2019 Stanley Cup Final Game 7 vs St. Louis Blues

Lore & Background

This was a rematch of the 1970 Stanley Cup Final, which Boston won in four games. This was the fourth consecutive Final to both involve at least one team vying for its first championship and end with the champion clinching the Cup on the road. It was also the first time since 2011 where the Final went the full seven games. Entering the 2019 Final, the Blues were the only active team from the 1967 NHL expansion to have not won a Stanley Cup. The Blues' victory resulted in all five of the active 1967 expansion teams obtaining a Stanley Cup title, while the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks became the oldest active expansion franchises to not win one, and the Toronto Maple Leafs became the last active team not to win the Cup since the expansion era. This is the most recent professional sports championship won by a St. Louis-based team.

Reader's Guide

This was the eleventh meeting between teams from Boston and St. Louis for a major professional sports championship. This previously happened in four World Series (1946, 1967, 2004, 2013), four NBA Finals (1957, 1958, 1960, 1961), Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002, and the 1970 Stanley Cup Final. The Boston Bruins' 20th appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, six years after their previous appearance, when they faced the Presidents' Trophy-winning Chicago Blackhawks and were defeated in six games.

The Bruins last won the Stanley Cup in 2011 against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks in seven games, their sixth Cup in franchise history. Brad Marchand became the first Bruin since the 2005–06 season to score 100 points, finishing the regular season with 100 points in 79 games. David Pastrnak led the team in goals with 38. Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak split the goaltending duties during the regular season.

Halak had signed with the team during the off-season, and approaching the trade deadline the Bruins acquired forwards Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson. Boston finished the regular season with 107 points, finishing in second place in the Atlantic Division and third overall in the league. In the first round of the playoffs, they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games for the second consecutive playoff meeting against the Maple Leafs and third since the 2012–13 season.

They then defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4–2 in the second round. In the conference finals, Boston swept the Carolina Hurricanes. The St. Louis Blues' fourth appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. Their last appearance in the Final was in 1970 against the Bruins, which Boston won in a four-game sweep.

All of St. Louis' prior appearances came during their first three seasons after the Blues and five other new teams formed the West Division in the 1967 NHL expansion. While the Blues were able to advance past their fellow expansion franchises, each Final appearance ended with them being swept by Original Six teams that comprised the East Division, concluding with their 1970 defeat. In the years that followed, the other expansion teams from 1967 would win Stanley Cup titles (excluding the defunct California Golden Seals franchise), but the Blues went nearly half a century without reaching the Final again and became the oldest franchise not to win the Stanley Cup.