2011 Stanley Cup Championship

Lore & Background

Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs. The Canucks had home ice advantage in the Final by winning the Presidents' Trophy as the team that finished with the best regular season record (117 points). They were also the first Canadian team to have home ice advantage in the Final since the Montreal Canadiens had it in 1993. The Canucks were also the last Canadian team to reach the Finals until 2021. It was the furthest distance between two cities in NHL history for the Finals, at 4,023 kilometres (2,500 miles).

In Their Own Story

The air inside TD Garden on June 15, 2011, was thick with anticipation and decades of suppressed hope. The clock ticked past two minutes in overtime, the ice worn smooth by forty-five minutes of desperate play. A loose puck skidded near the boards, and suddenly, Milan Lucic's stick found it. He deked, he fired, and the net bulged.

Reader's Guide

The series began on June 1 and ended on June 15. The games varied widely between those played in Vancouver and those in Boston. Prior to game seven, the Bruins scored two goals in three games played in Vancouver (games one, two, and five), against 17 scored in three games at Boston (games three, four, and six). On the other hand, while he posted two 1–0 shutouts in Vancouver (games one and five), Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo was replaced with the backup Cory Schneider twice in three games (games four and six) in Boston. The Bruins scored almost three times the number of total goals as the Canucks, (23–8 in the series), and scored as many goals in a single game (game three) as the Canucks did during the entire series, but the Canucks still won three games (games one, two, and five, respectively). The eight goals scored by Vancouver is the lowest number of goals scored by any team in a full seven-game series in NHL history. It was the fourth consecutive Stanley Cup Final in which the road team won the Stanley Cup.

Did You Know?

• Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs.
• The eight goals scored by Vancouver is the second-lowest number of goals scored by any team in a full seven-game series in NHL history; only the 2003 Mighty Ducks (6) and 2014 Rangers (7) scored fewer.
• Center Patrice Bergeron became the twenty-fifth player to enter the 'Triple Gold Club' as a result of the Bruins winning the series.
• The Final marked the first time that two francophone Canadian head coaches, Claude Julien of Boston and Alain Vigneault of Vancouver, had coached the opposing finalists.