Bruins: ‘Last year was last year'

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By Joe Haggerty
CSNNE.com
BOSTONIts pretty clear after a couple of days that the Bruins are on the same page when it comes to publicly closing the door on last years collapse.The Bruins dropped four straight games to the Flyers in the second round of last years playoffs and were the butt of plenty of Boston Massacre-style jokes last summer. Now, they have the chance to wipe that memory clean.Its the Big, Bad, Broad Street Bullies vs. the Big, Bad, Bruins and itll be the equivalent of an alley brawl to determine which team advances once the seven game war of attrition and steely determination has been decided.But Peter Chiarelli and Claude Julien have set the tone over the last couple of days, and put the proper focus on the here and now of Game 1 in Philadelphia Saturday afternoon rather than anywhere else. The Bs coach sounded like a hockey version of Yogi Berra when asked to compare and contrast this years series against the Flyers with last season's, but Julien wasnt going there just like his players werent willing to step into that territory.Instead Julien was focusing on the fact that so much statistically was slanted against the Bs in the opening round Game 7 against the Montreal Canadiens, and his hockey club did a good job of tossing convention and probability straight out the window.I think last year is last year, and this year is this year," Julien said. "A lot of people are going to want to bring up the past. If anything, its like Montreal. All the stats were probably against us with the odds and how the Bruins had fared against them in the past. We were down 2-0... anything that the odds were against us we overcame. "So its always a new situation. Its a new opportunity and thats how were looking at it. Its just a new opportunity for us to get past the Flyers and hopefully win this series. Zdeno Chara said that he lost 10 pounds in the 24 hours surrounding his virus and extreme hydration episode before Game 2 against the Montreal Canadiens, and that hes just now feeling 100 percent following the illness. The Bruins captain was noticeably weaker during the games following his hospitalization, but battled through and indicated he was back at 100 percent prior to the weekend start to the Flyers series. Chara's normal playing weight is 255 pounds, and he told CSNNE.com that he's back up to 252 with only a couple more pounds to be back up to his full fighting weight. Every Bruins player was on the ice for a Friday morning practice at TD Garden that included power play work, line drills and some good old-fashioned work on defensive zone breakouts in anticipation of the strong Flyers fore-check coming their way starting this weekend. Peter Chiarelli confirmed on Thursday that his hockey club is healthy entering their conference semi-final series against Philly. Tyler Seguin has taken to calling his forward line the Green Goblin line while skating with Jordan Caron and Jamie Arniel and wearing bright green jerseys during practice. It seems that Shawn Thornton isnt much of a Spider Man fan given that Seguin had to explain the origin of the term born from one of the super-villains in the comic book and movies.

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

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