Music: {allcanada} Game 7 is all that matters to Canucks

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

{allcanada} Game 7 is all that matters to Canucks

VANCOUVER -- The Canucks have scored eight goals in six games in the Stanley Cup Final. It's still possible that nine in seven gets them the Stanley Cup.

"If we win (Wednesday), we become legends," Ryan Kesler said on the eve of Game 7 from Rogers Arena.

In this city, this province and with this franchise, Kesler is absolutely correct.

The statistical edge owned by Boston in this series has been a storyline through six games, but it isn't anymore, at least not to Kesler and the Canucks.

They don't care that Boston is outscoring them, 19-8. It doesn't matter that they've led in the Final for barely a shade over a half an hour (32:42). So what that Kesler and Henrik Sedin each have only one point in the series? The fact that Tim Thomas' goals-against average is a fraction of Roberto Luongo's only means the Bruins' goalie is ahead in the race for the Conn Smythe Trophy.

It doesn't mean he's going to win the Stanley Cup. None of it means the Bruins have the edge in Game 7.

"(Wednesday night) is all that matters," Kesler said. "Everything in the past is in the past."

Including the record-breaking travel that has been a huge part of this year's Stanley Cup Final.

Like their opponent, the Canucks flew for six hours on Tuesday. It was their fourth and final cross-continental flight in the Cup Final, and yet they insist they are fresh and 100 percent ready for Game 7.

"This is what we train for all summer long," said Raffi Torres, who already went through a well-traveled seven-game Stanley Cup Final series with Edmonton against Carolina in 2006. "It's the sacrifices you make over the course of the year in order to have yourself ready to go. It's not hard to get up for these games. Especially being at home, it will be an emotional night. With our fans, how good they are, how good they've been all year, it's not hard to get up for these games."

Kesler said it helps the Canucks mentally to know the Bruins have done this trip one more time than them.

"I don't think any guy is going to complain about fatigue (Wednesday) night," Kesler said. "We're going to be jacked."

The Canucks won't have to dig deep for inspiration. As if winning the Cup isn't enough, their injured teammate, Mason Raymond, will most likely be watching Game 7 from a hospital bed in Boston, laid up with a vertebrae compression fracture suffered 20 seconds into Game 6 Monday.

Raymond was still at a Boston hospital Tuesday night because the doctors felt he wasn't fit to travel home with the team.

"Mason is a popular guy on the team and we would love to have him in there," Chris Higgins said. "It's unfortunate that he can't play. We would love to win this one for him, and for ourselves, too."

It might only take one goal. It might take more.

The stats for the entire Final will favor the Bruins, but the Canucks can still win the Stanley Cup.

It's the stuff legends are made of.

"We feel confident, we're happy to be home," Torres said. "It's one game, do or die."