New
England puckheads old enough to at least be graduating high school in the next
month should remember enough to draw parallels. A President’s Trophy-winning
team with a dense corps of Cup winners and one aging, Cup-less legend has let a
worthy adversary force Game 7 in the second round.
The
2000-01 Avalanche had a 3-1 lead on the Kings in the Western Conference Final,
only to let that pothole fill for lack of production. Back-to-back 1-0 falters
necessitated a rubber tilt at the Pepsi Center.
The
present-day Bruins had a chance to snuff the Montreal Canadiens on Monday, but
retched a 4-0 stinker. As penance, they will have their rivals follow them home
for Wednesday’s winner-take-all fixture at the TD Garden.
Paging
through the commemorative tome Mission
16W (co-authored by longtime Denver
Post scribe and part-time Bleacher Report colleague Adrian Dater) casts light on additional similarities at this stage.
When
the Avs whiffed on their closeout bid on the road, they fired 33 vain shots at
the Kings cage. Captain Joe Sakic led that fruitless struggle with five
registered stabs.
When
the Bruins spilled their first chance to put away the Habs, they let Carey Price complete a 26-save shutout.
Iginla, the most seasoned forward on the strike force, piloted the fruitless
toil with six shots on goal. Linemates Milan
Lucic and center and alternate captain David
Krejci combined for five.
When
Colorado missed its first of three eventual chances to close out the Kings, its
power play slipped to three conversions on 29 segments in the series. Through
six games, including a blown first chance out of two to dump Montreal, Boston’s
power play is a similarly plebeian 2-for-15 against the Canadiens’
penalty-killing brigade.
The
Avs of the past and the Bs of the present each endured a washout en route to a
whitewash on their first attempt to reach the conference final. The former club
had Milan Hejduk’s would-be Game 5 equalizer
waved off due to a high stick. The latter watched Montreal center David Desharnais legally halt the puck
on his own goal line in the closing frame.
Both
team failed to let those close shaves, among others, spark them to better
finish on subsequent attacks.
But
like Bourque and his Colorado colleagues, Iginla and the Bruins will have 60
more minutes to percolate more onslaughts.
The
parallels are at a present peak leading up to Wednesday’s faceoff. They will
only have the potential to continue thereafter if the Spoked-Bs stretch their
season to at least an additional round.
