2021: Round One

 

so... it has begun! 

and one must say... it is going grrrrrreat! 

55, actually ~ and counting! 

(the only other notable difference between the two goals 

being that Orr's sealed a conquest of the Cup 

-against the slithery St-Louis Blues- 

while Marchand's goal merely tied the first round 

series with cantankerous Crapitals...)

BERGY would get the clinching GOALS:

...which would lead to this touching moment: 

The new captain - with our former captain. 

The passing of the torch is official, now. 

Bye Bye team of crapital jerks 

(Orlov, Wilson, Hathaway... OVIE!) 

The resemblance is uncanny - indeed! 

Comparing the two captains 

told you everything you needed to know 

about who deserved it more; 

verily, it was like comparing 

JESUS to BARABBAS... 

AQUAMAN to a SUB-MARINER... 

Ty Berius to ILL-Eagle!!! 

(nice collage(s) by one Scott MacMillan, by the way; 

he adorned a Facebook group with them 

- a group that is chock-full of characters, 

as it is... And here are just a few...!)

Bidie...

Mary...

Rusty...?

AND, IN A COUPLE OF SEASONS NOW 

PLAYED UNDER THIS SPECIAL PROTOCOL 

AMIDST ALL THAT IS GOING ON... 

Every little triumph is amplified; 

individual achievements could have been 

more than enough... 

BUT IT IS A TEAM SPORT: 

AND WE WANT THE CUP! 

THREE.

MORE.

ROUNDS.

#BostonChampion

It Should Have Been...

What do the damnable Avengers (including Boston-born Chris Evans, 

self-appointed ass of America... er... Captain America!) 

call that side-effect thing again... a splinter reality? 

An alternate timeline: there you go! 

Well, call this what you will 

but this should have been 

the way things would have gone 

in these silly goose playoffs: 

... just like EA Sports 

had projected it, 

way back in 2014! 

They did it for Jarome, mind you - 

they had a soft spot for a great player who wanted 

to win it all once, at least, before calling it a career... 

Iginla had tried with the Penguins, in 2013; 

they were swept by the Bruins! 

He joined the Bruins the next year... 

They were ripped off by hated rivals in 7 games! 

And that was it for Iginla's quest for a cup... 

HE SHOULD HAVE PERSEVERED - 

kept trying, in 2015: third time's (usually) the charm 

- and it would have been, had he stuck with the 

BRUINS - instead, he left the team, 

weakening them, diminishing their chances...  

(He was not crazy: he was not about to join 

the luckier-than-crap shitty habs next...!!!) 

AND SO LET US BELIEVE 

- yes, *believe* - 

that if scientists are correct 

and science-fiction can be prophetic  

(sometimes...) and hit the nail 

on its proverbial head, 

somewhere, out there 

there is a reality 

- an alternate dimension, 

another timeline - 

where things occurred 

exactly as some sportscaster 

had projected them, right there 

on that bracket challenge! 

A Luminous predictor, really... 

Getty Image

THE REAL 

STANLEY CUP 

CHAMPIONS 

Sunday, Blessed Sunday!

Yesterday was truly a Blessed Sunday indeed! 

THE RIGHTFUL CHAMPIONS 

PREVAILED ON TWO FRONTS!  

Not only we saw the Boston Bruins 

rectify things quite a bit 

DOMINATING THE BLUES 

IN ST. LOUIS AGAIN 

tying the series 3-3 

with a 5-1 rout 

of those jerks; 

It wasn't just the KNOWLEDGEABLE FANS WITH 

DISCERNMENT AND GOOD TASTE that were ecstatic; 

it was both playoff heroes Zdeno CHARA 

(who played with obvious injuries - saw his sacrifice 

rewarded with the final goal of the game, to seal the deal) 

and Cam NEELY - now the team president, of course; 

what he had seen in prior games had left him 

quite disgusted with the NHL as a league 

and as a work environment overall... 

(as if what Badger Bob and Ulf did to him in the 90s 

- totally unpunished acts we must add -

wasn't enough already...)

BUT WE ALSO SAW, 

EARLIER IN THE DAY, THE OTHER 

WORTHY CHAMPIONS GET THEIR DUE 

way over there, across the big blue (!) 

WHEN PORTUGAL WON 

THE INAUGURAL 

UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE CUP 

after having dominated the competition there 

-as well they should- 

defeating Switzerland 3-1 and then the Netherlands 1-0: 

The knowledgeable, erudite fans of the ONE TRUE FOOTBALL 

were equally ecstatic here - if not more so! 

For, here, the referees won't get any additional chances 

to make the bad guys come out on top; 

here, there are no drunkards giving you the finger 

because they are non-entities that never did squat in their lives 

and are now living vicariously through the cheating tactics 

of their "heirs" - yeah, we mean you, Brett Hull - you are scum! 

That Berube baboon is the second coming of Badger Bob 

(we all know how it ended for Badger Bob - right?) 

and those BASTARD BLUES are BLOODY LOSERS 

who can only compete with dirty hits, cheapshots and malice.   

Fortunately, the UEFA does not let scum like you come to the 

surface on their big tournaments - unlike the NHL!!! 

