Boston vs Vancouver Stanley Cup Final

Game 1 will be interesting because neither team has lost a Game 1 in the playoffs to this point. All of Vancouver's 1st games have been at home and all of Boston's have been on the road.

Since the Sedins have been passing to each other since just after birth, they will be a force to be reckoned with.

It will be good to watch Wednesday. I can watch the Red Sox play in the afternoon and then watch the Bruins that night. Obviously, I won't be online much Wednesday :roll:

I heard that tidbit on a morning sports show. I only watched the tampa series. I think it's safe to say neither team has lost a game 1 so far.

The team that wins game 1 in the stanley cup final has won the cup more than 70% of the time. The when the team favored to win game 1 wins the game, they take the cup over 80% of the time.

I got this tidbit also from a morning sports show. Don't blame the messenger! Besides, I don't have time to check it out. I thought it was interesting so I posted it

Game 1 very important indeed!

Well, the Canucks took game 1 by scoring the only goal of the game at 59:42 of regulation. Only 18 seconds until regulation time ended.

It was a very good game in which Vancouver was outskating Boston for the first 5 minutes. Then Boston had the momentum until the beginning of the 3rd period when Vancouver began to look like they were outskating Boston again.

There was a lop-sided shots total in Boston's favor, but slowly Vancouver began to equalize the shot total by capturing the momentum. Finally, the Canucks had a two on one break and got one past Tim Thomas to win.

We'll see. If Boston doesn't win Saturday, it will be virtually impossible for them to come back against a team as strong as Vancouver.

Saturday is "must win" for Boston!

Game 2 is tonight! This should be an all out game from the Bruins. They should play with great intensity since they can not afford to lose this game.

Should be fun to watch!

The "finger biter" played an important role in the outcome of that game. I wonder why the wasn't suspended?

At any rate, that OT goal was ridiculous! Thomas should never have come that far out of goal with freshly resurfaced ice. When he went down, his pads caused him to slide too far away. He had no chance to recover.

I was a goalie and that's a big problem going down on fresh ice. That's why goalies scuff up the ice in the crease immediately upon coming back after each period. The puck will not glide as far and the goalie will not slide as much when he goes down on his pads laterally. His head was not in the game after the puck dropped in the overtime session. The Bruins paid the price for his poor decision.

Well, at this point, the Bruins have a virtually impossible task ahead of them. They could just as easily been UP 2-0 based on those games and how evenly matched the teams have been. One goal with 18 secs left in regulation gets them game 1. A goal 11 secs into OT captures game 2. Very depressing for Bruins fans!

The Bruins found a way to score against Luongo. It was good to see Boston explode in the 2nd and 3rd periods last night. I'm sure it was a real confidence boost for them to head into game 4, which is also at home.

Boston needed to win that game and they did.

I thought for sure the Canucks would remove Luongo, if not for the 3rd period, but certainly after the 5th goal. If he got hurt at the end of a blow out loss, that would not do Vancouver any good. Fortunately, he was not hurt and will be able to play game 4.

What a cheap shot on Horton! He's being kept overnight at Boston General for observation, but I haven't heard if he has been cleared to play.

With Shawn Thornton and Horton both on the ice, the Canucks need to skate with their heads up. The NHL is holding a meeting at 11am to decide what action, if any to take against Rome. I bet he will get no more than a 1 or 2 game suspension. If he's allowed back in the series, I guarantee that Boston will try for an equally vicious hit on a Canuck player in game 4. If I were a betting person, I'd say Burrows needs to grow eyes in the back of his head.

I expect an extremely physical game 4. I think the momentum and the home ice will send this series back to Vancouver tied at 2-2.

Correct, Tim turned away 78 of the 79 shots he faced in Boston. Luongo, at one point allowed 4 out of 8 shots to get past him. Boston has outscored Vancouver 14 to 5 over the first 4 games.

If the series were to end today, Boston's MVP of the series would probably be Rome for Vancouver. No one has done more to motivate the Bruins than Rome. If that hit on Horton never happened, I think games 3 and 4 would have been much closer contests. You never would have seen the Bruins buzzing around the ice and playing with that much intensity.

I think the only time in the series that Vancouver has played with the lead was the last 18 seconds of regulation in game 1. They took the lead in OT in game 2, but the game is immediately over at that point, so they didn't play with the lead.

If you are going back to Vancouver last night on the plane, you have to be thinking that you just got dominated for 120 minutes of hockey. The two games in Vancouver were very close games from the drop of the puck to the final buzzers. Vancouver can not be thinking they will have an easy time on home ice.

The question for me is who do we see in net for Vancouver in game 5? Luongo is the highest paid player in the NHL, so you would think he would get the start. His team mates can't be very confident in his abilities at this point. Vancouver is also without 2 very solid defensemen.

If I'm the Canucks' coach, I have to start Schneider in game 5 and hope for the best. As I said that Boston must win their games at home, Vancouver must win game 5 or they will lose the Stanley Cup. It's that simple.

With Boston being +24 in the playoffs in 5 on 5 situations, the weakening of the Canucks defensive line-up has to be a huge concern for them. Vancouver's powerplay is scoring about %5 of the time. Boston is scoring over 20% of the time on the powerplay. Going into this series, the powerplay match up was a huge concern for Boston, and now it's more of a concern for Vancouver.

With all the skill on Vancouver, they have to be scratching their heads wondering how the hell the series could be tied 2-2. Tim Thomas is a huge part of that, but the Bruins team has really come together since Horton's injury. I don't see Vancouver being able to recapture the momentum if they lose game 5. If Boston wins game 5 the series is essentially over.

I don't know the exact numbers but if I told you that Goalie X allowed 12 goals off 58 shots, would you want that goalie starting for your team?

