So far, Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas are the featured players in this Stanley Cup Finals goalie duel, one that Justin Goldman of NHL.com describes as a “rare opportunity to watch two world collide.”
Thomas took a lot of criticism for his gaffe in game 2’s OT, but I personally don’t believe it was much warranted. We expect our goalies to take chances. If Thomas thwarts Alex Burrows in a shot coming in on his right, he’d have been hailed as a genius for taking away a very good shooting spot from Burrows. As it happened, Burrows faked him out, his defense had a breakdown, and the rest is history.
That doesn’t make Thomas a goat for game 2… he simply played the odds and he lost.
NOTE: Updated with transcripts including Manny Malhotra, Daniel Sedin and Roberto Luongo. Plus Henrik Sedin, Sami Salo and Ryan Kesler videos down below.
All the game video posted here. Now, the interview video and/or transcripts, post-game. First, Alain Vigneaul (with more to be added below):
Vigneault Transcript:
Q. Could you talk about your team’s response when you’re down 2-1, the mood in the dressing room going into the third?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Yeah, you know, I didn’t like 15 minutes of that second period. Thought we didn’t have our work boots on. We got out-muscled down low in our end and out-muscled in their end, thought they really took it to us.
But we talked about adjusting different things, especially our work ethic. Thought our guys were real good the last five minutes of that second period and real good in the third period. There’s another tough battle by two teams that are battling really hard.
Game on 5pm PT: Bruins at Canucks. Venting insults or commendations, for either team, are welcome in the comments.
Officials for tonight (via CBC’s Tim Wharnsby): Referees for Game 2 of Stanley Cup final in Vancouver will be Dan O’Halloran + Kelly Sutherland. Linesmen will be Jean Morin + Jay Sharrers.
Rosters (also via Wharnsby): Malhotra in. Official Canucks scratches: Hamhuis, Ballard, Glass, Tanev, Samuelsson, Hodgson, Bolduc. For Boston—Thornton, Hnidy, Kampfer
Transcripts of today’s Q&A’s with Manny Malhotra, Henrik Sedin, Alex Edler, Daniel Sedin, Christian Ehrhoff, and coach Alain Vigneault.
_______________________________________ Q. Manny, can you end the suspense and tell us if you’re playing tonight?
MANNY MALHOTRA: It’s gone from day to day to game-time decision right now. I’m honestly not trying to send you guys on a wild goose chase. That’s just the nature of the situation right now.
Q. At this point in the day, do you feel healthy enough to play?
MANNY MALHOTRA: I feel really good, yeah. I felt good yesterday skating. Felt good this morning. So, again, hopefully I’ll continue throughout the day.
Q. Manny, what were you looking for from your game to give you an indication that you’re ready?
MANNY MALHOTRA: It’s tough to say. Obviously being good in the circle is going to be a big part of what I do. It’s always tough to say how your legs are going to be responding in a game. I felt good the last few days of skating as far as my wind goes.
I think early on, things we’re going to talk about if I go, is just simplicity, getting my feet moving, getting pucks in, making smart decisions with the pucks, keeping things real basic for right now.
Vancouver Canucks’ Cory Schneider in his NHL blog today:
Practice was tough today. A lot of pucks were going in during that 3-on-0 drill, so I was kind of frustrated at the end. You just have those days when guys are making good shots. Sometimes everything that can go in and does go in. You deal with it, but today was a particularly tough day. We’ve done that drill plenty of times and I’ve made plenty of saves. I’m more mad myself than anything. I need to mix in a save or two.
After Kevin Bieksa scored on me, he wiped out while skating backwards. It may have seemed funny to people looking on, but I thought he was hurt. I was just making sure he got up all right. After that, though, it was funny.
Obviously, it’s a little harder at this stage as things get crazier. It’s a Canadian city, obviously, and we dealt with that in Montreal. It’s the Final, too. You kind of expect all the excitement. The fans here love their team and love hockey, so we knew what to expect. You just have to be ready for that or it can be overwhelming.
The rink here is always really loud. I remember when I played back here in 2007 in World Juniors, it was almost the same way when we played against Canada. Yesterday, obviously, their fans were really loud and they got the band in the stands going and it was a great atmosphere.
I think that house band thing was a great idea. Maybe we’ll have to work on some matching thing when we get back to Boston.
Q. Manny, can you just give us your chances or odds of playing tomorrow.
MANNY MALHOTRA: I wish I could put it into a percentage for you. Again, it’s going to be day to day. I’ll see how I feel after our morning skate and we’ll make a decision at that point.
Q. What happened after the last three days?
MANNY MALHOTRA: As I said on Saturday, it’s a day-to-day situation. From one day to the next, things have changed. Didn’t feel proper to go on the ice. So I took a couple days off.