But we digress... 

... and they were asking...

It is nice to see 

that there still is 

JUSTICE 

in this world! 

THE B WORD

No - not the buzz word! 

The B Word is... BELIEVE! 

And to tell you more about believing, 

I will simply point you to all manners of 

"hangouts" if you will... 

in very well-known social media sites 

where plenty of believers 

are telling you -in all sorts of ways- 

that you have got to 

BELIEVE 

Hey - the Bruins have done it before 

and not just recently too; quite a few times, 

in fact, in their long history...! 

The Blues? 

The Blues have never done it 

in 52 years of existence!!! 

This 2018-2019 Team!!!

There were many questions surrounding the

BOSTON BRUINS entering the 2018-2019 season: 

some of those questions remain, at the end of May 

and the beginning of the Stanley Cup Finals... 

Is this the last year for captain Zdeno Chara? 

What about David Backes - is he going to be 

just like last year's late season addition 

who promptly retired afterwards...? 

What about the youth movement: 

are these young players that general manager 

Don Sweeney appears to be so confident in 

truly what the team needs to build upon 

- going forward into 2020 and beyond? 

Already the young son of Ted Donato 

(Ted having been one of Don's teammates, 

back in the Ray Bourque/Cam Neely/Dave Poulin 

era...) was let go...  He was not part of that future. 

But they say the future is NOW - 

and the question is, therefore, such: 

can the present mix of veterans 

(who have won the Stanley Cup - in 2011 - 

and should have won it in 2012... 2013... 2014...) 

and youngsters (such as Charlie McAvoy, 

Danton Heinen, Chris Wagner, Sean Kuraly, 

Brandon Carlo, Matt Grzelcyk, Noel Acciari,  

Karson Kuhlman, Joakim Nordstrom 

 and many others)  

come together quick, as a team -  

a team worthy of the 

Many thanks to a *DC* for this wonderful overall picture 

of Boston's championships - a colorful tapestry 

that only misses dozens of division titles, 

conference championships 

and such - but then 

he would run out 

of room! 

It was a rough and tumble season, but they emerged as contenders eventually: challenging the top team in the league (all of a sudden; after being destroyed in the playoffs last year, by the eventual champion Caps) - the Tampa Bay Lightning. In one key match-up, the Bruins served them serious notice by beating them 4-0. The Lightning would have none of it, of course: firmly believing this was to be their year, they fiercely fought back to steal the last two games they faced the Bruins in during the regular season, expecting to meet them along the way to the Finals... But then a funny thing happened on the way to those Finals - more on that in a sec! 

The Boston Bruins' chief concern was their projected first round opponent in these playoffs - the Toronto Maple Leafs! Ever since acquiring John Tavares (a signing countered by the Bruins' own Chris Wagner, around the same time) those Leafs were seeing themselves, also, in the Finals already - playing for the Cup!  Don Sweeney worked to improve the Bruins just like the Leafs had improved themselves - so that their first round series would end exactly the same way as last year's: 4-3 Bruins! And as we all know it now - it worked! It worked perfectly! 

The Bruins ended the regular season in up-and-down fashion: winning some big games, dropping some in inexplicable fashion. It is expected during a long stretch of 80+ games, of course...

And then they enter the playoffs - with renewed optimism. The acquisitions of Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson seemed more than enough to match Toronto's surge; there were only questions about it being nearly enough to match Tampa Bay blow for blow. And there was, of course, the defending champion, Washington... And maybe even Pittsburgh, to worry about...? (NAH!) 

But then the unexpected happened - didn't it? 
Columbus ousted the mighty Lightning; IN FOUR STRAIGHT! 
Carolina outlasted Washington (earning itself quite the unflattering nickname along the way) and the defending champs were suddenly gone too - as the Canes beat the Caps in seven games! 
Even the Islanders helped, surprising the Penguins in four straight too (only to be ousted, in the second round, in four straight themselves, by the Canes!) 
Meanwhile, Boston took care of Toronto once again in seven games - but game 7 was noticeably easier to triumph in! Last year, it was closer; the Laffs (sorry; Leafs!) are getting further away from their lofty aspirations - not any closer to fulfilling any of them at all! It is quite laughable indeed when one thinks of it... But that is another story and their problem to have; so well-deserved, too! 

Boston then neutralized the Columbus Blue Jackets in six games before sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes - earning seven straight wins to enter the Stanley Cup Finals! Wooooo! 
(Hey - we beat the man... men... Hurricanemen... Hurricanara... that storm that was coming; ''THE JERKS'' - whatever you want to call it... WE BEAT THEM; OKAY? Thus to the victor go the spoils: we get to use their supporter (North Carolina native - resident, anyway) Ric Flair's WOOOOO for the Finals! And we get to use it A LOT! Flair is a fan of Tom Brady anyways; is he not? And the Patriots are the Bruins' brothers! Two of them, most particularly: Julian Edelman - and the Gronk! Champions, sticking together! As the Nature Boy used to say: ''oh, Lord, it is so hard to be humble!'' WOOOOO!) 

And, now... it's suddenly a rematch of the 1969-1970 Finals?!? 

