5 Reasons the Bruins SHOULD Win the Stanley Cup

Here are five reasons the Bruins should win the 2010-2011 Stanley Cup, one of which actually could be legitimate.

They were the first US Based NHL Team. The NHL was founded in 1917 with 4 teams, 5 if you're feeling charitable, all of which were based in Canada. In 1924, the Boston Bruins entered the league as the first and only US team. Today, they're considered part of the "Original Six" franchises that made up the core of the NHL from 1942 to the league's expansion in 1967. Without the Boston Bruins, arguably the NHL would not exist as we know it today. They have been who they are since 1924. No name changes, no wandering around. Just the Boston Bruins.

They have won the Cup more than 24 other teams have. Yes, the Bruins have not won a Stanley Cup since 1972, yet thanks to the Montreal Canadiens sucking the air out the room in the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the Bruins' 5-Stanley Cup championships are among the most tied for 4^th with the Edmonton Oilers. Okay, so their winning percentage in the finals isn't very good (.294), but they get to the top of the mountain. Vancouver is sitting on a .000 winning percentage after having lost in their only other appearances.

The Bruins haven't copied their uniforms. The Bruins have been wearing the same Black and Gold for as long as anyone can remember, going back to at least 1949. The Pittsburgh Penguins decided in 1972 to cop the Black and Gold for their logo and in 1980 went for broke, taking the color scheme as their own ostensibly to "unify" the team colors with those of the Steelers and the Pirates with the end result being they essentially used the same uniforms as the Bruins. The Canucks on the other hand, had a color scheme and dropped it whereupon the then Hartford Whalers picked it up. The Canucks current uniforms look just a little too much like the unis the Whalers were wearing when they bailed for Carolina. They can lay claim to the color scheme, but you would like to think they'd do a little something different with the style. And really? As if copping the Whalers uniforms isn't bad enough, the Canucks put an Orca Whale on theirs.

The Bruins won in Vancouver in February. In their only match up during the regular season, the Bruins defeated the Canucks 3-1 on February 26. Clearly, the B's have won in Vancouver this season - they just haven't yet in this series.

And the real reason the Bruins should win the 2011 Stanley Cup:

Bruins Goaltending. Tim Thomas has been close to unbeatable in this series. In 6-games, the Canucks have scored 8 goals. For you math majors, that's a 1.3 goals against average (GAA). This against a team that scored 262-goals this season in 82-games, an average of better than 3-goals a game. This is a Canucks team which won 54-games and finished with 117-points, and yet they have scored their season average in goals in one game this finals, and that was in overtime.