Believe it or not, there was a hockey game on Wednesday night between the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks, and it was Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. After all the revelry in the locker room and the streets of Boston and after all the anarchy in the streets of Vancouver, it’s hard to forget that hockey was played at Rogers Arena, complete with sticks, pucks, goals and everything in between.
Bruins Vs. Canucks, Game 7: Roberto Luongo’s Failings Cover For Vancouver’s Lack Of Offense
The Bruins won the Cup by sticking to the plan they've had all series long -- be physical with the Canucks scorers, clog the middle in front of Tim Thomas to stop quality Vancouver scoring opportunities and have success on the penalty kill. Roberto Luongo is going to get, and deserves a lot of, the blame for the loss in Game 7 and the series.
But really, most of the credit should simply go to the Bruins. They had the perfect game plan in place to stop Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler, to the point where the far-inferior Boston offense not only outscored Vancouver's, but looked a million times better doing it, too. The Canucks didn't score goals, and you can't blame that on their goaltender.
Defensively, the force field the Bruins routinely set up in front of Thomas was brilliant. How many times did we see the Canucks take a shot from the perimeter, have that shot blocked away by Thomas, and then cleared away with ease by the Bruins in front of the net? Boston simply didn’t let Vancouver own the middle of the ice in their end, and that made Thomas’ job relatively easy throughout the series and in Game 7.
You can blame the Canucks for not having the desire to get dirty on that part of the ice with the Bruins, but give credit to Boston for a perfectly executed game plan, too.
Stick with this StoryStream for complete coverage of Game 7. For full coverage of the Finals, head to our Stanley Cup Finals hub, our Canucks blog, Nucks Misconduct, and our Bruins blog, Stanley Cup of Chowder.
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