Bruins vs. Lightning Game 5 PREVIEW: Standing on the Edge

Just the Facts:

The Time: 7pm EST

The Place: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Place to Watch: NBCSN, CBC, TVAS, SportsNet

Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub

The Stakes: The season.

Opposing SBNation Blog: Raw Charge

Player Updates:

• Against all odds, Nick Ritchie will not receive supplementary discipline for his hit on Yanni Gourde.
• Chris Wagner will not be available for Game 5
• Sean Kuraly’s as of yet unrevealed “Unfit to Play” status is progressing, but he remains in doubt for tonight’s contest

Game Preview:

[hits the mp3 player]

Well. Here we are.

Since the end of Game 1, Boston has been getting rude, bad wake up call after rude, bad wake up call. The Refs aren’t going to save you. They’re not going to take the bait on fights. They’re not going to give you an inch. You can’t park the bus or give them space, because they’re going to run your ass into the ground for deigning to make that mistake. The Tampa Bay Lightning are not a team to be trifled with.

Boston also knows it’s weaknesses all too well, and those weaknesses have been badly exposed and exploited this series.

And now you gotta put all of that, every single scrap of evidence that says in your mind that this is going to be a very very bad game out of your head. Because you have to win. Otherwise the season is over. It doesn’t matter if you have to win ugly, or bury them in a mathematically unassailable lead. The only thing you have left right now is to force Game 7. Game 5 and Game 6 are all about getting to Game 7. Because nothing is more dangerous than Game 7, as both Boston and any team that’s played Boston knows all too well. But you have to get there first. And that means playing to the strengths of this team: Possess the puck like it’s the only thing keeping you alive, battle hard on the boards, get the first line or David Krejci or Charlie Coyle or whoever scoring as fast as possible, and make the job in front of your Jennings-winning goaltender as easy as possible. And for the love of god, just win.

But the only way to find out whether or not you win, is to play.

We’ll see how it plays out at 7 tonight.

Go Bruins.