Stanley Cup Finals 2011: 5 Reasons Why Vancouver Will Hoist the Cup
The Vancouver Canucks ended the regular season as the most dominant team in the National Hockey League, capturing the President's Trophy in recognition of earning the best record in the league.
Since then, the Canucks have endured an up-and-down playoff journey, that has seen them conquer three vastly different teams in the process.
In the first round, the Canucks vanquished their demons of playoffs' past by eliminating their rival Chicago Blackhawks in decisive fashion, with an overtime-winning goal by Alexandre Burrows in Game 7 on home ice.
From there, the 'Nucks put on dominating performances against a clearly overmatched Nashville Predators team, as well as against a highly skilled and playoff-tested San Jose Sharks squad.
As a unit, Vancouver appears to have grown in every conceivable way. Their defense has become the toughest to play against in hockey, after overcoming an absurd amount of injuries during the regular season.
Their twin towers up front, the Sedins, silenced their critics by putting up 18 points in the Conference Finals against San Jose. Most importantly, Roberto Luongo has performed admirably since a disastrous three-game slide against Chicago in the first round.
With that in mind, here are five reasons why it will be Vancouver, and not Boston, that will hoist Lord Stanley's chalice at the end of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals.
5. The Role Players
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As a whole, Vancouver has been receiving healthy contributions from a variety of role players over the course of the playoffs.
Their top two lines have been scoring, but beyond that, guys like Chris Higgins, Raffi Torres and Jannik Hansen have been producing in clutch situations as well.
The forwards who get the most credit are obviously the Sedin twins and Ryan Kesler, but other scorers, like Alexandre Burrows have quietly had breakout playoff performances for the Canucks.
Burrows became a hero in Vancouver after scoring the series winner in double overtime against Chicago, and has been the perfect fit on the team's top line.
On defense, the Canucks have had a variety of players step up offensively, most notably Kevin Bieksa. Bieksa was a game-breaker in the San Jose series, as he scored big goal after big goal, until he notched the decisive, though incredibly lucky, series-winning tally in double overtime to lift Vancouver to the Finals.
Beyond his offensive contributions, Bieksa is a hard-nosed defenseman, who intimidates the opposition. A key example of this from the Conference Finals is when Bieksa fought San Jose star Patrick Marleau, helping swing the momentum back in Vancouver's favor.
Vancouver is also stronger in one key aspect of the game than they were just a week ago, as they learned over the weekend that Manny Malhotra has been medically cleared to play in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Malhotra is a calming veteran presence in the locker room, and is widely regarded as one of the top faceoff men in the game. If he's inserted directly into the lineup, Malhotra will add depth down the middle, which has proven to be of the utmost importance to Stanley Cup winning teams in recent years.
4. The Kesler Factor
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Over the course of the first three rounds of the playoffs, no player has been as thoroughly dominant as Ryan Kesler.
He's played every role his team's asked of him, from agitating, to scoring, to playing solid defense. He's emerged as one of the team's offensive contributors, while cementing his status as one of the most capable defensive forwards in the league.
If the Canucks win the Stanley Cup, a strong case could be made for Kesler's Conn Smythe candidacy, as he currently sits fourth in playoff scoring, but numbers don't even begin to tell the story.
Kesler scores at key times, when many others are busy gripping their sticks too tightly. With the Canucks down by a goal late in Game 5 of the Conference Finals, Kesler came through in the clutch, tying the game with less than a minute to play.
Ultimately, Boston has quite a task in front of them, as they'll have to try to contain two bona fide No. 1 centers. Henrik Sedin is a scoring wizard, but Kesler is more of a total-package type of pivot.
If Boston is going to win this series, they'll have to stop two of the most dynamic centers in the game, which no team has been able to do thus far.
3. The Blueline
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Another key component to the Canucks playoff success is the depth they boast on defense.
