{"id":1310562,"date":"2019-05-22T14:04:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T20:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/bruins-blues-meet-in-stanley-cup-final-49-years-in-making\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T14:04:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T20:04:01","slug":"bruins-blues-meet-in-stanley-cup-final-49-years-in-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/bruins-blues-meet-in-stanley-cup-final-49-years-in-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins, Blues meet in Stanley Cup Final 49 years in making"},"content":{"rendered":"
FILE – In this Feb. 23, 2019, file photo, Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40), of Finland, makes a save against St. Louis Blues’ Patrick Maroon (7) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, in St. Louis. The Bruins and Blues will meet in the Stanley Cup Final, a rematch of the 1970 series that ended with Bobby Orr\u2019s famous goal and leaping celebration. Boston has been in the final three times in the past nine seasons, but this is St. Louis\u2019 first trip in 49 years. (AP Photo\/Dilip Vishwanat, File)<\/strong>
AP | FR170542 AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seeing the famous photo of Bobby Orr scoring the 1970 Stanley Cup-winning goal to beat his St. Louis Blues doesn\u2019t bring back bad memories for Scotty Bowman.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot really,\u201d the legendary coach said. \u201cBecause we didn\u2019t have a big opportunity to win that series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orr and the big, bad Boston Bruins swept Bowman\u2019s overmatched, expansion-era Blues in that series. Now 49 years later, Boston is in its third final in nine seasons and St. Louis is back for the first time since 1970, but this Bruins-Blues rematch is a showdown between two of the NHL\u2019s best teams since Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s more level,\u201d Bowman said. \u201c(The Blues) don\u2019t give a lot of room in their end, and of course their goalie\u2019s been lights out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming off a sweep of Carolina in the Eastern Conference final, the Bruins are favored in the series that begins Monday in Boston. Goaltender Tuukka Rask is the front-runner to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Brad Marchand is playing some of the best hockey of his career with 18 points in 17 games, and there\u2019s a mix of veterans from the 2011 Stanley Cup-winning team and fresh players eager to get their names etched on the trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as you get older, you appreciate it even more, and you realize how hard it is to get to this point and advance and be thankful and stay in the moment,\u201d center Patrice Bergeron said. \u201cBut then it\u2019s back to work, and there\u2019s a lot of work in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike in 1970, when the Bruins essentially just had to step on the ice to take the final, these Blues won\u2019t go away. They woke up last in the league on Jan. 3 before winning 30 of their final 45 games to roll into the playoffs, where they beat the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks.<\/p>\n

Craig Berube, who replaced Mike Yeo as Blues coach in November, said teams would rather avoid those tough times. But they\u2019ve made his players stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to get on the right track,\u201d Berube said after the Western Conference final-clinching Game 6 victory Tuesday. \u201cOnce we got going in January and February, I knew we had a good hockey team. Once you get in the playoffs, anything can happen. We\u2019re here and we did. They believed they were going to make the playoffs, and we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blues are still here in large part because of rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington, whose first start in January coincided with the turnaround. They adopted Laura Branigan\u2019s catchy 1980s pop hit \u201cGloria\u201d as their victory song, rallied in the playoffs around young fan Laila Anderson, who has a life-threatening immune disease, and became the NHL\u2019s latest surprise story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last couple months in the city have been crazy,\u201d star winger Vladimir Tarasenko said. \u201cThe support is amazing. They give us a lot of power. Unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Louis is the oldest franchise not to win the Stanley Cup, and its drought is the second longest behind the Toronto Maple Leafs\u2019. The Leafs won the season before the Blues came into the league. To finish this improbable run, the Blues have to go through the Bruins, who finished tied for the second-most points this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are a hard team to play against, a really skilled team,\u201d Tarasenko said. \u201cBut we have a hard team, too. It will be some interesting games.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FILE – In this Feb. 23, 2019, file photo, Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40), of Finland, makes a save against St. Louis Blues’ Patrick Maroon (7) during the second period of an NHL hockey game, in St. Louis. The Bruins and Blues will meet in the Stanley Cup Final, a rematch of the 1970 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1310562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-09 21:45:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}