Bruins At Canucks Preview: Champians

OK, so I don't hate the Bruins. I have come to respect the B's and the way they play and the way they played to win in 2011. Most Canucks fans will not agree with me on that one though. Some of them would rather nose around for snippets on the news or Twitter of some Boston fans doing or saying something wrong and then pointing fingers while yelling from their podium at how classless Bruins fans are. It's pretty lame actually. Screams bitterness. Classless fans exist in every fanbase.

A lot of Canucks fans worry about our image around the NHL and I hate it. OK so, rioting is just silly but I'm talking about the on-ice product. I'm talking about missing the old-school ingredient of a shit-disturbing Alexandre Burrows and Maxim Lapierre. Where's the Jannik Hansen with the mean streak? Where's the hipchecking Hamhuis? Where did our gritty team go? It turned into Greenpeace. Please, Jim Benning, get more shit-disturbing, yet talented beasts for our team. We need more grit. True grit, which the Bruins especially had in 2011 and the few years after that. Then they got Loui Eriksson..................Vancouver doesn't need more bicycle lanes, Trevor. It needs a Brad Marchand and/or Zdeno Chara-type of additions. It needs sandpaper. Brad Marchand's "Champian" tattoo is spelled wrong? Cool! He's a winner though. That's all he cares about. I'll take a Brad Marchand on this team any day of the week.

A lot of the Canucks fans were bandwagoners that were just along for the ride because it was the cool and funnest thing to do at the time. Now those people are not even watching anymore. But what a sweet and fun ride it was. We all came together as a Canucks fan nation. Bandwagoners and diehards. Good times!

It wasn't just the grit that got the B's the Cup. They also rode a hot goalie and played Claude Julien's system to a T. All of them. Especially when it mattered most. They scored goals when it mattered most. They were healthier when it mattered most. Such is the life of a playoff run.  I accept all of those things were not in the Canucks' favor in the end and the better team won. So shoot me. I've got other shit to be biter (oops, Burrows,) I mean, BITTER about.

Those are the things that I think about when the Canucks now play the Bruins. That, and I hope we kick their ass.

Time	7:00 PM PST	TV	Sportsnet Pac
Season Series	0-0	Last Meeting	3-1 Bruins Feb.4/14
The Enemy	Stanley Cup Of Butt Powder	Scoring Leaders	D. Sedin: 13-33-46 Bergeron: 15-21-36

Canucks	CATEGORY	Bruins
30-20-3	SEASON RECORD	28-19-7
63	Points	63
7th	Conference Position	8th
Won 1	Streak	Lost 2
5-5-0	Last 10 Games	5-4-1
2.76 (15)	Goals For Per 60 (GF60)	2.59 (22)
2.62 (14)	Goals Against Per 60 (GA60)	2.43 (6)
0.97 (21)	5 on 5	1.09 (13)
18.1 (16)	Power Play %	17.6 (19)
84.9 (6)	Penalty Kill %	83.5 (9)
48.0 (25)	Faceoff Winning %	53.7 (3)
11.1 (24)	Penalty Minutes / GP	10.5 (22)

This is only the second time the Bruins have come to The Rog since that fateful day they paraded the Stanley Cup around our rink. The last time they were here this beautiful event happened:

Ass kicker deluxe. The Canucks have won 2 of 3 meetings since 2011. Remember Cody?

Sigh. What happened to CoHo?

Fitting. Kinda. Hell, the Canucks hardly ever recovered after that win. They were never the same.

So back to those bastard Brooins. They have lost 3 of their last 4. They are 4-1-2 in their last 8 road games though so perhaps this is where they pick it back up. Love that both the Bruins and Canucks are sitting in about the same spots in their respective conferences with the same amount of points.

Several Canucks and Bruins remain from 2011. The Bruins:

LW	C	RW
Milan Lucic	David Krejci	David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand	Patrice Bergeron	Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly	Carl Soderberg	Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille	Gregory Campbell	Craig Cunningham

Defensive Pairings
Zdeno Chara	Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg	Adam McQuaid
Torey Krug	Kevan Miller

Approximately 10 players from each team.

That from Dailyfaceoff.com.

Just remember, Jim Benning was assistant GM of the Bruins and had a hand in the vast majority of those players playing in Boston.

I have no idea what the Canucks' lines are going to look like tonight. Bieksa, Richardson, Corrado and Bonino all out with injury. Bonino's foot injury is gonna keep him out for 2 weeks. I would think Willie would keep them the same as was versus the BlackSocks:

Sedins-Burrows

Higgins-Vey-Vrbata

Dorsett-Matthias-Kassian

Kenins-Horvat-Hansen / MacMillan

Edler-Tanev

Hamhuis-Sbisa

Stanton-Clendening

Miller (At some point though, would it hurt to play Lack 2 games in a row?)

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS UPDATE

I just updated it. Lots of movement! Check it out here!

Was that too old school? OK fine, check it out here.

GO CANUCKS GO!