Editor’s note: Starting Tuesday, March 24, NESN will re-air memorable games from the Boston Bruins’ Stanley Cup run. Up next is Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup final against the Vancouver Canucks. See the full schedule by clicking here.
It’s been nine years, and it’s still hard to believe the Bruins actually got it done in 2011.
Boston faced three Game 7s during their run to the top, but in that final contest of the Stanley Cup Final in 2011, the B’s beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 at Rogers Arena.
Here are four things you might have forgotten about Game 7, which viewers can watch at 8:30 p.m. ET Tuesday night on NESN.
1. Thomas’ performance was emblematic of his 2011 postseason as a whole
The B’s netminder was stellar during that entire playoff run, deservedly earning the Conn Smythe Trophy at the end of the tournament.
And so it was fitting, poetic, however you want to call it, that he turned away 37 shots in the decisive game. Like some other moments in the series, Thomas was stellar even when his team didn’t need him to be, and that allowed the Bruins to play borderline comfortably for a good chunk of the game.
“If they got any chances, Timmy was there, and it was just scary how good he was,” Mark Recchi said after the game, via The AP.
2. With the win, the Bruins set a (kind of surprising) NHL record
In order to beat the Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning and Canucks, the Bruins required seven games to win the series.
And reaching a Game 7 three times and winning them all was so unprecedented that the 2011 Bruins actually were the first team in NHL history to win Game 7 three times in the same postseason.
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3. Nathan Horton travelled with the team, poured Boston ice onto the playing sheet, and got to lift the Cup
You probably remember quite a bit of this, but it’s worth revisiting.
Horton left Game 3 with a concussion following a devastating hit from Aaron Rome. The second line winger wouldn’t play again the rest of the series, but did attend Game 6 at TD Garden, where he was met with a massive ovation.
He then traveled to Gamle 7, and about an hour and a half before the game was spotted pouring a bottle of water onto the ice at Rogers Centre. It later was revealed he took some of the ice from Boston in that bottle.
“I was just trying to get some Garden ice here and make it our ice,” Horton said. “I was trying to be sneaky about it.”
Though Horton didn’t play, he got to go on the ice after the game and hoist the Stanley Cup.
4. The Sedins were just so bad in Game 7
A vastly understated storyline from that series, at least in Boston, is how well the Bruins neutralized Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
And in no way can it be better articulated how badly the Bruins undressed the twins than by scoring all four of their goals in the decisive game with the Sedins on the ice.
