The view from Boston

Who are the real Boston Bruins? Is it the team that, within the last two weeks, allowed five goals to Pittsburgh, six goals to Tampa Bay and six goals to Florida? Or is it that team that followed that terrible trio of games by shutting out Toronto and allowing two goals to San Jose and two goals to the Kings? The answer won’t truly be known until the playoffs, but if goalie Tim Thomas can play the way he played last night against the Kings, don’t rule out another deep postseason run for the Bruins. Throughout the first period, in parts of the second period and particularly late in the third period, the Kings put heavy pressure on Thomas, but he never looked rattled. Presumably, that’s what a Vezina Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy and Stanley Cup will do for a guy. The Bruins aren’t the team you want to try to rally against in the third period, which is how winning playoff teams are built. Here’s how the Boston Herald and ESPNBoston.com covered last night’s game, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Bruins’ locker room…

B’s cast aside Kings (Boston Herald)

Rapid Reaction: Bruins 4, Kings 2 (ESPNBoston.com)

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COACH CLAUDE JULIEN
(on the game…) “I think it was a harder game physically; they are a good club. They played hard and we just really had to respond and I thought our guys handled it well. There was an exciting finish there and our goaltender stands tall for us but we still managed to go out there in the third (period) and have a two-goal lead. Again, it was exciting at the end but this was a hard-earned two points and I think our guys deserve a lot of credit for that.”

(on Zdeno Chara’s 1,000th game…) “I think everybody knows how important it was to this team to win it for him on his 1,000th game. He’s earned that respect around his teammates and he’s earned that respect of the organization as well, for everything he has done. The one thing I told the guys before the game was that when you go through a milestone like that, the one thing you want is to have a good souvenir from it, and a win is what we needed here and we managed to get it.”

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MILAN LUCIC
(on the game…) I think a big difference for us was that we responded more than anything. They [the Kings] obviously came out just as hard as the Sharks did and played a real hard game but we were kind of on our heels and we couldn’t get ourselves going for some reason against the Sharks. Today, we were able to get that first goal and go with it. We did a good job in all three zones and Timmy [Tim Thomas] played great. It’s good to win this one.”

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ZDENO CHARA
(on the game…) “Obviously we knew the meaning of this game and it was a really tough game. Both teams played really hard, a lot of battles, a lot of physicality, big hits, and both goalies made some big saves. I thought we really played desperate hockey. For the whole game we were blocking shots and we did a decent job killing the penalties and then we scored some important, big goals. For sure it was a big win for us.”

(on playing his 1,000th game…) It’s a great feeling. Anytime you win a hockey game it’s a great feeling. You can see that the mood in the room after the game was really, really good. I can’t ask for anything more than what the guys gave me tonight. I appreciate it; it’s a great group of guys. I’m really proud to be part of this team and this group. You can see that they battle really hard for me and for everybody. I thought that this game had special meaning for everybody.”