Stanley Cup Finals 2013

The epic meeting between the 2010 and the 2011 champs. First Original 6 final series since 1979.

Blackhawks have already gathered a lot of hardware (President, Jennings, Campbell), and have proven they are a great team. Now they have to prove they are the best, and win the one trophy that truly matters.

Nice. Hopefully this lives up to expectations.

Hawks will probably look like this tonight:

Bickell - Toews - Kane
Sharp - Handzus - Hossa
Saad - Bolland - Shaw
Bollig - Kruger - Frolik

Keith - Seabrook
Oduya - Hjalmarsson
Leddy - Rozsival

Crawford
Emery

...and the Bruins

Lucic - Krejci - Horton
Marchand - Bergeron - Jagr
Daugavins - Peverley - Seguin
Paille - Kelly - Thornton

Chara - Boychuk
Ference - Seidenberg
Krug - McQuaid

Rask
Khudobin

Hawks have the last change, and I think Coach Q might try and match the Bolland line against the Krejci line, though Quenneville hasn't really matched lines so far and has mostly played a clean rotation. But the fact that Bolland was brought up from the fourth line to replace Stalberg indicates some kind of a shutdown line is in the making with that Saad-Bolland-Shaw combo. I think they are all elite defensive forwards and together with Keith/Seabrook they can probably contain any line, including Boston's HuLK line.

Claude Julien likes to play Bergeron and Marchand against top forwards, so I guess the other matchup is Toews line against Bergeron line. Chara will probably play these tough minutes. 

The other pieces will then fall into place and it's Sharp-Zeus-Hossa against the somewhat weak looking Bruins third line. Seguin has been in a slump. I think the Hawks take this matchup cleanly. Oduya/Hjalmarsson have been real solid, too, and can outplay Ference-Seidenberg.

Fourth lines are pretty much a wash. Hawks have one tough guy and two PK experts there, also opening up a chance to double shift someone like Kane or Toews if Bollig isn't playing that much.

Rask is a machine, but Crawford has played excellent too. I don't think we'll see a lot of goals.

Bruins up 1-0 after period 1 of game 1. The Lucic line with the lone tally, but I'm not worried because that also seemed like the only line that the Bruins had that could create scoring chances.

EDIT: Heading into double OT, 3-3...

EDIT: Triple OT...

I got tired just watching that! Horton's injury was crucial as I think the Bruins just ran out of gas.

If that game any indication, I think it's safe to say we'll have a pretty even series 

The Hawks find scoring from unlikely sources. That was a game of attrition but will it give them a mental edge?

I think the 'hawks looked flat and Boston's d is playing out of their minds right now.

Game 4 was awesome! I hope Game 5 is in a similar style.

My mom's reaction to Don Cherry during Coach's Corner was funny:

Well, the Chicago Blackhawks are the 2013 Stanley Cup Champions! Congratulations to them!

Game 5 was a bit surprising with Don Cherry during Coach's Corner, though. He is known to be a Boston Bruins fan, but the colors of the suit he had on are a lot like the Chicago Blackhawks colors.

Holy crap. What an ending.

Indeed!

I love seeing Hossa get another cup. I'm from Portland and he played for the Winterhawks in Junior hockey so i've followed him ever since.

Didn't really give a rip who won in these finals. Once the Kings were out, I didn't like or hate either team enough to care. Blackhawks win. Whoopie! You still suck!  

Looking forward to a full, real hockey season. Can't wait for next season. LET'S GO FLYERS! GO KINGS GO!

I like both teams. They both give Canuck fans heart attacks. So they are good in my books.

I second hour enthusiasm for a full hockey season next year. I had a really hard time getting into it this year. I'm hoping next year is the year that Edmonton can cash in on there boundless potential and make a real team out of it.