Bruins - Canucks Roundup

There have been 19 NHL seasons since the last time the Bruins were in the Stanley Cup Finals. Eleven different teams have taken the Cup home, led by Detroit with four. The Bruins haven't brought a championship to Boston since the 1972 season, when they beat the Rangers in 6 games. In fact, the NHL has more than doubled in size since the last Bruins' championship, expanding from 14 to 30 teams. Two of the 14 happened to be in this year's match-up, being Vancouver and Boston. Although the Bruins are trying to end a 39 year title-drought, Vancouver has never won a Stanley Cup, and are making only their third appearance in the Finals since their founding in 1945. Their last appearance was in 1994, when the Pavel Bure-led Canucks were ousted by Brian Leetch and the New York Rangers in seven games. To put the time frame into perspective, Boston's Milan Lucic, who is a Vancouver native and former Canuck-faithful, was five years old the last time the time played for the Cup. Now, the 22 year old (who turns 23 on June 7th) will face off against his former home-town team as the Bruins seek their 6th ever Stanley Cup.
The Bruins and Canucks faced off only once in the 2010-2011 season, as the Bruins skated away with a 3-1 victory on the road. Manny Molhotra, who will return for the Finals after missing the second half of the season with an eye injury, netted Vancouver's only goal in the first period. Horton tied it up in the second, and Lucic scored the eventual winner, followed up by Bergeron's empty-netter late in the third. Lucic finished with 3 points, and Thomas stopped 27 of 28 shots, bettering Roberto Luongo's 22 stops. The teams are about as unfamiliar with each other as they could be, as they have faced off just four times in the past five seasons. The Bruins won three of the four, losing the 2009-2010 matchup in a shootout loss. Thomas, who didn't break into the NHL until he was 28 years old, has been stellar in his career against the Canucks. He has faced them three times, all of which were 2006 until the present, winning all three contests and stopping 97 of 98 shots (including two shutouts). The Michigan-native will most likely take home his second Vezina Trophy in the past three seasons, which is more than impressive because of the fact his first came at the age of 35.
The Canucks are led by the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, who were drafted number two and three overall in 1999, and have never not played on the same hockey team. Daniel led the NHL with 104 points this past season, with Henrik following at fourth with 94 points. On the flip side, Henrick led the NHL with 112 points during the 2009-2010 season, and Daniel finished tied for eleventh with 85. The twins will face the Bruins as two thirds of the first line, along with winger Alexandre Burrows. The third scoring option on the Canucks is Ryan Kesler, who scored a league fifth-best 41 goals this season as the second line center. The team also features 50-point scorers in Mikael Samuelsson and Christian Ehroff. Ehroff anchors the second line's defense, but missed games four and five of the second round with a shoulder injury and is still listed as day-to-day. Samuelsson was lost for the season in the second round of the playoffs, requiring sports hernia surgery, and will be replaced by trade-deadline acquisitions Chris Higgins at LW on the second line. The offensive prowess displayed by Vancouver this season shows just how talented their forwards are, and they will be quite the challenge for the inconsistent Bruins defense. Although both teams feature goaltenders who have played excellent this season, expect a high-scoring series that could go either way in seven games. In the end, hopefully the Bruins will end their Cup drought and bring Boston it's seventh professional title since 2001.