Bruins set up to repeat?

Locker Smash

In looking at the Boston Bruins roster for next season, one could make the argument that the Boston Bruins are set up to make another run at the Stanley Cup... The Boston Bruins are going to have most of their team back from this past season. Also, unlike the Chicago Blackhawks the Boston Bruins don’t “salary cap” issues. There will not be a fire sale to start the season off.

Scott Cullen; TSN --- After winning their first Stanley Cup since 1972, the Boston Bruins don't need a whole lot more good news, but they have some nevertheless.

Off-Season Game Plan looks at the Bruins' roster and what GM Peter Chiarelli might do to give the Bruins a shot at back-to-back titles.

The good news for the Bruins, unlike the 2010-champion Chicago Blackhawks, is that the Bruins are in a favourable financial position with respect to the salary cap.

Through Chiarelli's savvy, the Bruins should not only have the room to bring back any or all of the players from their championship team, they should still have the wherewithal to address some needs.

Of course, coming off a Stanley Cup win, it's not like the Bruins have massive holes to fill.

They could use more skilled offensive players, whether on the wing or on defence, in the hopes that might help fix a power play that was an albatross down the stretch and throughout the playoffs. It's almost unbelievable that the Bruins could win the Stanley Cup tournament while struggling for so long with the man advantage, yet that actually happened.

A factor that is already in the Bruins' favour is that they have room for internal improvement, with young players like Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin the most likely to play more significant roles going forward

Rioting in the streets of Vancouver...

Wow! Someone needs to remind these hooligans that it's only a game. They say a few bad apples ruin the whole barrel. The sad part is that this is one thing that will be remembered from the Stanley Cup Finals how a bunch of the Vancouver Canucks entitlement fans and bad seeds ruined a cities image.

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CBC's 2011 NHL Playoffs Montage

s/t to our friends at the Hockey Wilderness... This one of the best parts of the Stanley Cup Finals, at the end of the deciding game CBC has a very nice, killer montage. Enjoy... The Boston Bruins are the Stanley Cup Champs.

The hand shake...

The Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks kicked the crap out of each other for 7 games during the Stanley Cup Finals; there is going to be some hurt feelings. I don't think it's an understatement to say that there is probably a lot of animosity between the two teams. This is what I like about the NHL, when the final horn sounds they line up and shake hands and congratulate each other.

Damien Cox: Loving these Canucks sure isn’t easy

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI am “not always” a fan of Damien Cox he is a pretty good writer but I don’t agree with his opinions on many things, this article really nails it out of the park. I think Cox is spot on when describing the Vancouver Canucks and their on ice behavior.

Damien Cox; Toronto Star ---- understand why so many screw their faces at these Canucks like they just heard Sarah Palin make another historical funny, there are many points of reference to consider.

Bringing in Max Lapierre from Montreal (via Anaheim, of course) at the trade deadline just added a trash-talking player notorious for faking injuries and fouls. As one joke goes, when Lapierre left the Canadiens, it meant Alexandre Despatie was left as the No. 1 diver in Quebec.

This is a team of Bill Barbers, and the last thing it needed for its image was another one.

Kevin Bieksa has beat up two non-fighters in the post-season, Viktor Stalberg and Patrick Marleau, and both bouts lacked any sense of honour. The head shots by Raffi Torres and Aaron Rome that left opposing players concussed at the same time the sports world in general frets about brain injuries were reckless and unnecessary.

Alex Burrows lowered the bar with his chomp on the peaceful Patrice Bergeron in Game 1, made worse by the league’s decision not to do anything about it and Lapierre’s mocking of that decision in Game 2. Burrows got into a stick-fight with Boston goalie Tim Thomas in Game 4, a fight he started.

Every game, it seems, there’s another line crossed. In Game 4, Ryan Kesler got back to his old whine-at-the-refs mode, something he’d removed from his repertoire.

Pressure and push-back does funny things, huh?

Again, the Canucks probably don’t really care how they’re remembered. They just want to win, and history will take care of itself in the Land of the Hockey Conspiracy Theory.

But if they don’t, we’ll be left to wonder if what seemed to be an inability to draw within the lines was really a tip-off that the Canucks couldn’t walk a straight one when they needed to.

I have said many of the same things during the Stanley Cup playoffs about the Vancouver Canucks; the Canucks in my opinion are one of the most unlikable teams in the NHL history, they are a bunch of whiny punks. Seriously! I don’t understand how the Bruins can keep from pounding guys like Alex Burrows and Maxim Lapierre? This two buffoons lack any sense of class and sportsmanship and I believe that their coach is in a way culpable because he has condoned their on ice behavior.

The Boston Bruins against the World...

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThis article is also worth a look. I would imagine it’s not as accurate as the author claims, I know a lot of fans from the Western Conference hate the Vancouver Canucks, if you don’t believe me just ask Wild and Blackhawks fans, add to the fact that a lot of hockey fans hate the on ice antics of the Vancouver Canucks.

Jonah Keri; GQ ---- "WE WANT THE CUP!"

Of course you want the Cup. Everyone wants the Cup.

They want it in Buffalo, where snake-bitten fans have seen their dreams crushed for decades. They want it in Minneapolis and St. Paul, where two different franchises have struggled in vain to get close. They want it in Winnipeg, 15 years after the Jets left town, months before a new, nameless team takes the ice.