Q. Ryan, can you just describe what you saw on this game-winning goal. Seemed to happen so fast.
RYAN KESLER: Yeah, I saw the Krejci line changing. I saw an opening to go. I saw Boychuk trying to step up on me there. I just tried to chip it by him, stayed on sides. Saw Jannik. Jannik made a great play to Raffi to bury it.
Q. Any sort of update on Manny?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Manny is day to day (laughter).
Q. How did he look to you today?
COACH VIGNEAULT: Skated well.
Q. There was a little bit of confusion. Last weekend you said he was cleared to play. On Tuesday Mike said he wasn’t cleared to play.
COACH VIGNEAULT: No, nobody said that. He’s cleared for physical contact, which is cleared to play. We said, I said at that time, he was day to day. He was monitored every day.
Nothing has changed.
Q. I don’t want to ask you about Dan Hamhuis. I might know the answer.
Canucks are currently practicing (no Dan Hamhuis but Malhotra’s on the ice!), so interviews with some players should be available shortly. But meanwhile, some random info and odds and ends I’ve got hanging around my desktop:
Bill Simmons’ Grantland.com is launching next week. A mix of sports and pop culture for us to chew on, presumably with a lot of long-form sports writing, of which I’m a HUGE fan. But in all those 5,000 word essays, will more than a few ever touch on hockey? I doubt it, and that’s a real shame. (But I’d love to be wrong about this. And Malcolm Gladwell is a consulting editor, so maybe I will be…)
There’s a title I don’t want to write ever again. But that’s where we’re at, thanks to the illustrious Jack Edwards and his unfortunate access to a radio signal.
So, yes, Alex Burrows wasn’t suspended and it seems like everyone’s pretty ticked about it. (Message received. Gross miscarriage of justice, etc etc.) But that’s cool. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. And at least no one’s written me anything as insane as in the audio below, kindly provided by Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing.
I’ll let him set it up:
This audio from Jack addresses Vancouver’s Alex Burrows biting the hand of Boston’s Patrice Bergeron. Surprisingly, Burrows was not suspended by the NHL. Thankfully though, the entire incident has given us this video of Jack Torrance… err… I mean Edwards, providing a poignant social commentary on the matter complete with some kind of circus music. By the way, congrats if you spun the Jack Edwards Wheel of Insanity and landed on Breastfeeding.
Several videos below showing the press Q&A’s from earlier today, with coach Alain Vigneault, and Daniel and Henrik Sedin in the NHL Network and in the press conference.
According to Alex J. Walling at TSN, pretty much a done deal:
Newfoundland, which has plenty of Moose, is getting one more. The Manitoba Moose are coming to the Rock.
The Manitoba Moose will re-locate to the capital city of Newfoundland, St. John’s. [...]
The St. John’s Telegram says a tentative agreement is in place between Williams and True North Sports - the owners of the Manitoba Moose - and that True North has agreed to house its American League team at Mile One Centre for the 2011-12 AHL season.
The St. John’s Sports and Entertainment Centre is meeting to approve a deal between that body in charge of Mile One and the Williams group. The deal will be approved.
Regarding the Alex Burrows incident [VIDEO] with Patrice Bergeron last night, Burrows has already been in contact with MIke Murphy of the NHL and Pierre LeBrun is reporting this via Twitter:
Hearing no suspension for Burrows.
Update 11:36pm PT: via the NHL—
National Hockey League Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy today announced that there will be no supplemental discipline on Vancouver Canucks forward Alex Burrows.
“After reviewing the incident, including speaking with the on-ice officials, I can find no conclusive evidence that Alex Burrows intentionally bit the finger of Patrice Bergeron.”
P.S. If anyone’s interested, Chris Iorfida at CBC reports there’s apparently a good chunk of history in the NHL when it comes to biting allegations.
Let’s go back a few days, to Sunday, when Bruce Dowbiggin wrote the following at the Globe & Mail:
The Stanley Cup final matchup last year was the best thing to happen to the NHL in the United States since Wayne Gretzky dried his tears on the pier at Santa Monica, Calif., in 1988. The meeting of the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers, the third- and fourth-biggest media markets in the States, produced substantial ratings…[...].
The Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks pairing in 2011, by contrast, has been compared by some to the Fox TV glowing puck as a broadcasting non-starter. Ratings from the local Vancouver market don’t count in the U.S. Nielsen ratings. To Americans, Vancouver might as well be Vladivostok at this time of year. The Sedin twins, likely to win back-to-back Hart Trophies, rival the GOP presidential field on the invisibility factor. Boston is dropping as a major U.S. market.
But in reality, an entirely different picture emerges, as ratings from “Vladivostok” give NBC a whopping 14% increase over last year, and are, in fact, the highest game 1 ratings in 12 years.
Q. How did you enjoy coaching in your first Stanley Cup Final game?
COACH VIGNEAULT: We won, so… when you win, it’s a lot of fun (smiling).
