Winnipeg’s hockey history is proudly linked to the Jets of captain Lars-Erik Sjoberg, here with the WHA’s Avco Cup after beating rival Edmonton in 1979, that pioneered the current NHL’s fast-paced style. (AP)

By Stu Hackel

The Forks is a beautiful and historic public park, commercial area and meeting space where the Assiniboine River flows into the Red River. It’s where Winnipeggers gathered in 1996 while rallying to save the Jets. Today, thousands gathered there again in celebration of the return of the NHL to their city.

Wearing Jets jerseys and carrying Canadian flags, they streamed into the park. Big screens were set up so people could watch the announcement from the MTS Centre and start the party on the spot, although long before the official word was heard, street hockey games had already broken out at The Forks. One of the players was reportedly Thomas Steen, the former Jets star.
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The Bruins have tried to juice their punchless power play by sending big blueliner Zdeno Chara to Tampa Bay’s net, but that creates questions for them elsewhere. (Scott Audette/NHL via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

It’s Tampa Bay at Boston tonight and the winner gets a trip to Vancouver, where the Canucks await, hoping this Game 7 goes a few overtime periods and the Bruins and Lightning beat each other’s brains out. Could happen. When it comes down to one game, anything can happen.

Will home ice matter for the Bruins? It did when they played Montreal in Game 7 of the opening round, as B’s Coach Claude Julien has mentioned a few times since the end of Game 6 vs. Tampa Bay. On the other hand, the Lightning won a Game 7 on the road in their first round series against Pittsburgh, as their coach, Guy Boucher, has mentioned a few times as well.

The Lightning’s victory over the Penguins is the only Game 7 triumph by a road team so far in this playoff tournament. The home teams have won four times. But last year, visitors took all four Game 7s, and in 2009, road teams won four of six. In the six playoffs since the lockout, home teams have won 11 Game 7s and road teams have won 11. So the most obvious advantage may not be an advantage at all.
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The quest for the Holy Grail: Credit the Hockey Gods with an assist on Kevin Bieksa’s goal that sent the long-starcrossed Canucks to the third Stanley Cup Final in their franchise’s history. (Bob Frid/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

Let’s be straight here. The Canucks’ 40-year history is not jam-packed filled with glorious moments. When locals think about their team, disappointment is probably their most prominent emotion. It may have started when Vancouver lost the spin of the wheel for first draft pick in 1970 to their expansion cousins, the Sabres. Buffalo took Gilbert Perreault, a future Hall of Famer. Vancouver picked Dale Tallon next. He was a good NHL defenseman, but not a franchise player — and he wasn’t a Canuck for long.

The best versions of the Canucks always flopped in springtime. Something would always happen, heartbreak would always ensue. Their two runs to the Stanley Cup Final, in 1982 and 1994, were unexpected, fashioned by mediocre regular season teams that caught fire, then found themselves facing that season’s top regular season club for the championship.

No, the Hockey Gods never smiled on the Vancouver Canucks. Not until now.
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Besides trying to beat Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, Steve Downie (here being robbed in Game 1) may have to deal with the absence of Sean Bergenheim on his effective third line. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The roar of approval from Bruins Nation during Monday’s Game 5 win over the Lightning had to be loudest for two events. One was Tim Thomas’s save of the year on Steve Downie, which preserved Boston’s one-goal lead in the third period. The other was seeing Zdeno Chara playing in front of the Lightning net on a Bruins power play, an adjustment by coach Claude Julien that B’s fans have screamed was needed for months.

That combination of great goaltending and some coaching flexibility will have to continue for Boston to skate into Tampa Bay tonight and come home with the Prince of Wales Trophy for the Eastern Conference championship.
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The Sharks will have a rough time fending off tee time if Joe Thornton, their captain and leading scorer who was knocked out of Game 4 by a shoulder-to-shoulder hit, is not at his best. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

By Stu Hackel

The fourth win of a Stanley Cup playoff series is always the hardest to achieve, in no small measure because the team that’s facing elimination often plays as if its collective life depends on the outcome, which — in an athletic sense — it does. Once in a while, you’ll see a team lack the will to fight to the finish. It’s either exhausted or it lacks character (and there’s a huge difference between those two things) and it surrenders to the better club. But more often, it is determined not to go down and that’s happened a lot this spring, Excluding Game Sevens (when either club can be knocked out), trailing teams went 12-6 when facing elimination through the first two rounds. That’s damn impressive and one of the reasons we’re in the midst a great tournament.

