Boston Bruins

The Bruins finished the regular season as the Northeast Division champion with 103 points, earning the third seed in the Eastern Conference. In their 33rd postseason meeting, Boston eliminated their bitter rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, in the first round of the playoffs in seven games.^[5] The Bruins went on to sweep the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round, outscoring the Flyers 20–7 in four games.^[6] Later, in the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games.^[7]

This was the eighteenth appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals for the Bruins, and their first since 1990, which they lost in five games to the Edmonton Oilers. It also allowed Boston to join Philadelphia as being the only cities to have all their teams play in each of the four major North American professional sports leagues' title rounds since 2000, following the Patriots in Super Bowls XXXVI in 2002, XXXVIII in 2004, XXXIX in 2005, and XLII in 2008. The Red Sox winning World Series titles in 2004, 2007, and the Celtics in the NBA Finals in 2008 and 2010 and winning in 2008.^[8]

The Bruins won their sixth Cup championship, and their first one since defeating the New York Rangers in 1972 in six games, which made Boston the first city to have championships in each of the four leagues in the new millennium.^[9]

Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks, in their 41st season, finished the regular season with the best record at 117 points, winning their first Presidents' Trophy in team history.^[1] In the first round of the playoffs, the Canucks met the Chicago Blackhawks for the third consecutive postseason, losing both previous series in six games. After Vancouver won the first three games, Chicago won the next three to force a seventh game. Vancouver won the seventh game in overtime on a goal by Alex Burrows to avoid becoming the fourth team in NHL history to lose a series after taking a 3–0 series lead.^[10] The Canucks then eliminated the Nashville Predators in six games during the conference semifinals, with each game in that series decided by just a single goal (with the exception of an empty net goal scored by Vancouver in Game 4).^[11] Vancouver then went on to defeat the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Finals in five games.^[12]

This was Vancouver's third appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. They appeared in the Finals against New York-based teams with the Islanders in 1982 and the Rangers in 1994 losing both series in four and seven games respectively.^[13] The most recent Canada-based NHL team to win the Stanley Cup was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. The Canucks were the first team from Canada to make it to the Finals since the Ottawa Senators in 2007.^[14]

With Vancouver hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Canucks hoped to mirror the other two Olympic Games held in Canada in which the host city's NHL team won the Stanley Cup the proceeding year.^[15] Montreal hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics and the following year, the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup. The Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989, the previous year Calgary hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics.^[15][16]

With the loss, Vancouver became the third team to lose in the Finals after winning the Presidents' Trophy, after the Bruins in 1990 and the Detroit Red Wings in 1995.

Game one

Raffi Torres's goal with 18.5 seconds left in regulation broke a scoreless tie to give the Canucks the victory. The entire game was seen as a duel between the two opposing goaltenders; both Vancouver's Roberto Luongo and Boston's Tim Thomas were Vezina Trophy finalists for the 2010–11 season. Thomas stopped 33 of 34 shots while Luongo made 36 saves for his third shutout of the 2011 playoffs. Both of Luongo's two previous shutouts of the 2011 playoffs had also occurred in a game one (a 2–0 victory against Chicago in the first round, and a 1–0 victory against Nashville in the second round). This was the first time since 1984 that the opening game of the Cup Finals was scoreless through two periods.^[18]

Both teams killed off all penalties in the game, including a five-on-three power play Boston had in the second period, and a double minor high-sticking penalty called on Vancouver's Daniel Sedin in the first. At the end of the first period, Vancouver's Alex Burrows was called for a double minor roughing penalty on Boston's Patrice Bergeron, while Bergeron also got a roughing minor. Replays showed that Burrows could have bit Bergeron's finger, but the evidence was inconclusive. Despite Bergeron's pleading to the referees, no additional penalty was assessed to Burrows.^[18] However, despite biting being a suspendible offense, Burrows did not receive a suspension from the NHL on the grounds that no conclusive evidence that Burrows actually bit Bergeron could be found.^[19]

