Home Ice Advantage Like You Read About

When the Boston Bruins have laced-up at home during these 2011 NHL playoffs they’ve been nearly unstoppable. Over this last week, during the final showdown with the Vancouver Canucks, their home ice advantage has risen even further – to the extent you may be tempted to replace the word advantage with hate crime. For Boston’s loyal fans, not to be confused with the fairweather legions popping up to support Vancouver in their time of plenty, the 8-1 and 4-0 victories at the Gaaahden almost made up for the three frustrating and ever-so-close losses at the hands of the Canadian team. Tonight the battle returns to Beantown and Game 6 is going to be a Budweiser-soaked beatdown of Biblical proportions.

While we’re on the subject of team nationality, it’s already been remarked upon by several pro-Bruins blogs how unfortunate it is that the Vancouver media (and most likely the Canadian media in general) have been strongly spinning this contest as an American vs. Canadian thing. That’s what a little gathering more commonly known as the Winter Olympics are for, Jimmy Olsen. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s look at some readily available nationality stats:

Vancouver Canucks

• 17 Canadians
• 6 Americans
• 5 Swedes
• 1 Russian
• 1 Dane
• 1 German
• 1 Finn
• etc.

Quite a melting pot they have out there on the left coast, eh? A smorgasbord with skates, if you will. Now let’s have a look at the

Boston Bruins

• 17 Canadians
• 2 Americans
• 3 Czechs
• 1 German
• 1 Slovak
• 1 Finn
• 1 Kazakh
• etc.

Every single Bruins forward, except Krejci, is Canadian. Quite a melting pot of people from Ontario. And the team has 4 less Yanks than the Canucks. Why, those Bruins are as American as apple pie – served to you with a slice of sharp cheddar cheese by Abraham Lincoln himself. An exact equal number of Canadians on each team with considerably more Americans on the team from Vancouver. North vs. South – I’m thinking: not. Although, as we learned from Phil Hartman in 1987, a full-on Canadian invasion isn’t so far-fetched.

But it isn’t about where the players are from (*sniffs and snivels*). It’s about the city that the team calls home and their sense of

I’m gonna stop you right there, sensitive Vancouver fan, and repeat myself: 96% of the Bruins’ forwards are Canadians who were raised in Canada (oddly enough), have Canadian families, live in Canada, pay taxes in Canada and are surely bursting with enough national pride to make a Tragically Hip concert look unenthusiastic. Try again. If you’re cheering for the Canucks simply because you’re Canadian, that’s great – but keep it in your pants. You have three times as many Americans on your team. Point made.

Every game of the series so far has been won by the home team. Home ice advantage is a fairly tangible factor, but the B’s have taken it to gorgeous extremes. The smart money is on Boston to sodomize win tonight, which will likely lead to another nailbiter back in Vancouver which could literally go either way. I wouldn’t say home ice advantage has been on Vancouver’s side to any extent. Their 3 wins have been last-minute, lucky-bounce affairs and downright silly is the person who thinks Boston remains an underdog. Let destiny commence and, for the record, I would kill to see an actual episode of Late Night With Gordon Lightfoot.