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With two wins in Cup finals, Bruins gain something else: higher expectations

Vancouver Canucks v Boston Bruins - Game Four

during Game Four of the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on June 8, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Jim Rogash

Going into this series, I found it hard to imagine how the Boston Bruins - a team that struggled to skate with a talented, but flawed Tampa Bay Lightning team - could possibly stick with the Vancouver Canucks. While my prediction of a 4-1 series win was my way of expressing my strong confidence in the Canucks rather than an insult to the Bruins’ prowess, it didn’t seem far off base.

Yet instead of the Bruins holding their breath after every shift, they’ve proved that they’re way beyond deserving to be on the same ice surface as the elite Canucks. With a 12-1 mark in wins and a narrow 4-2 margin in defeat, Vancouver’s honestly lucky that the series is notched up at 2-2.

That’s a big shock, but it’s clearly not an accident.

Bruins fans might have come into this series happy that their medium-hyped squad made it this far. It is the first time a Boston Bruins team made the Cup finals since 1990, after all. Yet with those two wins, the Bruins generated more than just pride and a legitimate chance at their first championship since the days when Bobby Orr had healthy knees and the hockey world at his feet; they’ve also raised the expectations of Boston fans, something Rich Levine captured in this column.

The Bruins are two wins away from the Stanley Cup, and the city’s on fire.

By now, the novelty of making it back to the Finals has worn off. After the events of the last two games, there’s no one who’s just “happy to be here.” When we look at the Bruins, they’re no longer a gang of scrappy guys trying like hell to catch a break and earn some respect. We see a team that’s more suited to win the title than any Bruins squad in the last 30 years.

They’re the real thing. They’re a championship team. We know it’s there.

Of course, with greater expectations come increased chances for deeper disappointments. The Bruins need to win two of their next three games to make Boston a true title town once again. If nothing else, they’ve shown they can fight with the best regular season team in the NHL and capture the attention of a spoiled sports market in the process.