Game two

In the second-fastest overtime in Stanley Cup Finals history,^[20] Alex Burrows scored 11 seconds into the first overtime to give Vancouver a 3–2 win. Burrows faked a shot, causing Boston goalie Tim Thomas to move out of position, then skated around the net to put the puck into the empty net for the game-winning goal; Thomas was not able to recover his position. This was Burrows's second goal of the game. He opened the scoring with a goal in the first period during the final seconds of a power play. Boston responded with two goals in the second period, one by Milan Lucic and a power play goal by Mark Recchi. However, Daniel Sedin tied the score at 2–2 about midway through the third period.

The game featured the return of Vancouver's Manny Malhotra, who had not played a game since March 16, when he suffered a severe eye injury after taking a puck to the face.^[21] Both Thomas and Roberto Luongo stopped 30 of 33 shots and 28 of 30 shots, respectively. With his second period goal, 43-year-old Recchi became the oldest player to score in the Cup Finals.^[22]

Before the game, the Boston Red Sox baseball club moved their game against the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park from 7:10 p.m. EDT to 1:10 p.m. EDT to allow for Bruins fans to watch the game.^[23]

Game three

Boston scored four goals in the second period, and another four goals in the third, which resulted in an 8–1 rout.^[24] Mark Recchi scored two of them; Brad Marchand and Daniel Paille each scored shorthanded; and Andrew Ference, David Krejci, Chris Kelly and Michael Ryder each tallied one of the other four.^[24] Tim Thomas stopped 40 out of 41 shots, only allowing a third period goal by Jannik Hansen.^[24]

At 05:07 into the first period, Vancouver's Aaron Rome received a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct for a blindside hit to the head of Boston's Nathan Horton.^[24] Horton was taken off the ice on a stretcher and was then transported to a hospital for further observation. However, the Bruins did not score on the ensuing five-minute power play. Following a disciplinary hearing on June 7, Rome was given a four-game suspension for the late hit which assured that he'd miss the remainder of the 2011 playoffs, the first multi-game suspension in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals. Rome and the Canucks maintained that the play was a good hit that went bad, but the NHL determined that the hit came more than a second after Horton gave up the puck. The NHL considers a hit to be late if it comes more than half a second after a player gives up possession.^[25][26]

In contrast to game two, which featured only 10 minutes of penalties for the entire game, game three had 145 total penalty minutes, the most in a Cup Final game since 1990. The 8–1 score was the biggest goal differential in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1996, when the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Florida Panthers in game two by the same score.

Game four

Tim Thomas made 38 saves and Rich Peverley scored two goals as Boston shut out Vancouver, 4–0, to even the series. Roberto Luongo, who stopped only 16 out of 20 shots, was replaced by backup goalie Cory Schneider after giving up the fourth Boston goal at 03:39 of the third period.^[27]

Game five

Roberto Luongo made 31 saves and Maxim Lapierre scored the game's only goal to give Vancouver a 3–2 series lead. This was the second 1–0 victory for Vancouver in the Finals; game one ended with the same score. Lapierre's goal came at 04:35 into the third period. Kevin Bieksa's shot went wide and rebounded off the end boards to Lapierre on the other side of the net, who then beat Tim Thomas after the Boston goalie was unable to recover his position in time. Thomas made 24 saves in the loss.^[28]

Luongo joined Frank McCool as the only goalie to have two 1–0 shutouts in the Stanley Cup Finals; McCool's victories came 66 years earlier in 1945.^[29][30]

Game six

Boston defeated Vancouver 5–2 in TD Garden to force a deciding seventh game, the 16th in Finals history. The Bruins scored four goals in a span of 4:14 in the first period, breaking the record for the quickest four goals tallied by one team in the Cup Finals.^[31] For the second time in the series, Roberto Luongo was replaced by backup goalie Cory Schneider; this came after Luongo gave up Boston's third goal at 08:35.