Granted, he's getting no support, but you would think they could have made adjustments for that after game 3 and gotten it fixed for game 4. Obviously, it's not an easy fix.

This is the Stanley Cup Finals, you have to do whatever it takes to win. If that means you sit goalie X for the first period, then that's what you do. He can't do any worse...besides Schneider is an excellent goal tender in his own right. He's just untested.

Vancouver scored 1 goal to beat Boston in Game 5. They had to win in order to salvage any hope of winning a Stanley Cup.

If this home ice advantage continues, Vancouver will win the Cup.

So far we have seen 3 close games in Vancouver and 2 blow outs in Boston.

The next game is in Boston and I give the edge to Boston for game 6.

Game 7, if necessary should be a close one, just like the previous 3 in Vancouver.

Who knows?

Boston will win game 6, so this series is headed for seven games.

Nothing I've seen in the series to this point gives any indication that Vancouver will win in Boston. The Canucks will have to win in game 7, on their ice, if they are going to take the cup.

The edge, is with Vancouver.

Being a Boston fan, I hope that the Bruins are the first team in the series to win on the road

Last night, home ice continued to dictate the outcome of the Stanley Cup Finals. With that being said, Boston has always understood that, in order to take the series and the title, they have to find a way to overcome the home ice of the Canucks. So far, they haven't been able to get Vancouver on their heels while on the road.

It has to be said that Boston has not lead in this series, but Boston has played the better hockey with the exception of 30 seconds in the first two games and about half of game 5. Vancouver has had the edge in play for approximately 30 minutes and 41 seconds, while Boston has carried play for over 5 hours and 29 minutes. The Bruins should right this wrong Wednesday and beat the Canucks. Boston deserves to win this thing.

The Bruins struck early and often in the first period--scoring 4 times in just over 4 minutes. From that point on, the B's controlled play until the 3rd period when Vancouver was able to slip a pair of goals past Tim Thomas. Unfortunately for the Canucks, the Bruins matched them goal for goal after Luongo was lifted in the first period--less than 10 minutes into the game.

Luongo had seen only 8 shots on goal, but since 3 of them found a way around, over or through him, Schneider took over. After surrendering a quick 4th goal, he settled down and held the Bruins in check until the 3rd period. After Schneider entered, both teams scored an even 2 goals on each other. The 3 goal edge surrendered by Luongo was just insurmountable with Thomas between the pipes.

Now the two teams will decide a Champion Wednesday night in Vancouver.

All games in Vancouver have been close. Boston needs to find a way to score first. The team that has drawn first blood in each of the first 6 games has gone on to win the game.

I don't care how confident you are as a person, Roberto Luongo has to have some personal concerns about his play in 50% of this series. Which Luongo will make an appearance on Wednesday? I guess both teams will flip a coin and hope for the best.

The Boston Bruins scored first in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and that was the only goal they would need to win it all.

Boston added three more goals--including one empty net goal in the final minutes of regulation to cement the Cup.

The combination of Boston's physical domination of the Canucks, series MVP and Smythe Trophy winner Tim Thomas' immitation of a brick wall, and the mounting injuries for Vancouver made game 7 fun to watch for Bruins fans. Only one team came to play in game 7 and that team was victorious. Boston simply beat Vancouver into submission over the course of seven games. The Canucks had nothing left in the gas tank for the final game.

I don't know if they thought Boston would take penalties and give Vancouver's powerplay a chance to get a couple of scores, but they had to think that the officials would be hesitant to call penalties in any game 7. In a game where the officials swallow their whistles, Vancouver just doesn't have the meat-eaters they need to survive such a contest.

Vancouver's coach made yet another poor decision to start Roberto Luongo in net. Goalie decisions need to be made by who is playing well right now, not who cashes the biggest check. Even after starting Luongo, they should have made the decision to pull him if Boston got a two goal lead. After the second goal and Luongo was left between the pipes, there was a noticeable drop in the Canucks' remaining intensity. Once the third goal was scored, it was over. There was no way Thomas was going to give up two goals--nevermind the unthinkable three that Vancouver needed to score.

Another poor decision was waiting so long to trade the goalie for an extra attacker. If you are down by three goals, you have to think you will need more time than 3 minutes with the man advantage to come back. Vancouver showed no desire to win the game. At any rate, less than a minute after they pulled their goal tender out of the net, Boston rookie Brad Marchand scored his staggering 11th playoff goal.

It was very uncomfortable to watch as the crowd boo'd the NHL commissioner during his speech prior to the presentation of the Stanley Cup to Boston, and the Vancouver citizens behaved like a bunch of criminals outside the arena and in downtown Vancouver (the true fans behaved themselves, but the citizens behaved like cave men): cars were overturned, burned, dumpsters were set on fire, trash and other articles were being hurled at law enforcement officers. The fire department was kept out by the police because it simply wasn't safe for them to be in the area. Police were firing rubber bullets and using batons and shields to beat back the angry mob of hooligans who had gone downtown for no other reason than to act like idiots.

There were 54 reported injuries including: 3 stabbings, several broken bones, 1 person in critical condition after being thrown off a viaduct, countless shop windows were broken, a handful of cars were turned over, construction sites were vandalized, etc. The destruction was much worse than the 1994 Vancouver riot, according to local officials.

Boston had to win three game 7s during the playoffs. That fact, all by itself, is amazing. This team was certainly the model example of "will" over "skill."

The hockey season may be over, but it starts again in 110 days! Are you ready?

Random Thought: The NHL should abolish the conference system and just put all teams in one big pool, have everyone play each other the same amount of times during the regular season and give them playoff rankings based on their records. Maybe then we can see a real Stanley Cup Final with the Boston Bruins facing the Montreal Canadiens!! That would be something to watch.