You wouldn’t have any trouble finding a single storyline in this years Stanley Cup Final.  Right after Game 1 you had the biting incident from Alex Burrows of the Vancouver Canucks.  No matter how you look at it he bit Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins.  The NHL was criticized by quite a few people both inside and outside of hockey for not suspending Burrows.  Sure enough he was the hero of Game 2 as the Canucks took a commanding 2-0 series lead.

The Boston Bruins went back home for Games 3 and 4.  Right from the start they lost their best offensive player up until that point, Nathan Horton to a ferocious hit by Vancouver’s Aaron Rome in the first period.  Boston was none too pleased and outscored the Canucks 12-1 during those two games in the TD Garden.  Now we had ourselves a series.  Rome was suspended for the rest of the Stanley Cup Finals as to avoid any kind of revenge from the Bruins.  The last three games were going to be very interesting.

Game 5 turned out to be the same story for the Bruins as they were shutout for the second time in Vancouver.  The Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo even went after Boston’s goalie Tim Thomas saying that the lone goal Thomas gave up he would’ve stopped.  He was basing that assessment on their different styles of play.  Unfortunately Luongo made the mistake of giving the Bruins some bulletin board material for the last two games of the series.

Sure enough Game 6 was another blowout as the Bruins scored 4 goals in less than ten minutes on the Canucks to start the game.  Three of those goals were against Luongo who was pulled after the third one.  Vancouver was perplexed to say the least, but Daniel Sedin guaranteed the Canucks would bounce back and win Game 7 back in Vancouver.  Puzzling thing is he actually retracted that guarantee a day later.  My first thought was now you just lost the Stanley Cup.

Game 7 was all Boston right from the start.  They kept playing their style of hockey and it was getting to the Canucks.  The Bruins have a lot of scrappy players and one great goaltender in Tim Thomas who won the Conn Smythe trophy for playoff MVP.  With Nathan Horton out of action after Game 3, Brad Marchand stepped his game up and showed that he is going to be a great player for many years.  

Captain Zdeno Chara was a big presence on defense, even playing goalie from time to time for Thomas.  Veteran Mark Reechi will go out on top as a Stanley Cup champion for the third time in his career.  Thomas had a rough 2009-10 season for the Bruins.  He kept his chin up worked on his craft and was back in net for Boston when they needed him most for the 2010-11 season.  

It goes to show you again that if you have a great goalie and play up to your standards on offense and defense you can wind up hoisting sports greatest trophy.