Will the Vancouver Canucks or the Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup in the 2011 NHL Playoffs?

The 2011 Stanley Cup Final was the championship series of the National Hockey League (NHL) 2010–11 season, and the culmination of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was the 118th year of the Stanley Cup's presentation. The Eastern Conference Champion Boston Bruins defeated the Western Conference Champion Vancouver Canucks four games to three.

The Bruins ended a 39-year Stanley Cup drought with the win. Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs. The Canucks had home ice advantage in the Finals by virtue of winning the Presidents' Trophy as the team that finished with the best regular season record (117 points).

12 They were also the first Canadian team to have home ice advantage in the Finals since the Montreal Canadiens had it for the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals. The Canadiens' victory in 1993 was also the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup. On June 1, 2011 NHL commissioner Gary Bettman made an announcement that Colin Campbell would be stepping down as the league's head disciplinarian to be replaced by former player Brendan Shanahan.

There had been concerns raised about Campbell's impartiality in handing out discipline since his son Gregory was an active player on the Boston Bruins roster. Campbell would however continue in his job as director of hockey operations. The first game of the series was held on June 1, while the seventh game was played on June 15.

5 The games varied widely between those played in Vancouver and those in Boston. Prior to Game 7, the Bruins had managed to score only two goals in three games played in Vancouver, against 17 scored in three games at Boston. On the other hand, while posting two shutouts in Vancouver, Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo was replaced with the backup Cory Schneider twice in three games in Boston.

6 It was the fourth consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in which the deciding game was won by the road team. The Bruins scored almost three times the number of total goals as the Canucks, (23 to 8 in the series), and yet the Canucks won three games. The eight goals scored by Vancouver is the lowest number of goals scored by any team in a seven-game Stanley Cup Finals, and would've also been the lowest in a six-game series.

The Canucks averaged 1.25 goals per game at home in Vancouver and one goal per game on the road, while the Bruins averaged almost 6 goals per game at home in Boston and 1.5 goals per game on the road. In the seven games, the Bruins averaged roughly 3.3 goals per game, while the Canucks averaged 1.14 goals per game. The Bruins finished the regular season as the Northeast Division champion with 103 points, earning the #3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

In their 33rd postseason meeting, Boston eliminated their bitter rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, in the first round of the playoffs in seven games. 7 The Bruins went on to sweep the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round, outscoring the Flyers 20–7 in four games. 8 Later, in the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games.

This was the 18th appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals for the Bruins, and their first since 1990, when they lost in five games to the Edmonton Oilers. 9 It also allowed Boston to join Philadelphia as being the only cities to have had all of their teams play in each of the four major North American professional sports leagues' title rounds since 2000, following the Patriots in Super Bowls XXXVI in 2002, XXXVIII in 2004, XXXIX in 2005, XLII in 2008, and XLVI in 2012, and winning all of them, except Super Bowl XLII and XLVI, the Red Sox winning World Series titles in 2004 (ending the Curse of the Bambino), and 2007, and the Celtics in the NBA Finals in 2008 and 2010 and winning in 2008. 10 Boston won their sixth Cup championship, and their first one since defeating the New York Rangers in 1972 in six games,9 which makes Boston the first city to have championships in each of the four leagues in the new millennium.

1112 Boston also broke Chicago's record for winning all of the "big" league championships in the shortest time in the Super Bowl era. With the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup last season, it took a span of 24 1?2 years for Chicago to win a championship in each of the four leagues. With this year's Bruins, it took Boston a span of six years and four months to fulfill that.

10 In addition, Boston beat out Philadelphia for playing in all of the "big" league championship rounds in the shortest time in the new millennium, as it took 9 years for Philadelphia to achieve this feat; Boston needed only three years and eight months. The Canucks, in their 40th season, finished the regular season with the best record at 117 points, winning their first Presidents' Trophy in team history, and the Northwest Division championship. 2 In the first round of the playoffs, the Canucks met the Chicago Blackhawks for the third straight postseason, having lost both previous series in six games.

After Vancouver won the first three games, Chicago won the next three to force a game seven. Vancouver won the seventh game in overtime on a goal by Alexandre Burrows to avoid becoming the fourth team in NHL history to lose a series after taking a 3–0 series lead. 13 The second round saw the Canucks eliminate the Nashville Predators in six games, with each game in that series decided by just a single goal (with the exception of an empty net goal scored by Vancouver in Game 4).

