Who will win theStanley Cup: Boston or Vancouver Canucks?
The 2011 Stanley Cup Finals is the championship series of the National Hockey League (NHL) 201011 season, and the culmination of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs. This will be the 118th year of the Stanley Cup's presentation. The Eastern Conference Champion Boston Bruins will play the Western Conference Champion Vancouver Canucksit is the first ever postseason meeting between the two teams. This year's Stanley Cup Finals will end one of the league's longest Cup droughts. The Vancouver Canucks, who entered the league in 1970, have never won the Stanley Cup. The Boston Bruins last won the Cup in 1972.
The series
Game one
June 1 Boston Bruins 01 Vancouver Canucks
Raffi Torres's goal with 18.5 seconds left in regulation broke a scoreless tie to give the Canucks the victory in Game 1. The entire game was seen as a duel between the two opposing goaltenders; both Vancouver's Roberto Luongo and Boston's Tim Thomas are Vezina Trophy finalists for the 201011 season. Thomas stopped 33 of 34 shots while Luongo made 36 saves for his third shutout of the 2011 playoffs. Both of Luongo's two previous shutouts of the 2011 playoffs had also occurred in Game 1 (a 20 victory against Chicago in the first round, and a 10 victory against Nashville in the second round). This was the first time since 1984 that the opening game of the Cup Finals was scoreless through two periods.
Both teams killed off all penalties in the game, including a 5-on-3 Boston had in the second period, and a double minor high-sticking penalty called on Vancouver's Daniel Sedin in the first. At the end of the first period, Vancouver's Alexandre Burrows was called for a double minor roughing penalty on Boston's Patrice Bergeron, while Bergeron also got a roughing minor. Replays appeared to show that Burrows had bit Bergeron's finger, but despite Bergeron's pleading to the referees, no additional penalty was assessed to Burrows. However, despite biting being an offense that can warrant a suspension, Burrows did not receive one from the NHL on the grounds that no conclusive evidence that Burrows intentionally bit Bergeron could be found.
Vancouver WIN
Game two
June 4 Boston Bruins 23 OT Vancouver Canucks
In the second-fastest overtime in Stanley Cup Final history, Alexandre Burrows scored 11 seconds into the first overtime to give Vancouver a 32 win in Game 2. Burrows faked a shot, causing Boston goalie Tim Thomas to move out of position, then skated around the net to put the puck into the empty net for the game-winning goal; Thomas was not able to recover his position. This was Burrows's second goal of the game. He opened the scoring with a goal in the first period during the final seconds of a power play. Boston responded with two goals in the second period, one by Milan Lucic and a power play goal by Mark Recchi. However, Daniel Sedin tied the score at 22 about midway through the third period.
Game 2 featured the return of Vancouver's Manny Malhotra, who had not played a game since March 16, when he suffered a severe eye injury after taking a puck to the face.[ Both Thomas and Roberto Luongo still had good GAA's in Game 2, stopping 30 of 33 shots and 28 of 30 shots, respectively. With his second period goal, 43-year-old Recchi became the oldest player to score in the Cup Finals.
Burrows led all players with 3 points, including his two goals and his assist on Sedin's goal. Before playing, Burrows promised his father that he would have a big game so that his controversial biting incident in Game 1 would be forgotten. However, his play in Game 2 caused him to remain the center of controversy for Bruins fans as well as critics who did support a suspension. Analyst Mike Milbury was extremely vocal about the league's non-suspension during NBC's telecast of Game 2, saying that it was "a disgraceful call by the league ... Theyre impacting this series by a non-call". Still, Boston head coach Claude Julien, Patrice Bergeron, and the rest of the Bruins refused to make it an excuse for not winning the game.
Before the game, the Boston Red Sox moved their game against the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park from 7:10 p.m. EDT to 1:10 p.m. EDT to allow for Bruins fans to watch Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Vancouver WIN
Game three
June 6 Vancouver Canucks 18 Boston Bruins
Boston scored 4 goals in the second period, and another 4 goals in the third, which resulted in a 81 rout in Game 3. Mark Recchi scored two of them; Brad Marchand and Daniel Paille each scored shorthanded; and Andrew Ference, David Krejci, Chris Kelly and Michael Ryder each tallied one of the other four.[35] Tim Thomas stopped 40 out of 41 shots, only allowing a third period goal by Jannik Hansen.[35]
At 05:07 into the first period, Vancouver's Aaron Rome received a major interference penalty, a game misconduct, and automatic ejection on a hit on Boston's Nathan Horton. Horton was taken off the ice on a stretcher and was then transported to a hospital for further observation. However, the Bruins did not score on the ensuing 5-minute power play. Following a disciplinary hearing on June 7, Rome was given a four-game suspension for the late hit and will miss the remainder of the 2011 playoffs, the first multi-game suspension in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals. Rome and the Canucks maintained that the play was a good hit that went bad, but the NHL determined that the hit came more than a second after Horton gave up the puck. The NHL considers a hit to be late if it comes more than half a second after a player gives up possession. In contrast to Game 2, which featured only 10 minutes of penalties for the entire game, Game 3 had 143 total penalty minutes, the most in a Cup Final game since 1990. The 81 score was the biggest goal differential in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1996, when the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Florida Panthers in Game 2 by the same score.
Boston WIN
Game four
June 8 Vancouver Canucks 04 Boston Bruins
Tim Thomas made 38 saves and Rich Peverley scored two goals as the Bruins shut out the Canucks, 40, to even the series. Roberto Luongo, who stopped only 16 out of 20 shots, was immediately pulled after giving up the fourth Boston goal at 3:39 of the third period.
Boston Win
Game five
June 10 Boston Bruins 01 Vancouver Canucks
Roberto Luongo made 31 saves and Maxim Lapierre scored the game's only goal as the Canucks shut out the Bruins, 10, to take a 3-2 lead in the series. Lapierre's score came at 4:35 into the third period. Kevin Bieksa's shot went wide and rebounded off the end boards to Lapierre on the other side of the net, who then beat Tim Thomas after the Boston goalie was unable to recover his position in time. Thomas made 24 saves in the loss.
Vancouver WIN
Game six
June 13 Vancouver Canucks 8:00 pm Boston Bruins
Game seven*
June 15 Boston Bruins 8:00 pm Vancouver Canucks
Who will win the 2011 Stanley Cup finals the Boston Bruins or Vancouver Canucks?
For me, it will be vancouver
Canucks Stanley Cup Finals Song - Lazy Song Parody
