Editor’s note: Starting Tuesday, March 24, NESN will re-air memorable games from the Boston Bruins’ Stanley Cup run. Up next is Game 3 of the 2011 Stanley Cup final against the Vancouver Canucks. See the full schedule by clicking here.
And just like that, the Bruins erased their two-game deficit to the Vancouver Canucks.
Boston found itself in a concerning 2-0 hole after Vancouver took the first two games of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. But after an 8-1 shellacking in Game 3, a 4-0 shutout in Game 4 put the Black and Gold right back in it.
There weren’t 98 penalty minutes in one period this time around, but it certainly didn’t lack any excitement.
Here are six things you might have forgotten about Game 4, which viewers can watch at 8:30 p.m. ET Friday night on NESN.
1. Brad Marchand became the rat
Marchand was just a rookie during the 2010-11 season. Bruins fans and even their opponents know the pesky forward as a rat even to this day.
And Marchand referred to himself as such after the game.
“It’s helped my game to try and be a bit of a rat out there,” he said, via the New York Times.
The then-23-year-old left his mark on the series, and the Canucks, in a sequence when he knocked Christian Ehrhoff off balance and he fell to the ice. Marchand skated behind the net and ducked to avoid an incoming Daniel Sedin hit. Sedin ultimately was upended by the winger, resulting in a kerfuffle behind Vancouver’s net.
2. Rich Peverley came up big in Nathan Horton’s place
Peverley replaced Horton on Boston’s top line after Horton was blindsided by Aaron Rome in Game 3. Horton suffered a concussion, and Rome was suspended for the remainder of the Cup Final.
And Peverley had himself a game.
The forward potted two goals — the first and final for Boston — en route to the 4-0 win. Peverley went five-hole on Luongo for the first goal, and we’ll get to the second one in our next point.
3. Robert Luongo was pulled
Luongo remained in net despite giving up a plethora of goals in Game 3. But he didn’t last the full 60 minutes in Game 4, though it was too little, too late by the time Alain Vigneault made the decision. The Canucks goalie tried to redirect a Milan Lucic shot, but his stick was at an awkward angle and deflected the puck up and off of Peverley to pot the fourth and final Boston goal.
That marked the 12th goal in two games for Luongo.
Cory Schneider relieved the Vezina finalist and stopped the remaining shots.
4. Tim Thomas, again, was amazing between the pipes
Thomas was lights out in Game 3, allowing just one goal. And he followed that up with a 38-save performance for his third shutout of the playoffs and helped tie the series at 2-2.
“We have to solve Thomas — that’s the thing,” Canucks center Henrik Sedin said, via the New York Times. “We have to keep working hard. We need bounces.”
5. Marchand does it again
Marchand did more than just get under the skin of the Canucks.
The forward scored a 4-on-4 goal to make it 3-0. It was a nice follow-up to Marchand’s highlight-reel goal in Game 3 and continued to give fans a sneak peek at what was to come in the following years for Marchand.
6. Thomas and Alex Burrows got into it
We saved the best for last.
Vancouver made plenty of contact with Thomas’ stick throughout the game. And Thomas was fed up with it. The B’s goalie slashed Burrows’ leg when he was standing in front of Thomas. Burrows, as you probably can imagine, didn’t take too kindly to that and the two dropped the gloves.
“They’d been getting the butt end of my stick actually. They did it a couple of times on the power-play in the first period also. I don’t know who it was, I was focused on the puck,” Thomas said after the game, via SB Nation. “That was like the third time that he’d hit my butt end on that power-play. On 6-4, we were up 4-0, the game was getting down toward the end, so I thought I’d give him a little love tap and let him know, I know what you’re doing, but I’m not going to let you do it forever. So that’s all that was. It was a typical battle.”
That “little love tap” only added to the reasons why this 2011 Bruins team was iconic.