Vancouver's Mason Raymond suffered a fractured vertebra 20 seconds into the game on an awkward hit into the boards by Johnny Boychuk, and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.^[32]

Game seven

External videos
Game 7 Full replay (NHL International's feed) on the NHL's official YouTube channel

In Boston's first seventh game of a Stanley Cup Finals, Tim Thomas made 37 saves as Boston shut out Vancouver, 4–0, to win the Stanley Cup. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand each scored two goals for Boston. Bergeron scored first at 14:37 in the first period, then had a shorthanded goal at 17:35 in the second. Marchand's first goal came at 12:13 of the second period; he then scored on an empty net late in the third. Roberto Luongo stopped 17 out of 20 shots in the loss.^[33] The game was the last of Mark Recchi's 22-year NHL career; he announced his retirement immediately afterward, during the post-game celebration.

Ratings

Game one on NBC drew the best television ratings for a first game since game one of the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals, drawing a 3.2 rating, up 14 percent from game one of the 2010 Finals.^[14] The rating was boosted by heavy interest in Boston's large market, which posted a 25.5/39, topping the 19.1/34 for game one of the 2010 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers.^[14]

In contrast, game two drew just 3.37 million viewers for NBC, making it the least-watched Stanley Cup Finals broadcast on U.S. network television since game five in 2007, which also was the last time a Canadian team (the Ottawa Senators) advanced to the Cup Finals.^[34]

Games six, five and one are the third, fourth, and fifth most-watched CBC Sports programs with an average Canadian audience of 6.6 million, 6.1 million, and 5.6 million viewers respectively, after the men's ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2002 Winter Olympics.^[35][36][37] Game seven was the highest rated game on both sides of the border. In Canada, it was second most-watched CBC Sports program, drawing an average of 8.76 million viewers and trailing only the men's gold medal game in ice hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics;^[38] In the US, NBC's broadcast drew a 5.7 national overnight rating and a 10 share (numbers that equaled game seven of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals),^[38] a number later updated to 8.5 million viewers, making the game the most watched NHL broadcast in the US since 1973.^[38] In the Boston market alone, the broadcast pulled in a 43.4 rating and a 64 share.^[38]

Boston Bruins

Zdeno Chara captained the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup championship in 39 years

#	Nat	Player	Position	Hand	Acquired	Place of birth	Finals appearance
37		Patrice Bergeron – A	C	R	2003	L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec	first
55		Johnny Boychuk	D	R	2008	Edmonton, Alberta	first
11		Gregory Campbell	C	L	2010	London, Ontario	first
33		Zdeno Chara – C	D	L	2006	Trenčín, Czechoslovakia	first
21		Andrew Ference	D	L	2007	Edmonton, Alberta	second (2004)
18		Nathan Horton	RW	R	2010	Welland, Ontario	first
12		Tomas Kaberle	D	L	2011	Rakovník, Czechoslovakia	first
23		Chris Kelly	C	L	2011	Toronto, Ontario	second (2007)
46		David Krejci	C	R	2004	Šternberk, Czechoslovakia	first
17		Milan Lucic	LW	L	2006	Vancouver, British Columbia	first
63		Brad Marchand	LW	L	2006	Halifax, Nova Scotia	first
54		Adam McQuaid	D	R	2006	Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island	first
20		Daniel Paille	LW	L	2009	Welland, Ontario	first
49		Rich Peverley	RW	R	2011	Guelph, Ontario	first
40		Tuukka Rask	G	L	2006	Savonlinna, Finland	first
28		Mark Recchi – A	RW	L	2009	Kamloops, British Columbia	third (1991, 2006)
73		Michael Ryder	RW	R	2008	Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador	first
91		Marc Savard	C	L	2006	Ottawa, Ontario	—
19		Tyler Seguin	RW	R	2010	Brampton, Ontario	first
44		Dennis Seidenberg	D	L	2010	Villingen-Schwenningen, West Germany	first
30		Tim Thomas	G	L	2002	Flint, Michigan	first
22		Shawn Thornton	RW	R	2007	Oshawa, Ontario	second (2007)

