Stanley Cup Finals, Game 1: Alex Burrows Not Suspended For Bite; Patrice Bergeron Responds

On Thursday, Burrows escaped suspension for the incident. Bergeron responded to that decision with the media. Here’s how things went.

*Bergeron walks to podium, sits*

“After reviewing the incident, including speaking with the on-ice officials, I can find no conclusive evidence that Alex Burrows intentionally bit the finger of Patrice Bergeron,” Murphy said in a released statement.

Say what, now? No conclusive evidence that he intentionally bit the finger of Bergeron? How does one unintentionally bite another? Last I check, Burrows was a human being, not a venus fly trap.

I mean, this....

... doesn’t equal this:

I’ve watched this about five times today.

This is how you get people interested in hockey. Well, alright, it’s one of the many ways. But when you own the broadcast rights to the NHL, you want to show off the emotion and the passion of the game, and aside from actually showing the games, this is the way to do it. Right off the start of the broadcast. It’s the hook.

The Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks put on a pretty sloppy show in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night, but when it comes to entertainment value, it’s going to be hard to top this one.

At NBC headquarters in New York, they’re also smiling. According to NBC Sports PR, Wednesday’s game drew a 3.2/6 overnight rating, the best overnight ratings for a Game 1 since 1999. In Boston, the game registered at a ridiculous 25.5/39 rating, and in Providence, R.I., an impressive 16.7/24 rating came through.

Any little bits of momentum seemed to get stifled by Boston’s defense. And when the Canucks did break through, Thomas proved once again that his acrobatics were indeed Vezina-worthy.

But as the dust settled, the Bruins made a mistake just about, oh, half-a-minute too early. And what looked like it’d be the perfect steal of Game 1 -- a low-scoring game with Thomas performing admirably -- disintegrated right before Claude Julien’s eyes.

The Boston Bruins skated off the ice at TD Garden last Friday night as the Eastern Conference Champions, having played what was arguably their most perfect game of the season. Not a great look was afforded to the opposition. Not an error was committed. Not a penalty was called.

But Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals turned out to be not-so-perfect for the Bruins.

Both the Vancouver Canucks and Boston played a knock-em-down, drag-em-out slugfest in Game 1 - the type of game you expect in December from the Bruins and, say, the Philadelphia Flyers, but not in June from two teams who have only seen each other twice in the past two seasons.

Alexandre Burrows bit Patrice Bergeron’s finger in a scrum at the end of the first period, and David Krejci threw a cross-check into an injured Dan Hamhuis after Hamhuis upended Milan Lucic on the wall in front of the Boston bench.

Unfortunately for the Canucks, Hamhuis apparently got the worst of it. He gingerly skated off the ice following the hit and never returned in the latter 36 minutes of Game 1.

After the game, Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault said that Hamhuis is listed as day-to-day. Everybody is day-to-day in the playoffs, but whatever.

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As he did all game, Thomas got across the crease pretty quickly. This time, though, it wasn’t quick enough. Torres tapped the puck into the back of the net, the clock stopped with 18.5 seconds left. Rogers Arena, and surely the entire city of Vancouver, erupted in euphoria.

Here’s the video of the goal, via Mocksession.

After 59 minutes and 42 seconds of fantastic goaltending, that featured 69 shots without one getting by Tim Thomas or Roberto Luongo the entire night, and in many cases those saves being spectacular. That said, Thomas’ lone flaw is at times his over-aggressiveness, and it burned him, as Raffi Torres got the games only goal with 18.5 seconds remaining, and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final by a score of 1-0, to take the same lead in this best-of-seven series.

The third period saw the whistles thrown into the referees pockets, after 28 minutes of penalties were called through the first two periods. The goaltenders were terrific as mentioned, with Thomas especially holding the line desperately throughout the third. A Janik Hansen break-away was pure robbery from Thomas. Roberto Luongo was solid and steady for the entire game, never giving you the sense that the net was in any trouble of being penetrated.

Tim Thomas is getting a ton of credit for his ridiculous performance in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final tonight, and rightfully so. He’s been incredible since the initial puck drop, and there’s no reason not to heap tons of praise on him.

After all, he’s the one player the Boston Bruins need to play above his head if they want to beat the Vancouver Canucks and win the Stanley Cup in these next two weeks, and so far in Game 1, that’s exactly what he’s done.

The Boston Bruins didn’t see a single penalty called in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. It didn’t really matter to them, since they have a horrible power play and they won the game anyway, but it was a big storyline heading into these Stanley Cup Finals.

