Notes: Julien blasts B's for taunting

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By Danny Picardand Joe Haggerty
CSNNE.com

BOSTON -- @font-facefont-family: "Times New Roman";p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormalmargin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; table.MsoNormalTablefont-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; div.Section1page: Section1; The Bruins werent too happy when Maxim Lapierre tauntedPatrice Bergeron in Game 2, by waving his fingers in front ofBergerons mouth. The hand gesture was done to mock Bergeronssituation with Alex Burrows in Game 1, where Burrows bit Bergeronsfinger in a scrum after the whistle.

So on Monday night, Mark Recchi and Milan Lucic used the same mocking hand gestures in the faces of LaPierre and Burrows.

But it didnt go over well with their coach.

Well,Ill tell you what. I said this morning that I wouldnt accept it onour team, said Claude Julien. It happened a couple of times tonight. Theyvebeen told that I dont want any of that stuff.

Youve got tolive by your words. It was disappointing for me to see that happenafter what I said this morning. But part of it is my fault for notbringing it up to the guys. They did it. Emotions got the better ofthem. Im going to stand here and say Im not accepting it. The guyshave been told.

Both Lucic and Recchi said they regret taunting the Canucks players like that.

Itssomething that this team isnt about, and that Im not about, saidLucic. Its definitely a classless move. Claude talked about it. Hedefinitely gave me some heat after the game about it. You regret doingit, but heat of the moment type of thing, things like that will happen.

I got in trouble for that, said Recchi. Coach gave me heck for that.

Its emotional out there, but it wont happen again.

So much has been made of the Bruins special teams in this postseason, especially the power play.

And even though the Vancouver Canucks hold a 2-1 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final, the Bruins have scored more power-play goals, after scoring two goals on the man advantage in Monday nights 8-1 win in Game 3 at the TD Garden.

Recchi scored one of his two goals on the power play, which gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead, 4:22 into the second period. It came on an attempted pass out front, which was re-directed off the stick of Vancouvers Ryan Kesler, and through Roberto Luongos legs.

The second power-play goal of the night came from Michael Ryder, with 30.9 seconds left in the game, making it 8-1.

But for the Bruins struggling power play, it doesnt matter how or when they go in.

I think, in this series, its been pretty good, said Julien. Just the fact that, again, when you look at where our issues were before, we had a hard time getting in the zone, had a hard time keeping the puck in.

At least now, were getting in, moving the puck around. Youd like to see maybe more shots. At the same time, it produced tonight, which was good.

Boston is now 3-for-13 on the power play this series, while Vancouver is 1-for-16. That tells you more about the Bruins penalty kill than it does about their power play.

The Bs scored two short-handed goals on Monday night, first from Brad Marchand to give Boston a 3-0 lead in the second. And then from Daniel Paille to make it 5-0 in the third.

Thats really helped us survive, as far as the power-play struggling, said Julien. When your power play struggles, your penalty kill has to do a really good job, in order to at least even things out. Theyve done a great job at that.

Were doing the right thing, obviously, he added. I think weve done a pretty good job of getting in the shooting lanes, weve done a pretty good job of taking away the passing lanes. Thats not giving away any secrets. Its what penalty kills have to do. Our guys have done a pretty good job of sacrificing themselves, blocking shots.

Its about sacrifice, more than anything else. Our penalty kill has taken a lot of pride in these playoffs to be very, very good. And it has been.

It came with a simple Julien point in the Bs dressing room after warmups, and Shawn Thornton found out he was in the lineup for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final after missing the first two games in Vancouver. The 33-year-old enforcer made his presence felt immediately and never stopped in nine shifts and 5:50 of ice time in the 8-1 victory that felt like a Thornton kind of game from the very beginning.Thornton got call in favor of 19-year-old Tyler Seguin being made a healthy scratch, and its a decision that Julien got 100 percent completely correct.Of course I was excited to be out there because I havent played in a while, said Thornton. I had plenty of energy and I wanted to put it to good use.Thornton belted out a pair of hits including an Ill be here all night body smash on Alex Burrows in his first shift of the game, and a tripping penalty drawn on Canucks forward Jeff Tambellini in the second period that led to Bostons second goal of the night. As was the case all year, the fourth line didnt get the most ice time but No. 22 made the absolute most of everything he received while just simply being sky high to the play in the Stanley Cup Final.He also thoroughly enjoyed the crowd that gained in volume and appreciation for the teams efforts as the game kept rolling on.They are very passionate fans. They like their physical games. I mean it was pretty loud out there, I hope that continues on Wednesday, said Thornton. I love playing here, I have for four years. The fans have always been great as far as Im concerned.The Bruins held a 40-31 hit advantage in the game at TD Garden, but really carried the physical portion of the contest for long stretches for the first time in the seriesa development that really seemed to frustrate Henrik and Daniel Sedin. From Bostons perspective, the steady stream of physical punishment is expected to eventually take its toll on the speedy Canucks players and slow them down in what Boston is expecting to be a long, wearying series.While the long-range plan against Vancouver is clearly something the Bruins have some interest in, its also about getting back to Bruins hockey and heavy hits that keep opponents on their toes.When we play physical and bring that presence, were playing our type of game, said Milan Lucic. I also said that I wasnt surprised that they came out physical and theyre not going to shy away from anything. They arent shying away from anything, and you can expect the physicality to keep on being there.The best hit of the night from most peoples perspective was the Ron Hextell-like body shot that goalie Tim Thomas threw on Henrik Sedin as the Swedish scorer glided through his crease area.He was catching the puck, said Thomas. That happens a lot in practice off of rebounds and stuff like that when the guy reaches up to catch the puck. I get scored on in practice if I sit back and try to react to where he sets the puck down with his hand.I had 1100th of a second to make a decision of what I was going to do. Thats the way I decided to play it to try to keep the puck out of the net.The Bs victory marked the first home Stanley Cup Finals win for the Bruins since a 1978 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at the old Boston Gardenso it was certainly a long time coming.The 145 penalty minutes accumulated by the Bruins and Canucks in Game 3 is the second-most in a Stanley Cup Final game in the last 25 years, behind only the 176 minutes in a 1986 battle between the Habs and the Flames. Danny Picard is on Twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard.

Joe Haggerty can be reached at jhaggerty@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http:twitter.comHackswithHaggs

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