It's Tuukka Time Tonight

In case you've been living under a rock (or outside of Boston) and haven't heard the 'It's Tuukka Time' song put out by Toucher and Rich of 98.5 The Sports Hub, here it is. Enjoy!!

I have always been a hockey fan, pretty much from NHL '94 on, but it was hard to really be a devoted Bruins fan. Recently, they have been the odd-team out in these parts, even though Boston has been, is, and always will be a hockey town. New England loves its hockey.

Since it felt as if management wasn't committed to putting together a team that could continually compete for the Cup, it was hard to invest the time and money necessary to be a hardcore fan. But each year the B's made it to the tournament, I was watching. Playoff hockey is a horse of another color, each shift could potentially win or lose a game and the urgency is palpable. Two years ago when the Bruins took the #1 seeded Canadiens to seven, it was awesome and even with elimination, it felt special. With last year's regular season success, the expectations were so high that losing game seven to the Hurricanes in OT stung hard. But the Bruins were back, people were excited about hockey, and we couldn't wait for 2009-10.

This past regular season was tumultuous at best. We traded away our leading goalscorer in the offseason and never found a replacement. Logically enough, we were the lowest scoring team in the NHL. We had injuries all over the place, and inconsistencies with our goaltending revolving door at times. A ten game losing streak had everyone jumping off the bandwagon, and the lofty expectations of the beginning of the year were completely dismissed if not forgotten.

Enter the emergence of Tuukka Rask, the rookie goalie who has everyone believeing again. Solid goaltending can win a series, and he outduelled Ryan Miller, the US Olympic goaltender, in the opening round. With this guy in net, the Bruins are in every game, and at this time of year, that is all you can ask for.

Which leads us to tonight, the closest thing to a must-win game a team up 3-1 can have. We don't want to have to go back to Philly, especially since Pittsburgh also could close out their series against Montreal tonight (they are up 3-2). The crowds at the Garden have been boisterous all postseason, and that seventh man(?) is a big reason why they are undefeated in five home playoff games. Winning with solid defense, opportunistic scoring (some of those redirects have been redonk) and Tuukka being the beautiful butterflyer that he is, they will give whichever team they face in the Eastern Conference championship a run for the Prince of Wales trophy.

But let's make that leap to the final four tonight. And (for the moment), let's go Canadiens...