Stanley Cup Finals: Game One

The NHL yesterday announced that Colin Campbell will be stepping down as the head of supplemental discipline. He will be replaced in that role to begin next season by former player Brenden Shanahan, but it is expected that some sort of committee, with Shanahan at its head, will be established to review incidents that take place during games and try to establish some consistency and order to what has been a murky and seemingly random process of fines and suspensions.

The 1st game of the Stanley Cup finals gave us another example of an event that will fall under Shanahan's jurisdiction next season, as the Vancouver Canucks Alex Burrows took a bite out of the Boston Bruins Patrice Bergeron at the end of a hard hitting 1st period. The decision if Burrows will face a suspension for this act will actually fall upon the desk of Mike Murphy. Campbell has recused himself from all incidents in the Finals as his son, Gregory, plays for the Bruins. I hope no emails leak out with Campbell trying to influence his underling.

Outside of the dental related controversies, Game One was a solid defensive struggle between two teams both trying to establish physical dominance while maintaining solid defensive systems. The game remained tied at 0-0 until Raffi Torres finally got the 1st and only goal of the game with 18 seconds left to play in the final period, cancelling out what seemed to be an inevitable overtime duel. It was the latest game winner in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1992, when Mario Lemieux scored with 13 seconds left in the 3rd to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 1-0 series lead against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Both goalies played fabulously, Roberto Luongo will get the shutout for the record books, but I would say that Tim Thomas actually played better and had to make some tougher saves through the course of the game. This is the 3rd time this postseason Luongo and his Canucks have launched a series with a game one shutout.

“I thought we were going to play all night the way it was going,” Luongo said. “It was an exciting way to start the series. It was such a close game. It could have gone either way, a flip of the coin.”

When Torres scored it was the first goal Tim Thomas had allowed in 128 minutes of play, having shutout the Tampa Lighting in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Thomas and the Bruins got no help at all from their powerplay, going 0 for 5 with the man advantage, including a futile extended 5 on 3 in the 2nd period.

Last night was the kind of game Boston needs to win to have a chance in this series. Dropping a close game out of the gates like that hurts, and the game one winner has gone on to win the series 77% of the time in the Stanley Cup Finals. If Boston can steal one on the road Saturday night they will have a good chance going home. It will be a long cross-continent flight down in a 2-0 hole if they don't.