It's Always Fair To Compare...

BOSTON and MONTRÉAL, anyways...!

Back to Beantown

Liked · 7 hours ago 

Taken in Montreal, Source: http://bit.ly/RPoQxu

 — with Nano Caraballo, Stephen Normand, Thomas Hayes, Joseph R Costa, Arif Omar and Tom Hayes.

Some street in MTL, as thousands upon millions 

throughout the province of Québec 

continue the tradition of moving 

in the early days of July... 

Some use unorthodox methods to do so, too. 

Now compare this to Boston's own traditions - and urban layout, then or now...

Tremont Street - circa 1923

There is no comparison to be made! 

Alumni - Remembered 1.0

Boston has seen many a hard-as-nails competitor over the decades, and several of them pint-sized but with an uncommon combative spirit. Forbes Kennedy of the Boston Bruins is one of those. Recently remembered as one of the one-hundred or so toughest players to ever have played the game of hockey (and, yes, it is only a game) this gentleman, off the ice, is a true example of tenacity, resilience and fraternity above all: for putting the team first pretty much spelled out the end of his own career...

At 5 feet 8 inches tall and one-hundred fifty pounds of weight, Forbes wasn't, at first glance, destined to be the enforcer that he became. Much less so in the NHL, as he hadn't even begun to learn to skate until the age of eleven. Some have called it his dogged determination, others have raved about his willingness to challenge himself and opponents alike; all that Boston Bruins fans could tell was that Forbes Kennedy was one hell of a tough guy and competitor, hitting people relentlessly and taking on all comers afterwards! Before finishing up with the Bruins, though, Kennedy had had a storied career already as he had played for the Blackhawks, Red Wings, Maple Leafs and Flyers. As a matter of fact, he had been one of the fan favorites on the Flyers initial expansion team - an expansion the Boston Bruins organization had been against, at first. One can tell why: soon enough, the new teams, especially Philly, began to transform hockey into a brutish farce where it was no longer noble warlike hostilities on ice (as it had always been between Boston and Montreal, for instance) but the violence was raised up a peg, to a level that made it the least respectable of all five major North American sports (counting the real Futebol in there, or soccer as Americans call it, along with basketball, baseball and the NFL variety of "football"...)

Players such as Forbes Kennedy were called upon to have many, many fights throughout their careers, often shortened by this very fact. The goonery reached a pinnacle with the Broad Street Bullies era - and the older franchises only had to follow suit, simply in order to compete: hence, the Big Bad Bruins. Forbes Kennedy did his job courageously, night in, night out, and he did it well. And then came a night when he was destined to wage his most famous battle of all - most famous battles, to be entirely exact, as he fought four consecutive opponents - all in the defense of his dear teammates, one of them in particular, usually. This eventful and especially violent night in Kennedy's NHL career was to be his last, too - and it wasn't exactly as others, so-called "true journalists and not bloggers" have reported it to have taken place, either. Those reporters, whose seats are usually in the bleachers, know who they are... It all started when Pat Quinn (then only a thug of Toronto, not its team's G.M.) got abusive with Boston's legendary Bobby Orr. Kennedy dealt with the ensuing chaos and had to face different opponents in retaliatory fights, ending up punching a linesman as well, as everything truly got out of hand. The NHL carried out yet another one of their (many) miscarriages of justice, soon after that, as they suspended Kennedy for this loss of control of his emotions. 

He would never return to the NHL after this. 
Forbes Kennedy finished his career with 888 penalty minutes in 603 NHL games.
The last dozen or so of those were gained when he valiantly defended his team's best elements, his team, his teammates. He didn't deserve to see his career end so ignominiously as that - even though he was caught up to defend worthless goons such as Quinn and their reprehensible actions.

The Boston Bruins understood that - when he left the club to play elsewhere, he was to perform the same tasks with the same degree of allegiance as he had for them before that.

The Boston Bruins understand that - and sympathize.