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Stanley Cup Finals Preview – Vancouver vs. Boston by The Sports Network
REGULAR SEASON RECORD: 54-19-9
2011 PLAYOFFS: Defeated Chicago 4-3 in conference quarterfinals; defeated Nashville 4-2 in conference semifinals; defeated San Jose 4-1 in conference finals
(Sports Network) – For the first time in 17 years the Vancouver Canucks have earned the right to play for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
The Canucks, who have never won a title, were last in the Cup Finals in 1994 when they were bested in seven games during a classic series with the New York Rangers.
The road back to the Stanley Cup Finals has been a long and tough one for the Vancouver franchise, as the club never made it past the second round between ’94 and this spring. But the path the Canucks have taken in this year’s postseason has gotten progressively easier.
Alain Vigneault’s club blew a 3-0 lead to Chicago in the opening round before winning the series in Game 7. The Canucks then ousted Nashville in six games in Round 2 before beating San Jose in five tests to earn the franchise’s third conference title.
Although the Western Conference finals matchup with the Sharks lasted only five games, the Canucks didn’t exactly dominate San Jose. Vancouver picked up three of its wins by one-goal margins and clinched the series with a double- overtime victory in Game 5.
The Canucks used an excellent series from the much-maligned Sedin twins and goaltender Roberto Luongo to make quick work of the Sharks.
Vancouver captain Henrik Sedin compiled an amazing 12 points in the conference finals, notching one goal and 11 assists over the five games. Thanks in large part to that monster series, last year’s Hart Trophy winner is leading all NHLers with 21 points (2 goals, 19 assists) in 18 games this postseason
Identical twin Daniel, meanwhile, notched two goals and four assists against the Sharks and has eight goals and eight helpers in the postseason.
The Sedins and Alexandre Burrows, who has seven goals and seven assists in the playoffs, clearly give Vancouver a terrific top line, but centerman Ryan Kesler and company are making sure it’s not all about the No. 1 unit.
Kesler has 18 points (7g, 11a) in the playoffs and is doing a superb job anchoring the second line with wingers Mason Raymond and Chris Higgins. Kesler did slow down in Round 3 with two goals and one assist in the series after exploding for five goals and six assists against Nashville in the conference semifinals.
Raymond and Higgins have posted eight and seven points, respectively, in the 2011 postseason.
With the top two lines delivering loads of offense the Canucks rely on the rest of their forwards to play solid defense and hand out big checks. Raffi Torres has been especially effective in his role, playing the part of the nasty, physical forward to perfection.
Canucks center Manny Malhotra has been cleared to play, but Vigneault has not said whether he will dress for Game 1. He has been out of action since the middle of March with an eye injury. The faceoff wiz and defensive specialist was hit in the left eye with a puck on March 16 and the injury had been expected to keep him out for the remainder of the year.
However, after undergoing two operations on the eye, Malhotra’s status has improved and he could potentially be a big factor in this series. He could also take some of the pressure off Kesler, who has been saddled with the role of the club’s top defensive forward with Malhotra out of the lineup.
Between the pipes, Luongo has gone a long way this spring towards dispelling the notion that he doesn’t have what it takes to win big games. The 32-year- old netminder had a rough series in the opening round against Chicago, but it has been pretty much smooth sailing since.
One of Luongo’s best efforts of the playoffs came in Vancouver’s double-OT win over San Jose in the clinching game of the conference finals. Luongo stopped 54-of-56 shots in that contest and halted all 20 Shark attempts in the overtime periods.
The Montreal native and 2011 Vezina Trophy finalist is 12-6 with a 2.29 goals- against average and .922 save percentage in 18 playoff games this year.
Vancouver’s top four defensemen have done a great deal to help Luongo turn in a strong postseason and have also contributed on the offensive end. Kevin Bieksa and Dan Hamhuis are getting the most minutes out of that group and are also the steadiest all-around blueliners on the club. Bieksa, Christian Ehrhoff and Alexander Edler have also provided some offensive punch from the back end.
