gifted team in complete disarray. Their Vezina Trophy candidate – Roberto Luongo – has been torched for 12 goals in just over five periods of play. The Sedin twins left Boston with the same amount of points they had as when they came to town Sunday evening.

But their coach Alain Vigneault – the man who allowed Luongo to get lit up for four third-period goals in Game 3 – is playing the psychological game the best he can. He believes his team’s mental state is fine, and will benefit from home ice in Game 5 Friday night.

“It’s real good,” Vigneault said of his team’s confidence. “You know, if somebody would have told me at the beginning of the year that we could play for the Stanley Cup, best two-out-of-three series with home ice advantage in front of our fans, I would have taken those odds, I would have taken that anytime to play for the big prize.

“That’s what we’ve got right now. We’re going to put these last two games behind us. We play real well at home. We’re going to go and feed off the energy from our fans and give it our best shot.”

Read More: 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Alain Vigneault, Boston Bruins, Claude Julien Print  |  Email   | Bark It Up!  |  Digg It
  • Deano

    Dear Mut and Lou,

    My keys to Game 4 basically remain the same for Game 5.

    Bruins if you missed the memo, don’t shoot low on Luongo, his butterfly style is normally good at stopping every low shot, he has a weak glove side high. Shoot at his glove. Also, do not try to go for the fancy move take the shot because he plays back in the crease which makes him better at stopping one timers and dekes. He is obviously susceptible to well placed shots or redirects as he plays so far back in his crease. Basically, he is the dead opposite of Tim Thomas in terms of playing style. I said all this before last night’s game and I could not have been more correct, almost every goal last night was glove side high (except the first goal).

    In game 3 and 4 the Canucks defense got tired by the end of the game due to physical forecheck of the bruins. They add Keith Ballard who was not up to playoff speed and got burnt. Therefore whenever he is on the ice; I want the Bruins attacking his side and taking advantage of his presence.

    The Sedin twins showed that they get easily frustrated if they are getting pushed around. Every time either of them touches the puck or goes anywhere near the front of the net someone should be putting a body on them. They are european players and shy from the physicality of the game, so go after them.

    If the Canucks had a weakness it would be their defensive unit. Even though they are a pretty good group compared to the other aspects of Vancouver (they have really talented forwards and a great goalie) their defense is their weakest link. The Bruins should attack their defense by getting the puck down low and forechecking with authority.

    Seguin was dropped from the lineup because after his two big games he stopped finishing his hits. If he wants playing time he needs to learn that offensive opportunities are created by making good defensive plays. Kessel never learned this, however Savard did when he came to Boston. Once Savard started playing a two way game his offensive numbers improved, Seguin could easily be a top player on this Bruins team but he first needs to learn how to play the defensive side of the game and the offense will come naturally afterwards.

    Bruins will win the series if they play pissed off like they were in game 3 and 4. If Canucks win game 5 this is going to 7 games, if Bruins win game five this is over in 6. They need to use their emotion to get the extra step they had in the last two games. Clearly Vancouver has more talented players, however this Bruins team has shown that desire is more important than skill.

    Give some props to Bergeron today, he has completely frustrated Kesler by crushing him in the face-off circle, so much so that he cheap shotted Bergeron off the first drop of the puck. On top of that, Bergeron has been flying around the ice throwing his body at people more than anyone else on this Bruins team.

    Marchand should be nicknamed “Taz” after the Tasmanian Devil because he is an absolute whirling dervish right now. Sedin went to hit him after the whistle and he went low on him, then tackles that wimp Ballard, classic.

    Finally, Burrows that little puke won’t fight a player, but he goes to fight a goalie? Thomas is at a huge disadvantage in that fight because of the equipment he has on. That is why goalies only fight goalies. Burrows is such a little puke it is unbelievable. How come the refs keep letting them get away with goalie interference? I mean they literally were slashing the stick out of Thomas’s hands like four times in that game? Did they show it on TV? Are these refs completely oblivious to all the dirty crap Vancouver does in this series? Did they not see Burrows cross check a goalie, four times they slash the stick out of his hand, Kesler cross checks Bergeron off the face-off, where are the penalties on this crap? If they are going to call the Bruins for every little thing, then call the Canucks for the crap they do, just be consistent.

    Go Bruins!

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