BOSTON — Walking underneath the stands on the way to the dressing rooms Saturday night in Vancouver, you could hear the thundering chant: "We want the Cup!" In the Boston room, Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas, almost cheery in defeat after Game 1, seemed almost sullen now. In the Vancouver room, Canucks captain Henrik Sedin didn't hesitate when asked if he thought the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final would leave a lasting impression.

"I hope so," he said.

These weren't just Vancouver victories. These were Boston heartbreakers. First, the Bruins wasted an outstanding performance by Thomas and suffered a 1-0 loss on a goal with 18.5 seconds left in regulation in Game 1. Then, the Bruins blew a 2-1 lead and lost 3-2 on a goal only 11 seconds into overtime in Game 2.

"I'm not sure how they feel over there," Sedin said, "but if I would have been in that position, that's tough, knowing that you could have been up 2-0. Now you're down 2-0. I think mostly they try to stay positive, and

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – For two days, we talked about The Bite. Alex Burrows said it didn't bother him. He didn't read the columns or listen to the commentary. He didn't care.

But he said it might have hurt his parents' feelings a little bit to hear how their boy had bitten an opponent, how he should have been suspended for one of the biggest games of his life. And his father, Rodney, had a message for him when they spoke Friday.

"He said, 'Go out there and score some goals. That's what's really going to piss them off even more,' " Burrows said. "Obviously I listened to his advice."

Burrows had two goals and an assist Saturday night – including the game winner 11 seconds into overtime – as the Vancouver Canucks beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2, and took a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final.

By "them," his father had meant Boston, some of the media, whoever had been hating on him. Well, consider Boston pissed. Whoever hated Burrows before ought to hate him even more now. He is a villain

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – With every save, with every victory, the crisis fades farther into the past and the Stanley Cup comes closer.

Roberto Luongo(notes) is only three wins away now. He led the Vancouver Canucks to a 1-0 victory over the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of the Cup final with a 36-save shutout. Coach Alain Vigneault, who benched him in the first round, said Luongo is playing “some of his best hockey … that I've seen him play.”

Asked when he has ever played better, at least in Vancouver, Luongo hesitated. At first, he said: “I don't know. That’s a tough question to answer.” Pressed, he smiled and conceded: “What can I tell you? I'm in the final. I guess I'm playing pretty well."

I guess so.

I don't know if Luongo will give up another goofy goal and lose Game 2 on Saturday night. I don't know if all the concerns about him will come back just like that. I don't know if he wins the Cup if he will necessarily be validated as a big-game goaltender, either, because he wasn't

VANCOUVER – From where he watches games at Rogers Arena, just behind the Vancouver Canucks' bench, in the tunnel to their dressing room, Ron Shute can see the special logo at center ice. It features the number 40, celebrating the number of years the Canucks have played in the National Hockey League, also indirectly noting how long they have waited to win their first Stanley Cup.

For Shute, though, the number is 50.

That's right. Fifty. He has spent a half-century with the Canucks, longer than any other member of their staff, since they were a minor-league team that played in a little wooden barn. He started as a stick boy at age 13, and he's still a stick boy at age 64 – only they call him a dressing room attendant now.

His story symbolizes Vancouver's as the Canucks hold a 1-0 lead over the Boston Bruins in the Cup final – the work, the wait, the journey, the connection between the community and the team, the childlike dream still held by grown men, the old memories mixing with the

“Thrusting my nose firmly between his teeth, I threw him heavily to the ground on top of me.” – Mark Twain

VANCOUVER – With Mark Twain it was intentional, a writer’s witty way of spinning the story of a scrum to his advantage. With Alex Burrows and the NHL, it was bizarre and backward. At least with both it was entertaining.

Burrows bit Patrice Bergeron(notes) on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. It seemed pretty clear on the replay. There was Burrows, a first-line left winger for the Vancouver Canucks. There was Bergeron, a top two-way centerman for the Boston Bruins. And there was Burrows biting Bergeron’s gloved right index finger during a scrum at the end of the first period.

“He did it,” Bergeron said.

Or was it the other way around?

“He had his fingers in my mouth,” Burrows said, according to the Vancouver Province, “but I don’t think I bit him.”

Wait.

It gets better.

NHL senior vice-president of hockey operations Mike Murphy(notes) announced Thursday there

VANCOUVER – This is what I respect most about Brendan Shanahan(notes) as he becomes the NHL's new dean of discipline: He's putting his popularity at risk. Actually, I think it's safe to say he's sacrificing it.

Shanahan is one of the good guys. He was a charismatic player who amassed Hall of Fame credentials, cracking one-liners and one-timers with equal ease. After he retired in 2009, he could have gone in any direction if he wanted to stay in hockey – TV analyst, team executive, union leader – but joined the league office so he could continue to shape the sport.

The man who organized the Shanahan Summit during the 2004-05 lockout, a brainstorming session that led to rule changes that transformed the game, he became the NHL's vice-president of hockey and business development. It was a feel-good job – running the research and development camp, coming up with the Fantasy Draft and a new format for the All-Star Game, giving input on player safety, supplemental discipline and other

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – He did not seem crushed. He did not seem heartbroken.

Tim Thomas(notes) had fought so long and so hard to reach the Stanley Cup Final, and now that he was here, he had given the Boston Bruins a chance to steal Game 1 by matching the Vancouver Canucks’ Roberto Luongo(notes) save for save in a goaltending duel.

Then he allowed the winner to Raffi Torres(notes) with 18.5 seconds left and suffered a 1-0 loss, a game you would think the Bruins could not afford to waste for them to upset the winners of the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top regular-season team.

And then he stood in the dressing room, his arms folded, a towel casually draped over his right shoulder, actually cracking a couple of jokes, actually laughing, actually smiling. He had been having fun. Hey, he still was.

“Well,” he said Wednesday night, “I don’t think you should have those emotional highs and lows during these kinds of series, because that’ll tire you out when it comes to seven

Enjoy this, Winnipeg. Soak it up and celebrate. Fifteen years after you lost an NHL team, after so many false starts and false hopes, you have another NHL team now. The highest level of hockey is coming home to the Canadian heartland.

But make no mistake: This is not what the NHL wanted. This was a last resort. Just because the Atlanta Thrashers have been sold and will be relocated to Manitoba – pending the approval of the league's board of governors on June 21 – does not mean the team will succeed or necessarily even stay for good.

Business took the Jets from Winnipeg and made them the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996. Business took the Thrashers from Atlanta and will make them whatever they will be called now. And business – not nationalism, not romanticism, not anything else – will determine where this team goes from here, and it faces plenty of challenges and uncertainties.

The NHL did not allow the Thrashers to be sold to a group intending to move them to Manitoba because the league wanted