INSIDE HOCKEY

11:22 (1:14) GOAL Carolina

Scott Walker scores the game winner off of a rebound. We'll get to the room and have more later. Ray Whitney took the initial shot.

11:19 (3:04) Yoga Timmie Thomas flopping around like a fish at the last set of Carolina chances. He's still not a dead fish yet. Faceoff in the Boston zone.

11:17 (3:56) Light shot on Ward, faceoff in Carolina zone.

11:12 (6:00) Bruins being stingy in front, not getting great chances the other way.

11:09 (8:38) Icing on Carolina

11:08 (9:23) Crowd chanting 'We Want It' over and over

11:05 (9:54) Thomas with a save

11:02 (12:12) Kobasew with a shot from the left slot, saved by Ward

11:00 (12:46) Icing on Boston, Bruins call Time Out!

10:58 (14:00) Boys in stripes letting them play. Krejci setting up some chances, but can't get it through.

10:57 (15:12) A. Ward levels Ruutu at the Dunkin Donuts sign.

10:54 (16:49) Chara takes a shot deflected into the glass.

10:51 (18:05) Sloppy play both ways. You can just feel the nerves. Players not wanting to be too aggressive and get called for a ticky-tack penalty.

10:48 (20:00) Welcome to overtime!

10:31 (0:00) End of the third! Overtime!

10:30 (0:07) Bergeron with a shot from the point, Ward with the save

10:26 (1:46) Krecji with a big turnover, pushing the puck down ice for a faceoff in the Carolina zone

10:24 (3:29) Whitney and Staal with tremendous chances, but Thomas comes up big

10:20 (4:48) Now they play the inches speech from 'Any Given Sunday' ... Get to a TV, this one is headed for one helluva finish.

TV Timeout. Cleaning off the holes and the snow off the ice.

10:12 (10:21) Icing, faceoff coming in Boston zone

10:11 (10:54) Corvo with a shot on Thomas after Carolina starts to wheel and deal in the offensive zone. TT in the butterfly makes the save.

10:08 (12:10) Fans start to chant "WE WANT IT", Bruins Marketing Department in a collective state of joy. (Probably)

10:06 (12:57) As Jack Edwards would say "this building is vibrating", the PA is playing the Dropkick Murphy's 'Shipping up to Boston' Shots CAR 21 BOS 20

10:03 (13:41) GOAL Bruins

Who else? Milan Lucic ... The guy loves the spotlight, what else can you say.

10:02 (15:02) A. Ward with soft shot from the point, saved by C. Ward

10:00 (16:12) Montador turns it over in the defensive zone again. This has been a theme, the B's making mistakes, the Canes aren't. Shots CAR 20 BOS 18

9:57 (18:49) - Puck sitting on the goal line, but it didn't go in. Bruins still have life.

9:54 (20:00) Start of Period Three. Put up of shut up time. The B's with 0:46 second left to kill on the Ryder penalty.

9:38 (0:00) End of Period Two

9:38 (0:36) Thomas with a big pad save on Ray Whitney

9:37 (1:14) Ryder sent off for holding

9:32 (3:08) Carolina's PK is winning this game. And it's starting to look an awful like 2004 's Game 7 vs. Montreal. Ward with the big save on Ryder.

9:28 (6:37) - Crowd starting to feel a bit uneasy Kobasew dragged down, but was offside. Bruins back on the PP with Sammy called for holding against the right corner boards.

9:25 - TV Timeout. Bruins didn't get a good chance on the Power Play. Ice Girls are entertaining the crowd.

9:20 (9:05) - Kaberle goes off for hooking

9:18 (11:06) Carolina smelling blood. Attacking the zone well. Bruins on their heels.

9:16 - GOAL Carolina

Sergei Samsonov scoring off a cross ice centering pass from Joni Pitkanen. Very pretty. Two-on-Three goal. Thomas didn't have a prayer.

9:15 (13:35) - Carolina kills the penalty

9:13 (15:03) - Bruins having no trouble getting the puck in front of the net, but Cam Ward is too good of a goaltender to make a mistake.

9:12 (15:48) - Ward closes the door on Krejci's chance moving from the left corner on to the front of the net.

9:11 (16:06) - Cullen is sent off for hooking P.J. Axelsson

9:08 (18:00) - Lucic takes down Eric Cole much to the delight of the crowd. Bayda gets a chance off of a turnover in the Bruins zone.

9:06 (19:19) - Thomas stands tall, makes a big save on Whitney.

9:04 (20:00) - Start of the Second Period

8:48 (0:00) - End of Period One

8:46 (1:23) - Kobasew with a chance on the door step.

