Updated: June 14, 2011, 2:10 PM ET
Less than an hour after his team missed a chance to clinch the Stanley Cup in a blowout loss, Daniel Sedin was still confident enough to guarantee his Vancouver Canucks will beat the Boston Bruins in Game 7 on Wednesday night.
"We're going to win Game 7," Sedin told the Vancouver Sun.
"We're 3-3 and we won all three games at home and we have the fourth game at home," he said of the series, according to the report. "So we have the seventh game at home and we'll take that. We are confident."
Sedin's prediction came as he was discussing a first period in which everything went right for the Bruins and nothing went right for the Canucks. Vancouver coughed up four goals in the first nine minutes and pulled starting goalie Roberto Luongo, who struggled mightily in all three games in Boston.
"Like I said, it happened and we have to deal with that as a team," Sedin said, according to the report. "It's enough with the blaming and all that. We lose as a team and win as a team and we're going to win Game 7."
His guarantee also came after a late-game run-in with the Bruins' Brad Marchand, who landed six unanswered punches on Sedin during a scrum -- another chippy moment in a series that has been chock full of them. Sedin didn't return any punches at Marchand.
Sedin's guarantee could be more bulletin-board material for the Bruins. Boston is already playing for forward Nathan Horton, who has been sidelined for the series following a hit by the Canucks' Aaron Rome that resulted in Rome's rest-of-the-series suspension.
Luongo may have provided the Bruins more motivation when he critiqued opposing goalie Tim Thomas' technique on Vancouver's winning goal in Game 5 and wondered aloud the next day why Thomas hadn't paid him any compliments.
The Canucks' three losses in Boston were blowouts. They've been a far better team at home, where they've managed to put clutch goals past Thomas and gotten far better goaltending from Luongo, who was dreadful in three starts at TD Garden.
How to explain the Canucks' lack of offense, despite scoring a league-leading 262 goals during the regular season?
"It's pretty easy, because Tim Thomas has been outstanding," Sedin said. Thomas made 36 saves on Monday night and has allowed only six goals the entire series.
Daniel and his twin brother, Canucks captain Henrik Sedin, have been largely shut out of the scoring during the finals. Henrik scored his first goal of the series in the third period on Monday, while Daniel has one goal and three assists in the finals.
Canucks coach Alain Vigneault wasted no time confirming Luongo will start Game 7 in Vancouver, where he already has two shutouts in the series.
"I don't have to say anything to him," Vigneault said. "He's a professional. His preparation is beyond reproach, and he's going to be ready for Game 7. ... It happened. There's nothing we can do about it. We've already turned the page on that, and we're going back home."
"You can't hang your head and feel sorry for yourself," Luongo said. "That's the worst thing I could do. ... I had a good feeling all day. Before the series started, I said I enjoyed playing in this building. Just got to move on right now. Got to believe in myself, right?"
Information from ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun and The Associated Press was used in this report.
sports news football news cricket news golf news baseball news
No comments:
Post a Comment