Some thoughts from the NHL on TSN panel on Friday night:
Joe Thornton drew more attention to David Bolland than was probably necessary prior to Game 3 of the Blackhawks and Sharks series.
Bolland had done a good job on Thornton's line in the first two games, that's when Thornton came up with the quote: "He's easy to play against, he's smaller and I'm bigger." That certainly drew more attention to the situation than was needed.
The way that Friday night started for Bolland, you thought it might be a rough night. He got a goalie interference penalty, then went to the box for a second time for holding in the second period and then for a third time in the third period.
After he was done sitting in the box and feeling shame, he comes back out on to the ice and gets a breakaway and buries it like the London Knights goal scorer he once was.
The night would get better - as who was the guy behind the net setting up big Dustin Byfuglien for the game winning goal? Well that would be David Bolland.
You know it's funny, the whole Bolland/Thornton matchup never really materialized in this one because Sharks' head coach Todd McLellan switched up the lines so much that it wasn't Heatley, Marleau and Thornton on a regular basis going up against Bolland, Versteeg and Ladd. Because of this you didn't notice Bolland too much - unless you were looking at the penalty box.
But when push came to shove in the third period and overtime, Bolland was front and centre.
