We're we the bad guys in the 2011 series? The Hockey Guy on YouTube explains how we had a few dirty players during the 2011 run. The discussion starts at 9:50 I don't know how to link to that part, sorry.
I remember we were very agile, masterclass face off winners, great on the pp, all in all a skilled team. I don't remember the Canucks ever to be considered a dirty team back then. I remembered all of canadian teams and Canada hating the Canucks.
Am I using selective memory? Anyone else remember better than me?
25 comments
No
We had a team of Burrows, Torres, Maxim Lapierre and Ryan Kesler. I wouldn’t consider us more dirty than lucic, Chara, and the “big bad bruins”.
Put it this way. The last two finals the Oilers weren’t saints but they were by far the less noticably dirty of the two. That’s how I view the 11 canucks
We had Kesler, Burrows, Torres and Lapierre. Those guys were major pests that year but they weren’t bad guys, they were good on both sides of the game. Torres could score some big goals but also throw the body around.
People hated us because we were like the Panthers have been the last two years. Skilled and gritty… only difference is we didn’t win while they did.
A team doesn’t go 54-19-9 and then 51-22-9 with back to back president’s trophies and finishing first in goals for and goals against without having skilled players and gritty players.
To many yes. Lots of canada hated us and cheered for bruins. Was 2 villains facing off.
No we weren’t the bad guys. We were hated for having a lot of success and being difficult to play against. We also had a lot of pests. The only legitimately dirty player we had was Raffi. Other than that guys who played on the line but no real head hunters.
The Hockey Guy mentions Matt Cooke (00’s), Todd Bertuzzi (00’s), Torres (’10s), Burrows (’10s), Lapierre (’10s)
The Bruins were definitely more dirty than the Canucks in that series. Most of the league’s fans ignored it though because the Bruins were seen as the underdog.
Look up “The Ironing is Delicious” on Youtube for a synopsis of that series.
Kesler, Burrows, Torres, and Lapierre is definitely an all-time pest line up. It’s not surprising other teams didn’t like us. But I honestly don’t remember much “dirty” play that went outside the norms of standard playoff dirtiness.
Torres’ hit on Eberle right before the playoffs (4-game suspension) was the only real bad thing I remember. Torres also had a borderline (at the time) hit on Seabrook that obviously would’ve enraged us if it happened to one of our best d-men, but he didn’t get suspended.
Rome on Horton was clean. Fuck Colin Campbell.
The Bruins were definitely the dirtier of the two. They had a secret weapon however. Colin Campbell was the head of player safety and his nephew Gregory? Played for the Bruins. Allowing the Sedins to get popped in the head every stoppage. It was blatant. This series is also what killed me for the “Canada’s team” narrative. The majority of Canada was pulling for the Bruins especially Southern Ontario.
No, the Bruins were way dirtier of team then the canuck and its not even close.
I find the hockey guy is reverse bias towards the canucks because he doesnt want to show bias towards the team that he cheers for the most.
2011 taught me there was no such thing as “bad guys” in hockey. There’s your team, and then a hierarchy of loathing for the remaining 31.
As i recall….it was the canucks vs the world
If your consider the current panthers team the bad guys then yes, I’d say they are equivalent
All contenders have bad guys
Honestly it was a pretty even matchup. You could love or hate either team for similar reasons. It was high drama and we were the favorites on paper. Even though in retrospect if you ran that series 10 times I think the Bruins come out on top 6-4 or 7-3.
I felt like the added pressure building up in the city was maybe the biggest deciding factor. I felt like I could see in Luongos eyes the sheer weight of it all. And other guys too. A few of our guys broke. Burrows biting the hand… it all just played into their gameplan.
Meanwhile Tim Thomas looked like he couldn’t give a shit and had a performance for the ages, so… it still hurts but I’ve made peace with the whole thing. I know this goes way beyond your question but it’s a series I always have to go through in my head again when I hear about it.
When a team has a 7 foot tall can opener, that makes the canucks the good guys.
lol wtf man, not at all. Were you born in 2001? Anyone who actually watched that’s series would laugh in your face if that was ever suggested.
The Canucks were absolutely hated around the league.
Overlooked is the Old School Bruins vs. New School Canucks.
The Canucks were hated because they were the ultimate modern skill + science team.
The Twins were seen as a Euro cheat code. Coach Alain Vigneault was using “advanced deployment” techniques in the O-Zone and D-Zone that are considered standard today.
The Canucks had a sleep science program, and a cap wizard on staff who was so good he was hired by NHL front office to write the rules for the Vegas/Seattle expansion.
The rest of the league hated the Canucks approach, and the media were WORSE.
Ok, it’s late, I gotta work tomorrow, and now someone brings up the 2011 Canucks. You trying to get me triggered?
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned yet how the Bruins player (Johnny Boychuck) rammed a folded over Mason Raymond into the boards and severely injured him. To me, that was very dirty. Watching the [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn97tELtNTI) now, it all happened pretty quickly, but as a hockey player myself I can’t imagine taking someone in such a vulnerable position and then adding even more force going into the boards. Maybe it’s because I’m used to playing “non-contact” hockey, but as a player I think you would know exactly what you’re doing even when it happens so quickly. You can see in the replays that he basically shoves/checks him into the boards at the end with an extra oomph.
Should have at least been a penalty (boarding, roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct, I don’t care what you call it – I would even say intent to injure). IIRC and from the video, he didn’t even get a penalty. I would also say it should have been a multiple game suspension in the regular season, maybe a one game suspension depending on what round in the playoffs (if it were up to me it should have been one game in the SCF).
lol this should be a bannable offense.
Raffi was not a clean player. But the bad guys in 2011 were Colin Campbell and his lickspittle Kelly Sutherland.
The Bruins and Canucks were the two dirtiest and most hated teams in the entire league, and that was by each team’s design. Both were stocked with players you’d love to have on your team but hate playing against.
That, in a nutshell, is why you have the selective memory. We didn’t think our boys were that dirty, simply because they were OURS.
But looking back… Yup, we were a team stocked with immense talent and hardcore shitheads. Not entirely unlike today’s Panthers.