Vancouver Canucks

Henrik Sedin captained the Canucks to their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance since 1994

#	Nat	Player	Position	Hand	Acquired	Place of birth	Finals appearance
41		Andrew Alberts	D	L	2010	Minneapolis, Minnesota	first
4		Keith Ballard	D	L	2010	Baudette, Minnesota	first
3		Kevin Bieksa – A	D	R	2001	Grimsby, Ontario	first
49		Alexandre Bolduc	C	L	2008	Montreal, Quebec	first
14		Alex Burrows	LW	L	2005	Pincourt, Quebec	first
23		Alexander Edler	D	L	2004	Östersund, Sweden	first
5		Christian Ehrhoff	D	L	2009	Moers, West Germany	first
15		Tanner Glass	LW	L	2009	Regina, Saskatchewan	first
2		Dan Hamhuis	D	L	2010	Smithers, British Columbia	first
36		Jannik Hansen	RW	R	2004	Herlev, Denmark	first
20		Chris Higgins	LW	L	2011	Smithtown, New York	first
17		Ryan Kesler – A	C	R	2003	Livonia, Michigan	first
40		Maxim Lapierre	C	R	2011	Montreal, Quebec	first
1		Roberto Luongo	G	L	2006	Montreal, Quebec	first
27		Manny Malhotra – A	C	L	2010	Mississauga, Ontario	first
38		Victor Oreskovich	RW	R	2010	Whitby, Ontario	first
21		Mason Raymond	LW	L	2005	Cochrane, Alberta	first
29		Aaron Rome	D	L	2009	Brandon, Manitoba	first
6		Sami Salo	D	R	2002	Turku, Finland	first
26		Mikael Samuelsson	RW	R	2009	Mariefred, Sweden	third (2008, 2009)
35		Cory Schneider	G	L	2004	Marblehead, Massachusetts	first
22		Daniel Sedin – A	LW	L	1999	Örnsköldsvik, Sweden	first
33		Henrik Sedin – C	C	L	1999	Örnsköldsvik, Sweden	first
10		Jeff Tambellini	LW	L	2010	Calgary, Alberta	first
18		Christopher Tanev	D	R	2010	Toronto, Ontario	first
13		Raffi Torres	LW	L	2010	Toronto, Ontario	second (2006)

Players

• ¹ Played both Centre and Wing

Stanley Cup engraving

• Jeremy & Margaret Jacobs' last name was listed only once for both owners.
• Patrice Bergeron was given permission to include both his father and mother's surnames and be listed as "Patrice Bergeron-Cleary."
• Jim Johnson (Asst. Equipment Manager) was given permission to include his nickname "Beats."
• Marc Savard only played 25 regular season games due to multiple concussions, but was on the NHL roster for the entire season. The NHL granted the Bruins' request to have his name included on the Stanley Cup. Savard never played again in the NHL.

Included on the team picture, left off the Stanley Cup

• The NHL declined the team's request to have defencemen Steven Kampfer, who played in 38 regular season games in the NHL and 22 games with the AHL's Providence Bruins; and Shane Hnidy, a late-season signing who played 3 regular season and 3 playoff games, engraved on the Cup. Neither had played enough games for the Boston Bruins during the season.^[40] Boston added the two scouts who had been with the team the longest in their place.
• Jamie Arniel played 1 regular season game with the Bruins (the only NHL game of his career) and spent the rest of the season with the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League having played 78 games; Arniel joined the team on the ice, lifted the Stanley Cup, was included in the team picture, and awarded a ring; the Bruins did not ask for an exemption for Arniel
• Matt Falconer (Asst. Equipment Manager).
• Seven scouts were left off the Stanley Cup (due to 52 name limit), but all were awarded Stanley Cup Rings.
• In total, the Bruins gave out a record 504 Stanley Cup rings, including non-team personnel such as ticket agents, the office staff, National Anthem singer Rene Rancourt, commentators Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley, popcorn vendors and TD Garden security officers.^[41]