Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs.

The Canucks had home ice advantage in the Finals by winning the Presidents' Trophy as the team that finished with the best regular season record (117 points).

It was the furthest distance between two cities in NHL history for the Finals, at 4,023 kilometres (2,500 miles), until 2024 between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers.

Mike Murphy, the NHL vice-president of hockey operations, had already been put in charge of disciplinary matters for the Finals, nonetheless there were concerns raised about Campbell's impartiality in handing out discipline since his son, Gregory, was an active player on the Boston Bruins.

The Bruins finished the regular season as the Northeast Division champion with 103 points, earning the third seed in the Eastern Conference.

In their 33rd postseason meeting, Boston eliminated their bitter rivals, the sixth-seeded Montreal Canadiens, in the first round of the playoffs in seven games.

It also allowed Boston to join Philadelphia as being the only cities to have all their teams play in each of the four major North American professional sports leagues' title rounds since 2000, following the Patriots in Super Bowls XXXVI in 2002, XXXVIII in 2004, XXXIX in 2005, and XLII in 2008.

[16][17] With the loss, Vancouver became the third team to lose in the Finals after winning the Presidents' Trophy, after the Bruins in 1990 and the Detroit Red Wings in 1995.

Bergeron also won gold medals as a teammate of Vancouver Canucks' goaltender Roberto Luongo at the 2004 Worlds and 2010 Olympics with Team Canada.

Raffi Torres's goal with 18.5 seconds left in regulation broke a scoreless tie to give the Canucks the victory.

The entire game was seen as a duel between the two opposing goaltenders; both Vancouver's Roberto Luongo and Boston's Tim Thomas were Vezina Trophy finalists for the 2010–11 season.

[27] At 05:07 into the first period, Vancouver defenseman Aaron Rome received a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct for a blindside hit to the head of Boston forward Nathan Horton.

Tim Thomas made 38 saves and Rich Peverley scored two goals as Boston shut out Vancouver, 4–0, to even the series.

Roberto Luongo, who stopped only 16 out of 20 shots, was replaced by backup goalie Cory Schneider after giving up the fourth Boston goal at 03:39 of the third period.

[31] Roberto Luongo made 31 saves and Maxim Lapierre scored the game's only goal to give Vancouver a 3–2 series lead.

Kevin Bieksa's shot went wide and rebounded off the end boards to Lapierre on the other side of the net, who then beat Tim Thomas after the Boston goalie was unable to recover his position in time.

Vancouver forward Mason Raymond suffered a fractured vertebra 20 seconds into the game on an awkward hit into the boards by Boston defenseman Johnny Boychuk, and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

[37] The game was the last of Mark Recchi's 22-year NHL career; he announced his retirement immediately afterward, during the post-game celebration.

In Canada, it was second most-watched CBC Sports program, drawing an average of 8.76 million viewers and trailing only the men's gold medal game in ice hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics;[42] In the US, NBC's broadcast drew a 5.7 national overnight rating and a 10 share (numbers that equaled game seven of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals),[42] a number later updated to 8.5 million viewers, making the game the most watched NHL broadcast in the US since 1973.

Shortly before the game ended with the apparent loss for Vancouver, fires were set on West Georgia Street.

Soon, a riot was in progress in downtown Vancouver, with police cars set on fire, shops looted and attendant destruction of property.