14 Vancouver then went on to defeat the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Finals in five games. This is Vancouver's third appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. In their other Finals appearance before 1994, which came during their Cinderella run of 1982, they were swept by the Islanders.

17 The most recent Canada-based NHL team to win the Stanley Cup was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. 18 The Canucks are the first team from Canada to make it to the Finals since the Ottawa Senators in 2007. With Vancouver having hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Canucks hoped to mirror what had happened following the other two Olympic Games held in Canada, in which the host city's NHL team won the Stanley Cup the following year.

20 Montreal hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics and the following year, the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. The Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989, the previous year Calgary had hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics. With the loss, Vancouver became the third team to lose in the Finals after winning the Presidents' Trophy, after the Bruins in 1990 and the Detroit Red Wings in 1995.

Center Patrice Bergeron became the twenty-fifth player to enter the "Triple Gold Club", consisting of individuals who have won the Stanley Cup along with gold medals at the Winter Olympics and World Championships, as a consequence of the Bruins winning the series. Bergeron also won gold medals as a teammate of Vancouver Canucks' goaltender Roberto Luongo at the 2004 Worlds and 2010 Olympics. Luongo would have become the first goaltender ever to enter the "Triple Gold Club", had the Canucks won.

Luongo won gold medals with Canada at the 2003 and 2004 Worlds and 2010 Olympics. Alternatively, Bergeron has also won a gold medal at the 2005 IIHF World Junior Championships, joining fellow Canadians Jonathan Toews, Chris Pronger, Joe Sakic and Scott Niedermayer as the only players to have won the Stanley Cup and gold medals at the Olympics, World Championships and the World Juniors. Raffi Torres's goal with 18.5 seconds left in regulation broke a scoreless tie to give the Canucks the victory in Game 1.

The entire game was seen as a duel between the two opposing goaltenders; both Vancouver's Roberto Luongo and Boston's Tim Thomas were Vezina Trophy finalists for the 2010–11 season. Thomas stopped 33 of 34 shots while Luongo made 36 saves for his third shutout of the 2011 playoffs. Both of Luongo's two previous shutouts of the 2011 playoffs had also occurred in Game 1 (a 2–0 victory against Chicago in the first round, and a 1–0 victory against Nashville in the second round).

This was the first time since 1984 that the opening game of the Cup Finals was scoreless through two periods. Both teams killed off all penalties in the game, including a 5-on-3 Boston had in the second period, and a double minor high-sticking penalty called on Vancouver's Daniel Sedin in the first. At the end of the first period, Vancouver's Alexandre Burrows was called for a double minor roughing penalty on Boston's Patrice Bergeron, while Bergeron also got a roughing minor.

Replays appeared to show that Burrows had bit Bergeron's finger, but despite Bergeron's pleading to the referees, no additional penalty was assessed to Burrows. 24 However, despite biting being an offense that can warrant a suspension, Burrows did not receive one from the NHL on the grounds that no conclusive evidence that Burrows intentionally bit Bergeron could be found. In the second-fastest overtime in Stanley Cup Final history,26 Alexandre Burrows scored 11 seconds into the first overtime to give Vancouver a 3–2 win in Game 2.

Burrows faked a shot, causing Boston goalie Tim Thomas to move out of position, then skated around the net to put the puck into the empty net for the game-winning goal; Thomas was not able to recover his position. This was Burrows's second goal of the game. He opened the scoring with a goal in the first period during the final seconds of a power play.

Boston responded with two goals in the second period, one by Milan Lucic and a power play goal by Mark Recchi. However, Daniel Sedin tied the score at 2–2 about midway through the third period. Game 2 featured the return of Vancouver's Manny Malhotra, who had not played a game since 1.251, when he suffered a severe eye injury after taking a puck to the face.

27 Both Thomas and Roberto Luongo still had good GAA's in Game 2, stopping 30 of 33 shots and 28 of 30 shots, respectively. With his second period goal, 43-year-old Recchi became the oldest player to score in the Cup Finals. Burrows led all players with 3 points, including his two goals and his assist on Sedin's goal.

