Any loss by Bruins feels good in Vancouver
Just like to point out it’s been over a month since the Vancouver Canucks last played and it could be another month before this NHL season concludes. In lieu of a good piece of wood to whittle, here are the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports to help pass the time.
In the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, the Boston Bruins perpetrated one of the great con jobs in recent NHL history when they convinced the hockey world they played the game honourably while the Vancouver Canucks were low-life, finger-biting, headhunting whiners.
How you read that, of course, depends on your allegiances but the four-game suspension handed to Aaron Rome in the final is still unprecedented. The Canucks’ Mason Raymond suffered a compression fracture in his back when he was taken into the boards in a vulnerable position by the Bruins’ Johnny Boychuk and Canucks’ supporters still believe that series was called by a different, more lenient standard than had been applied throughout the playoffs. Guess who that benefited? Now, admittedly, this is only a storyline in this province but watching the Bruins unravel against the Tampa Bay Lightning while professional weasel Brad Marchand embarrassed himself, the Bruins organization and the game was a special kind of payback for the faithful.
Maybe it was a coincidence the Bruins went on to lose Game 4 in overtime after Marchand treated Ryan Callahan’s face like a cow treats a salt lick.
Maybe it was a coincidence the Bruins were eliminated on Sunday in Game 5 while Marchand was held off the scoresheet.
Maybe, in the end, the better, deeper team won and Marchand’s antics had nothing to do with the outcome.
But, in this market, we’d like to think they did.
Consider this for a moment. Since 1998, the Capitals, Nationals, Redskins and Wizards — common denominator, they’re all based in Washington, D.C. — have played 13 playoff games in which a win would have propelled them into the conference finals of their respective leagues.
The record of the four teams in those games?
0-for-13.
Monday, the Capitals have a chance to eliminate the Pittsburgh Penguins and end this bizarre streak.
But this game means so much more than that to the Caps and Alex Ovechkin.
The Great Eight is now 32 and in his 13th season in the league. He’s recognized as the most prolific goal scorer of his generation but in a game that measures greatness by Stanley Cup wins, he’s never been out of the second round of the playoffs.
The Penguins and Sidney Crosby, moreover, have been his personal affliction, eliminating the Caps in all three of their playoff series since Ovechkin was drafted back in 2004.
There are exceptions but the game’s greats generally find that moment when the stars align and they taste a championship. This is Ovechkin’s time. This is his legacy moment. Finish off the Penguins and he can change the story of his career.
But if he doesn’t, he’ll be remembered for something other than all those goals.
Top five players to have never won a Stanley Cup.
1. Gilbert Perreault
2. Jarome Iginla
3. Marcel Dionne
4. Brad Park
5. Paul Kariya
Kariya gets the edge over Cam Neely because he played 263 more games and had a higher points-per-game average while playing through the dead-puck era.
Still, there are a couple of parallels between the careers of these two great stars from the Lower Mainland.
Speaking of legacy moments, this was the year where everything set up for the Toronto Raptors. The Boston Celtics were too beat up. The Philadelphia 76ers were too young. LeBron James had a suspect supporting cast in Cleveland.
True, they didn’t have a prayer against Golden State but a trip to the NBA final would have at least perfumed the stench of so many Raptors’ playoff failures.
Instead, their current collapse only intensifies that aroma. This year’s Raptors were deeper, more balanced and, theoretically, had more ways to beat you than past teams.
The problem is the playoffs aren’t about depth and balance. They’re about your stars’ performance and what LeBron has done to the Raptors through the first three games of their series is inhuman.
Next season, The King will likely move on and torment some other team. As for the Raptors, it’s hard to know where they’ll be. You just know it won’t be as close as they were this season.
The totality of Vegas Golden Knights’ story is remarkable in so many ways it’s hard to pick out individual threads. But, for Canucks’ fans, this one kind of stands out. The last five years Vancouver’s team has tried to build some semblance of an NHL blue-line and failed miserably.
Then, in one expansion draft, the Knights grabbed three young D -men — Colin Miller, Nate Schmidt, Shea Theodore — who are all better than anyone the Canucks have been able to find.
Theodore, the kid from Langley, has been a revelation in these playoffs. And he started this season in the minors because he Knights were still looking at Griffin Reinhart and Jason Garrison. Yeesh.