Welcome to HockeyPrimeTime.com’s last running game blog for the 2010-11 National Hockey League season. We’re coming to you from our apartment in New York City.

Guess what’s in the house?

We’re guaranteed to see the silver chalice awarded tonight.

Some pregame notes and thoughts:

Jeff Tambellini has been tabbed to replace Mason Raymond in the Canucks lineup tonight, according to NHL.com’s Dan Rosen. Raymond is out until next season with a fracture vertebrae.

While Raymond’s ailment is physical, the question about his teammates is what’s going on in their heads. Daniel Sedin told reporters in Boston Monday night that the Canucks were “going to win Game 7”. However, with a chance to reiterate his belief in himself and his teammates, Sedin moved the goalposts Wednesday morning.

Sedin was an inadvertent bystander for a scene that will be remembered. Boston rookie center Brad Marchand jabbed the Vancouver star in the face repeatedly because he “felt like it.”

It is fair to ask why Sedin did not retaliate. It is fair to wonder why his teammates did not come to his aid. It is fair to wonder about the future of the Canucks. Miami Herald columnist Greg Cote wrote an interesting piece today in which he argued that the star-laden Miami Heat will face more pressure to win a championships beginning in the next NBA season. There is a comparison to the Canucks, who entered the 2010-11 NHL season as the odds-on favorites to win the Cup. How will the Canucks be viewed if they lose Game 7? Will changes be made? The Canucks had the second-highest payroll in the NHL this season according to CapGeek.com.

And what about Roberto Luongo? For as brilliant as the Canucks’ No. 1 netminder has been in the Finals games at Rogers Arena, he has been terrible in the three games at TD Garden.

The fifth season of USA Network’s action drama Burn Notice debuts next Thursday night at 9 p.m. (EST). No truth to the rumor that the first episode is based around Michael Westen, his mother Madeline, friend Sam Axe and  pseudo-girlfriend Fiona Glenanne were hired by Mike Gillis and Alain Vigneault to prevent the Boston Bruins from peppering Luongo for goals in games at TD Boston Garden.

UFC President Dana White told MMAjunkie.com that he “wouldn’t change a thing” regarding last Saturday’s UFC 131 at the Rogers Arena and the thinking that the event was secondary to the Stanley Cup Final. He added that “we got to go to” Game 5.

He wasn’t the only one in the building that night. Sully and Force, Vancouver’s Green Men, had good row seats.

Some reading recommendations: HPT.com radio voice James Murphy reported earlier today for ESPNBoston.com that a source suggested that Mark Recchi will retire following Game 7. Our columnist Justin Bourne wrote that he expected the game to be a tight affair, as both teams will play conservatively in order not to make the gaffe that costs the Bruins or the Canucks the Cup.

FIRST PERIOD

Starting lineups and officials: 

BOSTON

Tim Thomas

Zdeno Chara

Johnny Boychuk

Mark Recchi

Patrice Bergeron

Brad Marchand

VANCOUVER

Roberto Luongo

Christian Erhoff

Sami Salo

Christopher Higgins

Ryan Kesler

Jannik Hansen 

REFEREES

Dan O’Halloran

Stephen Walkom

LINESMEN

Jay Sharrers

Jean Morin

17:08 Shawn Thornton and Raffi Torres debate whether Newt Gingrich’s Presidential campaign is comparable to the 1962 New York Mets or the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers or the 1974-75 Washington Capitals or the 2008 Detroit Lions.

12:30 NBC with a shot of Mason Raymond cheering on his mates while wearing a back brace. Doc Emrick notes that Nathan Horton is in the building.

9:10 Pierre McGuire reports a player is competing despite an injured hand. “I won’t tell you which one,” McGuire states. Considering it’s Game 7, I think it’s OK to spill the beans. Ain’t like there’s going to be a game in two or three days.

5:31 Alain Vigneault tells McGuire that the Canucks worked hard in the regular year to get home ice and they plan on taking advantage of it. Well, now would be as good a time as any.

5:23 1-0 Boston as Patrice Bergeron slips a shot from the slot past Luongo to give the Bruins their first lead in Vancouver since the second period of Game 2. The Sedins and Grimlock, er, Alex Burrows were on the ice.

