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Five Thoughts: Game 6 tossed everything out the window to help set up Game 7

Boston Bruins v Tampa Bay Lightning - Game Six

in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at St Pete Times Forum on May 25, 2011 in Tampa, Florida.

Eliot J. Schechter

Right when you think you’ve learned everything about the playoffs as well as about Boston and Tampa Bay, Game 6 goes on ahead and happens. Trends were busted, stars played like stars, goaltending evaporated with the defense. If nothing else, this series is proving to be fun that way, but with Tampa Bay forcing a Game 7 all bets are off on Friday night.

1. We mentioned a bit yesterday in our piece about the Lightning’s “concerns” about having Eric Furlatt officiating Game 6 about how the Lightning power play was disturbingly quiet since Game 2. While Furlatt and Kelly Sutherland still called more penalties on Tampa Bay than Boston (five to four) the Lightning power play reappeared in a big way going 3-4 on the man advantage including seeing a prototypical goal from Steve Stamkos.

It’s tough to say whether or not Guy Boucher’s gamesmanship paid off, but the motivation it may have served to get his power play focused and ready to cash in when they did get opportunities certainly worked. After the game, Claude Julien bristled about Boucher’s means of gaining an edge but the only thing Julien’s got to be mad about is the failure of his penalty kill to contain the Lightning attack. That doesn’t mean we won’t see any more similar gamesman-like tactics from both coaches Friday’s Game 7.

2. It’s something else to see how hot and cold both of these teams have shown themselves to be throughout this series. We’ve seen a pair of rather down and out games from Tampa Bay where Tim Thomas’ stellar play and tough Bruins defense wore them down. Then we’ve got games like last night’s where the Lightning are able to score all over the place and get their power play cranking the way we’ve seen it do throughout the playoffs.

The same goes for the Bruins as we’ve seen them dominate with defense and by getting ahead in games early. Then there’s games like last night where their defense looks toothless and Thomas ends up trying too hard to cover for their lax effort. Game 6 proved to be a healthy mix of all things that went wrong for both teams and in the end it was Tampa that cashed in more often.

3. While the Bruins got a big night out of their top line with David Krejci netting a hat trick and Milan Lucic ripping a laser by Dwayne Roloson, the rest of the forward lines were disturbingly quiet. When you’re able to get all those guys going as well as getting a pair of assists out of Tomas Kaberle on top of it all, that’s a game the Bruins feel like they have to win. Not getting added production from the likes of Patrice Bergeron shows how tenuous the Bruins success can be if they’re not all clicking together.

4. Tim Thomas is going to take heat for giving up five goals in Game 6 but after watching and re-watching the videos of the goals Tampa Bay scored, it might make sense to get on the case of his defense and support for putting him in some difficult positions. With Tampa Bay scoring three times on the power play, that makes a night tough enough but Johnny Boychuk is the guy that should get zeroed in on.

Boychuk was on the ice for all five goals against and made brutal coverage mistakes on three of those goals. Boychuk’s been strong for most of the series, but he was brutal in Game 6 and Martin St. Louis’ goal that proved to be the game winner saw Boychuk pinched in too deep leading to a two-on-one break for St. Louis and Downie that saw Thomas play more of the part of defenseman than goalie. Lapses like that are killers and Boychuk had one too many of them.

5. Now it’s all down to a Game 7. Ideally you’d like to think with the Bruins going home for that they’ll have an advantage but with how the Lightning find ways to adjust to situations and with the sort of support help they’re getting, there’s every reason to think they have a chance to make the Stanley Cup finals as well.

After all, it’s not all about Stamkos, St. Louis, and Vincent Lecavalier. Now it’s about Teddy Purcell (who scored two more goals in Game 6), Simon Gagne, and Steve Downie as well. Being able to roll out two steady offensive lines like that as well as a gnarly third line like they’ve got with Dominic Moore and Nate Thompson.

It’s one game to decide who gets to go to the Stanley Cup finals and with both teams likely pulling out all the stops means nothing but good things or us fans. It seems only right that these two go to seven games, but both teams both went seven in the first round and now they’re going seven again. It’s asking a lot of both teams but we’re sure of only one thing: Vancouver couldn’t be happier to see things break down this way.