Finally, after 82 regular season games and 14 playoff series we have finally reached the promised land. THE STANLEY CUP FINALS BITCHES!! Whose pumped besides this guy?!?!? …and Canada??? This year we have the pleasure of watching the ‘President’s Trophy’ winning Vancouver Canucks vs. the defensive minded Boston Bruins battle for Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Looking at how the two teams arrived to the promised land, it’s hard to make an argument for the Boston Bruins to win this series. With the exception of their round 2 series (which is more telling of the Flyers than the Bruins), Boston has just been lucky enough to survive seven game series against far less talented teams in Montreal and Tampa Bay when compared to Vancouver. Their offense has been anemic at best and their special teams are just flat-out terrible. Boston’s power play unit is about as useful as nipples on the Bat-suit. Thanks Joel Schumacher!!
Anyways, Boston’s only saving grace is that they have two of the best at their positions protecting the net, big bad Zdeno Chara and Tim Thomas. I know the plus/minus stat is garbage in the grand scheme of things, but I’ll go ahead and inform you Chara is boasting a +11 in the playoffs. Tim Thomas is certainly doing his fair share in carrying the team with a 2.29 GAA and .929 save percent average. If Boston is going to have a shot at this, they are going to need to have Tim Thomas stand on his head and get a shut-out or two.
So, with that all said, I’m going with Vancouver in 5 for their first Stanley Cup win. The Sedin twins are just unstoppable and showed it in the conference finals against San Jose. Ryan Kesler appeared to find his game at the end of the series, so I would expect for him to carry that over to the finals. Not to be forgotten is Roberto Luongo, who will be the toughest goaltender the Bruins have faced in the playoffs. Sorry Boston, maybe next year it will be your turn……… after 40 years of coming up short.
So Canucks in 5, and Henrik Sedin wins the Conn Smythe.
Grizzly Bomb 