They have a solid top-four defensemen in Dan Hamhuis, Kevin Bieksa, Sami Salo and Alexander Edler, but their fifth and sixth defensemen would be top two pairing players on most teams.
Beyond the top two pairings, Keith Ballard and Christian Ehrhoff (if he's healthy for the Finals) are two rearguards who have played big minutes, and are fully equipped to do so should the Canucks face injury or penalty problems in the Finals.
The Bruins may boast the biggest star in the series in Zdeno Chara, but the rest of the Bruins' defense pales in comparison to that of the Canucks. Vancouver has in-your-face physical defensemen like Bieksa and Hamhuis, as well as those who can make an impact on the power play like Salo, who has an absolute bomb from the point.
Ultimately, this series will likely come down to how well the Canucks goaltender, Roberto Luongo plays, rather than how those in front of him play. The Canucks, from top to bottom, are a consistent, if at times slightly unexciting, group, and their defense is no different.
They're all capable of playing top-pairing minutes, and that's a luxury most head coaches don't have.
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2. Two Superstar Forwards Is Better Than None
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The Boston Bruins have an arsenal of capable offensive forwards, but none who strike fear into opposing goaltenders' eyes the way that the Sedin twins do.
To put things into perspective, consider the fact that the Sedins combined for 18 points in the five-game Conference Finals series, which is more than any Bruin has in the entire playoffs thus far, as Krejci and Horton are tied for the team lead with 17.
Additionally, during the regular season, each of the Sedin twins had more assists than anyone on the Bruins did points, as each twin had at least 63 assists, and the Bruins leading regular season scorers tied at 62 points.
This begins to illustrate the sizable gap between the two teams in terms of top end offense, as the Canucks have two bona fide NHL superstars, while the Bruins' biggest offensive star is either a blueliner (Zdeno Chara), or in the press box (Marc Savard).
Yes, Patrice Bergeron is a great player, as are Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton and David Krejci, but none of them have even been as dangerous as the Canucks' second line center this year, Ryan Kesler.
Fortunately for Boston, they have a premier shutdown defenseman in Chara, and a decent supporting cast, but if the blue-line corps of the Predators, Blackhawks and Sharks failed to contain the Canucks offense for a full series, it's tough to imagine the Bruins will be able to.
The Sedins are not the same players they were a year ago, as they've delivered for their team when the stakes are the highest.
The Stanley Cup Finals aren't always determined by the play of the respective teams' stars, but if the Sedins perform to the level they're capable of, that just may be the case.
1. Roberto Luongo Is Ready
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Each time the Canucks were eliminated in the early 2000's, their goaltender (usually Dan Cloutier) frequently took the weight of the blame.
When Vancouver acquired franchise netminder Roberto Luongo from Florida in 2006, they believed they'd rid themselves of their goaltending troubles for at least the next decade. While Luongo was stellar in the 2007 Playoffs, he was shaky in each of the team's last two playoff series defeats, both times at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks.
It looked like history would repeat itself this year, when the Canucks blew a three games-to-none series lead against Chicago in the first round, but Luongo stood tall in game seven, and Vancouver finally exacted their revenge on the Blackhawks.
In the following two series, Luongo has put together dominating performances against Nashville and San Jose, highlighted by a 54-save double overtime win in game five of the Conference Finals.
Luongo looks nothing like the goaltender we've seen in the previous two playoffs, which bodes well for Vancouver. Instead, Luongo looks more like the goalie who battled and helped Team Canada win the Gold Medal in his team's building in February of 2010.
At the Olympics, Luongo didn't need to be the best goaltender in the tournament, he simply had to do what was needed of him to win games. If the Canucks continue to play the way they have for the past two series, Luongo likely won't have to steal the show in order to win the Cup.
The Bruins haven't yet faced an offense as talented as Vancouver's, and they certainly haven't yet faced a goaltender of Luongo's calibre. If Luongo continues to keep his composure in pressure situations, there's no reason he shouldn't be leading the Canucks' victory parade in June.
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