The Bovino Buzz: Two U's, Two K's, One Winning Streak
Writing my weekly wrapup of our beloved Black and Gold has proven to be a welcomed challenge this week with Valentine’s Day and all. I spent this couples holiday with my lovely girlfriend and did the same thing we did last year in our first Valentines Day. Ate pizza and watched Boston Bruins hockey. Hope everyone enjoyed their day as well. On to the goods…
So I write to you in the midst of the Olympic Break. Many of our beloved Bruins are competing for their home countries and I sincerely hope they stay healthy, to me, a Stanley Cup speaks more than a gold medal. The B’s are coming to this break HOT. A four-game winning streak kinda hot! To think we would be at this point after a 10-game losing streak is nothing short of amazing.
From twelfth to seventh in a matter of hours… much like Dale Jr.’s push from tenth to second in one lap in this years Daytona 500.
What exactly has sparked this streak? Confidence, Tuuuuuuuukka, and grit! Watching McQuaid drop the gloves and rockem sockem robot Florida’s Oreskovich was inspiring. Finally winning in a shootout brought tears of joy to my eyes. Watching the Bruins pick apart Tampa to a 4-0 first period lead had me seeing visions of last season. Pure domination, until the defense got a little Swiss cheesy.
Tuukka Rask has been sharp when he has needed to be, minus that little hiccup in Tampa. He gave the team every opportunity to win each of these four games.
Which game was bigger? Boy, beating Montreal speaks loudly among T rides. But let me tell you, Montreal isn’t number one in the division, so, the win in Buffalo over arguably the best goalie in the NHL this year was much more meaningful. Shall I remind you of some points to how we were to exit that losing streak:
- Intensity
- Fight
- Keep the team intact
I have seen an increase in Intensity and Fight during the past four games and its very promising. Peter Chirielli did the right thing by not dealing anyone. The best way to fix the problem was to allow the team to do it. That brings confidence amongst players, and shows the true colors of a TEAM and not a show run by one or two players. The concept of TEAM seems to be common amongst all Boston sports teams. Truly makes for excitement.
Lucic and Chara have picked up their physical game and I’m finally seeing some grit from Michael Ryder. Ryder is nasty good when he’s firing on all cylinders. It will be interesting to see how our Olympians are mentally and physically come March 2nd. I’m confident yet nervous. We don’t need our Olympians pulling a Dice-K on us.
In conclusion I would like to make a shout-out to my friend and current USA Women’s Hockey defense-woman Kacey Bellamy. She resides in my hometown of Westfield, MA and everyone is pulling for you Kacey. I remember playing Little League Baseball against Kacey years ago and she was the only girl in the league, this was before they started Little League Softball. Pitching to a girl was always a little different, but this woman was born an athlete. She comes from an extremely athletic family. Her older brother Rob is a Right Wing for the Philadelphia Flyers AHL team, the Adirondack Phantoms and was drafted by the Flyers before he even started college. Both Bellamy’s played Division 1 college hockey, Rob for Maine and Kacey for New Hampshire. I personally wish both Kacey and Rob luck in their quests for greatness. To everyone back home here, you two are already great. Keep it up guys!
I’ll be back this coming weekend for another installment of Bovino’s Buzz.
“For Andy Brickley, Naoko Funayama and our NESN HD production crew, I’m Jack Edwards saying so long from TD Garden.”
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