Andrew Ference of the Boston Bruins checks Alex Burrows over the back of Tim Thomas #30 during Game Six of the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on June 13, 2011 in Boston, Mass.
Photograph by: Jim Rogash, Getty Images
BOSTON—And to think they put newspaper tycoon Conrad Black in jail for non-compete clauses.
Perhaps the fans who traveled all the way from Vancouver for the games here should be considering action against the Canucks for failure to compete. After all they bought game tickets and given the vaunted Vancouver offence has exactly one goal in three games here in this town, to call these affairs games would not be a stretch but rather a total distortion.
Vancouver didn't even get through the first period before the roof fell in Monday, Roberto Luongo again giving up a couple of softies early and then being pulled one goal too late by coach Alain Vigneault who has more faith in Luongo than the Dalai Lama has in good karma. He'll be back to start Wednesday where he's been lights out at Rogers Arena but while he's been a guesser on pucks here in Boston he's also guessing as to where the Vancouver offence may have gone.
No team in a position to win a Cup as Vancouver is has ever scored so few goals, even in the dead puck era.
The Canucks have a grand total of eight goals in six games and three of them have been completely meaningless third period markers here, two here Monday after the bomb had dropped. One was the rarest of all ducks, a Henrik Sedin goal, just Vancouver's second power play success of the series, and then a Maxim Lapierre effort late. The other came from Jannik Hansen late in game three which was akin to putting on a hard hat after an eight story building falls on your head.
Why has the Vancouver offence gone dry? Lots of reasons of course but Mason Raymond being carted off to the hospital just after the opening faceoff after Monday night's late hit by Johnny Boychuk with no puck near him and no call early in the first period is a pretty good place to start.
“We all thought it was a penalty but the referee says he (Raymond) lost his edge,” said Henrik Sedin. He also had his spine driven into the boards while he was in a vulnerable position.
Stated simply, the Bruins can virtually do anything to any Vancouver player with total impunity until after the game is won. At that point, they then get their fair share of penalties. Further they can do anything to any Vancouver player after the whistle while it's still a game and nothing is called unless there is a flagrant retaliation by the Vancouver player. At that point both infractions are called. Boston of course gets lots of penalties late, with the game decided to make it look like they might even be getting shafted in total calls. But that's a familiar NHL pattern.
Even on a 5-on-3 against with the game over Vancouver gets very little protection. After David Krejci made it 5-1 with seven minutes gone in the third period of a game long over, Patrice Bergeron's cross check from behind on Alex Burrows was a clear and blatant shot after play had stopped. When Burrows reacted, both were called instead of just the initial shot. The officials just refuse to call the after the whistle stuff giving Boston license to poke and jab at will.
Even late it's weird. Daniel Sedin is repeatedly punched in the face by Brad Marchand. The little Bruin finally gets a penalty because who cares at that point but Daniel gets a misconduct for catching.
“We're just gonna keep doing that and take it and hope they're going to call that stuff,” said Daniel. “We're confident they will.”
Others may not be so sure And there are more pressing problems. Like what to do for a second line now that both Raymond and Mikael Samuelsson are down and Chris Higgins left the game for a bit in the third period before returning for a few more ineffective minutes. Higgins was wiped out in a double hit in the second period, the second of which might have been construed as a penalty mid way through the second period but whether or not he was shaken up, he hasn't been much good in this series anyway. Jeff Tambellini likely draws in there but he hasn't scored since Zdeno Chara was knee high to his shortest relative.
There have been mountains of shots of course, Tim Thomas sure to set the record for most saves in a series but scoring chances? While that's a subjective call, it hasn't been a very pleasant subject for the Canucks.
But they were putting a positive light on it after the two third period goals.
“I thought we played better tonight,” said Henrik. “We moved the puck much better tonight and set up some really good chances. We just had that one stretch where everything went wrong in the first period. We played pretty well after that and we're looking forward to going home in front of our fans.”
And to think people were wondering how the Bruins would score against Vancouver before this started. And the good news for Vancouver is that at Rogers Arena, they've had their own scoring issues.
Luongo and the rest of his teammates have to make sure that continues.
Actually ... so true .. Bruins is playing REAL CANADIAN Hockey now .. with heart, plan, play hard .. and lots of Canadian players .. even Canucks have better offence power .. and defence .. and goalie ... ( suppose ... )
發表於 2011-6-14 01:40
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