2011 Stanley Cup Finals Preview

For the second consecutive year about 40 years of frustration will end for one team while the other will still be shaking their heads. The Vancouver Canucks meet the Boston Bruins in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals which is sure to pit the Canucks’ high-powered offense against Boston’s shutdown defense.

Vancouver entered the league in 1970 as an expansion team. Fate has not been kind to the Canucks whose history includes 15 years of consecutive losing seasons (1976-77 to 1990-91) but all the painful memories can be erased if this years version of the team can bring home the cup. Unlike their two previous trips to the Stanley Cup Finals, this year’s Canucks are the favorites to win it all. Both in 1982 and 1994, Vancouver made Cinderella runs to the finals only to lose both times to the two New York based teams. After an impressive run through the Campbell Conference in 1982, the Canucks hit the juggernaut known as the New York Islanders who swept Vancouver in four straight games to claim their third of four consecutive championships. After surviving a 3-1 first round deficit against the Calgary Flames in 1994, which saw Games 5, 6, and 7 all end in overtime, the Canucks marched to the finals for a date with the heavily-favored New York Rangers. Though the Rangers took a 3-1 series lead that year, Vancouver forced a Game 7 only to fall short as the Rangers were able win the cup for the first time in 54 years.

Once again Vancouver will have to travel the length of North America if they are to capture hockey’s Holy Grail. The only thing standing in their way is a hungry Boston Bruins team who fought their way through the Eastern Conference to earn their first trip to the finals since being disposed of by the Edmonton Oilers in 1990. Since the NHL’s first season of “modern” expansion (1967-68), Boston has only missed the postseason five times. But the Bruins have only won the Stanley Cup twice (1970, 1972) in that time period having lost in the finals in their previous five appearances.

All signs pointed to the Bruins winning their third cup in five years in 1974. The Bruins, who have won the cup five times (1929, 1939, 1941, 1970, 1972), fell to the upstart Philadelphia Flyers in six games that year. But Boston fought back to consecutive trips to the finals in 1977 and 1978 only to be derailed both times by another Montreal Canadiens dynasty. Montreal swept Boston in 1977 behind the strong play of Conn Smythe winner Guy Lafleur. The Bruins looked to be on a similar path the following year when Montreal took Games 1 and 2 at home. However, Boston tied the series only to lose it in six. Try as they might, Boston did not compete for the Stanley Cup until 10 years later when Wayne Gretzky in his final games with the Edmonton Oilers led his team to a sweep. Though Gretzky-less in 1990, Edmonton still managed to sweep Boston to solidify the Oilers place as one of the NHL’s great dynasties.
But that can all change this year. Vancouver enters the finals as the favorite for the first time while Boston, despite putting up 103 points and winning the Northeast Division has flown under the radar all season long. Either way, both teams have seized the opportunity and are looking to hoist the cup and put their fanbases’s misery to rest once and for all.

Cam Neely Connection

There is not much history on the ice between these two franchises but one trade between the two organizations left a sour taste in one teams’ mouth while the other reaped the benefits. After leading the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Portland Winterhawks to the Memorial Cup in 1983, Vancouver opted for Vancouver Island native Cam Neely with the ninth overall selection in that years’ draft. In three seasons with the Canucks which spanned 201 games, Neely managed 104 points (51 goals, 53 assists) but Vancouver felt that Barry Pederson was the way to go. Pederson had put up two 100-point seasons with the Bruins, twice scoring over 40 goals but a shoulder injury made him expendable.

Vancouver took a chance on Pederson sending Neely and the third overall selection in the 1987 draft to get him. But the gamble for Pederson never paid off for the Canucks. He did score over 70 points in his first two seasons with the Canucks but only managed 197 points (60 goals, 137 assists) in only 3-1/2 years in Vancouver before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1989. Neely took off with his Hall of Fame career upon becoming a member of the Bruins. In 10 years in Boston, Neely scored 590 points including 344 goals. Neely added another 55 tallies in 86 playoff games which saw Boston make two trips to the Stanley Cup Finals. Neely managed to hit the 50-goal plateau three times including 1993-94 after missing the better part of two seasons with an elbow injury that eventually ended his career. But Neely isn’t the only benefit the Bruins got from the trade. They selected Glen Wesley who manned the Boston blue line for his first seven seasons. Wesley, who played 21 seasons in total, is the only one of the three to win the Stanley Cup when he accomplished the feat as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.
There’s no place like home

Even if that means playing against your home town team. Mark Recchi began his hockey career in the suburbs of Vancouver with the WHL’s New Westminster Bruins in 1985. Now with his seventh team, the 43-year-old is looking to add a third Stanley Cup to his resume after accomplishing the feat with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006. A native of Kamloops, B.C., Recchi is looking to end his illustrious 22-year career by defeating the team of his home Province.

