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| Game 6 diary: History is a Mess |
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| Headlines |
| Written by Denis Gorman |
| Monday, June 13, 2011 19:29 |
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Good evening from New York City where we, like you, are anxiously awaiting Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins. The Canucks lead the series 3-2 and can clinch the first Cup in the franchise’s 40-year history tonight with a win. Game 7 will be Wednesday night should the Bruins win their third home game in the series.  The last time the Cup was awarded to Boston was in 1990, when then-Edmonton Oilers captain Mark Messier lifted it overhead following a 4-1 win in Game 5. The Cup was last in Vancouver on June 11, 1994 when the Canucks beat the Rangers to tie the series 3-3. The Rangers would win Game 7 at Madison Square Garden on a goal credited to then-Captain Mark Messier. Basically, this series is six degrees of separation for franchises who were beaten for the Cup by Mark Messier. “For us, it's about staying in the moment. We know as a group we have to be better tonight. We have to be better 5-on-5, we have to be better on our power play. I know I said that for Game 3 and 4, but tonight I really, really, really mean that tonight we're going to have to be better on our power play. I think everybody is excited about the opportunity. Yes, we want to enjoy the moment, but we know we have to be focused and put our best game on the ice,” Alain Vigneault told the assembled media following Vancouver’s early skate Monday. “We're not going to talk about the Cup, we're going to talk about the process and what we need to do on the ice to put our best game there. If we do that then usually the results take care of themselves. That's been our whole mind-set since day one of training camp, and it's not going to change tonight.” What also will assuredly not change is the animus between the teams. It began with Alex Burrows’ now-infamous bite of Patrice Bergeron’s index finger, and has grown exponentially to include a silly "war" of words between Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas. Luongo was asked his opinion of Max Lapierre’s goal from a goaltender’s perspective after the Canucks’ 1-0 win Friday night. “It's not hard if you're playing in the paint. It's an easy save for me, but if you're wandering out and aggressive like he does, that's going to happen. He might make some saves that I won't, but in a case like that, we want to take advantage of a bounce like that and make sure we're in a good position to bury those,” Luongo analyzed before wondering aloud why Thomas hadn’t said anything “nice” about his play. Thomas was cross-examined about Luongo’s statement following Sunday’s practice at TD Boston Garden. “I did hear about what he said, but I don't really want to go into that. My focus is on what I can do to help my team win going into Game 6 here. It's obviously a must-win game and I think it's important for our whole team to focus on that game and what we can do on the ice,” Thomas said. “I guess I didn't realize it was my job to pump his tires. I guess I have to apologize for that. I still think I'm the goaltender on the union side and I stick with all the other goalies. In being one and knowing what it takes to perform at this level and with this amount of pressure, I understand to a certain extent what every other goaltender is going through. I guess that's that.” So, with that atmosphere overhead, we at www.hockeyprimetime.com bring you our Game 6 blog. PREGAMEThe Boston Herald reported earlier Monday that the same number of police will be working tonight in the city as there were for Games 3 and 4. Should there be a seventh game, there will be more officers on the street to prevent “crowds from congregating.” Because nothing says civic pride or civic disappointment quite like the destruction of property and assaulting innocents.By the way, for all those Clevelanders – especially Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert – who pathetically celebrated LeBron James’ NBA Finals loss Sunday night, do you all feel better about yourselves now? Before anyone gets too upset, that does not excuse James’ petulant post-game criticism of non-supporters. Germany will celebrate all week long regardless of which team wins the Cup. Vancouver defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and Boston defenseman Dennis Seidenberg are both German-born, as is Dallas Mavericks star and NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki. Canucks-Bruins has, at the very least, equaled Mavericks-Heat in terms of passion, competitiveness and compelling storylines. The blog is not employed by the Bruins or any of the NHL's 30 franchises but, if it were up to us, we’d have Nathan Horton and Marc Savard wave the Bruins flag to energize the crowd. We’re certainly not the first to offer kudos to the New York Post’s Larry Brooks for his evisceration Sunday of Mike Milbury’s stupid, sexist slur about women and the Sedin twins, and we won’t be