Boston Bruins Will Win Stanley Cup Final

The Boston Bruins will win the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals over the favourite Vancouver Canucks.  Thats a bold statement considering the Canucks are -230 favourites to win the series, while a $100 bet on the Bruins would win $210 for a payout of $310.  I feel that the Bruins have as good, if not a better chance than the Canucks to win this series.  There are a variety of reasons, each of which will be explained in this article.

Sedin’s Shutdown

The Sedin’s only managed to score a combined 19 points in their first 13 games, while they put up 18 in their last 5.  This may seem like they are heating up, which should be a bad thing for the Bruins, but if you look closer you will see that the reason the Sedin’s were able to dominate the Sharks is because the Sharks do not possess any elite shutdown defensemen (Dan Boyle is an elite d-man, but he is known more for his offensive abilities).  When you look at the Chicago series the Sedin’s had to contend with Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and David Bolland, who successfully shut them down.  In the Nashville series Shea Weber and Ryan Suter are two elite defensemen who did the job.  I expect Chara and Bergeron to be able to slow down the Sedin’s and if they can keep them to under around 0.8 points per game that is in the Bruins favour.

Kesler Injury

Reports indicate that Kesler may be nursing a groin injury that he suffered in game 5 against the Sharks.  He is expected to play, but will he be able to be the force that he has been throughout these playoffs.  Will he be able to stop the hot David Krejci and Nathan Horton top line for the Bruins.  Kesler is a huge part of this Canucks team and if the Sedin’s get shut down the team counts on him for a lot of offense.  We will see how his groin holds up and if he is able to go 100%.

Tim Thomas vs Roberto Luongo

I give the edge to Thomas.  Neither goaltender has been to this stage before, and neither has looked tremendous getting here this year.  Sure, both have had good games, but each have had bad games and let in some bad goals.  I don’t expect the goaltenders to really decide this series, but if I was going to choose one that has the ability to steal games if need be it would be Thomas.

These three reason are why the Bruins will have a good chance at defeating the Canucks in this years Stanley Cup finals.  I’ve already done my hockey betting on this series at 5Dimes, which offers reduced odds for the series (means I make an extra $0.10 on the dollar).  It should be interesting and I’m excited for this to get started tonight.

Congrats To The Chicago Blackhawks

I just wanted to write a quick post to say congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks.  They had a terrific year and deserved to win the Stanley Cup.  I couldn’t have said the same about the Flyers so I’m happy the Blackhawks won.  I like underdog stories, but I prefer for the best team to win when possible to maintain the integrity of the league.  Sure it’s great if anyone can win, but it’s also nice if there are better teams than others in order to show that the game involves skill and not luck.

Hossa deserved the cup as well.  I give him mad respect for only wanting to play for teams who had a legitimate chance at the Stanley Cup.  He’s played a tremendous amount of games over the past three years making the finals each of the last three years with different teams and also representing his country at the Olympics.  Good for you Hossa.

Kane proved me wrong this year.  He has definitely matured into a much more well rounded player.  One that I would love to have on my team.  I’m glad he scored the overtime goal because it’s nice when a star player can score that goal to win the Stanley Cup for his team.

This Stanley Cup also proves that paying the depth players what they have and handcuffing themselves for next season paid off.  If a team could win the cup one year only to miss the playoffs the next 4 years in a row they should take that deal any day.  And the great thing about the ‘Hawks is even if the lose some players they still have the cornerstones in place for them to be a great team for a long time, so they don’t even have to worry about becoming a losing team.  Dale Tallon deserves a lot of credit for building this team.  Maybe he actually did know what he was doing when he paid those players what he did!

Anyways, I’m going to wrap this up.  Congrats to the Blackhawks.  Next year it’s going to be a Sens vs Wild finals !