Vancouver Canucks Should Hope to Face Tampa Bay Lightning Visit PinnacleSports Save For Later Posted by Bettingpro Staff 26 May 2011 Tweet Games 1 and 2 for sure; 5 and 7 if needed. (credit: Wikipedia.org) Related Articles See all NHL news Share it Pin It With their opponent yet to be determined, the Vancouver Canucks have to like the fact that whoever they play promises to be beat up.The Vancouver Canucks finished up the 2011 Western Conference Finals in an efficient five game series and as a result they have earned the right to some rest ahead of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals.Over in the Eastern Conference Finals however the story is a little bit different as the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins will go the distance. Those two teams will play game 7 on Friday night, a game that will come from Boston with Versus and CBC providing television coverage at 8pm ET.If you asked the Vancouver Canucks who they would rather play then you would only get the standard answer. Quoting no one in particular the answer would probably be something like this: "We don't care who we play. We know that we'd be in a for a tough series."That answer to that question has been given so many times over the years by players on teams in similar situations as the one the Canucks are in right now that there's barely a point in posing the question any more.The home ice advantage would not change regardless of who the Canucks play in the finals as Vancouver, the President's Trophy winner, are the number one team overall in the playoffs but Lightning goalie Dwayne Roloson, awesome as he might be, is still 41 years old and struggling more and more as the post-season progresses.Roloson made one previous appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals as he backstopped Edmonton to the Western Conference championship five years ago. However in game one of the Finals that year Roloson suffered an injury on what was a pretty innocent looking play, an injury that ended his season and hurt Edmonton's chances of winning game one.Roloson's staying power in net isn't exactly a sure thing and back-up goalies are always more random than the players they back-up although Mike Smith for the Lightning does not appear to be as shaky as Ty Conklin was in 2006. You can't exactly hope for a bad team in the Stanley Cup Finals and it's true that whoever Vancouver play will be tough but Tampa Bay might have a crack in the armor right now, more so than Boston. The last time Tampa Bay made the finals they played a Canadian-based team and defeated the 2004 Calgary Flames in seven games. Hopefully, if the Canucks play the Lightning, Vancouver's go-ahead goals in the late going of the third period don't get waved off this year much like Calgary's did in game 6 of the '04 finals. Saving officiating assists, Vancouver look like they would be a bigger favorite against Tampa Bay than they would against Boston although I'm of the opinion that the Cup is Vancouver's to win regardless of their opponent. Read our PinnacleSports review Join professional sports bettors at PinnacleSports now. 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