The Vancouver Canucks won the Western Conference, while the Boston Bruins won the East. This earned each team the right to play in the NHL Finals for a chance to life the most coveted trophy in sports: the Stanley Cup. Each team had to win their first round series in a game 7 overtime battle, but they each showed nerves of steel making it through that round and they have won 2 more and are now in the finals.

The Canucks got off to a 3-0 lead in their first round series with their rival Blackhawks who had knocked them out of the playoffs in the previous two seasons. After getting this lead, the Canucks let it slip away losing 3 straight and finding themselves in a position to play in a loser goes home game 7. The Canucks were up 1-0 for most of the game, but a great shorthanded effort by Jonathan Toews knotted the score late in the third and this game headed to overtime. Patrick Sharp had a great power play chance early in OT, but Luongo made a brilliant stop and the Canucks didn’t need too much more time for Burrows to snag a Campoli clearing attempt out of the air and hammer a clapper upstairs on Crawford.

The next two rounds were a little bit easier for the Canucks who defeated the Predators in 6 and the Sharks in 5, while never being behind in either series. The Sharks series was especially good for the Sedin twins who had been struggling a bit leading up to the Conference Finals, but 12 points for Henrik and 6 for Daniel in those 5 games versus the Sharks has them on a hot streak going into the finals.

The Bruins also faced rivals in the first round as they played the historic Montreal Canadiens. The Habs battled hard in this series and forced a game 7, but a Nathan Horton overtime goal sealed their fate. There would not be another Cinderella story for the Canadiens this year. Boston then went on to sweep an overrated Flyers team before battling it out with a Tampa Bay team that was the hottest in the playoffs, having won 7 straight to enter their series. Boston regained their composure and won game 7 1-0 on another clutch Horton goal.

Nathan Horton and David Krejci have been dynamic for the Bruins so far, and Bergeron has been chipping it a lot offensively while also shutting down the opposition’s superstars. Chara and Bergeron will be tasked with the job of shutting down the Sedins in this series, while Krejci and Horton will have to keep on producing for the Bruins to win.

The Bruins are fairly big underdogs in this series, but if Chara and Bergeron can shut down the Sedin line, Horton and Krejci can get the better of a possibly injured Ryan Kesler and Tim Thomas plays a bit better than Roberto Luongo the Bruins have a legitimate chance to win this series and keep the Cup out of Canada for the time being.

The Bruins odds to win the Cup are +205, while the Canucks are -235, which shows just how big of favourites the Canucks are. Time will tell if they deserved these betting lines or not.

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Category: Sports
Keywords: NHL, Stanley Cup Finals, Preview, Prediction, Odds, Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks