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Will the bounces continue to go Vancouver’s way in Game 3?

Boston Bruins v Vancouver Canucks - Game Two

during Game Two of the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Arena on June 4, 2011 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Bruce Bennett

Every now and then, a team enjoys enough serendipitous moments that they start to seem like a “Team of Destiny.” There are times when even stat-heavy bloggers must concede - at least to some small extent - that a team might just be lucky. Maybe a little bit, at least.

Are the Vancouver Canucks getting all the bounces or are they just getting the job done, one way or another? After studying some of the highest and lowest moments of “luck” for the Canucks, it seems clear that they’ve had a mixture of good bounces and bad ones. It just so happens that they’ve been striking gold more often as the postseason marches on.

The Canucks were clearly the best team in the NHL during the 2010-11 regular season. Even still, they found themselves one overtime goal from elimination against their hated first round opponents, the Chicago Blackhawks. ‘Hawks defenseman Chris Campoli definitely made a bad pass that ended up being an Alex Burrows goal, but there shouldn’t be much doubt that the bounce also went Vancouver’s way.

(Then again, there were some evil bounces against the Canucks as the Blackhawks roared back into the series, too.)

Big bounce for the Canucks 1: Burrows scores on Campoli misplay.

The Nashville Predators series reversed the trend of bounces, as Roberto Luongo was the victim of some wacky goals from behind Vancouver’s own red line. David Legwand’s second goal from Game 5 of their semifinals series is a great example of the bounces the Predators received/earned ... but ultimately Ryan Kesler and the Canucks “made their own luck” enough times to win the series 4-2.

Bad bounce 1: Legwand’s second goal featured a rather odd bounce, which you can see as part of this highlights package from Nashville’s Game 5 win.

The Western Conference finals began with a bad bounce for the Canucks and then ended with an even crueler bounce for the Sharks. Joe Thornton scored the first goal of the series when Luongo couldn’t clear the zone.

Bad bounce 2: Thornton exploits Luongo’s gaffe to begin the WCF with a groaner.

Kevin Bieksa’s series-clinching goal came thanks to a bounce for the ages, as you probably remember. (Read this post for a fantastic take on that astounding tally.)

The biggest bounce of all? Bieksa stuns the Sharks with that off-the-stanchions knuckler.

In some ways, the Canucks seemingly won the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals thanks to lucky breaks (if not “bounces”), with the team barely avoiding being off-sides during Raffi Torres’ game-winner while Alex Burrows managed to get his own loose puck that ended up being a wrap-around goal to win Game 2 just 11 seconds into overtime.

Hopefully this post shows that four playoff rounds create both positive and negative bounces as puck luck ebbs and flows. That being said, some of the biggest breaks have gone Vancouver’s way so far - especially lately. That’s something the Canucks are aware of, as they discussed with The Globe & Mail’s Roy MacGregor.

Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault – who is familiar with bad luck, having been fired as coach of the Montreal Canadiens not long after being a finalist for NHL coach of the year in 2000 – thinks there may be something to the way in which bounces have been in Vancouver’s favour this spring.

“You’ve got to get some bounces,” he told the Vancouver media this past week. “You get the bounces because you’ve been doing the right things for a long time. And I believe Vancouver – and I’ve said this a couple of times – is due for 40 years of good bounces.”

With the series shifting back to Boston tonight (on Versus at 8 p.m. ET, by the way), the natural question is: which team will get the big bounces in Game 3? The answer to that question might also end up being the winning squad.