Boston Bruins vs Vancouver Canucks : Stanley Cup Finals

[Mike]

Well, it has been a long time coming, a long wait for us Bruins fans. It's been 21 years, 1990 since Boston made it to the Stanley Cup finals and 39 years, 1972 since they have won the cup. Yes I was a youngster when the Bruins has a loaded team with the likes of Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and Johnny Bucyk, and I was a fan then as I am now. I've played a lot of hockey and have coached a lot of hockey. Even will have to miss some of the 1st game of these Stanley Cup finals to coach my son's summer hockey team.

Boston has had great teams over the years but these last couple years the GM was really trying to put a winner together. This year could be it, they are the underdogs but that hasn't stopped them yet. They came back against Montreal in the opening series winning in game 7 after losing the first two games. They did this without scoring a power play goal, something that has never been done in the history of the NHL playoffs. Then, facing the Philadelphia Flyers and being constantly reminded by the media of what happened last year, they got their sweat revenge and swept the Flyers four games straight, silencing all the critics. Facing the Tampa Bay Lightning they won that series in game with a 1 - 0 shutout (his 2nd of the series). Tim Thomas, the Bruins goalie in every game will win the Vezina Trophy this year as the leagues best goalie. These guys are for real.

Now they face the Canucks who have a devastating power play and have had a few extra days to rest up. Yes the Bruins are the underdogs, on paper the Canucks are a better team. Playing 5 on 5, Boston can and will win. They key is for them to stay out of the penalty box, and of course Tim Thomas has to be at the top of his game. Both teams are quite physical but Boston seems to be the healthier team. Vancouver has an great goalie who is also in contention for the Vezina trophy. This indeed will be a great Stanley Cup finals to watch.

You may wonder why I'm not going for the Canucks because they are a Canadian team. Even though Vancouver is a Canadian based team, their roster only consists of 53% Canadians where the Bruins have 65% Canadian content. Of the 965 players in the NHL last year, Canada has feed the NHL with the most players with over 52.3%, the next country is the US with 22.2% and 3rd is Czech Rupublic with 5.9%.

[ahawk66]

Good luck to your Bruins, Mike! I grew up in Pittsburgh, so I'm a huge Pens fan, but as a kid in the '70s, I always needed a team to root for in the playoffs because the Pens were generally horrible. Well, I picked the B's because I loved Bobby Orr, the logo, and the town. So, I'll be pulling for them this time around. I just love the game, so it's always good to see another hockey fan out there. Good luck!

[EddieV]

Good luck Bruins, even though there is a dane playing for Vancouver

[blmeanie]

I too was a young boy in the early 70's and grew in the burbs of Boston and have enjoyed this run to the finals. Underdogs can win, just need Thomas to remain on his game and the rest of them to stay out of the box.

39 years, not as long as the Sox went but still a long time to wait for an original 6 franchise

[flextint]

As a die hard montreal habs fan i can never cheer for the Bruins but if they win they win i can take it mainly because they are an original 6 team and pretty much for that reason only.

[Mike]

Yes, Montreal fans do seem to hate the Bruins and for the most port vice versa. It's as natural as, well dems & the gop. In history, Montreal had the advantage over every other NHL teams by being the only team who could draft French Canadians. It would like Toronto being the only team to be able to draft Ontario kids, imagine the team and the number of cups they would have had. So glad they abolished that kind favoritism. It had to be stopped if the NHL was to spread as it has in the States.

Only Montreal fans would call 911 and force the police to do an investigation on a perfectly legal push, it wasn't even a hit. Yes, I'm going there Poor arena design and they know it and that is why the NHL didn't go any further with Chara on that. It's a non-call anywhere else along the boards. It was an accident plain and simple. Any lawyer would have a heyday in court with this one and the NHL did not want the bad press. Take away all the whinning about being hit too hard, all the diving, and trash talk that is never backed up, Montreal does play with a lot of heart. Even with a terrible team I still say any team on any given night can beat any team. At this skill level it's all about chemistry, leaving your ego at home in the off-season and playing as one.

Though I must say, the Habs/Bruins series this year looked almost like a soccer game. "Oh I'm hurt, oh the pain", once the call is made you see the player jump back on his feet. Might be acceptable in the soccer side of things but in a physical sport like hockey, it's just plain gutless & shameless. Other teams know it. Montreal has to grow some balls. It's not ballet, you can take a hit, quit the game.

You can tell I'm a Bruins fan, eh. It's just I got so sick of hearing about how Suban was the best defencemen in the playoffs, yet he gave the puck away so much to Boston's advantage. The TV coverage here in Canada was just so terribly in favour of Montreal it was really hard to keep listening to these guys. I miss NESN coverage so bad. In Canada we do have NHL Center Ice and a lot of the Bruins games were covered by NESN but when the playoffs start, it's shutdown and only For a guy his size he should back up his trash talk but once he starts something he always is skating backwards away from it.

I know I opened a can of worms but boy, if my son got drafted by Montreal, I would have to disown him

Hockey is one unique pro sport where you can settle the dirty stuff or trash talk with a good old fashion brawl. Boston proved they can play a talented team and like I said earlier they have been unbeatable all year in a clean game. They can ruff it up when they have too. See how they dominated Montreal is this one part of a very physical and fight filled game earlier this year.

[Tiger]

As a Red Wings fan, I'm glad to see an original 6 team in the finals. I think the B's will have thier hands full with the Canucks. I'm hoping for a fun series.

BTW, I think Sir Paul's Epiphone is a Red Wings fan too.

[flextint]

@MIKE,I have to watch games in french here because Bob cole wears a Bruins jersey while commentating on the game in the playoffs and in regular season he wears a leafs jersey unbeleivable bias!As for the pachioretty yeah its called an accident because he survived a broken neck !Apart from the flyers the bruins have been the dirtiest team in the league this season,The dirty bruins!!!

[gjh]

GO CANUCKS GO!!!

[Mike]

Two players on Boston are from Welland just a few miles from me. Nathan Horton and Daniel Paille Since each player gets the cup for two weeks, it will be in Welland for 4 weeks when Boston wins it. The mayor has stated he is closing down Main St. for a huge parade celebration, can't wait !

Actually I thought both TSN and CBC announcers and commentators were overwhelmingly Montreal favourites. Funny how we hear the same thing but pull opposites takes. Gary Galley, one of the commentators actually played a number of years with Boston and he did nothing but cut them down. I remember one comment about the Lucic, Kreje, Horton line, he said they have done nothing all playoffs, and 3 seconds later Lucic sets up Krejci for a goal.

Brutal coverage, just brutal. But you know the thing I hate most, actually two things about CBC. First, they didn't want to pay the lady proper copyright compensation for what was the Hockey Night In Canada theme song. So it is now TSN hockey theme song. The other thing is when they show a replay, just as the part showing the goal or the hit, they have the stupid HNIC logo the last 2 or 3 seconds wiping across the whole screen. Geez, we aren't stupid, we know what network we're watching.