Q. Dan Hamhuis, was it a serious injury? How difficult was it to go down to five that early in this type of a game?
COACH VIGNEAULT: He’s day-to-day. Obviously, you know, going down to five D midway through the second, with the intensity that was out there, was obviously taxing on our group.
But I thought our forwards did a good job of helping our defense out. I thought the five guys that handled the workload did a real good job of sharing the time. I thought our best period was our third period. We were down to five D at that time.
Exciting start—Vancouver getting the win, that is; though the game overall had it’s dull stretches. But really great, great goaltending. And the goal by Raffi Torres, not to mention Ryan Kesler’s steal and Jannik Hansen’s assist, was off the charts.
UPDATE: Highlights video below— UPDATE: Interviews with various Canucks added at the bottom.
NBC’s footage at the end of period one in the Boston/Vancouver game shows this scene between Patrice Bergeron and Alex Burrows.
Burrows gets a 4 minute roughing minor to open the second period. Everyone seems pretty sure that Burrows bites down on Bergeron, though is that 100% clear enough for suspension, do you think?
Something for the Canucks to be worried about anyway, as illustrated by this comment from Darren Pang, who remarks:
End I’d 1st period, Burrows appears to bite finger in scrum of Bergeron. Brendan Shanahan has history to look at. JRuutu got 2 games in 09
CBC video below (not very good, though) if you want a comparison.
(UPDATE: More NBC footage added at the bottom of post, discussing the situation)
Paul keeps telling me I’m supposed to be a shaking, freaked-out mess of stress and hormones going into this series. (Apparently that’s how they roll in Detroit.) But so far, cool as a cucumber out here.
Maybe my composure will head south at about 10 seconds after puck drop, but for now I’m like Ghandi… calm and philosophical about it all.*
Enjoy the game. And this is an open post, if you want to check in. It should be fun: No doubt I’ll be having a complete f&#king nervous breakdown in the comments by about 5:24pm PT.
(*that is, if Ghandi was a masochistic Canucks fan; and had no moral problem with salty orange snacks and cases of beer stacked 2 feet high on the kitchen counter…)
On this opening day of the Stanley Cup Final, this was meant to be the place I dropped down my series preview, looking at the Canucks’ depth, the Bruins’ depth, their strengths and weakness (blah blah blah). But after writing it, I started thinking… who cares? At this point, we’ve read this stuff everywhere. For anyone looking, there are some great series breakdowns by my old friends at Nucks Misconduct or Canucks Corner or the Canucks Hockey Blog. And on many other Canucks blogs. So many great writers, all with educated and interesting reflections on this series.
But you know what else they have in common? They all have their whole hearts in this Stanley Cup Final. They care about this series right down to their bones, like a thousand (or a hundred thousand, or more…) other Vancouver Canucks fans. Like me.
I don’t know why the Stanley Cup matters to each of them, just like I don’t know why it matters to you. I’m not even 100% sure I understand why it matters to me sometimes—it seems so trivial in the broad scope of things in our lives.
But it does matter. It matters so much it makes us all a little bit nuts at times. It matters because even if we’re not all Canucks fans, we’re still all hockey fans.
Note: Updated at bottom with Alain Vigneault comments
_____________________________________
Q. Henrik, outside of the obvious which gives you a 1-0 lead, what has winning Game 1 of the last three rounds done for you, knowing you’ve won a game, that you have the lead?
HENRIK SEDIN: Well, I think it’s a really big game. It means apart from being up 1-0, it gives you confidence, it shows you can play against the other team. You don’t really have to change a lot of things.
You go out, you’re up 1-0, the next game they’re going to have to make adjustments to beat you. That’s an advantage, for sure.
Q. Henrik, you said yesterday that eight days off was too much. What would have been the right number? Is the extra days off added to the nerves or anticipation of this?
HENRIK SEDIN: I don’t know if it’s too much, but it’s plenty enough. Four or five days would have been good. I mean, we like to play games. We don’t really like to practice as much.
Earlier today, AHL president Dave Andrews released a statement on the Manitoba Moose, and left the future of the team as an open issue with this remark: “The future of the Manitoba AHL franchise will be determined in the weeks ahead, and we look forward to Winnipeg’s NHL club developing its top prospects in the AHL.”
Canucks at Bruins: 5pm PT. (Puckdrop @ 5:20)
Thanks to Reebok, we have TWO of their official “2011 Conference Champions” t-shirts honouring the Canucks to give away.
Game on 5pm PT: Bruins at Canucks. Venting insults or commendations, for either team, are welcome in the comments.
Paul keeps telling me I’m supposed to be a shaking, freaked-out mess of stress and hormones going into this series. (Apparently that’s how they roll in Detroit.) But so far, cool as a cucumber out here.