Okay let’s make one thing clear right off the bat. The Vancouver Canucks did not deserve to win this Stanley Cup. They didn’t show up for game seven, case closed. Did we mention that the Sedins slept through the series and Roberto Lunogo was downright terrible for four games out of seven?
That said, it just killed me to see the Boston Bruins winning the Cup. Throughout the series, I was more in Boston’s corner because they clearly wanted this more than the Canucks. But kind of feeling sympathy for the Bruins during the series and watching Zdeno Chara hoisting the Stanley Cup are two different things.
My pal Meredith Dellandrea tweeted to say she – quite smartly – turned off the TV right after they won in order to not see the celebrations. I watched it all partly ’cause I was watching with my son Keane and if there’s anyone who loves watching a celebration, it’s Keane.
But no Habs fan can be happy about this Cup victory. You know the Bruins will be taunting us with this next season and with good reason. They got there, in part, because they managed to intimidate the Habs.
So were the Habs one goal away from winning the Cup. As Steve Tyler so memorably put it, Dream On.
Vancouver will win 3-1 tonight. Maxim Lapierre will score one of the goals for the Canucks. And I think the Bruins will have to wait another decade to lift the Cup. Luongo will be okay in between the pipes. And so far this series, the home team has always won.
I, as you know, am a Habs fan and in spite of what my son Keane thinks, I am not cheering for the Boston Bruins in this series. But I do think they’re going to win game seven Wednesday and quite frankly they deserve to take home the Cup for the first time in four decades.
In a word – okay a few words – the ‘Nucks have been downright schizoid in this series and, if they do happen to get the proverbial game-seven lucky bounce and win it all, they will be one of the least deserving Cup winners in years. The Sedin twins have been invisible and Roberto Luongo has been both brilliant and amongst the worst goalies in the history of Stanley Cup finals.
I still don’t much like the Bruins but I think you’d have to be one major Canucks fan to suggest that Vancouver has been the better team here. Now Boston has the momentum, though you could argue that this bizarre series hasn’t had anything resembling momentum in either direction.
In the end, it’s impossible to really know what will happen in any game seven. Look at that strange game seven in the Tampa Bay Bruins series where the Lightning simply didn’t show any intensity in the most important game of the year for the team.
But if I had to bet, I’d put my money – like let’s say a quarter – on the Bruins lifting Lord Stanley’s trophy higher than it’s ever been before (thanks to the not-so-gentle giant Zdeno Chara, as a caller to Team 990 pointed out a few hours back). And no I won’t be cheering.
Me personally I just hate the Bruins. But I’ve got to admit I like them a bit more now compared to how much I hated the Bruins in the first round. The Bruins have won 9 of there last 12 home games.
The Canucks could do a lot better if Luongo could play at least a bit better than in game 3, 4 and now 6. Right now, since the Horton hit, the Bruins have outscored the Canucks 16-2. I think that the Canucks did come into this game 6 with confidence even Luongo. But Luongo couldn’t take the pressure and was too nervous. The reason for the first 2 Bruins goals was that Luongo was out of position.
If the Bruins win tonight, the Bruins will have a record of 3-0 facing elimination. And also if the Bruins win game 6, 3 of the 4 series for the Bruins would go to game 7.
Okay so you already know where my son and fellow Top Shelf mogul Keane stands on game 6. He says the Canuckleheads are taking it, mirroring the Blackhawk’s game 6 victory last year.
Me I beg to differ with the young fellow. I say Boston is winning this one. History is on the Bruins side here. Last week, the Bruins obliterated the Vancouver Canucks 12-1 in two games in Beantown and any way you look at it – except by looking at the series score, which is 3-2 for Vancouver – Boston comes out on top in this final. In the games they lost, the Bruins lost by just one goal. Twice that Vancouver goal was scored within seconds of the final buzzer. In other words, in any of those games, things could’ve gone either way.
And if the Bruins have proven one thing in this post-season, it’s that their one resilient bunch who have plenty of grit and can bounce back – something us Habs fans don’t need reminding of given what they did to our team after we jumped ahead 2-0.
So I’m saying the Bruins take it at home tonight and then it all comes down to one game, Wednesday night in Vancouver. And only a fool predicts who wins a game 7.
Lastly, I don’t always agree with Red Fisher but Canada’s senior hockey sage is right on the money today – Timmy Thomas does indeed deserve the Conn Smythe no matter who wins the Cup.
For game 6 between the Bruins and the Canucks in Boston, I predict a 2-1 win for the Canucks. Raffi Torres will score the winning goal in either late regulation or in OT.
Last year the Blackhawks were leading the series 3 games to 2 going into game 6 in Philadelphia. Patrick Kane won it in Overtime. It is going to happen tomorrow with the Canucks.
