Why Did The Bruins Win The Stanley Cup?
Friday, June 17, 2011
Skill, will and a little bit of luck.
Those are the things you need to win a championship in most team sports. In hockey, you can add a fourth – solid goaltending.
The 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins had all of these things. But were they really the best team in the National Hockey League this past season?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTLet’s start with skill. While the Bruins possess a number of very skilled players, they are clearly not the most skilled offensive team in the NHL.
Unlike many of the recent Stanley Cup Champions, Boston lacks what you would call an elite scorer or a “point-a-game” guy on their roster.
Last year’s winner – Chicago - had Patrick Kane. Two years ago Pittsburgh had Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Before that it was Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg leading Detroit to the Cup and Teemu Selanne taking Anaheim all the way.
The B’s were led this year by Milan Lucic and David Krejci, each of whom finished the 82-game regular season with 62 points.
So how did Boston finish on top as opposed to some of the more offensively skilled teams like Vancouver or Tampa Bay? There are actually a few answers to that question.
First, while Vancouver had the clear edge in “skilled” offensive players over Boston, the Bruins dominated some of the other key categories like will and good goaltending.
Much like the 2001 New England Patriots, this Bruins team was a unified and determined bunch which failed to hop on the emotional roller coaster that many pro teams get on at one point or another. Their will to succeed was as strong, if not stronger, than any team in the National Hockey League this year and that was no more evident than it was in the postseason.
Good goaltending? Please! Boston had GREAT goaltending. In fact, they had the best goaltending in the league thanks to Tim Thomas.
Roberto Luongo may have had a very solid regular season, but in the Stanley Cup Finals he was playing checkers while Thomas played chess. It was an absolute mismatch.
And while we’re on the subject of Thomas, don’t think that luck didn’t have a lot to do with the Bruins winning the Cup.
It was only a year ago that the B’s were trying to trade Thomas to Philadelphia. Their thinking was that Tuukka Rask was their #1 goaltender and that the aging Thomas was overpaid. Thank goodness that trade never happened!
Lastly, although the B’s were outclassed on paper by the offensive skill of Vancouver and other playoff opponents this postseason, in reality it did not turn out to be the mismatch one would have thought.
Take David Krejci for example. He scored just 13 goals in 75 games during the regular season but netted 12 in 25 games during the playoffs. No player had more goals in the postseason than Krejci who played like an “elite” scorer.
Rookie Brad Marchand is another example of someone who really stepped up his game in the playoffs. He scored 21 goals in 77 regular season games this season but managed to score a Bruins rookie-record 11 times in 25 postseason games. He was an “elite” scorer in the playoffs for the Bruins.
Boston also used their depth to their advantage with all four lines contributing in major ways throughout the playoffs.
Remember the doom and gloom around these parts when it was learned that Patrice Bergeron would not be available for all or part of their Eastern Conference Final series with Tampa Bay?
No problem! In steps rookie Tyler Seguin who had been inactive against Montreal and Philadelphia and he proceeds to score 3 goals and dish out 3 assists in the first two games of the series. His 4-point performance helped lift the B’s to victory in game 2 against the Lightning.
It’s easy to point to one thing, like Tim Thomas, and say that this is why the Bruins won the Stanley Cup. But in reality it was a confluence of things.
Skill, will, great goaltending and a little bit of luck allowed the Bruins to bring the Stanley Cup back to Boston for the first time in 39 years.