Before playing, Burrows promised his father that he would have a big game so that his controversial biting incident in Game 1 would be forgotten. 29 However, his play in Game 2 caused him to remain the center of controversy for Bruins fans as well as critics who did support a suspension. 30 Analyst Mike Milbury was extremely vocal about the league's non-suspension during NBC's telecast of Game 2, saying that it was "a disgraceful call by the league ... They’re impacting this series by a non-call".

31 Still, Boston head coach Claude Julien, Patrice Bergeron, and the rest of the Bruins refused to make it an excuse for not winning the game. Before the game, the Boston Red Sox baseball club moved their game against the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park from 7:10 p.m. EDT to 1:10 p.m.

EDT to allow for Bruins fans to watch Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals. 1033 This decision proved valuable as it took 14 innings for that game to end (ending at approximately 6:30 p.m. ET),34 pre-empting about 1/2 hour of NESN's pre-game Bruins coverage.

Boston scored 4 goals in the second period, and another 4 goals in the third, which resulted in a 8–1 rout in Game 3. 3536 Mark Recchi scored two of them; Brad Marchand and Daniel Paille each scored shorthanded; and Andrew Ference, David Krejci, Chris Kelly and Michael Ryder each tallied one of the other four. 35 Tim Thomas stopped 40 out of 41 shots, only allowing a third period goal by Jannik Hansen.

At 05:07 into the first period, Vancouver's Aaron Rome received a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct for a hit on Boston's Nathan Horton. 35 Horton was taken off the ice on a stretcher and was then transported to a hospital for further observation. 36 However, the Bruins did not score on the ensuing 5-minute power play.

Following a disciplinary hearing on 1.252, Rome was given a four-game suspension for the late hit which assured that he'd miss the remainder of the 2011 playoffs, the first multi-game suspension in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals. Rome and the Canucks maintained that the play was a good hit that went bad, but the NHL determined that the hit came more than a second after Horton gave up the puck. The NHL considers a hit to be late if it comes more than half a second after a player gives up possession.

In contrast to Game 2, which featured only 10 minutes of penalties for the entire game, Game 3 had 143 total penalty minutes, the most in a Cup Final game since 1990. 39 The 8–1 score was the biggest goal differential in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1996, when the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Florida Panthers in Game 2 by the same score. Tim Thomas made 38 saves and Rich Peverley scored two goals as Boston shut out Vancouver, 4–0, to even the series.

Roberto Luongo, who stopped only 16 out of 20 shots, was replaced by backup goalie Cory Schneider after giving up the fourth Boston goal at 03:39 of the third period. 41 Thomas' shutout was the first for the Bruins in a Stanley Cup Final since Gerry Cheevers' 4-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the 1978 Stanley Cup Finals. Roberto Luongo made 31 saves and Maxim Lapierre scored the game's only goal to give Vancouver a 3–2 series lead.

This was the second 1–0 victory for Vancouver in the Finals; Game 1 ended with the same score. Lapierre's goal came at 04:35 into the third period. Kevin Bieksa's shot went wide and rebounded off the end boards to Lapierre on the other side of the net, who then beat Tim Thomas after the Boston goalie was unable to recover his position in time.

Thomas made 24 saves in the loss. Luongo joined Frank McCool as the only goalie to have two 1–0 shutouts in the Stanley Cup Final; McCool's victories came 66 years earlier in 1945. In Game 6, Boston defeated Vancouver 5–2 in front of a roaring TD Garden to force a deciding game seven, the 16th in Finals history.

The Bruins scored four goals in a span of 4:14 in the first period, breaking the record for the quickest four goals tallied by one team in the Cup Finals. 46 For the second time in the series, Roberto Luongo was replaced by backup goalie Cory Schneider; this came after Luongo gave up Boston's third goal at 08:35. Vancouver's Mason Raymond suffered a fractured vertebrae 20 seconds into the game on an awkward hit into the boards by Johnny Boychuk, and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

With the loss, the Canucks fell to 3–5 in the 2011 playoffs in games they had a chance to clinch a series with a win. In Boston's first-ever Game 7 of a Stanley Cup Final, Tim Thomas made 37 saves as Boston shut out Vancouver, 4–0, to win the Stanley Cup. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand each scored two of Boston's goals.

Bergeron scored first at 14:37 in the first period, then had a shorthanded goal at 17:35 in the second. Marchand's first goal came at 12:13 of the second period; he then scored on an empty net late in the third.