No Doubting Thomas in Cup Clincher

There's no way the NHL's championship round could live up to the hype of the NBA's title, but it didn't have to. The Stanley Cup Finals were excellent in their own right. In the end, the Boston Bruins went the distance to top the Vancouver Canucks on the road in game 7 to capture their first championship since 1972. The hero of the series, and for the entire playoffs for that matter, was Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas. More so than in any other sport, a hot goalie can almost singlehandedly carry his team to a title, and that's exactly what Thomas did en route to the Conn Smythe trophy.



Don't get me wrong, Boston's roster played some great hockey over the past two weeks. Despite trailing 2-0 in the series and later 3-2, they clearly were the better team in the finals. When the Bruins lost, you still got the feeling that they had a chance. On the other hand, when the Canucks fell, they fell hard. Vancouver's three victories all came by a single goal, while Boston's four wins were by a margin of seven, four, three, and four. That's what you call u-g-l-y. The offense was great, especially David Krejci. The Bruins center had more points (23) and goals (12) than anyone else in the playoffs.

As good as Krejci and the rest of the attack was, they didn't hold a candle to the impact of Tim Thomas. He just showed no weaknesses all postseason and was an absolute brick wall in the finals. He led all goalies in the playoffs in basically every category. In his last five games in the title round, he allowed just three goals...total. Just unbelievable stuff. There was  no argument for anyone else to win the playoff MVP award. In fact, Thomas would have taken the Conn Smythe even if he had lost game 7. That's how phenomenal he was.

This series really lived up to expectations. I predicted it would go seven games, I just had the wrong winner. I  figured Thomas would continue his great play, I just thought the Canucks offense would still manage to outscore what appeared to be a mediocre Bruins offensive unit. I didn't count on Roberto Luongo stinking up the joint whenever he was away from home. He got yanked on more than one occasion and just wasn't strong enough when it counted. I also didn't think that Vancouver's attack would completely fall apart. The vaunted Sedin brothers were held to five points total in the Stanley Cup and the rest of the team wasn't much better. Props once again go to Thomas for making the Canucks look like the Oilers.

by Andrew Adamson