Boston fell 1-0 for their third straight loss in Vancouver. All three losses have been by a single goal, with the Bruins managing just two goals of their own in the three contests in Vancouver. With those kinds of results, it would be understandable if the Bruins never wanted to visit British Columbia again.
But it’s just the opposite. They want nothing more than to make one more cross-continent trek back to Vancouver. That Rogers Arena ice is now the only place the Bruins can raise the Cup.
They can no longer win it in Boston. Their final home game of the season on Monday is now all about survival. Boston needs a win to extend the series to seven games and create a winner-take-all finale back in Vancouver next Wednesday. But they’ll have to win Game 6 at the Garden first, and that won’t be an easy task. Then again, what has been easy for the Bruins this postseason?
“We’ve been through this, I don’t know how many times, so it’s not something that’s new to us,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said after Friday’s loss. “We’ve had to regroup all year. I don’t think we’re a team that’s done anything the easy way, so in a certain way it’s not a surprise that we’re here in this situation where we’ve got to bring our team back home and create a Game 7. Two of the last three rounds we have been through have been seven-game series, so our goal right now is to create another one.”
The Bruins bounced back from Game 6 road losses in both Montreal and Tampa to win those series. Those Game 7’s were at home though. This time the Canucks have home ice if the Final goes seven games, but the Bruins will get one last taste of home cooking on Monday in Game 6.
They’ll need a much better effort than they gave in Game 5 to prevent the Canucks from skating around the Garden ice with the Cup and give themselves a chance to win it back in Vancouver.
“We just have to give ourselves a chance to get back here,” Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron said. “Now it’s all about Game 6. In playoffs it’s all about not getting too high, not getting too low. It’s the same thing when you lose. You have to make sure you turn the page and move forward.”
The Bruins are banking on the return home being the cure for their struggles once again. It worked once already this series, as they came back after losing the first two games in Vancouver and rolled to a pair of wins at home by a combined 12-1 count to even the series.
“It seems like both teams thrive in front of their fans,” Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg said. “Now it’s our turn to go home and even the series again.
“It seems like we like to make things tough on us,” Seidenberg added. “Out of the three series so far, we went twice to Game 7, so we know how handle those games, but to get there we have to have a real solid game at home.”
After squandering the momentum they built with those first two home wins in Friday’s setback in Vancouver, one more big effort at home won’t be enough to end Boston’s 39-year Cup drought. Even if they can pull out a win in Game 6, they’ll still need to somehow find a way to win in Vancouver in Game 7.
“The two teams that are here are good teams and they don’t give home-ice advantage away that easily,” Julien said. “They’ve been good in their own building. I think we’ve been a decent road team for most of the season, and right now, what we have to do is go back home and create a Game 7 so we get another shot at them here.”
The Bruins had been a better team on the road than at home in the regular season and began the playoffs with plenty of success away from the Garden. They won five of their first six road games this postseason, but they’ve lost their last five on the road — a streak that began when they blew a 3-0 lead in Tampa in Game 4 of the conference final.
The Bruins don’t have an explanation for their sudden struggles on the road, but they know they would like nothing more than one final chance to turn that around.
“I don’t have an answer for that, but obviously we have to be better on the road,” Bergeron said. “But now it’s about Game 6 at home. We’ve got to give ourselves a chance to come back here, and then we’re going to be on the road, so we have to find a way.
“We’ve faced adversity before,” Bergeron added. “Now we have to make sure we step up. We’ve worked all year to be here. Now we’re going back home and we have to make sure we put this game behind us and leave everything on the line in Game 6.”
