Friday, May 27, 2011

Eastern Conference Finals Game 7 Preview - Lightning at Bruins

Tonight is the winner-take-all Eastern Conference Finals Game 7.  The winner will lose to face the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, but before that happens, let's take a look at some story lines for tonight's game.



  • Dwayne Roloson wants to appear intimidating, if not scary to the Bruins tonight, so he won't be wearing a mask.
  • A reporter asked Mark Recchi to dissect tonight's game, so Recchi pulled out his scissors and asked where he could find a surgeon's mask.
  • Vancouver is sending a scout to the game tonight.  Rumor has it he's got a twin brother.
  • Gary Bettman apparently had no idea that the Tampa Bay Lightning exist.
  • Tim Thomas has been practicing the butterfly, hybrid, stand-up, basically a style of goaltending, contrary to his normal practice routine which involves staring into space and sleeping.
  • Zdeno Chara hit his head on the roof of the team arena this morning, but he shook it off after ten minutes in the quiet room.
  • Martin St. Louis jumped, but couldn't reach the roof that Chara hit his head on.
  • Claude Julien said in his press conference that his hopes for his team tonight include having his power play not go off-season 36 times.
  • If Tampa Bay wins, Hart Trophy finalists St. Louis and Sedin (one of the two) match up.  If Boston wins, Vezina finalists Thomas and Luongo match up.
  • Translation of the above, if Tampa Bay wins, all 7 games move to Versus.  They might even start at 2 a.m.
  • Joe Thornton may steal Shawn's jersey and suit up tonight in the hopes that he can discover what a "Stanley Cup Final" is.
  • Bill Daly intends to bring Sidney Crosby to the trophy presentation after the game, since he's the only player willing to touch that trophy (and the Penguins won the Cup that year).
  • Martin St. Louis was kicked off the team bus from the airport after playing "Shipping Up to Boston" for the 26th time.  He tried to wave a taxi, but nobody saw him.
  • Sean Bergenheim doesn't realize that "doubtful" means "probably not playing," contrary to his Google translation from Finnish, which he meant to say "yes."
  • Pierre McGuire is expected to be in attendance.  Bring your sunglasses, the arena lightning may shine off of his head.