Despite series edge, Canucks teetering on the precipice

by Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor

Pardon the Vancouver Canucks if they really don't know how to act, or know what to expect, coming into Monday night's Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals at TD Garden in Boston.

With a three games to two edge, and with two opportunities to clinch their first championship in franchise history, this is new territory. In two previous Cup Finals experiences, the Canucks were behind the eight-ball from the get-go.

When the ugly flying V-necks met the dynastic New York Islanders in 1982, the closest the 'Nucks got were two high-scoring defeats on the road (6-5 in OT and 6-4) to open the set. They lost in four straight, the final two in the old Pacific Coliseum.

In 1994, most of the hockey universe portrayed the .500 Canucks as merely the step-stool for the Rangers to erase 54 years of futility; it looked that way after New York shook off a home OT loss in Game 1 and won the next three games, including two in Canada, to take a stranglehold on the series.

But Pat Quinn's club stared down the barrel of a shotgun in two straight elimination games and set up a Game 7 at Madison Square Garden. In the first do-or-die meeting, Vancouver stunned the Manhattanites with a five-goal third period to win 6-3. In the latter, back in British Columbia, Geoff Courtnall and Jeff Brown and a helping hand from video replay amounted to a 4-1 victory.

In 2011, thanks to three superhuman performances of Roberto Luongo plus some timely goals, the blue-green menace stands just 60 minutes away from reversing more than four decades of the perception that their team is nothing more than well-meaning underdogs.

Nonetheless, I still can't shake the feeling that the presumptive champions are doing it with smoke and mirrors and the conceit of home-ice advantage, just like the Minnesota Twins did more than 20 years ago.

If you recall, the Twins won the 1987 and 1991 World Series predominantly through the luck of the draw, gaining entry to the title round in pre-determined years that the American League was given home-field advantage.

Against both St. Louis and Atlanta -- both clubs who were widely acknowledged to hold significant talent advantages -- Minnesota looked as alive at home as they did moribund on the road. In a pair of seven-game decisions, Tom Kelly's clubs went 8-0 under the Metrodome roof and 0-6 elsewhere. Both times, the 2-3-2 format saved their bacon, as both times the Twins took Games 6 and 7 at home to win it all, after coming within one loss of elimination.

The unbalanced scoring and goal differential is the most obvious factor. Vancouver has won three
games -- all at home -- by a grand total of three goals (1-0, 3-2 in OT, 1-0), and has not scored more than two times in any of their wins so far. It speaks volumes of just how well Luongo has had to play to outduel counterpart Tim Thomas, but underscores just how impotent the Canucks offense has been in front of a friendly crowd.

With one more whitewash, Luongo can join Martin Brodeur as the only goaltenders in the modern era to register three shutouts in one Cup Finals. But it doesn't cover up -- and only drags into the spotlight -- the disappearance of the Sedin twins and the total lack of production of Ryan Kesler, or the garish 8-1 and 4-0 blowouts the Bruins laid down in Boston during last week's Games 3 and 4. Or the near total lack of discipline from the third and fourth lines.

Yes, you've done the math right. Vancouver leads the series despite having scored just six total goals and having allowed 14.

The last time a Cup winner failed to find the net more than their opponent despite winning came just two years ago, when Detroit outscored Pittsburgh 17-14 as the Penguins won in seven. The last time there was a marked discrepancy came well before the Expansion Era.

Despite the fact that Alain Vigneault's charges won the Presidents' Trophy, and notched the first confirmed kill in the severe concussion to Boston's Nathan Horton, their razor-thin margin for error may likely collapse over the next 48 hours.

There's all the pressure of potentially being the first Canadian-based team to win the Cup since Montreal did so in 1993, and becoming the first Western Canadian team to win it all since Calgary four years earlier. Then, there's the pesky matter of the other team wanting it just as bad.

All the Bruins lacked in each of their three losses in Canada, was that one player to step up and beat Luongo before anyone dented Thomas. Even though Horton's gone, David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Mark Recchi are the likely candidates to play hero. Rich Peverley showed signs of brilliance in Beantown, as did Shawn Thornton. There's also the matter of the B's not having won since 1972 and wanting to avoid a third straight season ending in heartbreaking fashion on home ice.

If they can get past tonight, all bets are off given the Bruins' tactical and statistical edges thus far.

For all their magic in the postseason until this point, that's exactly what the Canucks should fear the most.