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.

Stanley Cup Final finally a series

by Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor

Too often, when journalists attempt to use flowery language in an attempt to get a point across about the significance of playoff series, they resort to a faulty type of logic, just because it sounds or reads good.

To wit, beginning a sentence with "it's not a series until..." gets trotted out and usually ends up with the vaguely aphoritic "someone wins on the road" as the punchline. Of course, all four professional leagues are littered with examples that prove the quote untrue, though best-of-sevens where home-ice/court advantage is maintained throughout are dwindling like the prospects for living disaster-free on the Gulf Coast.

Whether you're expressing your opinion in print or sitting on a barstool, if the person reading or listening has half a brain you're not going to get away with saying, for instance, that last year's Stanley Cup Final was a series because the Blackhawks finally won on the road at Philly in Game 6.

(Just a reminder, it actually was the end of the series with Patrick Kane's Cup-winning overtime goal, got it? OK.)

In the National Hockey League, the real determining factor that distinguishes a series from a series is which of the two teams suffers the first significant setback.

For example, in last year's Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Bruins lost Marco Sturm to a knee injury in Game 1 and David Krejci to a broken wrist in Game 3, AND at the same time the Flyers got Simon Gagne back from his foot injury. Suddenly, a secure 3-0 series lead for Boston turned into a defeat of epic proportions.

And while you can say that the first two games of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver didn't lack for action, excitement and drama, there was something definitely missing. That is, until 5:07 into Monday's Game 3.

That's when Canucks substitute defenseman Aaron Rome stepped into Bruins playoff hero Nathan Horton, sent his left shoulder high into the side of his face, and sent his head ricocheting off the ice.

For several minutes, the ex-Florida Panther was tended to by team personnel, who immobilized his head and neck and eventually took him off on a stretcher. He was seen talking before being taken off the ice.

Horton was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital and it was reported before the end of the game that he had movement in his arms and legs. After spending the night at the venerable institution, where he underwent further testing, it was determined he will be out for the remainder of the series with a severe concussion.

Rome, whose only reason for existing in the NHL was because of Vancouver's late-season injury issues with their defense corps, was given an interference major and game misconduct for the hit. The 27-year-old was in the lineup because normal starter Dan Hamhuis has not yet recovered from a cross-check dished out by Boston's Krejci in Game 2. He faced a disciplinary hearing today and was hit with a four-game suspension, basically for the rest of the playoffs.

Given the rising tide of chippiness which has escalated from post-whistle scrums to finger biting, to retaliation for clean hits, to putting players out of commission, maybe the quote most apropos here should be "It's not a series until someone goes to the hospital."

So, I guess we got series, eh?

In the short term, Horton's impersonation of a murder-scene chalk outline galvanized the Bruins like never before. They turned on the faucet in the second and third periods, rocking Roberto Luongo for four goals in each 20-minute segment to notch a convincing 8-1 victory that finally put them in the win column.

It was the largest margin of victory since the Colorado Avalanche pasted the Panthers by an 8-1 count exactly 15 years to the day, in Game 2 of the '96 Final. It was the most goals the B's scored in a Stanley Cup series -- that's right, not even the mighty Gatlin Gun offenses of Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito tallied as
many -- and the largest margin of victory for the franchise in a title series.
 
All of this could come crashing down on Claude Julien's club as soon as the adrenaline wears off.
 
As far as Wednesday is concerned, Vancouver's not likely to take too kindly to their hosts keeping on the pressure until the score was embarrassing. Boston has to look itself in the mirror and see if rookie Tyler Seguin and the rest of its forwards can pick up the slack for however many games there are remaining.

Heading into a pivotal Game 4, we have a team who has won twice at home, then lost once on the road. They have made the first confirmed kill. They can put some garish blue and green smudges on the Cup with a victory. We have another team having lost twice on the road and won once at home. They are charged with the task of avenging a fallen brother without losing composure. They can pull even with a similar inspired performance.

Both sides have shown flashes of brilliance and anger. Chaos and mayhem. And not one of them has won on the road.

You're going to tell me this isn't a series? Dream on.