Please don’t let this be the last time the Bruins see the Canucks until next season.

Saturday was just too entertaining. Amidst all these blowouts, Boston just saw a passionate hockey game between a couple of ticked off teams. If there is a hockey God, he or she needs to see to it that these two teams meet again in the Stanley Cup finals.

Remember all that junk about Saturday being “just another game?” Yeah, that was hilarious enough. It wasn’t five minutes into the game before gloves were being dropped, fists were flying, polarizing forwards were being polarizing and game misconducts were being handed out (and later rescinded). 

It all started when Shawn Thornton was tangled up with Boston nemesis Alexandre Burrows. The Canucks forward, who famously confused Patrice Bergeron’s finger with a mozzarella stick in a cannibalistic showing in Game 1 of the Cup finals, slashed Bruins forward Daniel Paille. Thornton then returned the favor to Burrows, who speared the Bruins’ enforcer up high. That was enough for Thornton to lose it, and before long, Thornton had every Vancouver skater on the ice at the time jumping on him. 

“I’m a big boy, I can handle myself. I’m not worried about [having to take on multiple players],” Thornton said after the game. “I was more upset with the spear to the throat. I thought, I mean I don’t lose my cool for no reason. I see myself as a pretty honest player, but I’m not going to let someone spear me in the throat. I’m also a man, so I stand up for myself.”

That wasn’t all that came of it. Nathan Horton fought Dale Weise in a marathon bout, an indication that you didn’t need to be on the Canucks last season (Weise was in the Rangers’ organization) to know how these teams feel about one another.

In case you couldn’t tell, they hate each other, and the fact that they couldn’t hold it in for even five minutes illustrates just how deep that hate is. It’s a rivalry that unfortunately could never truly be in the regular season given that they come from two different conferences. If they could just find a way to meet in the postseason again, the hockey world will once again be treated to some highly passionate hockey between two teams that, to borrow a phrase from Muhammad Ali, get it on because they don’t get along. As long as the main pieces are in place, it should be like that each time these teams meet. 

“I don't know,” Chris Kelly said with a laugh when asked if the emotions between the B’s and Canucks will always be as high as they were Saturday. “Time will tell. Obviously, it was a heated battle out there by both sides, and I thought it was an entertaining game, for the most part.”

Think of the characters that this rivalry – if only it were one – could have if the teams were to meet with the Cup on the line once again. Burrows still pulls the same shenanigans. Maxim Lapierre, who actually fought Saturday, showed he hasn’t changed when he got a sprinting start towards that scrum with Thornton and Burrows and left his feet to jump in. From the Vancouver perspective, they probably view Brad Marchand through similar goggles, as his play to avoid getting hit by Sami Salo was certainly a dangerous one. 

Vancouver Kevin Bieksa showed after the game that he hasn’t gotten any brighter since the teams last played, as he puffed out his chest after the game and explained how the Bruins lost the game. 

“We play hard, but we are a disciplined team,” Bieksa said. “That’s what separates us from them. They obviously play hard, but they tend to do stupid things. The Marchand hit was a pretty stupid thing and I’m sure he’ll be getting a phone call for that one. There is no reason for that. But we made them pay for that. We got to score two goals on that power play and that’s the game. He’s got to live with that.”

Marchand has to “live with that?” Unfortunately, it seems the players that were telling the media the game only counted for two points forgot to tell Bieksa. Never has a paragraph with more room for easy comebacks ever been uttered, but that’s Bieksa. That’s part of what makes the Canucks so opposite from the Bruins. That’s what makes the Bruins and Canucks such perfect enemies. 

And don't forget about the goaltending situation. Cory Schneider, as the Bruins saw Saturday, is a great goalie who leads his team in both goals-against average and save percentage. Still, the decision to play Schneider instead of giving Roberto Luongo a chance to exorcise his Garden demons was an admission by the Canucks that they -- whether that's Alain Vigneault, Luongo himself, or anyone else -- aren't confident that they can win in Boston with the man who, partially because of money, is going to be their No. 1 no matter what.

So, what are the chances that the two teams could meet again in the finals? If you’re going to pick a team to represent the East, at this point it has to be the Bruins with their outstanding goaltending, deep offense, strong blue line and plus-68 goal differential (that’s double what the Rangers, who are second in that category are at plus-34).

With the Canucks in the West, it’s a question of whether they can get past Detroit. Just as the Bruins have the Rangers as their biggest potential road block, the Red Wings, could easily get in Vancouver’s way. But all that is months away. 

It wouldn’t be too uncommon to see the same teams meet in the Cup finals in consecutive years. The Penguins and Red Wings met in both 2008 and 2009, and the Islanders did it in the early ‘80s. For hockey’s sake – for the sake of all the characters, all the drama and anything else that comes with it – it should happen again this season.