2011 Stanley Cup Finals: Five Biggest Stories To Watch in Canucks vs. Bruins
With the Stanley Cup Finals set to begin in just a couple of days, all of us fans are a-flutter with anticipation.
The Vancouver Canucks are on a playoff march that has silenced all of their previous critics, and look to bring Canada its first Stanley Cup championship since 1993.
The Boston Bruins have exorcised some demons of their own throughout this playoff run, and have overcome adversity, and themselves at times, in order to reach their first Stanley Cup Final since 1990.
Just with every series, there are questions coming into the series that will hold the key to who wins the series.
So here are five things to watch in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Goaltending Battle
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The goaltending battle is one of the most compelling stories coming into these Stanley Cup Finals.
Roberto Luongo endured a very turbulent first round and has played truly fantastic hockey for the Canucks ever since.
He has dispelled his image as a playoff choker, and has given the Canucks a huge amount of confidence in each of their games because they know that Luongo is ready for anything that comes his way.
He looks to silence his critics for good and add a Stanley Cup ring to that Olympic Gold Medal of his.
Tim Thomas is the odds-on favorite to win the Vezina Trophy for the league's best goalie this season, but has been inconsistent in the playoffs.
It's a product of his super-aggressive style of play, but his athletic ability allows him to get back just in time to make some pretty spectacular saves.
Which goalie performs better will go a long way towards deciding who will win the Stanley Cup, as both teams are loaded offensively.
If there is an advantage, I'd have to give it slightly to Vancouver because Thomas, as I've mentioned, gets so aggressive that he will often find himself out of position, and the Canucks are so patient that they will allow Thomas to move out of the net, find the open man, and then bury one.
Boston's "Power" Play
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Who takes advantage of their power play chances is something that always goes a long way towards deciding a series.
Just ask the San Jose Sharks how important it is, and what happens when your opponent is able to bury the puck with the man advantage consistently throughout the series.
If Boston wants to win this series, it absolutely needs to make certain that it is taking advantage of its power play, because right now it's firing blanks.
The Bruins' power play has only scored five times this entire playoffs.
They have had 61 opportunities, giving them a 8.2 percent power play.
Vancouver's power play showed how much a lethal unit goes towards winning a series, and Boston has been able to win in spite of its lackluster power play.
If Boston does get it going on the man advantage, this series could become very interesting.
The Sedins
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The Sedins have received a ton of criticism for the playoff performances coming into this season, and they have silenced all critics.
The Sedins have combined for 37 points in their 18 playoff games, and were absolutely lethal in the conference finals, frequently dominating play and setting up goals.
It's fairly certain that the Sedins will be seeing a lot of Zdeno Chara in this series.
The only problem with that is Chara, as huge as he is, can't really cover both of them at the same time, and the way that the Sedins just know where the other is going to be makes it difficult for anybody to shut them down.
The Bruins will have to do their best to contain the Sedins, because that's all that can really happen with them.
If the Sedins are able to take over, look for this to be a short series.
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Secondary Scoring
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Depth is something that is absolutely necessary to a Stanley Cup winning team, and that is something that both teams have.
It's obvious that people like the Sedins, Krejci, Kesler, Lucic and others are going to receive a lot of attention from the big defensive groups of their opponents, but what goes much farther is seeing which team is able to get the best contributions from its third and fourth line, as well as defense.
Players like Tyler Seguin, Raffi Torres, Kevin Bieksa, and Danny Paille will go a long way towards deciding this series.
In my eyes, the advantage goes to the Canucks again, because not only have their third liners been contributing offensively, but Vancouver's defense has made a huge impact offensively.
Boston has had good contributions from third liners, but not nearly as much from the defense as Vancouver has.
The X Factor
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As Bill Clement loves to say, a lot of this is going to boil down to who hates to lose the most.
It's silly to say who wants to win more, because the Stanley Cup is the pinnacle of these players' careers, and each of them wants it more than anything in the world.
Both teams have this fight in them, and have shown it time and again throughout the playoffs.
Boston showed it in Game 6 of the conference finals when they were down three goals. They easily could have just rolled over and said "save your energy for Game 7," but they came storming back and made a very close game of it.
Yes, they lost that particular game, but that isn't what is the important thing to me. What is important was that they fought back into the game and showed that desire to finish off the series right then.
Vancouver has also shown this throughout the playoffs, but most notably in Game 5 of the conference finals.
Down one goal, the just found a way to get the goal they needed, almost like they willed the game to go into overtime.
Whichever team has this "killer instinct," that refusal to let their team lose and find some way to get the job done, will be the one to take home Lord Stanley's Cup.
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