Game 7

It is a game that anyone who plays or has played hockey has dreamed about being a part of, weather you played the game out on the street with your buddies or as today’s generation tends to do over a video game console. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final is one of the biggest spotlights in professional sports and tomorrow night the hockey world gets to showcase the grand finale to what has been an exciting 2010-11 season. 

As the game turns the corner in the ever changing world we live in, hockey on all levels continues to evolve and take on a different look all at the same time. With technology taking the game to new heights, on and off the ice, we are seeing the game played, taught, officiated and analyze in ways we haven’t seen before.  You can’t help but notice these changes taking place right before our very eyes during the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs.  The days of sweeping things under the rug are long gone as very little that happens at the arena goes unseen; every word, every play, every action is not only on documented it is analyze like never before and I am sure tomorrow’s game will bring along the similar attention to detail across the board that we have witnessed on a nightly basis throughout this past season and playoffs. With just over 24 hours to go before the Bruins and Canucks face-off for the final game on the National Hockey League’s calendar many are wondering how the game will be played, how it will be played out and what defining moments will take place over the course of tomorrow’s contest.

With the home team dominating the scoreboard in each of the prior games played thus far most would be inclined to give the Canucks the advantage heading into game 7. They recorded the best record amongst all thirty teams in the National Hockey League this past year and have been equally as successful during post season play. The Boston Bruins ranked third in the NHL during the 2010-11 season and have carried that level of success into their playoff run as well; winning games on the road throughout their run to the Stanley Cup Final. The elements are in place for a tremendous game on Wednesday night.

It is hard to say whether the home ice advantage will continue in Vancouver tomorrow night, but it is a bonus for the Canucks as they look to bounce back from a deflating defeat in game six. Both clubs have players who have played in big games in their careers and it should have an impact during the course of the contest. In the Vancouver dressing room you have the Sedin twins, Ryan Kesler and Roberto Luongo, all of whom who have played in Olympic Gold Medal games and Raffi Torres who played for the Oilers in game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final, while Boston can turn to Mark Recchi and Shawn Thornton for past Stanley Cup success as well as Patrice Bergeron who was a member of the 2010 Canadian Team that brought home a gold medal during the Vancouver Olympics.  Many others in both dressing rooms have been in pressure cookers of their own, whether it be the Memorial Cup, World Juniors, Calder Cup or World Championships as well.  

Who’s time will be it be? The Canucks who have yet to win a championship since joining the National Hockey League back in the fall of 1970, or the Bruins who last carried the Stanley Cup around Madison Square Garden on a spring evening back in 1972. Clearly, both organizations have waited a long time for this moment and both are ready, willing and deserving of being a part of game seven tomorrow night. It has been a long time coming and one can only hope that the game played by both clubs reflects the hunger felt both by organizations.  It is time to leave the verbal jabs, the ego’s and the theatrics in the dressing rooms and just play the game, it is a moment every player has waited for and has earned to be a part of, hopefully we will be able to look back on this game seven with as much interest and memories as we can with those that took place in the past.