The Sharks are in a dire situation tonight as the Canucks, who have had problems closing out both their two previous series, are hoping to advance to the third Stanley Cup Final in franchise history, and  first since 1994.
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Dwayne Roloson’s sudden meltdown and who will start in net for the Lightning in Game 5 are just part of the intrigue in an Eastern final series that has taken some unexpected twists. (Chris O’Meara/AP Photos)

By Stu Hackel

It’s sorta our job here to make sense of playoff games, but sometimes they just don’t make sense. With the Bruins-Lightning series now down to a best-of-three contest and Game 5 in Boston tonight, we know even less about how this might play out than we did at the beginning of the round. How is that possible? These teams are supposed to reveal themselves in the course of the games. But the only revelations we’ve had are that these teams’ supposed strengths don’t seem particularly strong at the moment. It’s made for great, and sometimes exhilarating hockey, but you’d be a fool to say you know what’s going to happen next.
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Sharks forward Ben Eager is taking some real heat in San Jose for his antics that helped cost his team Game 2 and created a more charged and distracting atmosphere for Game 3. (Harry How/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The Sharks play their biggest game of the season — perhaps a franchise-defining game — tonight when they host Vancouver in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final. San Jose’s demolition in Game 2 was so one-sided at 7-3 that it had the Versus postgame show derisively playing “Sweet Georgia Brown,” the Harlem Globetrotters theme song, under the highlights of the Canucks snazzy puck movement. That would make the Sharks the Washington Generals, the stooges.

The lack of respect accorded the Sharks is, unfortunately, part of their image as a good regular season team that’s never quite good enough in the postseason. They’ve never gone beyond the third round and, while no shame should be attached to dropping four close games to the eventual Stanley Cup champs, as they did last season, they are indeed chronic underachievers.

At some point, however, if you want to be champs yourself, you have to win a series against a strong opponents and unless the Sharks find the next gear to make it a 2-1 series and then do it again to tie things up, there will be another long summer of questioning at the Shark Tank.

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The Lightning now have to concern themselves with how to stop a repeat performance by Game 2 rookie sensation Tyler Seguin, who brings speed and creativity to Boston’s attack. (Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The venue will change and the delirious pace of the game may, too, but however Bruins-Lightning Game 3 unfolds, there will still be lots to look back on and admire from Tuesday’s Game 2, a 6-5 victory by Boston that knotted their series at one game apiece.

With just over a minute left in the incredible second period, the Lightning had just scored a power play goal to narrow the gap to 5-3 and was back on the attack. An enthused Mike Emrick — who had just described 19 minutes of roaring back and forth action — said over Versus, “My goodness, it’s faster than one of those table hockey games!”

Those old flat metal players could whip the big wooden puck along the perimeter while the center was in front to pick up a rebound. And, sure enough, that’s just what happened. As if on cue, Boston turned the play out of its zone and spent a good 40 seconds pressuring  Tampa Bay, throwing the puck around the boards the way those tin men of the ’60s used to do. And it worked out well.
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The revival of Henrik Sedin, here scoring the winning goal in Game 1, is just one of the things the Sharks will have to consider as they try to contain the Canucks. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The Sharks, who will try to even their series against the Canucks tonight, were happy for the two-day break after Sunday’s Game 1. Coming off their incredible series against the Red Wings — six one-goal games and one de facto one-goal game by virtue of an empty netter, the first time that has ever happened in Stanley Cup play — there was bound to be an emotional letdown if not some fatigue.

“You always want to get back on the horse as quick as you can, but in this case I think the extra day will help us,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said on Monday. “Take advantage of it today physically, and tomorrow we’ll have a real good skate and if we don’t perform better mentally and physically in Game 2, we’ll end up with the same results.”

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Bruins coach Claude Julien has taken heat for his reluctance to make changes during games, something he will surely have to do in order to even his series against the Lightning. (Charles Krupa/AP Photos)

By Stu Hackel

When it comes to coaching in the Stanley Cup playoffs, you can’t underestimate the importance of making adjustments before and during games. That was a big part of the Eastern Conference Finals opener between the Bruins and Lightning, a 5-2 Tampa Bay win, and it will be also be a big part of Game 2 tonight in Boston.

Now trailing 1-0 in the series after being thoroughly outplayed for almost the entire game, Bruins coach Claude Julien has had two full days to mull over what he saw and fix it. He’s got lots to address: his team’s poor execution and inability to get much sustained pressure in the offensive zone, how to counter Tampa Bay’s various forechecking systems, and how to improve Boston’s special teams play. It seemed for much of Game 1 that the B’s were in over their heads. You can expect a better effort in Game 2.

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