The Vancouver Canucks were “expected” to make the Stanley Cup Finals. Most pundits picked them (like me) in the preseason and some questioned them (like me) when they had their backs up against the wall in Game 7 against last year’s Cup champs, the Chicago Blackhawks. Getting over that hurdle was huge for them but the weight of Canada will be weighing on them, like it did on the Canucks team from 1994 who had a chance to beat the New York Rangers but didn’t get the job done. Will history repeat itself?

The Boston Bruins have some different players, a different goalie, and yet they had to fend off questions about last year’s collapse at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers? Why, two different teams, two different scenarios and now the Bruins have a chance to become Stanley Cup Champs again, something that hasn’t happened since 1972 when they beat the New York Rangers.

We could go position by position here but I won’t. We could say David Krejci is a Conn Smythe candidate as well as Vancouver’s Ryan Kessler, but I won’t. What I will talk about is Boston’s Claude Julien who has been calm, cool, and collective so far and he’s let his team adjust to every crushing loss and every pressure filled game. This team has been on the edge for the entire playoffs - - Vancouver hasn’t been.

EA Sports have picked the Canucks, most folks in social media have picked the Canucks and yet I feel like the Bruins will win this. Tim Thomas is the kind of goaltender who has throw away games every series but he’s the best bounce back backstop in the game right now. Tyler Seguin has had momentary flashes to give the Bruins some extra punch but they are playing like a well balanced, good defensive, gritty NHL team, the exact opposite of Vancouver. They have to keep the Canucks off the power play and they have to keep shooting the puck against Roberto Luongo. In 18 games he’s made 528 saves, an average of 29 saves per playoff game. Aside from his wonderful 56-save performance against the Sharks if you shoot 35 times or more against Luongo his record in the playoffs is 2-2, a much more beatable goaltender. Both games where Boston had more than 30 shots against Tampa they won.

Boston has to cycle the puck less and shoot more. It will still give them puck possession but that gives their bigger guys a chance to pop in some rebounds like Michael Ryder, Milan Lucic, and Nathan Horton. Patrice Bergeron has to best Manny Malhotra on face-offs and Zdeno Chara has to shoot the puck.

Daniel and Henrik Sedin and most of the Canucks have too much team speed and stick and puck control for the Bruins. Krejci has some of those traits for Boston, and Mark Recchi at times, but Vancouver might be too slick for Boston if they don’t spend a fair amount of time in the Canucks defensive zone.

In essence the Bruins have to push the Canucks around. They can’t let them get comfortable and they have to upset that well oiled machine. Chara can make this happen and he’s the one guy that could have the biggest impact on the game from shift to shift.

I predict the Boston Bruins will win this series in 7 games on Canadian soil.

*We will have full coverage of this series in Boston and Vancouver!

photo by del Tufo