8:44 (2:26) - Can't really see what Marc Savard is so upset about, but he shouldn't start whining until the play is dead.

8:43 (3:08) - Ruutu goes for slashing David Krecji in the near side boards in the corner.

8:37 (6:01) - GOAL Carolina

With one second on the power play Dennis Seidenberg fires from the blue line and it looks as if Rod Brind'Amour gets the tip in. One of the highlights of this morning's presser was Paul Maurice saying that Ronny Francis likes to take credit when the power play is going well. I'm sure he'll be happy with this one.

8:36 (6:44) - Savard clears the zone, as does Ward soon after

8:35 (7:26) - Krejci tips a cross-ice pass out of play and into the stands. Gets a standing ovation from the crowd.

8:34 (8:01) - Staal takes down Thomas in front of net after a scoring chance. Crowd wants a call, but isn't happy when P.J. Axelsson gets called for hooking on the same play.

8:29 (9:25) - TV Timeout 'Living on a Prayer' playing over the PA.

8:26 (10:24) Play starting to shift to the Carolina defensive zone. SOG 7-7

8:20 (12:18) GOAL - Bruins

Byron Bitz, first career playoff goal, cleaning up the garbage on a loose puck off the back boards, Krejci tried to take a swipe at it and took a fortunate bounce to Bitz. Wideman took the initial shot/play. Team scoring first has won 90 of 126.

Off of the rebound

8:16 (14:57) Bayda with the shot from Thomas' left, forcing a stoppage of play. Shots CAR 7-4, Canes dominating the play at this point. Bruins turning the puck over in their own zone far too much.

The crowd? Dead.

8:15 (15:40) Corvo with a blast high and wide. Bruins having trouble clearing the zone. Carolina has come out skating well.

8:13 (17:43) - Yelle with a softie from the left circle, saved by Ward

8:12 (18:15) - Ward with a shot from the point, Bitz unable to get to the rebound. To this point, Carolina forcing the tempo.

8:10 - Let's roll. Game time baby!

8:06 - This is what you live for. Buildings so loud, ears start to pop.

8:02 - Blake Wheeler a healthy scratch for the B's. All apologizes if blogging is put off. The wireless connection here on the ninth floor is spotty at best right now.

7:41 - Carolina's lineup, based on warmups

Ray Whitney / Eric Staal /Erik Cole
Sergei Samsonov / Jussi Jokinen / Tuomo Ruutu
Chad LaRose / Matt Cullen / Scott Walker
Ryan Bayda / Rod Brind'Amour / Patrick Eaves

Tim Gleason / Joe Corvo
Joni Pitkanen / Dennis Seidenberg
Niclas Wallin / Frantisek Kaberle

Cam Ward
Michael Leighton

7:32 - 11:45 to go in warmups. People slowly filtering into the building.

7:05 - Stephane Yelle will play in his 12th career game seven, the most of any active players and tied for second in league history with Glenn Anderson and Ken Daneyko. Patrick Roy and Scott Stevens have played the most game sevens in league history with 13 each.

Other Fun Facts from the official Game Notes!

- "The Bruins have four current players with eight Stanley Cup rings between them - Aaron Ward (3 - 1997, 1998 with Detroit; 2006 with Carolina); Stephane Yelle (2 - 1996, 2001 with Colorado); Mark Recchi (2 - 1991 with Pittsburgh; 2006 with Carolina); and Shawn Thornton (2007 with Anaheim).

- The Hurricanes have ten current players who were teammates with Mark Recchi and Cam Ward on that 2006 Cup team - Anton Babchuk, Rod Brind'Amour, Erik Cole, Matt Cullen, Frantisek Kaberle, Chad Larose, Eric Staal, Niclas Wallin, Cam Ward and Ray Whitney.

- The Hurricanes fell 4-1 in Game 1 of their 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals series against the Boston Bruins. Carolina lost Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series against New Jersey by the same score, but rallied to win the series in seven games. The Hurricanes lost Game 1 of their Quarterfinals series against Montreal 6-1, as well as Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Finals series
against Buffalo 3-2, en route to winning the Stanley Cup in 2006. During the team’s 2002 run to the Stanley Cup Final, the Hurricanes dropped Game 1 of the Conference Finals against Toronto before winning the series in six games."

Not that it makes any sense now, but this is a club used to coming back from behind. They did however come back three goals to win Game 1 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final against Edmonton AND they also had a 3-1 lead in that series before being taken to a Game 7.

