Game Seven Notes

It's still sinking in. I'm having a hard time grasping that we won it all. The Boston Bruins - Stanley Cup champions. 

But before I forget some notes on the game:

Early reports showed the front line playing well, but not getting enough support from the other three lines - that was clearly not the case tonight. Somewhere in the middle of the first with the score still tied, the fourth line had a killer shift. They got the puck in deep for several minutes and got multiple quality chances.

The whole second period, I was impressed with how the Bruins got the puck into the offensive zone corners and played there. It felt like it was there for at least half the time. Every line got quality attacking time in the zone. 

But what really stood out (obviously) was the scoring line. I was worried that our Game Seven ace in the hole (Horton) wasn't playing. But Recchi/Bergeron/Marchand - what can you say? Bergeron was phenomenal and the shorty was awesome. The media had given a lot of press to Seguin's PT but the real story of the finals was Marchand. Marchand Marchand and a 1000 time Marchand (Maybe a few hundred Marchmont's for good measure. How did he move from irritant who takes a few too many penalties to on the podium for Game 7/Finals MVP?Seriously, Marchand's speed,  skill and aggressiveness were the (non-Tim-Thomas) difference  in this series.

TIMMMMMMEEEEYYYY - deserves all the praise he got and more. He was unflappable. The defense played great but weren't without flaw. I saw a d-man pinch up in the third period (Seidenberg?)  and screamed "What are you doing?" at the scream. It led to a Lucic penalty. But of course, the Bruins killed it off (Final Tally on Vancouver Power Plays for the series: Boston 3, Vancouver 2). McQuaid and Chara both had _bad_ turnovers in the zone. Chara made up for his with the save and Timmy was there for the other one (AND ALL OTHER ONES)

Seriously, it was unreal. Whenever there was a Canuck shot, you expected Thomas to save it - and he did). The defense did a good job on rebound control and there weren't too many Canuck chances. The shot total was misleading, despite being outshot for most of the game, the Bruins clearly had more scoring opportunities.

And speaking of the Canucks, I thought they laid down a bit after the first goal. Kesler came to play and he made some nice rushes, but other than that, I didn't see the effort and work rate that's necessary to win. 

I still can't believe it. But I know it's true. Awesome