By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
Everything seems to be breaking just perfectly for the Bruins right now, and the timing couldn’t be better.
Due to one of the most bizarre and unexpected twists in NHL playoff history, Boston has secured home-ice advantage and a date with the seventh-seeded Philadelphia Flyers for the upcoming second round. That’s right–two of the last teams to qualify for postseason play in the entire league will now battle it out for a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, and the Bruins, bumbling and stumbling out of playoff contention little more than a month ago, are odds-on favorites to advance.
While I’d never dreamed of saying such a thing, we can thank Hal Gill and the Montreal Canadiens for this magnificent aligning of the stars. By shocking the world with a 2-1 Game 7 victory over the Capitals on Wednesday night and erasing a 3-1 series deficit, the Habs not only dispatched Alexander Ovechkin & Co. from the playoff race, but they snatched Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin right off the Bruins’ postseason platter. Had the Capitals won, they would’ve hosted Philly, leaving Boston in line for an incredibly challenging matchup with the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Now if [...]