The Boston Bruins gave up a 3-0 lead after the first period against the Tampa Bay Lightning yesterday. The Bolts scored five unanswered goals to beat the Bruins in an embarrassing fashion in game four of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Bruins got two first period goals from Olympian Gold Medalist Patrice Bergeron in the first period and another from Michael Ryder. The third goal of the game and second from Bergeron was on a shorthanded goal off of a Turnover from Bolts sniper Steven Stamkos. Bergeron took a quick wrister from the slot, that beat Bolts goalie Dwyane Roloson five-hole.
That was not enough though as the Bruins had a few defensive lapses in the 2nd period which led to three goals from the Bolts. Tim Thomas directly responsible for one lapse as he did held onto the puck for too long which led to captain Zdeno Chara getting sandwiched by two Bolts players. The other turnover came from struggling defensemen Tomas Kaberle.
With the Bolts scoring two quick goals to cut the deficit to 3-2 why isn’t Coach Claude Julien calling a time-out is beyond me. Why isn’t he either making a goalie change or calling a time-out after goals three and four from Tampa? Julien did not help himself out there as the Bruins lost all momentum after getting off to a 3-0 lead. Bolts coach made a goalie change after going down 3-0 and his team did not look back scoring 5 goals including an empty netter.
The Bolts scored goals four and five (empty netter) in the third period.
The Bruins need to make some changes to the lines and here is what this author does:
Lucic-Kejci-Horton
Marchand-Bergeron-Seguin
Kelly-Peverly-Ryder
Paille-Campbell-Recchi
-Thornton
Moving Tyler Seguin to the second line adds more speed to that line, because Mark Recchi is starting to hold the line back. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand are gifted players, so give them someone who can not only keep up with them, but is also faster than them. Seguin adds a new element to this line which should be deadly against a weak defensive team like Tampa.
The Kelly-Peverly-Ryder line was very effective vs. Montreal and has been split up because of the addition of Tyler Seguin, but it is time to re-unite that line. With Ryder’s wrist shit and Peverly’s speed that line should mind boggle Bolts coach Guy Boucher.
Recchi moves to the fourth line, and this should not hurt the fourth line at all. Gregory Campbell and Daniel Paille are already excellent defensively, and adding a good two way forward like Recchi can also help add a little offensive fire power to that line.
Bye Bye Tomas Kaberle, its time to insert rookie Steve Kampfer into his spot with Adam McQuaid. Kampfer has been a regular in the Bruins line-up before Kaberle was acquired so its time to change it up as Kaberle continues to struggle... It’s not like its not the Eastern Finals! Kaberle scratched, Kampfer in.
Chara-Seidenberg
Ference-Boychuk
McQuaid-Kampfer
So simple, Julien makes a few line changes, get back to what the Bruins did in game three and everything should go well.
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