If any of those teams win Lord Stanley's grail, that would be fine with the hockey world. Those cities have seen enormous sports heartbreak, their spirits deflated as they trudge through January blizzards waiting for their shot at the big one. If a parade runs through Chippewa Street next summer, mazel tov. They'll deserve it.

But you, Bruins fans? No one wants you to have it.

Oh sure, there are plenty of perfectly good reasons to jump on the Bruins bandwagon. This is an anonymous, lunch pail-carrying team. Only one Bruin cracked 30 goals this season, and he's a gritty two-way player from Vancouver who goes by Looch. One of their best players is a 21-year NHL veteran, also from B.C., still going strong at 43. Boston's goalie was a 217th overall draft pick, toiled for years in the minors and in Europe, didn't become a starter until age 31, and six years later might be the best netminder on the planet.

This series should have reinforced pro-Bruins sentiment. Vancouver's Alex Burrows biting Patrice Bergeron's fingers was a punk move, one that would have been handled with a flurry of right hooks to the head if this were 30 years ago and the game hadn't turned away from fighting. Maxim Lapierre's Game 2 taunt, where he stuck his fingers in Bergeron's face and dared him to bite back, wasn't much better.

And there's The Hit. Five minutes into Game 3, Aaron Rome lined up Nathan Horton, watched him get rid of the puck, took three strides, dipped his shoulder, leapt for the head, and blew him up. However you felt about the hit, you had to feel for Horton, laid out on the ice, his teammates and 17,565 spectators looking on in horror, medics fumbling with a stretcher, trying to stabilize the big Ontarian before the frantic ride to Mass General.

The Bruins responded with eight goals in the final two periods. After the game, they placed The Jacket—an old Bruins warmup awarded to a player who made a special contribution to that night's victory—in Horton's locker. The last player to receive The Jacket was also Horton, after his game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. This was Win One for the Gipper stuff, the 1970 Willis Reed-inspired Knicks crossed with the '93 Islanders rallying after Dale Hunter cheapshotted Pierre Turgeon's shoulder into oblivion.

And you know what? We're still not rooting for you.

No one in Canada wants you to win, of course. Not when a Canadian team might bring the Cup back home for the first time in 18 years.

But U.S. hockey fans aren't behind you either. There's none of that (slightly weird) national pride here. Flyers fans hate Boston. Rangers fans hate Boston. Casual hockey fans in Boise or Mobile are, at best, indifferent about Boston.

You know what everyone really hates? When Boston fans complain about The Drought. The Bruins haven't won a Stanley Cup since 1972. Old-timers get weepy for Orr and Esposito and Bucyk, wish for one more Cup before they die.

Sure, Boston was once a suffering sports town. Injuries derailed Larry Bird's career, and Lenny Bias' tragic death sent the Celtics into mediocrity for nearly two decades. The mismanaged Red Sox ran out a series of bloated, overpaid veterans, only to see the rest of the division—Toronto, Baltimore, and the hated Yankees—stomp all over them. Curse or not, 86 years without a title would wound any sports fan. The Patriots? They just sucked. So yeah, those were tough times for Boston sports fans.

Now? You sound like the douchebag who bitches that, after the three-bedroom in Tribeca, the place in the Hamptons, the kids' boarding school, the annual trips to Paris and Aruba, the four cars, and two alimonies, you've barely got enough left for that third bottle of Dom at Per Se.

The vast, vast, vast majority of Bruins fans are also Sox fans, C's fans, and Pats fans. The Celtics won the city's most recent title, in 2008. If the Bruins win the Cup this year, the Boston pro sports team with the longest championship drought will be the Patriots, who won the Super Bowl in...2004.

Meanwhile, the Canucks have existed for 41 years and haven't won jack. Vancouver had an NBA team once. They were run into the ground by an incompetent stooge, then shipped off to Memphis.

We hope Nathan Horton makes a full recovery. We feel for the 12 Bruins fans who've shunned the city's other franchises and waited nearly 40 years for their shot.

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Breaking down the numbers from the Stanley Cup Finals.

Image by slidingsideways via FlickrHere are some of the numbers from the Stanley Cup Final so far after four games.

The Vancouver Canucks power play has gone an unimpressive 1-22 on the power play. The Boston Bruins have scored more short handed goals (2) than the Canucks have scored on the power play.

The Boston Bruins power play which was abysmal during the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs (5-66 scored on 7.5% of their pp opportunities); have gone 3/18 (16.6%) during the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Boston Bruins have out scored the Vancouver Canucks 14-5 in this series to date.

Power outage for the Canucks...

The Canucks top line of two Swedes and an American (Sedin X2) and Ryan Kessler have a grand total of four points between the three of them.

Vancouver Canucks center Henrick Sedin has no points (0g-0a-0pts) during the Stanley Cup Finals.

Vancouver Canucks left wing Daniel Sedin has only three points (1g-2a-3pts) during the Stanley Cup Finals.

Vancouver Cancusk right wing Ryan Kessler has only one point (0g-1a-1pts) during the Stanley Cup Finals.

Unsung Bruin Hero...

Former Saint Lawrence University forward Richard Peverley has been a welcome surprise after coming over to the Boston Bruins from the Atlanta Thrasher in the Blake Wheeler trade; (4g-7a-11pts) the last two games was (2g-1a-3pts).