Projo Bruins Blog

What? Like somebody else was going to?

If ever a guy deserved it, it's Our Timmy.

Visit Vancouver! It's a riot!

You're back where you belong.

In the Hub of Hockey.

Boston.

Duck boat drivers, start your engines!

Barring a catastrophic collapse, the Bruins will win their first Stanley Cup since 1972.

Moments after saying to the folks I'm watching with how much I like Brad Marchand, because he makes things happen, the high-energy rookie manages to slip the puck past Roberto Luongo to give Boston a 2-0 lead.

You gotta love the kid!

Then, when the Canucks have a chance to change the game's momentum by going on the power play, they instead give up a shorthanded goal to Patrice Bergeron.

The Bruins now have more shorthanded goals in this series (three) than the Canucks have power-play goals (two.)

Now just twenty minutes remain in the only Game Seven the B's ever have played in 18 appearances in the Stanley Cup finals.

It's Boston 1, Vancouver 0, after one.

Is one goal enough for the B's, with Tim Thomas in goal?

He looks as if he won't give up any, whereas Canucks' netminder Roberto Luongo appears a bit shaky, although nowhere near as bad as he looked Monday night in Boston.

It'll be interesting to see how the Canucks come out in the second period. The team, and the crowd, seemed somewhat deflated after the Bruins scored.

Tim Thomas has this one

locked up.

But he'd trade that one, in a heartbeat, for this one:

Tim Thomas has given up just eight goals in six games to the Canucks, who led the NHL in scoring during the regular season.

Roberto Luongo allowed that many in Game Three alone.

Yes, Luongo has played much better in front of the home crowd in Vancouver, where he twice has blanked the B's, than in hostile Boston, where he's been riddled for 15 goals in six-plus periods.

But he's also been yanked off the ice twice by Canucks coach Alain Vigneault, going to the bench just 8:35 into Game Six after giving up three quick goals -- the first when Brad Marchand beat him high to the glove side, the second when Milan Lucic put the puck through his legs, and the third on a slap shot from the left point by Andrew Ference when the Bruins were on the power play.

Luongo shot off his mouth about the game-winning goal allowed by Thomas in Game Five in Vancouver, which the Canucks won, 1-0, saying it would have been an "easy save" for him because he stays near the net and doesn't "wander," like Thomas.

But then he struggled to stop any shots at all in Game Six.

Thomas has been the best goalie in the league this year.

I'm betting he'll be the best goalie tonight, as well.