BOSTON — The Bruins held one final practice in Boston on Monday before departing for Vancouver and their first Stanley Cup final appearance since 1990.
Boston, the No. 3 seed out of the Eastern Conference, had just one glimpse of the dominant Canucks in the regular season: a 3-1 win in Vancouver in which goaltender Tim Thomas made 26 saves.
But that doesn’t mean the Bruins will take the league’s No. 1 seed lightly. Vancouver, after all, cruised to a Northwest Division title, and led the NHL with 117 points, 10 more than any other team.
“Obviously, they’re a President’s Trophy winner, they’re a great hockey team, deep and well coached, and we’ll look at things we have to do,” Bruins forward Mark Recchi said. “Any key to your team’s success is how you play personally. I think we focus on what we do ourselves. Our coaching staff will give us their tendencies, and their coaching staff will give them our tendencies. It’s who’s going to want it more and who’s going to play to their abilities the best.”
Game 1 is on Wednesday night. By the time the puck drops, the Canucks, who defeated San Jose in five games to win the Western Conference title, will have had seven days off.
“Well, they are a great team, they have a lot of depth,” Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron said. “They are good on all positions and it’s going to be a tough series and we are aware of that. Obviously, we are going to have to take it a game at a time and we are going to have to concentrate on Wednesday right now.”
The Canucks have many weapons to focus on, most notably Daniel and Henrik Sedin, a pair of twin forwards who, along with forward Ryan Kesler and goaltender Roberto Luongo, have led this Vancouver renaissance. Together, the Sedins have 37 points this postseason, and Daniel has eight goals.
In the regular season, Daniel had 41 goals, and Henrik had 75 assists.
“You want to try to not be over-aggressive, because once you do that, they spin off of you and that’s what they want to try to accomplish, be one guy and then two on the next,” Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg said. “They’re really good at finding each other, with the give-and-gos, and the blind pass behind the back. So that’s a real challenge for us, to be aggressive but not be stupid about it. So, we have to be smart in our defensive play.”
Kesler could be the x-factor, though. Too much concentration on the Sedins, and the rugged, 6-foot-2, 195-pound center from Livonia, Mich., will pounce. In his breakout year this season, Kesler scored 41 goals. He’s followed that up with seven goals and 11 assists in the playoffs.
“There is a lot of skill, there is a lot of speed,” Boston coach Claude Julien said in reference to the Canucks. “Their back end has a lot of versatility, and they love to carry the puck up the ice a lot. So, they are a pretty potent team and obviously, they thrive on their power play. So, we are going to have to be a physical team. But we are also going to have to be a very disciplined team.”
Which is why practice has been a little toned down this week in Boston as Game 1 approaches. Keep in mind, the Bruins have already played 18 times this postseason, including two seven-game series vs. Montreal and Tampa Bay, respectively. Vancouver has only played one seven-game series, a win over Chicago in Round 1.
“I think one of the things was giving our guys some rest and that’s why (on Sunday), not everybody went on the ice. Guys that have played a lot, they could benefit from two days of non-skating. The conditioning doesnt go bad,” Julien said. “(On Monday), we came back on the ice as a whole team and obviously, it was a little warm out there today. So, ice was probably not at its best, and it was a tough grind to push through this practice (on Monday), which I think is not a bad thing because we might as well get used to it.
“I thought we pushed ourselves through pretty good.”
The Bruins will have four days off in between games, and that break should pay off for Thomas, who already has two shutouts this postseason. In Games 1 and 2, Thomas will return to the site of the last Winter Olympics, where he walked away with a silver medal along with the rest of Team USA.
Of course, back then, he was the backup to Ryan Miller. This time, barring something unforeseen, he should play every minute.
“You keep doing the same thing you’ve done all year, but you’ve just got to keep it going,” Thomas said with regards to his preparation. “You started training for this moment last summer. And you know, it’s a build-up and then during the season you’ve just got to stick with your routine and basically never let yourself fall behind. Because once you fall behind, it’s too hard to catch up.”
Thomas is 12-6 in the playoffs, with a 2.29 goals-against average. In a four-game sweep of Philadelphia in Round 2, he allowed just seven goals total.
“The goal is not to think too much,” Thomas said. “And for the most part, you have to think to play, but you just want to keep it all focused on hockey. Be in the moment.”
So far, so good.
CUP NOTES: When the teams drop the puck, it will be just the sixth meeting between the teams in six seasons. That includes a game in Vancouver just over three months ago, even though few of the Canucks recalled much from that 3-1 loss. What all of them remembered after the Bruins beat Tampa Bay 1-0 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final on Friday night were goalie Tim Thomas and defenseman Zdeno Chara. Several singled out Chara, Boston’s 6-foot-9 Norris Trophy nominee as the best defenseman, and Thomas, their acrobatic Vezina Trophy finalist as the league’s best goaltender, as keys to beating one of the league’s stingiest teams. “Solid D led by the big guy and one of the best goalies in the league,” said Vancouver’s top-line forward Alex Burrows. “They play a great defensive system.” Boston surrendered the second-fewest goals in the regular season, behind only Vancouver. The Canucks found out how stingy they can be Feb. 26, when Thomas made 27 saves for his third win in as many meetings with the Canucks, including two shutouts. Thomas also posted his second shutout of the playoffs Friday, but has also had his share of hiccups, with questionable goals early in the first round and Eastern Conference final — both after long layoffs. “He makes saves you don’t think he’s going to make and lets in goals sometimes that maybe he should have,” said captain Henrik Sedin, who leads the playoffs with 21 points.