For almost anyone outside of the city of Vancouver, Wednesday night must have been painful to watch. After a thrilling game in which both sides traded shots on net and on the boards, playing to a 0-0 draw for 59 minutes and 41.5 seconds of play, it had to be Raffi Torres that scored the game winner, giving the Canucks a 1-0 edge in the Stanley Cup finals.
For the most part, the nationwide audience got an idea of how these Canucks play, if they didn't have one already. Already an extremely physical, albeit not always legal, team, Vancouver really went the extra mile in trying to intimidate the Bruins in Game 1.
Despite the thriller of a game and the brilliance of both goaltenders, the big story of Wednesday night was the chomp Alex Burrows took on Boston's Patrice Bergeron's hand early in the game. Yet, Burrows will be in the lineup, due to the fact that the NHL was somehow unable to prove that he was actually, in fact, biting Bergeron's hand.
But the biting incident aside, Game 1 was exactly what we could have expected, and should continue to expect as these Cup finals plow on.
Both Tim Thomas and Roberto Luongo were fantastic. Thomas made highlight reel saves throughout the night, 33 in all, while Luongo was perfect on the night, with 36 saves, as he continues to shake off his playoff demons.
Despite the loss for Boston, they can still pull out the positives. Like the fact that it took a bruiser like Torres to score that game-winning goal, rather than one of the Sedins, or Alex Burrows. The Bruins' defense was suffocating as expected, leaving little movement for the star-studded top lines of Vancouver.
But even with that in mind, the pressure still rests with the Bruins heading into Game 2, despite the fact that you're not officially in trouble in a playoff series until you lose a game at home. The Canucks have flashed the fact that they have more depth than the Bruins, and with Boston's futility on the power play that we've seen throughout these playoffs, it could be a nerve-wracking affair for those in Beantown.
Expect Game 2 to almost mirror its predecessor, with more bruising going between the two sides in what promises to be another low-scoring affair. Just as the case was with Game 1, you can catch Saturday's Game 2 on NBC, with the puck drop slated at 8 EST.