GOODBYE!
So, there's so much to like here, I might have to gather my thoughts for a minute. I have been looking forward to this game since the end of the playoff series against the Canadiens last spring, and I have been waiting for the chance to get some sweet revenge for months and months. I have taken much of the Bruins' fantastic start this season with a grain of salt, knowing that the B's would have to stand up to the like of Montreal and Buffalo to validate their claims to being an elite Northeast team. Well, over the last week, the Bruins showed up, and with their monster win against the Habs tonight, the Bruins are the second best team in the entire NHL, with more points than the defending Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings. It's been a while since I've been this hoarse (well, since Game 4 of the ALDS), and while I'm pissed about the last minute heroics of Matt Cassel and Randy Moss going to waste, I'm not going to worry about that now. The Bruins beat the Canadiens in the regular season for the first time since 2006. And they didn't just beat them, they DESTROYED THEM. The Habs were not in this game at all, not for one minute.
This caps a set of back-to-back games where the Bruins played a young tenacious Chicago club (another fan base that just recently remembered it has a hockey team) and their archrivals, who had the forethought to bribe the NHL scheduling office so that they could arrive in Boston the night before their game and await a Bruins team that got back from Chicago at 3:00 am. But it didn't freakin' matter.
Of course, most of Boston missed all this exciting hockey, as the Celtics won their game on Wednesday with a jumper by Paul Pierce with 0.5 seconds on the clock, and the Patriots just finished losing to the Jets after forcing overtime on a Brady-esque drive by Cassel. This means that New England yet again was forced to chose between its three winter sports, and the Bruins yet again got the shaft. I'll be shocked if the Globe runs the Bruins story with little more than a tiny box score in the corner of their website, as per usual. It's maddening to me to wonder what the fuck it's going to take from this Bruins team to have casual sports fans notice. Hot start? Check. Statistically best goalie in the league? Check. First place in the division? Check. 5-game winning streak, and winners of 8-of-9? Check. Embarass age-old rival in every facet of the game at home? Check. And yet, I'm sure most people will be griping about the Pats tomorrow. Which is not to say I won't be, too. But, hey, guys, how 'bout them Bruins?
I'm gonna go ahead and say it, these Bruins look legit. Not "Stanley Cup Champions 2008-2009" legit, but "Advance Past First Round of Playoffs, Maybe Sneak into Eastern Conference Finals" legit. Now let me knock on some wood here... OK. This will also hopefully go a long way toward shutting up the Bruins "fans" who aren't happy unless they're miserable and can blame Jeremy Jacobs for it. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's the people who respond to any Bruins optimism with "When's the parade?" or some derisive dismissal like that. People need to realize that rebuilding a broken franchise takes time, and that if the Bruins make the playoffs and advance past the first round, only to bow out, the season will not be a failure. Judging the Bruins by the successes of the other sports teams in Boston is unfair, and it breeds impatience and bitterness. So quit it. These Bruins are hard-working and incredibly fun to watch, so shut up. And now, without more grandstanding, Three UP and Three DOWN:
UP
1. Marco Sturm. Scoring 2 more goals tonight, totalling 5 during the Bruins recent hot streak, everyone's favorite German makes me want to take back all the bad things I said about him. He's starting to gain the form of a 25-30 goal scorer, which is what I was hoping he would be as the season started.
2. Shawn Thornton. Again, the 4th line played like a Band of Brothers, and Shawn tallied a goal with some major help from Yelle (one of his own) and Kobasew (an assist). I bought my Shawn Thornton shirt today, officially cementing him as "Favorite Bruin Not Named Per-Johan Axelsson" in my book. I Heart the Fourth Line. Too bad he didn't mess up Georges Laraque. On the other hand...
3. Milan Lucic. Added some jarringly awesome hits, a goal to put the game effectively away, and had a Rock 'Em-Sock 'Em Robot bout with Mike Komisarek. Looch totally fucked him up, beating him to the ice and waving to the crowd as he skated to the penalty box. I LOVE this kid. So does everyone else.
DOWN
1. Refs. Not for unfair penalties (though the first one on PJ was a joke...I've never seen PJ hurt a fly, for crying out loud), but for consistently breaking up the flow of the game for both teams with some weird offside calls. Even when it seemed the teams would be able to tag up and continue, they blew the play dead. Not a lot of fun to watch.
2. Canadiens Fans. For the "Ole, Ole Ole Ole..." chant. A) that's a soccer chant. A European soccer chant. B) It sounds dumb, only slightly more so than the "Go Habs Go" chant. You're from Quebec. Chant in FRENCH. You don't see us going "ALLEZ BRUINS ALLEZ", do you?
3. Bruins Fans. For countering the "Ole" chant with a chant of "You're Gay, You're Gay You're Gay You're Gay...". Real classy there, guys. Way to make us all look like a bunch of morons. First, you can't really tell that you're chanting it, so it seems for a minute like there are more Habs fans than there are. Second, it makes us look petty, like when the Red Sox were in the throes of the Yankees inferiority complex. Maybe we are there, but with games like tonight, let the play on the ice speak for us. Third, in addition to it being tacky and lazy, it's also offensive. Makes us look like small-minded bigots in addition to sore winners. I'm all for being sore winners with the Habs, but can we taunt them with something better, like the "Nah Nah Nah" chant? Something they always threw at us, let's throw it back at them. I'll get off my soapbox now.
All in all, amazingly satisfying win. EXACTLY what I was hoping for when I purchased the Minipack I did, as it has 2 of 3 Habs games. Next one I have isn't until January, but the memories of tonight will keep me warm for a while. Don't look now, but the Bruins are making a statement. We can skate with the best in the league, and we can beat them. Come to the Garden at your own peril.
-M
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