We Want The Cup!

The cheers were deafening in the TD Garden as the final seconds ticked away at the end of Game 4.

We want the cup!  We want the cup!  We want the cup!

Boston fans want it.  You know the Bruins players want it just as much.  After capping off an impressive four game sweep of the once mighty Pittsburgh Penguins, they will have the chance to play for the Stanley Cup for the second time in three years.

But wait, how did we get here?  Weren't the Bruins supposed to be underdogs against a Pittsburgh team

loaded with the league's most explosive offense?  Well that unstoppable scoring machine was held to a meager two goals the entire series.  The Penguins boasted a roster full of household names, but Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were both held without a point - the first time that's happened to either of them in a playoff series.  Add Jarome Iginla to that list as well.  You know, the guy that Bruins fans thought was headed to Boston, until he squashed the deal by choosing the Penguins over them and forcing Calgary to make the deal with Pittsburgh instead.  Bruins fans didn't forget.  Nor will they forget that Iginla not only failed to tally a point, but the series deciding goal in the Bruins 1-0 win in Game 4 appeared to have deflected off of him on it's way into the net.  So in a way, maybe Iginla did end up helping the Bruins in the end after all. 

Meanwhile, David Krejci is the one leading the postseason in goals (9) and points (21), with Nathan Horton not far behind.  Even the 41 year old Jaromir Jagr looked rejuvenated in chipping in three assists in the series against his former team.  This Bruins team isn't known for it's offense.  They score enough to win, using their toughness and grit on the defensive end to keep the other team off the scoreboard. 

Perhaps the biggest reason the Bruins are in this position has been the stellar play of goalie Tuukka Rask.

As hockey enthusiasts would say, Rask was standing on his head in net throughout the series.  Really, he's been doing it all postseason.  Since fighting back from a three goal deficit in the third period to win an overtime thriller against Toronto in round one, Boston has been on an amazing roll.  They are 8-1 since that historic game, with the lone loss coming in overtime against the Rangers in round two.  Most of these games have been close, but it's been Rask that has kept them ahead.  Two years ago the Bruins won a Stanley Cup behind the outstanding performance of another goaltender.  So far, Rask (12-4, 1.75 GAA, .943 SV%) has been even better in this postseason than Tim Thomas was in that championship season (16-9, 1.98 GAA, .940 SV%).  The NHL postseason often comes down to who has the hottest goalie at the time.  That was the case two years ago with Thomas and last year for Jonathan Quick and the LA Kings.  This postseason, no goalie has been better than Rask.

The Penguins, on the other hand, had issues in their own net.  After Marc-Andre Fleury proved to be about as effective as a sieve, the Penguins replaced him with Tomas Vokoun.  The goaltending change did nothing to stop the bleeding in Game 2, but Vokoun at least settled down to deliver solid performances over the final two games.  He just couldn't match the brilliance of Rask in net.

Pittsburgh came out flat on their home ice the first two games and could never recover.  By the time they started playing with a sense of urgency, it was too late.  The Bruins grabbed momentum early by scoring the first goal of the series in the opening period of Game 1, but it took a cheap shot by Penguins villain Matt Cooke (the punk that ended Marc Savard's career) to really open the flood gates.  Boston added two more goals to their opening game shut out before embarrassing the Penguins in front of their home crowd in a 6-1 victory in Game 2.  These teams have a long history of bad blood between them (no, we still haven't forgiven Ulf Samuelsson), so things were bound to get chippy.  This led to one of the more hilarious moments of the series, when the typically timid Crosby put on a fake tough guy act by going nose-to-chest with Zdeno Chara.  Not a smart move, Sid.  When Cooke got himself ejected for smashing Adam McQuaid headfirst into the boards it awoke the physicality of this Bruins team and they used that to fuel them into dominating the rest of the way.  The Penguins broke the number one rule of playing the Bruins - you don't poke the bear!

The Bruins physical style of play proved to be too much for the favored Penguins, who had the misfortune of running into a team that they match up poorly against - stingy defense, hot goalie and plenty of players willing to play rough.  Much of the blame will be placed on stars like Crosby, which would be unfair.  Crosby is a proven winner.  He's won a cup before, been an MVP and has an Olympic gold medal.  The guy knows what it takes to win.  The Bruins were able to knock him off his game and force the series to be played their way instead of his.  The result was chaos for a Pittsburgh offense that struggled to adjust.  Crosby will get blamed because he is the team's best player and the face of the NHL, but it's not all his fault.  Putting the blame on him for the team's failure is also unfair to the Bruins, who deserve the credit for beating the Penguins as opposed to the misconception that this series was all about Pittsburgh beating themselves.

Boston finds itself back in the Stanley Cup Finals with a chance to capture their second title in three years.  In order to do that they'll have to go through another team likely to be favored over them.  The Chicago Blackhawks have their own pair of star forwards in Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, with a goaltender, Corey Crawford, who has been nearly as hot as Rask this postseason.  This is a team that started the season on a historic run that saw them win 21 games to open the season before suffering a non-shoot out loss.  This will be the toughest test this Bruins team has faced this season.  Then again, that's what they said in the last series against Pittsburgh and in 2011 against Vancouver and we know how those series turned out. 

As we prepare for the final stage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs between two Original Six teams, Boston fans are buzzing with the chance for another title.

Because we want the cup!