Bieksa is leading the club’s blueliners with five goals and also has four assists this postseason. He is also tops on the team with a plus-10 rating. Ehrhoff has the most points on the defense with 11 (2g, 9a) and Edler has posted two goals and seven helpers.
Hamhuis has one goal and five assists and is plus-five.
Ehrhoff (shoulder) and fellow defenseman Aaron Rome (head) missed the last two games of the San Jose series, but both are probable for Game 1 of the Cup Finals.
Vancouver is averaging 2.78 goals per game in the playoffs and has allowed an average of 2.56 scores per contest.
The Canucks have also excelled on the power play, scoring on 18-of-60 attempts (28.3 percent). However, penalty killing has been an issue at times for the club, as Vigneault’s troops have been scored on 14 times in 72 shorthanded situations. The PK problems were obvious against San Jose, which tallied seven times on 23 opportunities with the man advantage over five games.
BOSTON BRUINS (3rd seed, East)
REGULAR SEASON RECORD: 46-25-11
2011 PLAYOFFS: Defeated Montreal 4-3 in conference quarterfinals; defeated Philadelphia 4-0 in conference semifinals; defeated Tampa Bay 4-3 in conference finals
(Sports Network) – While the Canucks last played for a title 17 years ago, it’s been an even longer road back to the Cup Finals for Boston, which made its last appearance in the NHL’s championship round in 1990.
The Bruins ousted Tampa Bay for this year’s Eastern Conference title by beating the Lightning, 1-0, in a decisive Game 7 in Boston. It was the second Game 7 victory of this postseason for Boston, which went seven games against Montreal in Round 1 before sweeping Philadelphia in the conference semifinals.
Boston, which was ousted in five games by Mark Messier and the Edmonton Oilers in the 1990 Stanley Cup Finals, hasn’t won a title since Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito led the franchise to the 1972 crown. All told, the B’s have claimed five Stanley Cup titles in their storied history.
After the way the 2010 postseason ended for Boston it may surprise some folks to see the Bruins representing the East just one year later in the Cup Finals.
Last spring, Boston became just the third team in NHL history to lose a series after holding a three-games-to-one lead when it was eliminated in seven games by the Flyers. However, the Bruins made quick work of Philly in Round 2 this year to help exorcise those playoff demons.
Of course, a Stanley Cup title would help further erase the memory of that historic playoff collapse.
Boston is a team built on strong defense and solid goaltending, but the B’s showed some offensive punch in eliminating the high-powered Lightning in the conference finals, scoring 21 times over the seven games. The Bruins are averaging 3.22 goals per game for the entire playoffs and have yielded just 2.50 scores per contest.
David Krejci and Nathan Horton have been Boston’s best forwards in this postseason. The former is leading the playoffs with 10 goals and has also added seven assists, while Horton has also notched 17 points (8g, 9a) and scored the only goal in Boston’s Game 7 victory over the Lightning.
Including Krejci and Horton, the Bruins have six players with 10 or more points in the playoffs and valuable two-way forward Patrice Bergeron is third on the team with 15 points on four goals and 11 assists. Bergeron sat out the first two games of the last round with a mild concussion, but returned for Game 3 and posted two goals and one helper in the last five games of the series.
Krejci led his club with five goals in the last round and was tied with Horton for the team lead with seven points. Michael Ryder and rookie Tyler Seguin also added three goals and three assists apiece against the Lightning.
Seguin, the second overall pick in last year’s draft, played the first two postseason games of his NHL career with Bergeron out in the last round. The 19-year-old was so impressive that he remained in the lineup for the rest of the series, pushing fellow forward Shawn Thornton to the press box.
The Bruins would like to get increased offensive production from power forward Milan Lucic, who has three goals and six assists in 18 games this spring. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Lucic does have a plus-nine rating for the tourney and is third among Boston forwards in ice time, averaging 18 minutes, 13 seconds per tilt.
Power-play scoring has been a big problem for Boston all year long and things have only gotten worse in the playoffs. The Bruins have scored just five times on 61 chances with the man advantage this spring for a paltry 8.2 percent success rate.
