For two teams with little history together, the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins sure looked like bitter rivals Wednesday in Game 1 of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals. They had the pushing, shoving and biting—yeah, grown men still bite each other—to prove it.
The game itself featured a slew of impressive saves from the goalies until the Canucks scored the game’s lone goal with just 18 seconds left in the third period. Jannik Hansen broke free from the Bruin defense and slid a pass to Raffi Torres who put the puck past a sprawled Tim Thomas. Of course, being in Vancouver, Rogers Arena went crazy, Canada crazy.
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But also crazy was the amount of chippy play, including rocking hits a few blows that landed between the two teams, especially at the end of the first period when Vancouver’s Alex Burrows locked in a tussle with Boston’s Patrice Bergeron. After Bergeron placed his gloved finger in the mouth of Burrows, the Canuck appeared to bite it, enraging Bergeron further. Burrows denies wrongdoing and Bergeron did put his finger inside the opponents’ mouth during a fight, so it will now be up to the NHL to dole out any punishments.
We’ll see if Game 2 in Vancouver on Saturday again has as many goals as bites.