I see a lot of impassioned discussion on the issue of, as Canadians, who we should be backing in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Boston Bruins or the Vancouver Canucks. Let’s examine this issue in depth and without emotion, using only the facts and rate on a logic based analysis.
First the obvious. Vancouver is in Canada, Boston is not. This would normally be a powerful argument, EXCEPT for 2 minor, yet nagging issues. Both Phoenix and Colorado were Canadian teams at one point, yet I didn’t hear anyone say that Colorado was Canada’s team. What if Vancouver were to be moved to Houston this week, would they still be Canada’s team? The second point is that Boston was once British and could easily have been part of Canada. I will give a very slight advantage to Vancouver.
Second, the history of each team. The greatest players to wear the colours of each team is an important fact. We will start with Boston. Orr, Esposito, Bucyk, Shore, Cheevers, Lucic, Bergeron, Green, Neely and on and on, all Canadians. Vancouver, let’s see, Sedin, Sedin, Neely (oops they traded him for a water bottle). Brodeur (a Canadian), Luongo (Canadian), Bure. Hmmm, pretty short on actual Canucks. Big advantage to the Bruins here.
Third, the Olympics. On Team Canada, there were 1.5 Bruins (Bergeron, and Thornton). Vancouver. 1 (Luongo). Team USA, 1-1, Thomas to Kesler. Team Finland, 1 Canuck (Salo), no Bruins. Team Czech, Bruins 2 (Kaberle, Krejci), Canucks 0, Team Slovakia, Bruins 1 (Chara), Canucks 0. Team Sweden, Canucks 2 (Sedin’s), Bruins 0. Team Germany 1 each (Seidenberg and Erhoff). Pretty evenly matched, but again the edge to the Bruins.
Final category is current rosters. For back up I have the current roster pages for Boston and Vancouver .
To summarize the rosters:
Boston Vancouver
Canadians 17 17
USA 3 5
Russia 0 1
Sweden 0 5
Finland 1 1
Czech Republic 2 0
Slovakia 1 0
Germany 1 1
Kazakhstan 1 0
Denmark 0 1
As we can see, of the 26 Bruins, 17 are Canadian or 65.38%. The Canucks have 17 Canadians on a 31 man roster, obviously some token Canadians to make it look better and get it over 50%, or 54.4%.
A huge advantage to the Bruins.
In conclusion, based on irrefutable facts, the Boston Bruins are truly Canada’s team in the finals, even if Don Cherry wasn’t cheering for them.
