For Arguments Sake: The Bruins WILL win the Stanley Cup

By: Andrew Otovic

I will be the first to say, I despise hockey. It is slow moving with too much time setting up plays and not enough legit fighting. If hockey was played like it was in the Olympics, I would be enamored with the sport. That being said, I have seen enough this year to know that the Bruins will win Lords Stanley Cup. I say this for a few reasons. Goalie Tim Thomas has played on his head this year and set the NHL record for save percentage in a season. The near-locked Vezina Trophy winner had a 2.00 GAA and 35 wins. Besides having the best goalie in the playoffs, the Bruins have a 30-goal scorer in Milan Lucic. Lucic in many ways defines the Bruins with his hard-nosed mentality as well as a huge growth in his offensive potential. As the spiritual leader, the Bruins will only go as far as he takes them.  Center Patrice Bergeron has done his best Marc Savard imitation with 35 assists to go along with 22 goals. The Bruins had two other players who scored over 20 goals while also having two players including a defensemen to register over 40 assists. This team is different than in years past. The 1-2 tandom of Zdeno Chara and Tomas Kaberle have done wonders for the team on both ends of the ice. With the way Nathan Horton, the ageless Mark Recci, and Michael Ryder have been playing of late, the Bruins are a dangerous team. New team, new attitude. Bruins over Vancover in six.

The Bruins WILL NOT win the Stanley Cup

By: Jon Mael

The Bruins have had a stellar regular season as usual, and as usual they will find new ways to lose in the playoffs. The pieces for a Stanley Cup championship are there. The Bruins are great in goal, and special teams has improved throughout the year. The sad truth is that the B’s have been arguably the most disappointing postseason franchise in sports over the last decade.

As the number 1 seed in 2009, the Bruins couldn’t make it out of the second round. Last season, the sixth seeded Bruins beat Buffalo handily in the first round and dominated the Flyers through the first 3 games of the second round. They couldn’t possibly blow this, could they? It is just impossible to fathom that the Flyers scored 4 goals in row to knock the Bruins out of the playoffs, but yeah, it happened. The Bruin faithful was crushed and there were questions as to if the team could ever recover. They managed to pull through this year with many players that were different than last year’s squad. I just don’t believe the Bruins can go all the way this year. Even if they win the Eastern Conference, they can’t get past Vancouver. I think the Bruins will most likely lose in either the second round in a potential matchup with Philadelphia or the conference finals, where they will most likely meet up with Washington.