Anxiously Awaiting...

 ... the start of tonight's Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, which is still two and a half hours away, as we speak.  But we are suitably attired for the event after rummaging through our vintage tee shirt collection.  See?

I'm fresh out of Bruins paraphernalia and would never even consider buying Canucks stuff, so this is as good as it gets.  You will forgive me, no?

So what's all the brouhaha about, Gentle Reader?  Just this...

Some Game 7s are like a bridge wired to blow, and the tension builds and billows and flares until, the next thing you know, you’re white-knuckling your armchair. And some Game 7s are like a bridge that collapses, and the losing team is suddenly grasping at air, wishing they could just start over, reset the clock, and just get one more chance to get it right.

But the whole point of a Game 7 is that you get one chance, and one chance only. The Boston Bruins have faced this scenario twice in these Stanley Cup playoffs; the Vancouver Canucks found themselves on the precipice once. Both these teams went to overtime in Game 7 in the first round, meaning they were a bounce from the void. But that bounce never came, and Wednesday night, they will play the last game of the season, with the whole of the season on the line.

[...]

And while every game in Boston has been a rout — 8-1, 4-0, 5-2 — every game in Vancouver has been a one-goal tightrope, with the Canucks scoring the winning goals with 18.5 seconds left to break a scoreless tie in Game 1, 11 seconds into overtime in Game 2, and early in the third period to mark another clean scoresheet in Game 5. If those games were any indication, this Game 7 will have a lot of fans on both sides of the aisle feeling, for most of the game, like they are going to vomit.

The "whole of the season on the line"... and it don't get much better than this, Gentle Reader, impending nausea or no.  You can bet I'll be on the edge of my seat when the puck drops in a lil over two and a half hours' time... and I'm likely to stay there for the next two hours or so.

Update, 1845 hrs:  We're off to a good start... Boston 1, Vancouver 0 on Patrice Bergeron's fifth goal of these playoffs (at 14:37 of the first).  The team that's scored first has won each and every game of this series.  History is bein' made!

Let's go, Bruins!

Update, 1935:  2-0 Boston... on the seldom-successful wrap-around by Brad Marchand.  One more and Luuuu is gone.  COOL. 

Update, 1945:  Bergeron gets a shorty... 3-0, Boston.  The goal is under review as I type but I think it will stand.

Update, 2041:  It's all over.  Vancouver pulled Luongo for the extra skater with around 3:30 left in the third.  Bad move.  Marchand shot one in an almost-empty net and it's 4-0 Boston.  The only semi-mystery is who gets the Conn Smythe but that's no mystery at all.  Tim Thomas, hands down.

Update, last:  Your Conn Smythe winner:

Only 110 more days 'til hockey season!