We didn't deserve it.

Before I get into what I want to talk about, you may notice that there is no post for yesterday. I will not apologize for this. Yes, I am doing NaBloPoMo, but I will not count yesterday as a failure because I didn't even turn on a computer beyond what was required for my job. It felt good. People should do that more often.

Now that that is out of the way. What I want to really talk about.

Vancouver did not deserve to win the Stanley Cup. I say this as true Canucks fan. Boston deserved it because they actually showed up to play. The only player who showed up for the Canucks was Luongo. Wait, stop booing and I'll explain.

Going into the playoffs I was convinced that after long last, this would be our year. Finally we would get to bring home the Stanley Cup. We had a good team, a great goalie. Vancouver seemed unstoppable.

Then came Boston. At the time, I was confident in saying that we had the better team. We had the more consistent team. Boston had a great goalie and they relied on him too much. They had a couple of good lines, but they couldn't really count on their third and fourth line. They weren't as fast and didn't play as physical a game as Vancouver.

I really thought we had their number. Unfortunately, the Canucks did what they do best. They fell apart. Some of it was due to injuries, lost players. We struggled with our defence, trying to put together a workable line with so many players benched.

Other than Horton (who was taken out by Rome, but that is another topic for another day), Boston was playing relatively injury free.

It seemed that as soon as the defence began to fall apart, the forwards could no longer do their job. They lost all confidence. Partially understandable, Vancouver's defencemen often play fairly aggressively and were more often than not very key in scoring goals and scoring chances.

During Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals I saw it start to happen about halfway through the first period. They allowed themselves to go with nothing more than a token fight. The forwards failed to pick up the few rebounds that Tim Thomas allowed. They allowed too many turnovers.

In Game 7, I couldn't fault Luongo for the few goals that went in while he was on net. Mostly, it was his teammates that let him down. They didn't play their best game. This was a crucial one, and they never even bothered to show, leaving their goalie hanging. Luongo did a good job and I will curse out any Vancouverite who dares to try and throw him under the bus. Vancouver is not a city that is kind to its goalies, but Luongo was the only Canuck to really show up tonight.

I know he won't read this, but I hope he doesn't spend too much crying into his beer. He should hold his head up knowing that he did the best. Hopefully the rest of the team will take the time to apologize to him for not bothering to show and play....with maybe the exception of Malhotra. He's still recovering as far as I am concerned.

That is the opinion of this Canucks fan....and even that of my best friend. We did not deserve this Stanley Cup.

Congratulations Boston. You earned it.