NBC Sports presents Stanley Cup Final Week on NBCSN, reliving classic Stanley Cup Final games and original films and shows from the past decade across seven nights. Today, we give our memories from the the 2013 Cup Final between the Blackhawks and Bruins.
JAMES: Almost exactly one year ago, the Bruins were just off during Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, seeing a ring slip through their fingers. Sometimes it’s about an off night.
Sometimes, a series can slip away from you during the equivalent of an off (and very rushed) bathroom break.
Seventeen seconds. That’s all it took for Bryan Bickell to tie Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final (with just 1:16 left in the third period), and then for Dave Bolland to score the series-clincher.
In 17 seconds, the Bruins saw the series go from a “Who knows?” Game 7 to their playoff lives riding on overtime to the Blackhawks raising the Stanley Cup in Boston.
It can be easy to forget just how small the difference is between the Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, and Brad Marchand Bruins winning three Stanley Cups instead of one.
That two-goal stretch also seems stranger in retrospect considering the scorers. Both Bolland and Bickell would sign contracts their teams would regret, and eventually leave the Blackhawks. There are probably still a few establishments in Chicago where they don’t have to pay for their drinks, though.
JAKE: There is the general assumption that anyone playing the Stanley Cup Final has picked up some bumps and bruises along the way. It’s less about whether you are hurt, and more about how badly you are hurt.
For Patrice Bergeron during the 2013 Cup Final, the answer to that question was: very.
Normally, injured players reveal their ailments as soon as the series ends. In Bergeron’s case, it took a few days for those details to emerge because he had been admitted to the hospital with a collapsed lung after the Game 6 defeat.
When he was released, Bergeron outlined this stunning list: torn rib cartilage in Game 4 (where he scored a pair of goals), a broken rib in Game 5 (which led to a separate hospital visit), and a separated shoulder and punctured lung in Game 6 (where he played nearly 18 minutes).
We’ll never know whether Boston, without Bergeron, could have won a Game 7 in Chicago. But the fact that he almost led them to that point is worth commending on its own.
[FULL NBCSN STANLEY CUP WEEK SCHEDULE]
SEAN: How Game 6 and the series ended is the obvious takeaway here. But things began with a very long night on June 12. The Blackhawks came back from a 3-1 third period deficit and took the opening game of the series. After Dave Bolland and Johnny Oduya evened the score, the next goal didn’t come for a while.
A long while.
The game needed three overtimes, in fact, before Andrew Shaw, and his knee, sent the United Center into a tizzy:
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NBC Sports presents Stanley Cup Final Week on NBCSN, reliving classic Stanley Cup Final games and original films and shows from the past decade across seven nights, beginning on Monday, June 8.
Programming will also stream on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
Thursday, June 11 - NBCSN
• 2013 Stanley Cup Final Game 2: Boston vs. Chicago – 5 p.m. ET
• 2013 Stanley Cup Final Game 4: Chicago vs. Boston – 7 p.m. ET
• 2013 Stanley Cup Final Game 6: Chicago vs. Boston – 9 p.m. ET
• 2013 Chicago Blackhawks Championship Film – 11 p.m. ET
• 2013 Stanley Cup Final Game 6: Chicago vs. Boston – 12:30 a.m. ET
• Gamechangers: All-Time Greats – 2:30 a.m. ET