Not so wild a break; 3-2 through two in Detroit

Not a pretty week for hockey fans in Boston. I reasoned that because there was so much hockey to see this week that my decision to stick around for spring break would be justified. Well, it turned out to be quite the mess, at times a beautiful disaster.

I picked up 2 tickets for Friday's Northeastern/BC playoff game and three for Saturday's at $20 a piece. Ends up everyone was either out of town or had other plans Tuesday. After a miserable process that involved contacting pretty much everyone on my petite list of hockey followers and rarely seen friends, I ended up getting rid of the pair for $20 - not a bad loss, considering my friend Joe scored a pair of executive box tickets to the Bruins/Wild game at work.

To sum up that game in brief, the Wild looked a much faster, superior team. We did make a run at it toward the end but came up short. Outside of the final few minutes of the game, the highlight was the giant fight in the stands that was taking place as the Bruins scored their lone goal. Most of the guys in our private box (which by the included a giant flat screen TV, fridge stocked with beer including cans of Corona?, large couch and bar table area and two rows of private seating just above the green premium seats, didn't even notice our goal because the fight was going on as the goal was scored. What I did see included at least three or four security guards or police officers and close to a dozen fans, three or four who were throwing haymakers left and right at each other and at the guards.

Friday night my roommates and I did make it over to BC but only for the first 25 or 30 minutes of the game. After jumping out to a 1-0 lead, the Huskies gave up seven consecutive strikes. We only waited around for five of those. A 3-0 loss and a 7-1 beating, not exactly the kind of play expected by the team that had previously soundly beated BU at home.

Yesterday the Bruins were pounded in Philly and I know that as much as I don't want to comment on that game, any readers would be even less enthused to listen to that sort of rant.

To their credit, the Bruins have not thrown in the towel just yet. As far as I was concerned, Philly thrusted a dagger into the spoked-B yesterday. I also expected Detroit to twist that dagger. But after giving up their early lead, the Bruins have bounced back and actually looked like they belonged out their with a Western Conference powerhouse in the second period. Marco Sturm has been a pleasant surprise. After a miserable first half or 2/3 of the season, he has bounced back with a nice stretch of goal-scoring that if nothing else has helped to keep the Bs alive and more importantly reflected well on the recent moves of GM Chiarelli. I wasn't sure he was the lone piece of the Thornton trade worth keeping. At this point, despite the fact that Brad Stuart looked pretty good in the Flames/Lightning game last night, Sturm is finally becoming a consistent producer with top notch speed that he was thought to be when he came to town.

I'm not counting my chickens yet; the Bruins still have that ever elusive good third period ahead of them. If the previous 67 or 68 games have been any indication, Detroit will take over in the third and win convincingly at home. I know I've been saying this for a while, but right now it's pretty obvious. Lose this third period and that's all she wrote.

After the game and some whiffle ball down the road, I'll be heading down to Matthews Arena for my first men's league game at NU with my parents and friends looking on, just like old times.