Bruins, Canucks To Renew Young But Rich, Venomous Rivalry
By Matt Dolloff (@mattdolloff)
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's hard for the Bruins to have a cross-conference rival that they play no more than twice during the regular season. But across the continent in Vancouver, the Canucks are the closest thing to it.
Get ready to re-live the teams' animosity that exploded in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals and boiled over again in a memorable rematch the following season.
The Bruins have only played the Canucks five times since the 2011 Cup Finals, but the mere sight of that blue orca remains one of the easiest sources of venom from Bruins fans. And some of the principal players are back for the next act.
Alex Burrows is still in the fold for the 'Nucks. Remember when he bit Patrice Bergeron's finger? Of course you do.
And of course, there's the Sedin twins, the super-talented but super-soft offensive dynamos who don't seem to understand (or care) that the Bruins beat them to win the Stanley Cup - or the prestige of winning a Cup in the first place.
The Sedins scoff so much at the Bruins, they don't seem to appreciate the joy of this happening to your team:
Few things got my black & gold blood boiling like the comments by defenseman Kevin Bieksa and then-Canucks coach Alain Vigneault after their rematch in 2012. Bieksa seized the post-win opportunity to call the Bruins out for their playing style:
"We play hard, but we are a disciplined team...That'€™s what separates us from them. They obviously play hard, but they tend to do stupid things. The Marchand hit [on Sami Salo] was a pretty stupid thing and I'€™m sure he'€™ll be getting a phone call for that one. There is no reason for that. But we made them pay for that. We got to score two goals on that power play and that'€™s the game. He'€™s got to live with that."
Cool, Kevin. That "stupid" style beat your team in the Cup Finals and shut you out in Game 7. I couldn't possibly form a sentence that would adequately express my rage and frustration at those comments. Like...Dude, you lost the Cup. You know what else separates those Bruins from your team? They have this...
...and you do not.
As for Vigneault, he is known for saying controversial and downright unprofessional things about opposing teams, players, and coaches. You got another taste of that just last week, when the now-Rangers head coach questioned Claude Julien's eyesight and likened Matt Beleskey's late-but-not-that-dirty hit on Derek Stepan to Aaron Rome's vicious blindside hit on Nathan Horton in the Cup Finals.
Vigneault isn't in Vancouver anymore, but the 2011 Cup Finals undeniably still eats away at him. When he asked who you'd rather have as a son between Henrik Lundqvist and Marchand, he said "Hank Sedin." That ring on Claude's fingers dancing around in your mind there, Alain?
Unfortunately, the goalies of the 2011 Cup Finals aren't back. Roberto Luongo is in Florida and Tim Thomas is lord-knows-where. So there will be no talk of "pumping tires" this weekend.
But in net you at least get Ryan Miller, who has some animosity of his own with the Bruins. Milan Lucic infamously ran into him hard, prompting Miller to call him "gutless" and "a piece of [expletive]." It's reasonable to believe that Miller's disgust for Lucic's physicality extends to the entire Bruins team. Maybe Beleskey will be the one to run him this time.
It's too bad that Vigneault isn't still around to throw more fuel on this Bruins-Canucks fire, but his recent Freudian slip will have to do. But if the Canucks are still the same team with the same attitude that they had in 2011 - and if they are still defined by the Sedins, that may be the case - then you can expect more of this laughable jawing by them after the game. But I can't stress enough that this happened to the Bruins, and not the Canucks:
The Bruins are stupid? I'd rather be a dumb winner than a smart loser.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read more from Matt here. Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
