Music: {allcanada} Bruins' makeup makes it hard for Canucks' coaches to plan

Monday, May 30, 2011

{allcanada} Bruins' makeup makes it hard for Canucks' coaches to plan

For the second time in this year's Stanley Cup playoffs, the Vancouver Canucks find themselves in an odd situation while they prepare for their next opponent: How do you game plan to play a team that doesn't have a prototypical "first line?"

To be clear, that's not a shot at the Boston Bruins— the top set of Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic and David Krejci has been, at times, as good as any other line in the playoffs. But when you're facing a team whose top dogs both had 62 points (Krejci and Lucic) during the regular season, it's obviously not the same as trying to shut down Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau or Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp.

The Bruins' best forwards approach the game with a more well-rounded mindset than most offense-only first lines so there's less of a need to require any of your players to think defense only.

It's a similar situation to what Vancouver saw in the second round against the Nashville Predators. There, the most noteworthy opponent they faced happened to be on the back end in Shea Weber (with Ryan Suter being the next biggest force, also on D). This time around, it's going to be Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, and that tends to throw off the usual pre-series routine.

That routine usually consists of identifying how the star scorers on the team you're about to face go about their business, then figuring out the best way to slow them down. Are we going to match them with a line of forwards or with a defensive pairing? Are we going to be aggressive on them or play them soft? Are we going to agitate them between whistles, or try to avoid waking the giant?

But since the Bruins don't fit that mold, the Canucks once again have to change their approach.

The Bruins still score goals (and plenty of them), they just do it with team depth, as most teams are unable to match the abilities of the players on the lower lines. For the Canucks' coaching staff, that basically means there's little they can do but hope their entire crew of forwards plays well. In a sense, it minimizes coach Alain Vigneault's role. There might be a couple matchups he'd prefer, but beyond that, it's almost like minor league hockey: Just roll the lines, and try to figure out who's playing well on your team and get them out there as much as possible.

With home-ice advantage, they can do their best to keep the Sedin line away from Chara, but that's the type of thing you worry about in-game. You can't prepare for that beyond knowing you're going to do it.

After the Canucks acknowledged that the Bruins don't have one line in particular to shut down, they likely switched their focus to their opponent's goalie. Unfortunately for them, it just so happens to be Tim Thomas, one of the only goaltenders in the NHL who you can't game-plan for either.

Most goalies have patterns — this guy goes down early, that guy has a weak glove, this one gives up big rebounds. But shooting on Thomas is a complete guessing game. When you're coming down the wing to take a slap shot, you might pick your head up to find that, like Billy Smith, Thomas is almost at the bottom of the circles to face your shot. The next time, he might have his shoulders under his crossbar.

He's almost Dominik Hasek-like in his unpredictability.

Being that the Canucks are headed into the Stanley Cup Final and that they've had plenty of time to get ready, it's likely that they've been trying to put more time into prep work than they ever have before. It has to be enraging to sit there and acknowledge that this series is more about which team's players find a way to bring it, and less about technical coaching.

It's just not your typical matchup where dissecting your opponent's personnel will provide some tactical advantage. The Bruins' strength is their depth and goaltending, and it just so happens that to beat them, the only thing you can do is outplay them.

This is all part of the reason that the outcome of this series is so hard to predict, and why it's going to be so fun to watch. This one is largely out of the coaches' hands.

If the Canucks hope to beat the Bruins and win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history, the only way they can do is be better at hockey than their opponent — the old-fashioned way.