With Maxim Lapierre suddenly the hero in Vancouver following his game-winning goal in game five Friday night, the time is right to wonder aloud – why was it that Montreal Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier got rid of Lapierre last December? Lappy was sent to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for – wait for it! – Brett Festerling. Who dat, you might well ask. Festerling is a career minor-leaguer who never even sported a Habs jersey. He was sent straight down to the Hamilton Bulldogs and even the Bulldogs didn’t want him. In February, he was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers in exchange for goaltender Drew MacIntyre, another career minor-leaguer not be confused with the noted Scottish wrestler Drew McIntyre.
Short version? In return for Lapierre, we got a 27-year-old AHL goalie who’s now minding the net for the Bulldogs.
So clearly Mad Max p.o.’d someone in the Habs organization. He is famous for getting under the skin of his opponents – he could single-handedly get the entire Pittsburgh Penguins team off their game – so they did he practice some of his yapping magic in the Bell Centre elevator with Gauthier? Or Jacques Martin?
Just remember that he scored a pair of key goals in the 2010 playoffs for the Habs – in elimination games against both the Washington Capitals and the Penguins. Did I also mention that he’s a francophone from Montreal on a team with a noted shortage of hometown heroes?
So what gives? Anyone have the inside story on this one?
By the way, click here for a good blog on Mad Max by my Twitter pal Marc Griffin.
People love to make fun of Maxim Lapierre. They call him the ultimate diver. Say that he yaps too much. Is afraid to fight. All true.
But you know what? If the Vancouver Canucks end up winning the Stanley Cup this spring, it’ll be at least partly thanks to M. Lapierre. He scored the lone goal of the game Friday to give the Canucks a 3-2 lead over the Boston Bruins and the opportunity to close this baby down Monday night in Beantown. Sure it wasn’t a particularly beautiful goal – he was standing right there in front of a pretty well empty net – but he got the puck to the back of the net – something no other Canuck could do in game five.
Ben Kuzma from the Vancouver Province suggests many players on other teams would like to fit Max with a straight-jacket and he is by all accounts one extremely irritating guy. But he does score big playoff goals. He did it twice last year for the Montreal Canadiens during their oh-so-surprising post-season spring and he did it again Friday night.
At first, it didn’t look like one of Lapierre’s great nights. When Zdeno Chara poked him in the chest with his stick earlier, Lapierre went into some major Oscar-worthy theatrics and you could see the ref apparently telling Lapierre to knock it off. But then he scored The Goal – and all was forgiven.
Friday, the Monteal Canadiens announced that they re-signed forward Mathieu Darche to a new one-year deal, reportedly worth $700,000. On Thursday, the Habs inked another one-year deal, this one with restricted free agent (and noted under-achiever) Andrei Kosititsyn. The Kostitsyn deal is reportedly for $3.25 million, the same bread he made this past season.
Over here at Top Shelf With BK world headquarters, we’re super pumped that key role player Darche is coming back and not so enthused that enigmatic Habs GM Pierre Gauthier has decided to give another chance to AK46.
It’s true that AK landed fourth on the team in scoring and third in goals last season, with 20 goals and 25 assists, but that says more about the team’s lackluster offense than it does about Kostitsyn’s skill putting the puck in the net. Let’s get real here. For most of the season, he appeared to be playing in some kind of a daze and he continues to be most notable for his uncanny ability to avoid coming into anything resembling physical contact with the other team’s players.
He is yet another in a long list of Habs from the past 20 years who has all kinds of talent - but it’s talent our team can’t seem to harnass. Like John Leclair, Guillaume Latendresse, Mike Ribiero, Michael Ryder and Andrei’s younger brother Sergei, AK46 will likely eventually be traded and suddenly discover his scoring touch elsewhere. This whole syndrome is one of the mysteries of hockey life in Montreal. That said, maybe he’ll suddenly come to life next season. We can always hope, right?
Now Darche is the guy I’m happy to see back. The 34-year-old forward had a great year, scoring 12 goals and adding 14 assists in 59 games. He is a third or fourth-line grinding kind of guy who is like the polar opposite of Kostitsyn – Darche doesn’t have enormous skill, but he’s all heart and grit, something in short supply on the bleu-blanc-et-rouge. Over his career, he’s spent more time in the minors than anywhere else and as he pointed out in the show Nos Canadiens, he more than anyone is aware just how privileged he is to be playing a regular shift with the Habs. In other words, there’s no ego issues here.
In the press release, Darche says he’s feeling fine following abdominal surgery in mid-May and is in midst of his rehabilitation program.
So who’s next on Gauthier’s signing list? Gotta think it’s a fellow named Andrei Markov.
- Brendan
This is classic Darche. Check out his hit on Peter Regin from the Ottawa Senators.
And now here’s the flip-side – not-so-classic Kostitsysn (actually classic Timmy Thomas) with the Bruins goalie just leveling AK46.
topshelfbk