And Recchi is not alone. Boston’s Milan Lucic grew up in Vancouver. Like Recchi, Lucic started his junior career in the Vancouver suburbs with the Coquitlam Express of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) in 2004. Lucic moved to the WHL in 2005 where he played two seasons with the Vancouver Giants, winning the Memorial Cup in 2007.

Vancouver defenseman Dan Hamhuis is the only player in the finals from his home state or province to be playing for his “home” team. Hamhuis, a native of the northern British Columbia town of Smithers, signed with the Canucks after six seasons with the Nashville Predators. Teammate Cory Schneider, the Canucks backup goaltender, grew up 30 minutes northeast of Boston in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The former Boston College star is the only Massachusetts born player in the 2011 finals.

They’ve won before

Other than Recchi, who was previously mentioned as a two-time Stanley Cup winner, the only two other players to win it are Boston’s Shawn Thornton who captured it with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007 and Vancouver’s Mikael Samuelsson who won it with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008. Still, both teams boast players who have won hockey championships before. Vancouver’s Maxim Lapierre captured the Calder Cup with the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Hamilton Bulldogs in 2007. Boston’s Dennis Seidenberg won it with the Philadelphia Phantoms in 2005. Seidenberg also won a championship in Germany with the Manheim Eagles of the DEL in 2001. And he is not the only German champion in this years’ finals. Vancouver’s Christian Ehrhoff won a championship with the Krefeld Penguins in 2003.

Players have also won championships in junior hockey. Boston’s Andrew Ference won the Memorial Cup with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks in 1998 while Milan Lucic captured it with Vancouver (WHL) in 2007. Vancouver’s Jeff Tambellini won the Fred Page Cup in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) with the Chilliwack Chiefs in 2002 while teammate Mason Raymond won a championship in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) with the Camrose Kodiaks in 2005. Vancouver’s Keith Ballard won the Clark Cup in the United States Hockey League (USHL) in 2001 with the Omaha Lancers. He followed that up with two consecutive NCAA national championships with the University of Minnesota in 2002 and 2003.

So close, yet so far

No player on either team has been tempted with a championship but ultimately denied it than Vancouver’s Raffi Torres. In 2002 Torres made it to the Calder Cup Finals with the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers who were defeated in five games by the Chicago Wolves. Torres suited up for the Hamilton Bulldogs the following year hoping to gain redemption but the 2003 AHL title went to the Houston Aeros in seven games. Torres also played for the Edmonton Oilers in 2006 when they fell in seven games to Carolina in Torres’s only previous trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Go to college

This year’s finals feature 11 players who played in the NCAA for at least one season. Nine players are on Vancouver’s roster including Ryan Kesler whose freshman (and only) year at Ohio State University saw the Buckeyes capture a national championship in football. Kesler was a classmate with running back Maurice Clarett who was destined for greatness before winding up in jail. If someone told an Ohio State fan that a freshman in 2002 was going to play for a pro championship in nine years people would have said Clarett over Kesler.

Of the players in the finals that played collegiately, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) and the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) lead the way with four players each, though Vermont (college team of Boston goalie Tim Thomas) now competes in Hockey East. By comparison, major juniors in Canada produced 21 players in this years’ final. This includes nine apiece from both the OHL and WHL and three players from the QMJHL.

The top (amateur) talent is in Vancouver

Out of all the players competing in the finals this year, 14 were taken in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft with 12 of them playing for Vancouver. However the Canucks only drafted five of these players (Daniel Sedin: 2nd, 1999; Henrik Sedin: 3rd: 1999; Ryan Kesler: 23rd 2003; Cory Schneider: 26th, 2004 and Cody Hodgson: 10th, 2008). The only two players on the Bruins roster drafted in the first round are rookie sensation Tyler Seguin (2nd, 2010) and Daniel Paille who was drafted 20th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in 2002. Vancouver’s Keith Ballard was drafted by Buffalo with the 11th overall pick the same year the Sabres selected Paille. The only other team not in the finals who drafted two players in the first round are the New York Islanders who drafted Roberto Luongo 4th overall in 1997 and Raffi Torres 5th overall in 2000.

The draft is not for everyone

Each team has one player on their roster who went undrafted and began their professional career in the ECHL. Vancouver’s Alex Burrows played two seasons in the ECHL for the Greenville Grrrowl, Baton Rouge Kingfish and the Columbia Inferno before landing a full-time position in the AHL with the Manitoba Moose. Boston’s Rich Peverley played his first professional season with the South Carolina Stingrays in 2004-05. Peverley began the 2005-06 season with the Reading Royals before finding a full-time roster spot in the AHL with the Milwaukee Admirals. The average pick number playing in this year’s final is 84 which would be a late third-round selection.