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NHL Playoffs 2012: Bruins 4, Capitals 3 (OT) Seguin's Dry Spell Ends as Boston Forces a Game Seven

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Last week, my mother had surgery for a hole in her heart. She warned me that it might be genetic and I should get get myself checked out to be sure I didn't have a similar condition. Right now, I'm thinking I should get my heart checked out just because.

What a game.

The Bruins didn't make it easy, but they haven't made it look easy much of the past eleven days, and, as Jack Edwards will be quick to remind us on Wednesday, they don't ask how pretty, they just ask how many.

After the jump, some leftover thoughts on the game (oh, and if you're looking for it, we'll have an open thread for Vancouver-LA shortly)...

  • Tyler Seguin had taken 23 shots in six-plus games in the 2012 NHL Playoffs and none of them had found the back of the net. That's a tough go of it for a kid who, at only 20 years old, scored once every 12 shots during the regular season. He's now shooting at a robust 4% clip in these playoffs, and is a career 7% shooter in the playoffs after scoring four goals on 46 shots.
  • That said, the rookie blessing evidently goes both ways - while many have been quick to point out that it took Boston a while to figure out Braden Holtby, it took opposing defenses a bit to figure out Seguin, who scored three goals in 13 playoff games last year on 22 shots - two fewer than it took him to get his first goal in these playoffs.
  • Seguin, who averages .57 points/game in the regular season (small sample size, I'm aware), is averaging .47 points/game in the postseason. He'll get better. Noted postseason enthusiast David Krejci, who averages .79 points/game in the postseason, is averaging well below that with just .5 points/game in this series. There's probably something to that glass pane hitting his neck, after all.
  • With 3-2=5 totals, Rich Peverley has been the best Bruin by far during this postseason. He's also shooting at a 21.4 percent success rate, barely better than Benoit Pouliot's 20 percent.
  • Zdeno Chara, who could have ended the overtime period a lot quicker had he shot the puck when he had Holtby out of the net and committed to a low shot on his first shift of the extra period, is a minus-1 in these playoffs. He's also taken three bad penalties (earlier in the series, mind you).
  • Eight Bruins have negative plus-minus ratings. Seven have positive ones. Among those, Joe Corvo and Tyler Seguin lead the team with plus-3 ratings. That's good for a huge tie for 13th in the NHL - not great for a team that had three among the top five in the league for most of the season.
  • Shawn Thornton was scratched for Jordan Caron, who played 4:56 of even strength time over 10 shifts. There's shortening your bench, and then there's crippling it (especially with a limited Patrice Bergeron). Thornton had been averaging 7:30 of ice time in the series.