Stanley Cup Finals Game 7: Would a Boston or Vancouver Win Be Better for NHL?

The Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 kicks off tonight at 8 PM EST, as the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins bring what has been a downright thrilling series to its highly anticipated conclusion.

If you're the NHL, this series really couldn't have gone much better for you. Two hockey-mad fanbases, thrilling games (and some wild rallies courtesy of the Bruins' domination of Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo in Boston) and a minimum of dirty hits have made this one of the most entertaining (and widely watched) Stanley Cup Finals series in recent history. 

Sure, there was the Aaron Rome hit, but the NHL dealt with that swiftly, severely and appropriately, gaining some major kudos from just about all the talking heads around the hockey media. But as the grand finale inches closer, one big question remains. 

Which team's Game 7 win (and therefore Stanley Cup-hoisting party) would be the biggest boon to the league? In a series in which pretty much everything has gone the NHL's way (great games, rallies, hard-fought contests), which team's eventual victory would benefit the league most?

It's an intriguing question when you stop and think about it. Both teams have their own strong storylines, their own strong cases that their victory in Game 7 would benefit the league more.

Take the Canucks, for instance. You've got a team that has found success throughout its history and has been making the playoffs with metronomic consistency over the last 10 years, yet it has never hoisted the hardware and has made just two Stanley Cup Finals in the franchise's history.

The Canucks' history is littered with disappointment, chokes and missed opportunities. This year's club features arguably the most talented goalie in the NHL, one of the deepest rosters in recent memory and a balance between offensive skill and defensive fortitude you don't see very often. Roberto Luongo remains a force between the pipes, at the height of his prime, but the 31-year-old has yet to hoist the Stanley Cup thanks to a history of lackluster showings in the postseason.

Even this year, he's alternated between brilliant and terrible, giving fans the kind of stress levels typically reserved for activities like open-heart surgery, not watching hockey games. 

On top of the franchise's historic inability to hoist the sport's most coveted hardware, there are the pressures that come with being Canada's best hope to bring "their" Cup back to its "home" country for the first time since a young Patrick Roy led the Montreal Canadiens to the 1993 title. Since then, just five Canadian teams have even reached this stage of the postseason (including Vancouver), and none have come this close to hoisting Lord Stanley's silverware.

Now, the Canucks stand on the precipice of giving the hockey-rabid nation the Stanley Cup and the Olympic gold medal at the same time for the first time since 1953, which in turn would crown them as the kings of the hockey world. If you think they haven't been craving this moment for years, you haven't been paying attention. The entire nation's attention will be on Game 7, and the city of Vancouver won't be the only place celebrating if they pull it off.

That said, Boston makes a pretty convincing case to be the better story for the NHL as well. You want disappointment? You really can't beat the Bruins' sob story of the last three seasons. In 2008, they crashed out against their arch nemeses, the Montreal Canadiens, who were spurred on by some stellar performances from goalie Carey Price, losing in a heartbreaking seven-game series.

In 2009 they dispatched the Habs with ease but tripped up against the Carolina Hurricanes, falling in seven games in yet another heartbreaker for the club.

Most recently, they fell apart in historic fashion last season, going up 3-0 in their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Philadelphia Flyers. They promptly dropped the final four games of the series and went home wondering what went wrong. 

Now, they stand on the brink of vindication and triumph, poised to give their fans their first Cup since 1972. They currently hold the second-longest trophy-less streak of any Original Six club, second only to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and they're doing it with a goaltender who didn't get his first shot at being a regular starter in the NHL until he was 30.

Tim Thomas was an NHL journeyman, a player who bounced around in Europe and the minor leagues until landing back with Boston, the club that first promoted him to the NHL, in 2006-07, at 30 years old. Since then, other, supposedly more talented netminders have come and gone, but Thomas has remained and emerged as one of the best goalies in the entire sport.

If he wins the Stanley Cup, he's a lock for the Conn Smythe as the playoffs MVP, and he's the likely winner of the Vezina as well. He's been stellar in this postseason, and given his backstory, it's hard not to pull for him. 

So who's it going to be? The Canadian club whose recent past is littered with heartbreak and near misses? Or the Original Six club with the former journeyman goalkeeper, whose run of futility is nearly unparalleled among the big clubs?

Frankly, if you're the NHL, you can't lose. Both of these teams have the kinds of stories legends are made out of, and the likely epic clash between them in Game 7 figures to only further boost the league's reputation and visibility. No matter who wins tonight, the big winners will be the NHL as a whole. 

For a league hoping to cash in on what has been a truly sublime postseason, that should be music to their ears.