Stanley Cup Finals 2011: 6 Things Boston Needs to Win 4 of the Last 5 Games

The Vancouver Canucks won Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and the Boston Bruins need to find a way to avoid being swept out of the playoffs. Not to mention, being swept out of the Finals would mean the Bruins and their fans would be forced to watch the Canucks win the Stanley Cup on TD Garden ice. It can be safely assumed that is something no one in all of New England wants to witness. It is also safe to say Bruins fans expect their heroes to turn this series around and win the Stanley Cup.

In order for the Bruins to extend the series past the minimum four games, they need to do five things.

The first thing Boston must do is avoid getting into the proverbial "track meet" with Vancouver. The Canucks possess great team speed. They are, arguably, the fastest team in the National Hockey League. Players such as Ryan Kesler, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Manny Malhotra and Chris Higgins have used their speed to win races to loose pucks and also beat Bruins defensemen to the outside while carrying the puck. The Bruins need to slow the game down, which will frustrate Vancouver. The only way to do this is by making smart decisions with the puck and by putting it into the "soft areas," which are the areas of the ice near teammates who will then be close enough to those pucks that they will have the advantage of getting to them before any Canuck's player can.

After getting possession of the puck, the Bruins need to maintain control of the puck. This brings us to the second thing Boston needs to do in order to win the series. Keeping control of the puck, now more commonly known as "puck management," will also allow the Bruins to slow the game down. The team needs to play the puck possession game that led to its success in earlier playoff rounds against Montreal, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. The Bruins are beginning to play the dump and chase game where they carry the puck to the center ice red line, then shoot it into the Canuck's zone hoping it will go around the boards, behind the Vancouver net and come to rest on a Bruins' stick along the boards, which will allow Boston to set up offensively and create a scoring chance. This is old style hockey that may have worked 39 years ago—when Boston last won the Stanley Cup—but all it really does these days is turn the puck over to the other team and begin their break out.

As mentioned earlier, Vancouver is quick and has been getting to the pucks before Boston can. Another seemingly routine play for the Canucks has been one where goaltender Roberto Luongo will stop the puck and leave it for one of his defensemen, who will gain control of it, make a pass to a breaking forward who is skating out of their defensive zone, putting the Bruins on the defensive, chasing the puck carrier. Boston needs to stop this trend by carrying the puck over the Canucks blue line deep into the zone, or stop along the half boards and set up their offensive zone cycle, which will get Vancouver defensemen chasing them. This leads to Canucks players eventually, being caught out of position, giving Boston scoring chances.

Another way to slow the game down, and yes, this is number three on our list of how to get back into the series, is to return to playing the physical style that enabled them to defeat Montreal and Philadelphia and was very useful in Game 7 against Tampa Bay. When a team constantly plays the body, it is only a matter of time before those bodies begin to fatigue. Being checked into the boards on a shift to shift basis is grueling and takes a lot out of a player. It makes a player think twice about handling a puck when they hear footsteps or see someone coming at them with bad intentions. It also creates turn overs. The Bruins are a bigger, stronger group than the Canucks. They have proven time and again when they use their bodies to slow down their opponents and force them to give up the puck, they win. Boston has not played a consistently physical game in the Stanley Cup Finals yet. That needs to change in Game 3 in Boston.

Coming in at number four is goal scoring. Vancouver's Roberto Luongo is an elite goaltender, but the Bruins have helped him look better than he has been throughout the playoffs. Boston forwards and defensemen are getting their fair share of shots at him but for the most part, he is seeing the shots from the moment they are released off of their sticks. Boston forwards have been trying to get in his way and set up screens that will inhibit his view of the ice and the puck, but overall they have not done it consistently, or the Canucks defensemen have been able to move the Bruins out of the way giving Luongo full view of those shots.

As we know, the Bruins did not score in Game 1. They scored twice in Game 2, but both of those goals were "dirty goals." The first Boston goal was off a double deflection. Zdeno Chara shot the puck from inside the blue line. Tyler Seguin deflected it toward the weak side goal post where Mark Recchi was cutting across the ice in front of Luongo's crease. Recchi then got his stick on the puck, deflecting it past Luongo and into the goal. The Bruins second goal was not a work of art either. It was old school, hard work and determination. Milan Lucic set up in front of Luongo who made the initial save on a shot. Lucic fought off a defender and put the rebound behind the 2011 Vezina Trophy finalist. Luongo has made a career out of making the first save look routine because he sees the puck and is able to stop it. The Bruins need to put two players in front of him ensuring his vision is cut down and continue to deflect shots and win battles for rebounds. "Dirty goals" will win the series for Boston. As the adage goes in hockey, "They don't ask how, just how many."

Consistent play is number five. The Bruins have played well enough to say that they can play with the Vancouver Canucks for long periods of time throughout the first two games of the series. They have played great hockey for shorter periods of time where one could say they were the better team, and they have totally dominated games for even shorter periods of time on the ice. In the first two games of the series, the Bruins have not consistently showed they are the superior team. The club did look superior for a short stretches of time during the first and second periods of Game 1 and again for most of the second period in Game 2. It has appeared that each time Vancouver has scored a goal, the Bruins begin to second guess themselves and lose confidence, which goes hand in hand. While the Bruins are trying to regain that confidence, the Canucks go to work and take over the game. The Bruins need to remember they are in the Stanley Cup Final because they belong there and play with the swag they had in the earlier series.

Finally, and this really is tied in with number five on this list, this Boston Bruins team needs to know they are in the Stanley Cup Finals because they have earned the right to be there. They began the season with the singular, collective goal of winning the last game of the season in the Stanley Cup Finals. They are where they set out to be. They are the best team in the east. They now must play a one game series or as they cliche goes, "one game at a time." The Bruins, to a man, need to step on the ice for Game 3 not hoping to win but expecting to win. There in lies the difference between these two teams: Up to this point, the Vancouver Canucks expect to win the Stanley Cup, while the Boston Bruins have been hoping to win the Stanley Cup.

It is great to have hope. A friend once pointed out to me that we all need to have hope in every facet of our lives, but there are times when we need to expect some things. The Boston Bruins need to play a physical, in your face style of hockey. The style that produces games that are played at their pace. The style where they manage the puck longer than their opponents. The style that allows them to score dirty goals. The style of hockey that the Boston Bruins franchise has been known for throughout the years. This style is known as big, bad Bruins hockey. That style has won Stanley Cups in the past. Boston fans expect to see this club return to big, bad Bruins hockey in Games 3, 4, 5, 6 and if necessary, Game 7. The players need to expect to win the Stanley Cup.

Those are the six things needed by the Boston Bruins in four out of the final five games in order to win the Stanley Cup.