How would the officials call things in the most important games of the year? Apparently, the NHL wasn’t happy with the let-them-play attitude the officials had in Game 7, because in Game 1 of the Cup Finals between the Bruins and Vancouver Canucks, literally everything has been called.

The Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks continue to search for the first goal of Game 1 in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. Though both clubs continue to get multiple power play chances per period, with both even having some sort of 5-on-3 during the middle frame, still no one has broken through. What we have seen, however, is a game heavy with chances, physical play and controversy as it’s a 0-0 tie following 40 minutes at Rogers Arena.

The Stanley Cup Finals are ongoing, as the Vancouver Canucks battle the Boston Bruins. Stick with this StoryStream for full coverage of Game 1. For coverage on the Finals, stick with our Stanley Cup Finals hub, our Canucks blog, Nucks Misconduct, and our Bruins blog, Stanley Cup of Chowder.

Here’s video, via Mocksession.

Get the Flash Player to see this video.

If there’s one true equalizer that’s not named Thomas, though, in my eyes, it’s the physical play Boston brings to the table. We won’t call the Canucks soft... but, well, alright, they’re a little fluffy. The only way to really stop the offensive power of Vancouver is to simply get all over the puck carrier, eliminate time and space with the puck and prevent the Sedin twins and the other weapons of the Canucks from getting creative.

Slowly but surely as the first period went on, the Bruins got their physical game going. They began slowing the Canucks down a little bit and taking the body after a bit of a tentative start. It’s a good sign for Boston as we hit the second period of Game 1 with a 0-0 score.

The Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks had one of the more exciting “feeling out” process in the first period of Game 1 in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. Lots of excitement, shots, and plenty of time for each on the man advantage. But, at the end of 20 minutes, the teams are scoreless at Rogers Arena.

The big moment for Boston came when Daniel Sedin improbably high sticked Zdeno Chara, and received a double-minor at 4:03. The Bruins rattled off 10 consecutive shots on Roberto Luongo, but could not put anything past Roberto Luongo, and another one later in the period. The Boston power play was notable for missing two more times on the road, putting them down to 1-for-29 on the road during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They chose to use Chara in front of the net, instead of at the point.

Yes, a high-stick on Chara. It’s almost impossible, but it happened.

Of course, Chara’s done everything so far, proving that he’ll (obviously) be an X-factor in the series. After taking the stick in the face and drawing some blood, Chara hopped back on the ice and was positioned down low on the power play. For most of the postseason, he’s played up top and not in front of the opposing net.

There are scary tornadoes bearing down on central and western Massachusetts this Wednesday night, and while hockey is suddenly on the back-burner for thousands of Boston Bruins fans as a result, it won’t fall on the back-burner for the local NBC affiliate.

Channel 7 in Boston, the NBC affiliate, will indeed switch to Game 1 coverage in time for puck drop, expected around 8:20 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, tornado coverage will switch to their sister station, CW56.

You need information about where to watch this game, when to watch this game, where it’s being played and where you can find more coverage of that game. We have that information. Here it is.

Boston Bruins at Vancouver Canucks -- Game 1, Stanley Cup Final

There are good omens everywhere you look in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, and they benefit both the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins. Only one team can win, of course, so something is gonna have to give.

For the Canucks, they have the famed Olympic omen on their backs. The last two times a Canadian city hosted the Olympics, the NHL team that calls that city home won the Stanley Cup the following year.

The unused commercial should have been destroyed and it should have never seen the light of day, except maybe on state TV in some third-world country or something. Somebody at NBC didn’t get the memo.

Whoops.

Head coach Alain Vigneault said that he’s still listed as day-to-day.

For the second day in a row, Malhotra didn’t practice in the morning at Rogers Arena. He was cleared to take contact late last week by team doctors and it seemed as though he was going to be ready for Game 1 as recently as the weekend, but he didn’t skate on Tuesday or Wednesday, eliminating those chances.

The Vancouver Canucks have been the best team in the NHL all season long, and with the Stanley Cup Finals odds in from those who make them, it’s no surprise that the Canucks are favored over the Boston Bruins in Game 1.

According to both Bodog and SBG Global, the Canucks are -200 to win Game 1 on Tuesday night (8 p.m. ET, NBC, CBC), while the Bruins are the underdog at +170. Oddsmaker sees things the same as well.

The 2011 Stanley Cup Finals will be the most-traveled in modern NHL history, behind only the long trek of the Dawson City Nuggets, who traveled from the middle-of-nowhere Yukon Territory to Ottawa, a trip well over 4,000 miles, back in the early 1900s.

It all begs the question: when there’s more than 2,000 miles between cities, as is often the case in the Stanley Cup Finals when East meets West, should the format of the series be changed?