Brian Boucher knew what it felt like.
Twenty years ago, he was on the purpose of the Philadelphia Flyers when they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in the longest playoff game in NHL’s fashion history, a five-hour overtime thriller. He was on the defendants’ bench Tuesday night for nbc Sports’ broadcast of the second-longest fashion game and the fourth of all times when the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Columbus Blue Jackets at 10:27 a.m. in the fifth overtime.
Halfway through the fourth overtime, Boucher took the kind of breath he couldn’t take in 2000 and summarized how the players felt on the ice.
“What you want stays in the brain too, the physical exertion, the cramps that begin to appear,” Boucher said. “It was at this moment that the frame began to decompose.
Brayden Point’s purpose ended the Lightning-Blue Jackets game 95 seconds into Boucher’s game, which ended with a shot at the wrist through Keith Primeau beyond Ron Tugnutt. With Boucher in the middle of the track and 2000 Flyers in front of Keith Jones in the studio, the screen had a direct connection to the NHL’s longest game since the 1930s.
“It was wonderful to be able to have the skill bank we have, which includes other people like Keith Jones, who can communicate about it, adding Brian Boucher, who works on the game and revels firsthand after betting on five NBC Sports manufacturer Kaitlin Urka, said Tuesday night: “It just doesn’t happen. Having two other people on the air tonight who can just communicate on this first hand and provide context in this way is just amazing.
Boucher made 57 stops of the record of 85 stops of Columbus goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo. But from inside the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, you can describe how Tampa Bay’s Korpisalo and Andrei Vasilevskiy literally warmed up.
“You can’t believe with this device how hot the inside of your mask makes, the inside of your pads and how much sweat those guys have,” Boucher said. “It’s very unlikely that you won’t start to feel those cramps. But they were sharp.”
While Urka was biting dessert in search of sugar after a wrong resolution of skipping lunch, Jones described how the concessions were empty at the old Pittsburgh Mellon Arena when the Flyers and Penguins reached the fifth overtime. He laughed more than a little about being (technically) on the ice for Primeau’s goal, even though he had turned around to skate to the bench.
On a night when the Blue Jackets’ defenseman, Seth Jones, played 65 minutes, Keith Jones recalled the numbers of his 37:50 action 20 years earlier: “I didn’t have any shots on goal. I missed two shots. That was the only thing. I did I don’t have blocked shots I haven’t succeeded.
It’s not exactly a line of statistics that will go into history. But the game between Lightning and blue vests will be played as a component because it’s the fourth-longest in NHL history and given the exclusive cases where it’s played on an unassistanceed unbiased venue.
Boucher sat in the front row and wondered what would be another this time and what pain is the same.
“Maybe the fact that those guys had four and a half months off before that and not an 82-game season means they’re a little cooler and able to take over this situation?” He said. “Perhaps. But the only thing you have to be careful with is that if you start having those cramps, man, it’s hard to stop.
In addition to Boucher and Jones, former trainer Mike Milbury in the broadcast booth as an analyst 30 years after his Boston Bruins lost a damaged center in three overtime to the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup final. He was able to describe how difficult those conditions are for coaches and players.
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