By Eric Engels - "An epic battle" is how Tim Thomas described it afterwards. He was talking about a series that boiled down to a one-shot game in which both teams bled for the cause.
They bled for the cause throughout a war that featured 13 gut-wrenching battles this season; through tremendous peaks and devastating valleys, like warriors on kamikaze missions.
This was all or nothing, and it was everything you expect to see between the bitterest of rivals.
Both should be lauded for doing everything it takes to win. Only one can receive credit for the accomplishment.
The Bruins have earned the opportunity to continue to forge their way through thick playoff bush; to take a breath and bask in the elation and relief a single shot provided. They successfully erased a 2-0 series-deficit for the first time in their history, and showed tremendous will in doing it. They did it with the shadows of last year's horrifying meltdown looming over their heads; a stigma they'd have carried with them to next season had one shot gone the other way.
Indeed, the Bruins spent as much energy fighting their nagging demons as they did fighting the Canadiens. And they prevailed.
It's fitting that this would come down to one shot--a shot that officially tied both teams in goals for the series, at 18 apiece. It doesn't get more tightly contested than that.
If it was a battle for the ages, it was because the Canadiens played above themselves to make it as such. If the Bruins had more than just the Canadiens to deal with, the same could be said for a Montreal team that suffered too many injuries.
Their short playoff run was a magnification of their season. They gutted their way through annihilative casualties--ones that kept them from a more favourable position in the standings. The blows they absorbed in this series ultimately kept them from being on the right side of that one shot.
But they gave the Bruins everything they had--and more. They can take pride in their performance, but certainly no consolation in the result.
Epic, describes the history of these two teams. It's a history now emboldened by this latest chapter in which the Bruins have overcome a haunting that's defined their organization throughout its existence. They will use it as ammunition for their next target, while the Canadiens resonate in contemplation of what might have been.
This epic war is now a memory to be re-hatched on the day this rivalry resumes. Months will seem like years until that day.
And when we do remember, we should think of what these teams gave us, right down to the bitter end; the very best of what NHL Hockey has to offer.
It was epic!