Boston’s defense and goaltending usually makes scoring against the club a difficult task, but the Lightning gave the Bruins more than they could handle at times in the conference finals. Even with two shutouts by Boston goaltender Tim Thomas, Tampa still managed 21 goals over the seven-game series.
Thomas won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender in 2009 and is considered to be the favorite for the award this year. The 37-year-old is 12-6 this postseason with a 2.29 GAA and .929 save percentage. Thomas set an NHL record with a .938 save percentage over 57 games during the regular season.
Boston’s defense is led by mammoth blueliner Zdeno Chara, who can dominate games with his combination of skill, size and physicality. Chara, who is 6- foot-9 and 255 pounds, was a Norris Trophy winner in 2009 and is a finalist for the top defenseman award this year as well.
Chara, who boasts the hardest slap shot ever recorded, has just two goals in this year’s playoffs, but he has added three assists and is leading his club with a plus-11 rating. The Slovakian is also averaging 28:17 of ice time per game, which is second on the team to fellow defenseman Dennis Seidenberg.
Seidenberg and Tomas Kaberle are leading Boston’s blue line with eight points apiece this spring, but the former is seeing much more action. Seidenberg is averaging 28:22 of ice time per game, while Kaberle, who was acquired during this season in a trade with Toronto, is at 16:31.
Kaberle has scored all eight of his points on assists and five of them came in the last round against Tampa.
Andrew Ference is second among Boston defensemen with seven points, while Johnny Boychuk is leading the club with three goals from the back end. Both Ference and Boychuk are averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per outing.
Boston has also allowed 13 power-play goals on 63 shorthanded situations this postseason.
MATCHUP
The Canucks won the Presidents’ Trophy as the club with the best record in the regular season, and after a slow start to the postseason they seem to firing on all cylinders once again.
Presidents’ Trophy winners have gone on to win the Stanley Cup seven times since the award was introduced in the mid-1980s, but the last time was in 2008 when Detroit won it all.
Vancouver also has a bit of interesting history going in its favor in this series and it has to do with the city hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. The only other two Canadian cities to host Olympics — Montreal and Calgary — went on to win Stanley Cup titles the following year. The Canadiens hosted the Summer Games in 1976 and won the second of four straight Cups in 1977, while Calgary claimed its only championship in 1989, a year after hosting the 1988 Winter Olympics.
Of course, the Canucks are not only carrying the hopes of a city, but also a nation considering a Canadian team hasn’t lifted the Cup since Montreal defeated Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings in 1993.
This is also the first time the Canucks will be facing a team without New York in front of its name in the Stanley Cup Finals. Vancouver was swept by the Islanders in 1982 before pushing the Rangers to the limit in ’94.
Boston, meanwhile, has lost its last five trips to the Finals since defeating the Rangers for the Cup in 1972. The Bruins have a 5-20 record in the championship round since their last title.
The Canucks and Bruins have never faced each other in the playoffs and the clubs only met once this season with Boston notching a 3-1 decision at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena. The B’s have taken three of four and four of the last six games these clubs have played against each other.
Neither club’s goaltender has Stanley Cup Finals experience, but Luongo and Thomas have 52 and 36 games, respectively, of playoff action under their belts.
The Canucks have home-ice advantage to start the series as a result of their superior regular season record and Vancouver boasts a solid 7-3 record at Rogers Arena this spring.
Boston has a 5-3 record as the visiting team in the postseason and is also 7-3 on home ice. Like the Bruins, Vancouver has a 5-3 mark as the road club.
The Canucks hope to find the soft spots in Boston’s defense just like Tampa Bay was able to do in the conference finals, and although Vancouver doesn’t have the speed of the Lightning, the Canucks are even deeper skill-wise.
Expect the Sedin and Kesler lines to continue their steady production and for Vancouver to finally bring Lord Stanley’s Cup back to Canada.
Sports Network predicted outcome: Canucks in 6
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