The Boston Bruins won game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, winning the Cup for the first time since 1972.
I had made my Stanley Cup prediction earlier today, stating that Vancouver would win, and boy was I wrong. The Bruins rolled over the Canucks, winning 4-0. In their victory, the Bruins set a couple records:
-First team to win the Stanley Cup and win three game sevens in the playoffs
-First team to win the Stanley Cup in a road game seven in a shut out
Looking back on the series, I have several reasons why the Bruins won.
The most obvious reason is Boston outscored Vancouver 23-8. To understand why Vancouver did not score, you only need to look at the score sheets for the series. The three best players on the Canucks: Hendrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, and Ryan Kesler, were held to a total of 6 points and -18 combined. Their stats are shown below.
Daniel Sedin - 1 goal, 3 assist, -5
Hendrik Sedin - 1 goal, -7
Ryan Kesler - 1 assist, -6
No team can win a series when their best players are not producing.
Finally, Vancouver lost the series because their goalie was average. Roberto Luongo only stopped 163
of 183 shots for an 89.07% save percentage. Luongo, a Gold medal winner with Canada, was anything but spectacular in the series with Boston.
No team can even hope to win the Stanley Cup with average goaltending and their top three scorers failing to contribute.
That being said, no credit should be taken from Boston. They played a spectacular series in all aspects of the game.
Now, all there is to look forward to is next year!
My prediction for next year's Stanley Cup is Washington vs. Detroit. Washington in 6.
