Congratulations to the Boston Bruins who clinched their first title since 1972 back in the days of Bobby Orr with a 4-0 win in Vancouver Wednesday night. The Bruins battled back from series deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 behind the strong play of series MVP Tim Thomas and the Bruins stifling defense. In 7 games, the Bruins conceded only 8 goals, posted shutouts in Games 4 and 7, and only allowed more than one goal in a game twice the entire series. Vancouver's three leading scorers, Daniel Sedin (1 goal 3 assists), Henrik Sedin (1 goal 0 assists) and Ryan Kesler (0 goals 1 assist) were completely non-factors in the series. That coupled with Roberto Luongo's inconsistency- he allowed 2 goals in their 3 wins, and allowed 18 in their 4 losses while being pulled twice- was ultimately enough to keep the Cup from going back to Canada for at least one more year. Boston meanwhile did everything right. All 3 of their losses were by won goal, but when they won, they won big outscoring the Canucks 21-3 in their 4 wins.
Eight different Bruins had at least two goals in the finals as they appeared to rally around the loss of winner Nathan Horton outscoring the Canucks 21-4 after he was knocked out in the first period of Game 3. David Krejci scored 12 goals to lead all players in the postseason after a regular season that saw him only score 13. Brad Marchand chipped in 11 more including a Finals-high 5. Tim Thomas, the 37 year old veteran, saved 238 of a possible 246 shots (96.7%) in the series and finished the postseason allowing fewer than 2 goals a game. In hockey, the team with the hottest goalkeeper usually comes out on top, and that was certainly the case here. Vancouver scored more goals (262) than any team during the regular season and Boston held them to 8 in 7 games. Even if Luongo had been on his game, I don't see how the Canucks overcome that.
So for the 17th straight season, the Stanley Cup goes home with an American franchise. Not since 1993 when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Los Angeles Kings has a Canadian side won the title. With their loss this year the Canucks became the 5th Canadian team to lose in finals since Montreal's win joining the 1994 Canucks, 2004 Flames, 2006 Oilers and 2007 Senators. The odds are kind of stacked against you though when four of six Canadian teams didn't even make the playoffs this year. Next year we'll see a 7th though as the Atlanta Thrashers will be headed to Winnipeg this summer.
And that wraps up another hockey season. With the NFL and NBA labor situations in bad shape, we may be doing a lot more hockey coverage come the fall...
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