Stanley Cup begins tonight

Associated Press

VANCOUVER, British Columbia

Daniel Sedin absently scratched his red playoff beard, thinking back on a decade of struggle and setbacks before the Vancouver Canucks reached the Stanley Cup finals against Boston.

Down the hallway, his identical twin rubbed his identical beard exactly the same way.

Henrik Sedin was considering a more pressing problem, though: Now that the Swedish superstars are finally close enough to touch the Stanley Cup, how do they get it away from hulking defenseman Zdeno Chara and the bruising Bruins?

“We’ve had a lot of challenges along the way to get here, but he’s the biggest one yet — literally, I guess,” said Henrik Sedin, last season’s NHL MVP. “It’s going to be exciting to see what happens, because we haven’t played each other enough to know those guys very well. It’s unpredictable.”

The only sure bet is that one championship drought will end for one long-suffering hockey-loving city after the Canucks face Boston in the Stanley Cup finals, starting in Game 1 tonight in Vancouver.

The Canucks have never won it all, falling in their only two previous finals appearances in four decades of existence. Their city is buzzing with anticipation, with hundreds of fans filling the sidewalks and bars of Granville Street in blue-and-green jerseys in the days before the finals.

They’re breathlessly following the Sedin twins, who finally turned their talent into team success during a spectacular season in Vancouver. With impressive depth and solid defense backing their star-studded top lines, the Canucks won the Presidents’ Trophy with 54 victories and 117 points before winning nine of their past 12 playoff games heading into the finals.

The Canucks might be the best team ever assembled on Canada’s West Coast, yet they realize they haven’t done anything until they raise the Cup.