Breaking: A premier senior forward has decided to join the Tampa Bay Lightning, but…

When Vancouver Canucks fans looked across the continent during the Stanley Cup conference finals in 2011, they knew one thing: the Tampa Bay Lightning would be the easier matchup for their heroes.

The Lightning were a strong team, but they didn’t have an all-world goalie like Tim Thomas minding their crease, posting possibly the greatest season all-time for a goalie.

And on Saturday night at the tail end of the Hockey Night in Canada telecast, former Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa acknowledged he and his teammates knew it, too.

 

“We wanted Tampa Bay,” he said during a panel discussion with Ron MacLean, Kelly Hrudey and Elliotte Friedman. “I’m probably the first person to ever admit this.”

 

“Just looking at the two different styles, we thought we matched up against Tampa better.”

The Eastern Conference final that year between the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning went to Game 7, and Bieksa said he and his teammates watched it, obviously with great interest.

 

But it wasn’t to be, with the Bruins winning the game.

 

And as many have pointed out — and which always must be mentioned — it was a game in which no penalties were called. The Lightning had scored three times on the power play in Game 6.

 

The Lightning’s special teams in those playoffs were outstanding: 25.4 per cent on the power play, 92.3 per cent on the penalty kill.

It was all very suspicious, especially given that the NHL’s head of discipline, Colin Campbell, had a son playing in the series for Boston. Campbell had recused himself from discipline matters on the series, but as former Province columnist Tony Gallagher noted, he still had authority over referee assignments in the playoffs, and those assignments were lucrative payouts.