No matter what happens tonight, we’ll have something interesting to talk about. Either the Vancouver Canucks will win their first Stanley Cup in their 40-year franchise history or the Boston Bruins will play in their first Game 7 in their 17 Cup finals runs. Will we see champagne fall on the heads of Canucks players or the pain of a pressure-packed deciding Game 7 on Wednesday?
It seems like it can go either way. The Canucks remain the strong favorites and hold a 3-2 series lead yet the Bruins have dismantled Vancouver by a 12-1 mark at home.
Vancouver @ Boston (NBC) - 8 p.m. ET; Canucks lead series 3-2
From the look of things, there won’t be any major lineup changes, but that can always change in the cat-and-mouse game of the playoffs. Still, to many, it will all come down to Tim Thomas and Zdeno Chara vs. the Sedin twins, Ryan Kesler and Roberto Luongo. Which side will improve their legacies (and chances of winning it all) tonight? We’ll have to watch and see.
Check out all of these posts for PHT’s wall-to-wall coverage for Game 6.
- Luongo’s shutout carried the Canucks within one win of the Cup.
- That wasn’t enough to satisfy the Vancouver goalie as he decided to direct a strange critique at Thomas. Claude Julien and the Bruins provided their own responses to the comments, but perhaps the best response is that Thomas will likely take the Conn Smythe Trophy whether his team wins the Cup or not.
- Two things have been very important so far in this series: scoring the first goal and home ice advantage.
- Can the Bruins overcome the odds that are stacked against them like the Canucks have survived without much scoring from their stars?
- Shocking development: Aaron Rome doesn’t agree with the four-game suspension he received for his hit on Nathan Horton.
- Obviously this shouldn’t discourage teams from attempting to win the Stanley Cup, but there do seem to be some small downsides to winning it all.
- Kesler seems banged up (something reinforced by the fact that he missed Sunday’s practice) but he’s expected to play tonight.
- The Sedin twins are struggling, although their troubles aren’t all that different from tough finals runs by Jonathan Toews and Sidney Crosby.
- Thomas is putting together the type of run that is drawing comparisons to Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek’s highest moments.
- The Canucks don’t agree with the “villain” title people have handed to them.
- The Bruins aren’t assuming that their home ice success will just come to them again while the Canucks claim that they aren’t distracted by the Cup being in the building for Game 6 tonight.
- Could Luongo join Dirk Nowitzki in the “Ex-Chokers Club”?
- Joe presents five things to look out for in Game 6.
- Need even more great 2011 Stanley Cup finals material? Check out these other primer posts: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4 and Game 5.