the last. As well done as Brooks’ column was, we’re a disappointed that NESN, CBC, Versus and NBC feel honor bound to provide Milbury an outlet for his boorishness. A season-long sidebar in this most memorable Boston Bruins season has been No. 2 overall draft pick Tyler Seguin’s limited ice time. Our man Blake Benzel blogged a rational examination of Claude Julien’s rationale. Take a look as it’s worth the read. Tonight’s starters: Vancouver: Roberto Luongo Kevin Bieksa Christian Ehrhoff Ryan Kesler Chris Higgins Mason Raymond Boston: Tim Thomas Andrew Ference Johnny Boychuk Mark Recchi Patrice Bergeron Brad Marchand The officials are Dan O’Halloran and Kelly Sutherland while Jay Sharrers and Jean Morin are the linesmen FIRST PERIODWe mentioned in our Game 5 running blog how John Tortorella repeatedly stated that goals occur under the hashmarks. NHL.com provides more proof as its Game Tracker Goal Trends shows that 74 percent of Vancouver’s and Boston’s goals came from the hash marks in.19:40 Twenty seconds into the game and there’s a stoppage as Mason Raymond crashed back first into the boards after Johnny Boychuk’s stick was entangled in the Vancouver winger’s leg. Ryan Kesler and Chris Higgins helped Raymond off the ice. 19:04 Zdeno Chara and Henrik Sedin are penalized for interference and diving, respectively. 16:00 David Krejci redirects a Rich Peverley pass wide of Roberto Luongo. Vancouver psychoanalyzes what the save means for Luongo’s psyche. 14:29 1-0 Boston as Ken “The Rat” Linesman’s successor Brad “The Rat” Marchand lasers a wrist shot over Luongo’s glove and into the net. The mass of humanity outside Rogers Arena psychoanalyze their psychoanalysis. 13:50 Vancouverite Milan Lucic increases the lead to 2-0 Boston. Noted Carolina Hurricanes fan Ric Flair woos while those in the house chant “Lon-go…Lon-go.” 12:49 Alex Edler plants Rich Peverley into the end boards behind Luongo in a race for the puck. Edler is penalized two minutes for boarding. Peverley, as one might suspect, is somewhat irked. 11:25 Luongo’s night is over as Andrew Ference rips a power-play point bullet past him to push the advantage to 3-0. NHL.com blogger and Canucks backup Cory Schneider, a star at Boston College, is in nets for Vancouver. 10:08 Michael Ryder tips a point drive from Tomas Kaberle over Schneider’s shoulder and into the net. Bruins up 4-0 and while Vigneault contemplates calling Kirk MacLean or Richard Brodeur, Bostonians and Torontonians are gob smacked that Kaberle…shot…the…puck? 9:20 The Bruins are awarded a power play when Kesler is called for holding. One wonders if Bill Belichick would tolerate a holding penalty from one of his star players. 5:20 There is a parallel between this series and the 1960 World Series. The Pittsburgh Pirates, who beat the Yankees 4-3 in the series, won four games by an aggregate 22-16. They were outscored 38-3 in the three losses. Vancouver has outscored Boston, 5-2, in the three games at Rogers Arena, but have been perforated for 16 goals (against one) in the seven periods at TD Boston Garden. So with that all said, we wonder who will be Bill Mazeroski Wednesday night. FIRST INTERMISSIONWhat a schizophrenic series. Two of the NHL’s best road teams in the regular season – Vancouver was 27-10-4, Boston 24-12-5 – have yet to win a game away from their barn in this series.Speaking of schizophrenia, Roberto Luongo has a GAA of 5.00 and a 0.796 save percentage in the six periods and change he has played in Boston. His numbers in the three games in Vancouver: 0.33, 0.979. For comparison’s sake, Thomas boasts a .918 save percentage and an obscene GAA of 1.00. Perhaps Luongo should pump Thomas’ tires and say nice things about him. SECOND PERIOD19:32 Patrice Bergeron steamrolls Cory Schneider while driving to the net to give Vancouver a power play.9:24 TD Garden is oddly quiet for a team leading comfortably its last home game of the season. 7:00 Raymond has been taken to a local hospital, according the tweets of the army of journalists in Boston and NBC’s Doc Emrick. 5:30 Emrick, Olczyk and Pierre McGuire praise the job Schneider has done (15 saves on 16 shots at this point) before wondering if Vigneault would make the command decision to sit Luongo in Game 7. When Vigneault made the decision to start Schneider over Luongo in Game 6 of the first-round series against Chicago, we wrote on Twitter that it could be beginning of the end of the relationship between the No.1 goaltender and his coach. To go away from Luongo, a Vezina candidate, in the last game of the season, at home, is all but acknowledging to the world that Vigneault does not believe in his No. 1 goaltender. It would be a brave decision that would determine the long-term future of the franchise. SECOND INTERMISSIONLet’s be honest. This game was decided by the four goals in four minutes in the first period. There was no scoring in the second 20-minute stanza but both teams continued to physically and verbally their mutual loathing of the other.THIRD PERIOD
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| Last Updated on Monday, June 13, 2011 23:31 |
