COUGHLAN: Whether for Bruins or BU, fights can be season changers

Even as the clock on the jumbotron at the TD Garden hit triple-zeros and what was left of a packed house just minutes earlier began to file into the stairwells and onto a dreary Causeway Street, the brown streaks of discarded beer still patterned the Garden ice clear as day, weaving in, out and around the blue lines and the black-and-gold B in the center.

Any hockey team can lose a game 4-1, but the stains that tarnished the ice following the Carolina Hurricanes’ drubbing of the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night served as a hoppy, carbonated reminder of the horror show that was once a closely-contested game.

Searching for just their third win in six tries, the reigning Stanley Cup champion Bruins’ (2-4-0) frustrations boiled over midway through the second period to the tune of 21 penalty minutes in one go, 17 of which were served by Bruins captain and defenseman Zdeno Chara for fighting, instigating, and misconduct.

Tough break.

While the Bruins had enough players and time in their penalty box to play a healthy game of Risk—or at least set up the pieces and argue about whether it is better to go for Australia or the Americas first—the Hurricanes stayed disciplined during the confrontation and were rewarded with two full minutes of 5-on-3 play.

Although the Bruins killed the penalty to the delight of the Garden faithful, they were unable to score before the end of the period.

In the third, the Bruins finally capitalized on a power play resulting from a bout between Bruins center Chris Kelly and Hurricanes winger Brett Sutter. A reenergized fan base stood in anticipation of the final nine minutes of play in which the Bruins only needed one more goal to send it to overtime.

And then it started raining plastic and Sam Adams.

Just 30 seconds after winger Rich Peverley whistled the power play goal by Bruins-killing-goalie Cam Ward, right winger Nathan Horton was assessed a double minor and a 10-minute misconduct for roughing. On an ensuing faceoff, Chara was tossed into the box again for high-sticking (Irkutsk attacking Mongolia, anyone?).

It was at that point that some members of an irritated crowd thought it would be a good idea to rid themselves of their eight dollar beers and empty water bottles to give the refs a piece of their minds.

Alcohol spattered onto the ice and spinning pieces of plastic skimmed between players’ and referees’ skates. Two more minutes in the box resulting from the crowd’s antics and two more game misconducts later, and what was once a winnable game had gone up in smoke.

By the time the Canes had expanded their lead to three with two textbook tic-tac-toe 5-on-3 tallies, Bruins head coach Claude Julien had been ejected and half of the crowd had gone with him, either trying to beat the traffic or drowning their sorrows in the same stuff they had been throwing on the ice mere minutes earlier.

“What I saw from tonight is that we started the game off well,” Julien said. “In the first period, we had some great chances, but we were not capitalizing. And what I see is frustration setting in, and the minute we start getting frustrated, we lose focus of our game, and then it gets worse and worse.”

Worse is one thing, but what happened at the Garden on Tuesday night was nothing short of embarrassing.

Fighting is a part of professional hockey. It is impossible to argue that physical hockey and occasional confrontations do not have their place in the NHL. Not only do they shift momentum one way or the other and allow teams to assert themselves when they think another player has gone too far, but they can literally have a direct effect on the scoreboard.

Take Kelly’s decision to butt heads in the third period. Not only did the Bruins’ attack develop a new fluidity and crispness following Kelly’s knockout punch on Sutter, but they found themselves with their first power play goal in 23 tries, bringing them within one goal of their opponents.

However, the Bruins’ lack of discipline as the period trundled on was hardly a shrewd tactical maneuver. Instead of taking their chances 5-on-5, the Bruins tried to bait the Hurricanes into a similar trap that cost them their first goal. When the Canes didn’t bite and the Bruins found themselves a man-down with mere minutes remaining, all hell broke loose.

Physicality and a willingness to fight characterized the Bruins’ success in 2010-2011, but not only were they able to weather their opponents with hard checks and occasional skirmishes, they managed to score goals when it really mattered.

While the Bruins’ meltdown came only six games into their season, allowing them considerable time to pick up the pieces, the 2010-11 Boston University men’s ice hockey team played an eerily similar game in an identical 4-1 loss to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Dec. 11 of last year.

Halfway through their season and gradually climbing the national rankings—albeit with an annoying five ties in 16 games hanging over their heads—the Terriers went into Troy, N.Y. looking to close the first half of their season on a high note.

Instead, coach Jack Parker’s squad found themselves immersed in an ugly bout complete with 99 total penalty minutes and six misconducts, four of which were assessed to BU. Like the Bruins, the Terriers gave up power play goals as a result of the penalties they were assessed, and the Engineers managed to put the game out of reach with a 5-on-3 goal in the final minute.

After the game, Parker took a different route than Julien in explaining the loss, claiming that his team was being “jobbed” by the officials’ poor judgment.

In the end, however, both games go into the record books as 4-1 losses, and instead of sticking it to the refs by continuing to battle based on the hands they had been dealt, both teams allowed their frustration to show by taking more penalties, ruining the possibilities of what could have been.

The RPI game served as a major turning point in the Terriers’ 2010-11 season. Instead of continuing to climb the national rankings, the Terriers fell out of contention in the spring as their frustrations multiplied. A lackluster power play and an inability to back up judicious penalties with strong defense left them vulnerable.

Despite a mildly strong start to this season, Terrier fans should keep a watchful eye out for games similar to the one against RPI and the Bruins’ game on Tuesday.

As the 4-1 finals—although nearly an entire year apart—indicate, it doesn’t matter how many punches you throw or how tough you appear, how many penalty minutes you take to stick it to the refs or how much beer you splatter on the ice, if you can’t back it up by putting the biscuit in the basket and defending the power plays you give up, you are going to be heading home with an L both on your forehead and in the record books.