2011 Stanley Cup Finals: Vancouver Canucks vs. Boston Bruins series breakdown – Part 2
As the National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Finals come closer and closer, the anticipation builds up in the ice hockey world, especially for Game 1 of the series between Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins.
Both teams have a lot at stake and the opening game is always a signal to what we should expect in the remaining games of the series.
Discussing in part one of this three-part article on the breakdown of the finals’ series, we covered a number of aspects such as past performances and the experience both teams have.
In this part, we will try to compare the teams with each other and try and decide which one has the advantage in a certain respect.
Every team is unique and in ice hockey, each and every aspect of a team’s game-play is critical to determine its future performance and ability to handle pressure situations.
Forwards/Offence Advantage: Vancouver Canucks
Taking an early lead in a game, especially a Stanley Cup Finals series’ game, is probably the best way to secure victory by concentrating on defence for the remaining part of the game.
Vancouver Canucks is well endowed in this respect with a number of players that can step up and score for their team.
Vancouver’s defenders are more like offensive attackers since throughout the previous three playoff series, we have seen them scoring multiple goals.
Who can forget the unstoppable trio, Henrik and Daniel Sedin along with Ryan Kesler.
These three players are the key to Vancouver winning their first Stanley Cup in over 40 years and Boston just lacks offensive power to tackle them.
The chemistry between the Sedin twins and Kesler is uncanny and will certainly help Vancouver in the long run.
Henrik Sedin led the NHL during the regular season as the player with the most points and was awarded the Art Ross Trophy.
Ryan Kesler is up as a nominee for the Conn Smythe Trophy for the playoffs’ best performance which shows how well qualified Canucks offensive end really is.
Defensive Advantage: Boston Bruins
Boston is a downright defensive team and has some of the best defensemen in the league. Bruins is well known to be a physical and outright rough team when it comes to playing hard which makes its ability to block the net even better.
Bruins’ captain, Zdeno Chara, may have slowed down after his hit on Max Pacioretty which created a huge controversy in the NHL, but he still remains intimidating on ice and does what he needs to do to block the opposition.
Chara is teamed up with fellow defenseman, Dennis Seidenberg, who is performing at his peak level at the moment.
So far in the playoffs, Seidenberg maintains an impressive plus-eight rating and boasts eight points along with 55 blocked shots and 39 hits. His record ties him with Tomas Kaberle for the top scoring defenseman on the team.
Andrew Ference, Johnny Boychuk and Adam McQuaid are the other three defensemen who create a cement wall in front of Tim Thomas for a solid defence mechanism.
Their contribution in keeping Vancouver’s attackers away from the net will be of the utmost importance to Boston to take an early lead in the series.
To be continued in part 3.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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