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Slow starts plague Bruins, Canucks early in season

Boston Bruins v Vancouver Canucks - Game Seven

VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: Roberto Luongo (L) #1 of the Vancouver Canucks congratulates Tim Thomas #30 of the Boston Bruins after defeating the Vancouver Canucks in Game Seven of the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Arena on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Boston Bruins defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4 to 0. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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Much like two friends who go drink-for-drink during a binge, both the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks are seemingly dealing with Stanley Cup hangovers. (The Bruins lost to the Hurricanes while the Canucks fell to the Flyers tonight.)

The two teams that made it to the 2011 championship round have combined for two wins in seven games so far. They’re losing in different ways, but to extend the metaphor, both seem like they just want to sleep late instead of getting to work on time.

For the defending champion Bruins, it seems like they’ve been a little flat to start games. Their offense has been stagnant in general, but it’s been more pronounced in the first period; they’ve scored just one of their seven goals in the opening stanza. That happened when they were still riding the high of a banner-raising ceremony, so the B’s must find a way to find an early spark more often.

That spark isn’t coming from the usual suspects like injured center David Krejci or top-line wingers Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton, but at least the B’s are showing some promise from Tyler Seguin and solid work from their goalies.

On the other hand, the Canucks keep shooting themselves in the foot early on. The instinct is to assume that Vancouver’s talented group has a feeling that they can just “turn it on” and win games late, but that’s been a dangerous instinct so far. It worked out against the Columbus Blue Jackets; the Canucks had more penalties (three) than shots (two) in the first period, but wrangled a 3-2 win after revving up the pressure in the third.

That didn’t work out so well tonight against a legitimate contender in the Philadelphia Flyers, though. The Canucks took the game’s first four penalties, which allowed Philly to take a 3-1 first period lead that they managed to preserve with a 5-4 win.

The Canucks didn’t look sharp in their season opener against the Penguins, either, as they went down 2-0 and 3-1 but managed to squeeze out a charity point.
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Seven games between two teams is a small sample, but the Bruins and Canucks shouldn’t rest on their laurels, either. They need to remember that their past accomplishments will only make teams try that much harder to curb their future success.