Halak lets in two turds, Bruins have stellar third

The Bruins showed us and the rest of the hockey world why they won the Presidents' Trophy in the third period of Monday night's game against Carolina. After playing with a regular season level of intensity in the first 40 minutes, the Bruins dominated the final period led by two goals from Jake DeBrusk.

Earlier in the game they were losing the battles along the boards and not just the 50/50 up-for-grabs puck battles. There were times that Carolina just took the puck away through will power.

Even though the B's got their act together in time, I'm growing concerned about Halak. The first two goals he allowed were soft. I'm worried Carolina might have found a weakness on his glove side that they'll be targeting for the rest of the series. The Hurricanes have had time to study Halak now, as opposed to Saturday when we learned he was starting about 2 hours before the puck dropped.

I'll conclude by mentioning that Zdeno Chara is 43-years old. That's amazing. He was drafted in 1996. How many NHL, Olympic, minor league/junior, Europe during lockdown games is that? He's played 189 NHL playoff games. And he's done it without hiring sketchy trainers or selling "immunity" products, like some other 40+ athletes we know.

Celtics' two Dr. Jays beat 76ers

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led the Celtics in scoring with 32 and 29 points, respectively, pushing the Celtics to their 109-101 win.

The Celtics dominated in the even quarters, combining to outscore the 76ers 64-45 in the 2nd and 4th. Tatum scored 15 of his 32 in the 2nd. And critically, Brown scored 15 of his 29 in the 4th.

I loved how well the Celtics played in the 4th in response to a 76ers surge in the 3rd. There were a handful of clutch defensive and offensive possessions, Daniel Theis was earning Tommy Points left and right hustling after the ball, besides Tatum's 15 4th quarter points there was Kemba Walker scoring 11 of his 19 total points in the 4th. And they hit their free throws.

Philadelphia put up a solid fight. They hit a lot of their shots early to keep pace with the Celtics. Then they started to roll in the 3rd, forcing the C's to have the great 4th quarter that they did.

We'll see if that fight continues in the rest of the series. We'll see how the Gordon Hayward ankle sprain pans out and the impact that has. After the stoppage and the abbreviated regular season conclusion, these 7 game series seem longer than usual for some reason.