6:48 - The Bruins have never come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series. (0-20)

Records
Boston at home - 4-1 (Playoffs) 29-6-6 (Regular Season)
Carolina on road - 3-4 (Playoffs) 19-16-6 (Regular Season)

6:43 - For all of the videos from this morning, visit http://insidehockey.com/blog/thoughts_game_7_bruinscanes

6:33 - Going back through my Morning Skate sound, by far my favorite exchange came between John Bishop (Bish) and David Krejci.

"Are you excited for Game 7?"

“No, it’s boring," Krejci said. "Next."

Obviously he was kidding.

“I think we have to play the same game as the last two games," said Krejci. "We’re in the same situation – if we lose, we’re done – so nothing changes for us.

"We have to come out the same as we did the last two games, and, you know, be ready from opening face off to the last second."

The whole scene reminded me of Game 6 last season when Krejci told the media the following about that decisive game.

“We’ve got to come out the same as we did today and never stop believing. We’ve got to play our best and do our job.”

Gotta love athlete speak.

6:14 - Trading Twitters has become a new fad down here.

5:53 - Eating some grub. Pulled Pork is on the menu, but as my esteemed colleagues say the meat is better in Raleigh.

2:53 - Pitching notable names for Vancouver, I suggested Sidney Crosby. My former news director, who claims to be an avid hockey fan with crushes on Jack Parker and Patrice Bergeron does not know who Sidney Crosby is.

2:04 - At a totally unrelated Olympic Meeting

12:40 - More highlights from Julien's Presser

On staying composed after Game 4...
"At this time of year, I think it's important to look at what you can do to turn it around instead of fuming about what's just happened. For me, it was getting through that press conference and saying it the way it was and I think I did. Then, the minute I got away from there and I got back to the coach's room and onto the plane, I already was trying to find solutions and putting a plan together to turn this thing around."

On telling Marc Savard he wasn't going on the ice during the third period...
"Well I've said throughout my whole coaching career - there's a fine line that exists between respect and authority, and players have to understand that you're the boss, I guess and what you say should be respected. In order to have to do that, you've got to show respect on the other side as well. They are players. They have feelings. They need to be stroked. They need to be pushed and they need to be, again, guided. I think it's just important that you get a good feel of your dressing room. I think it's important to get a good feel of the individual and try and press the right buttons at the right time.

12:11 - Paul Maurice is up at the podium...

Praising Pittsburgh's ability to make the plays and Cam Ward's composure as he's played in the 'ultimate Game 7'

Success of both teams comes from creating turnovers. No word on his lineup for tonight.

Tonight's Referees are Dave Jackson and Kevin Pollock, the linesmen are Derek Amell and Pierre Racicot. Rene Rancourt will perform the anthem.

11:42 - Quote of the day ... from our own James Murphy so far.

"I couldn't sleep! I couldn't sleep! It's (bleeping) Game 7 man!"

He's got that kid on Christmas Morning look going right now. I think we all do.

You can also follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/jake_duhaime

11:21 - Claude is giving his presser right now. I'm cutting video from the room and will try and work through the connection to get it your way.

Highlights ...

- "What's happened in the past is not going to matter tonight ... You've got to live in the moment and you've got to put stats aside."

- When asked about Marc Savard tonight he mentioned that he'll use the same lineup. No changes. (Translation - Savard will play)

- Some talk on composure and how important it will be tonight. He mentioned Pittsburgh coming out and playing their game as well as last year's Game 7 in Montreal.

"I think it’s being composed," he said. "You’ve really got to be composed, and you saw it last night.

"Pittsburgh came out, played their game, and they were successful. You’ve got to be composed, and I thought, even last year, our team in the first period in Montreal, game seven, we were composed, we were the better team," he said.

"As I mentioned the other day, sometimes you also need the breaks," Julien said. "As well as we played in that first period, we were down 1-0, and it just went from there.

10:36 - Good Morning!

There’s a little extra spring in everybody’s step today for obvious reasons. You don't wake up every day and get to work at a Game 7. And like many, I never thought I'd be working today, as I assumed this series was all but finished until about 10:00 on Sunday Night.

So here are my little pregame antidotes… I'll be in touch throughout the day.

- This is the second Game 7 for the Bruins at TD Banknorth Garden. In 2004, Montreal beat Boston 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal. Claude Julien was Habs bench boss and his club came back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series.

- This is the fourth Game 7 for the Hurricanes since moving to Raleigh. If the first three are any indication, we're going to have a well played, hard fought, epic battle on our hands tonight. Carolina beat Buffalo and Edmonton en route to winning the Stanley Cup in 2006. They also miraculously knocked off New Jersey to get here.

- This is the first Game 7 meeting between these two franchises since 1990, won by the Bruins, who then beat Montreal and Washington to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

The clubs are about to take the ice for the morning skate, but I'll be back soon.