Boston Bruins to take on Vancouver Canucks for Stanley Cup 2011 Finals

[Saddle Bronc 124]

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110601/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_nhl_stanley_vancouver

Vancouver to brush away cobwebs against Boston

Allan Dowd – 2011/05/31 22:33 ET

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – The Vancouver Canucks will have to shake some rust off their skates when they finally take to the ice on Wednesday against the Boston Bruins in the NHL's Stanley Cup championship.

It will have been eight days since Vancouver won the Western Conference title against San Jose as they had to wait for Boston to win the Eastern Conference and for the NHL to accommodate television schedule demands and arena conflicts.

Boston last played on Friday when they beat Tampa Bay.

"It definitely was a long stretch between games," said Vancouver defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, who used the break to recover from an injury he suffered against San Jose.

"We tried our best to stay focused. We had some good practices, and we've got to be ready once the puck is dropped tomorrow," Ehrhoff told reporters on Tuesday.

The Canucks and Bruins rarely play each other in the regular season, with Boston winning the only contest they had this year.

Both teams admit the first game will be a learning process.

"Maybe early in game one you will see it from both teams, a little bit of a feeling-out process where will try to get our legs under us and get a feel for them because we really don't know a lot about each other," said Cory Schneider, Vancouver's backup goaltender.

Vancouver features a high-powered offense with Swedish twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin, but the Canucks also face major obstacles in Boston's veteran goaltender Tim Thomas and Boston's tough defense.

Alex Burrows, who is matched with the Sedins on the top line says they know Thomas will make plenty of dramatic saves, so the key to beating him will be to put traffic in front of the net.

"We just have to keep getting pucks on net and going to the net to make sure he stays in blue paint so it is tougher for him to stop pucks because he likes to challenge a lot," Burrows said.

Vancouver had the best record of the regular season, but the franchise has never won a Stanley Cup in their 40 years in the NHL. Their last trip to the final round was 17 years ago.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

GO BIRYANI GO!

[Empress of Groovy 373]

C'mon, Bruins! It seems that no one's rooting for them outside New England, but hey...

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Go Broons! Take the bit out of those Canucks.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

C'mon, Bruins! It seems that no one's rooting for them outside New England, but hey...

Well....there are more Canadian (and ex-Canadians--hello) than New England VJ'ers, so....that makes sense.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Canucks lead the series 2-0 after tonight's overtime win.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Canucks lead the series 2-0 after tonight's overtime win.

Did they bite anyone tonight? I heard that they had Mike Tyson in before the series to give them pointers.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Did they bite anyone tonight? I heard that they had Mike Tyson in before the series to give them pointers.

The Canucks bite, but the Bruins suck because they are going down.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Did they bite anyone tonight? I heard that they had Mike Tyson in before the series to give them pointers.

And the Bruins had Cicely Tyson but it didn't help.

BTW, Bergeron should not have asked Burrows to smell his finger.

[BishopM 114]

After working in Boston for the past year, I've come to really respect the town for all the support they give their sports teams. It really is a SportsTown I'd like to see the Bruins win the cup, but quite honestly, I'm surprised that they're even playing for the cup. They've improved this year, but without any type of powerplay at all it is surprising that they made it this far. So, I'll root for the Bruins, but quite honestly those dang'd Canukcsters do look like the better team...

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

After working in Boston for the past year, I've come to really respect the town for all the support they give their sports teams. It really is a SportsTown I'd like to see the Bruins win the cup, but quite honestly, I'm surprised that they're even playing for the cup. They've improved this year, but without any type of powerplay at all it is surprising that they made it this far. So, I'll root for the Bruins, but quite honestly those dang'd Canukcsters do look like the better team...

Kaberle is not being used properly.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Vancouver continues the dirty work with a cheap hit on Horton. Ouch.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Bruins 8, Canucks 1

[Empress of Groovy 373]

Yay! We have a series!

[Staashi 371]

Go Boston!