Around the NHL: Stanley Cup Finals Game 7, a new Stanley Cup champion crowned

In Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Tim Thomas and the Boston Bruins defeated Vancouver 4-0 in a generally one-sided game. Tim Thomas won the Conn Smythe trophy and the Bruins' victory was met afterwards by widespread rioting throughout the city of Vancouver. You can find the full recap on TSN here.

AP

AT: Just another extremely powerful showing by this Boston team. What an impressive group of players. They've been without their #1 center Marc Savard for most of the season, but everyone else stepped it up big time. Especially Marchand. What an incredible ride it's been for this kid. I'm sure as a 3rd round pick he wasn't thinking he'd be hoisting the cup in his first full year in the NHL, let alone being second on his team in goals and scoring with 2 of them in the most important game. Outstanding effort from him and I'm sure his stock for next season has risen like a balloon. Then there's Tim Thomas. What can you say about him? At 37 he still has the reflexes of a cat, was clutch through the entire game stopping around 37 shots. Thomas didn't have a completely spectacular playoffs until the SCFs. He was decent in the Montreal series, good in the Philly series and pulled a Jekyll and Hyde thing in the Tampa series. In finals, he came up as clutch as ever. He was the main reason this Boston team was able to do what they did, and he deserves all the credit in the world. Mark Recchi just put another ring on what's been an amazing career. Also very happy for Chara, the former Islander. Congrats to the 2010-2011 Boston Bruins. You guys deserve it.

CH: Tons of things to like here as a hockey fan. You have the incredible story of Tim Thomas, which you touched on. There was no doubt he was the clear Conn Smythe winner. Well deserved. You have the story of Patrice Bergeron, who almost had his career taken from him on a careless hit by Randy Jones. You have Mark Recchi winning his third Stanley Cup, going out on top at the ripe age of 43. It's well deserved - they were the better team over the seven games series and I'm very happy for them.

The Cup presentation as a whole never gets old. I smile every time I see it. When I saw Zdeno Chara take the Cup from Gary Bettman, I thought back to his rookie year as an Islander and smiled. What an incredible accomplishment for him. The whole thing is outstanding - especially the fact the players get to hold the trophy first and not the suits.

Kudos to both teams, who clearly hate each other, for being very classy in the handshake line. This was probably one of the tougher Cup finals I can remember, and to still have the class and respect to shake hands was fantastic. Great job there.

AT: For Vancouver, well...it's the same ol' story, same ol' song and dance. They once again falter in the Finals Game 7 and everyone scratches their heads at how such a powerful team could be so invisible. The Sedins were non-existent, Luongo let up several soft goals once again and we once again saw the dirty play of the Canucks continue with Jannik Hansen's blindside hit on Andrew Ference in the third period. This Canucks team was a great team, but they just could not come up when it mattered most. They created plenty of scoring opportunities, but you really felt like the momentum was in Boston's hands the entire game.

CH: Have to agree with all of that. I've made it well known I was rooting for Vancouver and it was very disappointing to see them crumble like that. The Sedins had to be better, plain and simple. Ryan Kesler, the guy operating under 50%, had one of the best games for the Canucks last night. In a way, that's how it should be. Kesler is one of the team's best players, but the healthier guys (there's no one healthy now) on the team needed to come through. That includes the Sedins, Burrows, Luongo etc.

As far as Luongo goes, he's going to take a lot of deserved slack from this, but at the same time his team did not score a goal for him last night. They weren't even in the battle. The game felt like it was over at 1-0. For the team that won the President's Trophy, that's unacceptable. Even if Tim Thomas was playing out of his mind. The Canucks have now lost 3 Cup Finals, and two of them in Game 7. Ouch.

AT: Then there's the 800 pound gorilla in the room. What an absolute disgrace shown by Vancouver fans. I know rioting is nothing new in sports, but with reports of 4 stabbings, widespread looting, scenes of battered Bruins' fans lying on the ground and fires throughout the city, it's just disgusting to see. There's bowing out gracefully and then there's this. I realize not every Vancouver fan was involved with this, but those who were should be ashamed of themselves. Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and to put a shame on its name like this is horrendous.

CH: This was utterly disgraceful. No other way to put it. Just an awful job by select Vancouver residents. Its now very hard to maintain the level of respect for the city after seeing that. Apparently it was worse than the 1994 riot after they lost to the Rangers. Ugh.

AP

 Overall, congrats to the 2010-2011 Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins. Well deserved.