That’s right, it’s not a mirage. Camp Kitch is back – hopefully better than ever!
It’s been almost a week since the climactic Game Seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. This is always the toughest week, because you realise that the long off-season is ahead.
And there’s the problem with the Final. More often than not, it’s the best stretch of games in the season, but it’s also the last stretch of games for the season, and that’s depressing, because hockey’s one of the greatest sports on earth and I miss it when it’s off. Sadly, it’ll be October before another puck is fired in anger; October before Jack Edwards yells at Roman Hamrlik once more.
I digress. And so, in one, two or three parts, some of my (late) thoughts on the final game of the season and the Final in general:
Heart and soul:
Of all the games in the season that you think you might get jacked up for, this would be it. Game Seven, the purest contest in sports. Think of it as the quintessential Penthouse or Outhouse Game. You win and you get Lord Stanley. You lose and it’s a long summer thinking about what might’ve been.
The problem was that Vancouver just didn't seem to turn up. Their big players went missing when they needed them the most – hello, LeBron James – and, overall, it was a lacklustre performance for a team who most, myself included, figured would bounce back from a rough trot in Boston and win the Cup on home ice.
Alas, it didn't happen like that. Boston were the team that came out and played hard, solid hockey. They played like they wanted to win the Stanley Cup, and it showed. They followed through on every check, played good team defence, took their chances where they could and, of course, had a stellar performance from Tim Thomas, whose Conn Smythe Trophy has to be one of the most deserved awards in a very long time.
Goalies:
This series will probably be defined by it’s goalies.
Tim Thomas was excellent just about every minute of all seven games. The marker he gave up late in Game One was one of those unstoppable plays – as I like to say, not even God could’ve stopped the Hansen to Torres feed; it was that sweet – that are impossible to prevent. Sure, the OT incident in Game Two looked a little awkward, but Thomas bounced back nicely. It makes you wonder what the series might’ve been like had Boston gone up 2-0, which was a very real possibility, given the closeness of the first two games at Rogers Arena.
On the flip side...the confusing, contradictory Roberto Luongo. In Vancouver, a city where great goalies are appreciated and ineptitude between the pipes is soundly and roundly unappreciated, Luongo’s late-series meltdown is going to make for a long summer for the gold medal-winning goaltender, who seemed to be suffering from split personality for the first six games. I mean, he was lights-out good in Vancouver, and uber terrible in Boston.
It seemed like Luongo would get right for Game Seven because, after all, it was in Rogers Arena where he’d snuffed out just about every Bruin offensive foray, but the Bad Roberto turned up for Game Seven, just when the Canucks needed Good Roberto to stand between the pipes.
The goal Luongo gave up to Bergeron from the right dot was eminently stoppable. It seemed like that early Bruin tally just killed whatever mojo Luongo might’ve had going. At least he looked like he was in position to stone Bergeron’s short-handed attempt...until the trailing defensemen tripped the Bruins skater up and sent him tumbling into Luongo, the puck skittering through and into the net.
I get the feeling that Roberto Luongo is going to be the face of the team’s failure across a summer where there will be much consternation. No one seems happy with Luongo. Even when he was winning, you sensed there was uncertainty amongst the fan base. The doubters were proved right in Boston – 12 goals in a little less than two games, Games 3 and 4 – and again west in Vancouver in Game Seven. And so the Luongo conundrum continues, with no sign of an end in sight.
While the 2011 Stanley Cup Final will be forever immortalised in hockey lore as the triumph of hard-working Tim Thomas, it will probably also be remembered as Luongo’s shining chance to prove a city – nation – of doubters wrong. Sadly, he didn’t accomplish that. While Thomas solidified a fan base’s trust in him, Luongo did little to put Vancouver fans at ease.
Try to enjoy the summer, Luongo.
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