0:32.9 McGuire and Emrick reminisce about the rodents that populated the original Boston Garden while previewing what a Cup could mean to Boston. Simply, an argument could be made that Boston dominated the first decade-plus of professional and collegiate sports in the 21^st century. The New England Patriots won three Super Bowls. The Boston Red Sox won two World Series Championships and Boston College won two NCAA Division One Men’s Hockey National Championships.  Boston University and the Boston Celtics won one NCAA Division One Men’s Hockey National Championships and a NBA Championship, respectively.

0:00 End of the first period and the Bruins lead 1-0.   

FIRST INTERMISSION

Mike Milbury suggests that Vancouver fans are waiting for something bad to happen. Like, say, trading Zdeno Chara, Bill Muckalt and the No. 2 pick in the 2001 draft for Alex Yashin? Or dealing Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen to Florida for Oleg Kvasha and Mark Parrish?
 

SECOND PERIOD

19:47 NBC zooms in to McGuire for a quick analysis segment. Glenn Healy, standing to McGuire’s right, looks like he is contemplating something that would make for an episode of Law and Order.

15:57 Henrik Sedin drives Zdeno Chara into the end boards behind Tim Thomas. It’s something different.

11:09 Alex Burrows has a wide open net as Tim Thomas vacated the cage in the name of aggressiveness. Nothing comes of it as Zdeno Chara blocked the shot and the sun and the winds. He’s tall.

8:57 Roughly the 12 billionth commercial for Green Lantern. We understand that Ryan Reynolds will be seconded by Vancouver’s Green Men in the sequel. The trio will fight the sea-sickness-cum-Bostonians provincial negativity as it pertains to their professional sports teams. Oh, and as that was being written, Brad Marchand tucked the puck off of Roberto Luongo and into the cage to increase Boston’s lead to 2-0.

4:52 Tim Thomas turns away Long Island’s second favorite son, Chris Higgins. Its favorite son is professional wrestler Zack Ryder for his YouTube video diaries.

2:25 Bergeron scores as he is dragged down by Christian Ehrhoff. Replays appeared to show the puck deflect off Ehrhoff’s body and of the back of Bergeron’s stick before sliding under Luongo.

0:00 Bruins up 3-0 after two periods.

SECOND INTERMISSION

Milbury, and later Eddie Olczyk, suggest that it’s OK for the Bruins to think about what could possibly be theirs in 20 minutes. Emrick notes that Phil Pritchard, who is polishing the Cup, paid his Discover Card. Well, you got to do what you got to do to pay the bills.

THIRD PERIOD

20:00 The Boston Herald reports the cops and the TD Boston Garden could not agree on the amount of liquor sold. The Boston Globe quotes Police Commissioner Ed Davis as telling fans to not “break things” while columnist James Fox examined the new philosophy employed by the Boston Police Department.

19:45 McGuire cheerfully notes that he has dual American and Canadian citizenship. Your blogger suggests trading him and Milbury to the KHL for Alex Radulov.

15:45 Apparently Jannik Hansen spends his free time slam-dancing and thought it would be neat to showcase his skills to Andrew Ference. The Bruins are awarded a power play as a result.

11:53 The E-Trade baby “Solitary” commercial airs. Could very well be the feeling that encapsulates the Canucks’ summer. McGuire thinks the Canucks could be unnerved by their coaches’ loud dialogue with the officials. It could be argued that the 3-0 deficit is of greater concern.

8:20 Vancouver is granted a power play after Milan Lucic hooked Henrik Sedin. Apropos of nothing, Michelle Bachmann announced in Monday’s Republican Presidential Debate that she and her husband had five children and adopted 23 others. Basically, they raised a hockey team. The Minnesota Intellectual Muppets.

5:51 NBC shows a replay of Hansen jabbing his stick between Adam McQuaid’s hockey pants. Anthony Weiner winces in Forest Hills, Queens.

3:00 Vigneault pulls Luongo about a minute after Olczyk suggests he should. Boychuk snaps the disc into the cage 16 seconds later and then pounds the glass as a female Canucks fan wails “no.”

0:30 Vancouver fans wave towels in the building as part of a tribute to one of the great years in Canucks history.

0:00 1972 can rest in peace. The 2010-11 Boston Bruins are Stanley Cup Champions.

On Twitter: @HockeyPrimeTime and @DenisGorman

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