Because, meanwhile, on the other side (the Western conference) there were upsets after upsets too... Last year's finalist, Las Vegas, fell early on; Dallas was never going to do much... Colorado, Nashville, Calgary (ha) and Winnipeg (hahaha) never had a CHANCE...! But San Jose seemed poised to finally break through and fulfill the EA Sports prophecy (projection, really) from 2014 and reach the Stanley Cup Finals - just to fall to the Bruins (five years ago, it meant a first and lone cup for Jarome Iginla - who's no longer playing and has joined, instead, that long list of great players that never won the darn thing; but, hey, the whole Sharks line-up, with Joe Thornton first and foremost there, will wind up joining that long list of great players who never won the damn cup! It's just the way it is... And it is, quite frankly, no big deal at all.) 

Thus, as we know, the Sharks bit the dust instead of fulfilling "EA prophecy" again - falling to the ''worst to first'' Cinderella team of the year - the St-Louis Blues; THE REAL JERKS of these playoffs, if you ask me! Coached by a real goon (Terry O'Reilly was never like this: this Craig Berube schmuck reeks of another jerk I still have nightmares of: Badger Bob, who coached Pittsburgh with desperation to WIN - no matter how it gets done! Coaches like that are not good fellows: they're legalized maniacs! Bob was extreme; he dispatched Ulf Samuelsson to injure Cam Neely on purpose. Berube has stopped just short of so much: instead, he has his whole team of underachievers overachieving by playing dirty - all 12 forwards and 6 defencemen of them! But the Bruins can play physical too, when they have to; it used to be their entire identity, as a matter of fact! These days, they are a speed and finesse team though; Pastrnak, Bergeron, Krejci... those are skilled players! Even Marchand - no matter what his rep is, in the damned league! THE BRUINS ARE BETTER THAN THE BLUES - no question!) 

Boston and St-Louis it is, then... just like in the days of ORR! 
And we all know how that one ended... eh? 

WOW - just WOW!!! 

Massachusetts and Missouri have a long, storied rivalry, it turns out: Red Sox, Cardinals, Patriots, Rams, Bruins and Blues have battled it out at the pinnacle of sports on numerous occasions - Boston having won all of those confrontations with the exception of the first two - during those wretched, dreadful ''curse of the Bambino'' days! The Celtics would have gladly joined the fray as well; but there is no NBA team in Missouri! Otherwise, this would be even more lopsided...! For it was never a fair contest: a complete city, well-rounded in every area, with the top schools, world famous symphonic orchestras, major historical significance, well-known artists in all platforms there can be on top of the most noteworthy politicians of the nation and several top-notch athletes in every sport there is - versus a town from the mid-west that attracts only the rejects from everywhere else and is only renowned for a musical genre...?!?  No, that was never even close! Come on!! 

THE BOSTON SLAM is impossible now though; given that the Celts were dropped by the Bucks who, in turn, buckled under the Raptors (something Celtic Pride would have not done!)  BUT STILL: this is unprecedented success for ONE SINGLE TOWN - and it continues on and on and on! And I always said it: ''Boston Champion'' was my soapbox, for all those years, rooting for the underdog Bruins, rebuilding Celts, coming of age Pats and cursed Sox!  They were already champions to me, in the '80s (when current Bruins GM, Don Sweeney, was only their fourth defenseman! And current Bruins team president - TP, therefore? -was The Man, Cam Neely; plagued by injuries just like Bobby Orr and several other Bruins before him...) and I kept on spreading the word throughout the '90s too; but it truly is since the Patriots won their first Super Bowl and the Red Sox reversed the curse in such brilliant fashion (dare I say luminous fashion: by toppling their hated rival, the New York Yankees, after being down 3-1; and then defeating the St-Louis Cards in four straight to win their first World Series in 83 years!) that BOSTON has become THE CITY OF CHAMPIONS in most everyone's eyes. And this year (2018-2019 season, really) is the crowning achievement and absolute confirmation of that: with the Pats and Sox as reigning champions again, the Bruins have risen to the occasion too, by being crowned Eastern conference champions - and they can become the third overall champion hailing from the same city, in the same year...! 

The Celtics had a good season, too; they certainly are contenders. THE SLAM was a real, strong possibility...! They got surprised by a team they underestimated, that's all; a team led by a player they could have drafted, too! (He must have been revengeful, that ''Greek Freak''... at least not a JERK, like the Canes and the Blues! Although I'd say he is, too - just not in his actions; basketball being a different sport with fouls and little to no-contact - that's the only reason why, really! But I digress...) 

For it is undeniable now, even by anyone who only follows sports casually: the city of Boston is truly the city of champions - as I always have clamored so, all these years, simply knowing better than every other casual observer out there...! And Boston has in fact been dominant for much longer than that, earning several division championships and conference titles along the way in all four major sports (in North America, that is...) but most particularly for the last twenty (20) years (four times more so than St-Louis!) yes, it has been absolutely undeniable - as it can be seen in the chart below:

BOSTON 

deserves to win 

its seventh (7th) Cup 

in the 4th major sport in town; 

~ THE TOWN ~ 

THE CITY OF CHAMPIONS! 

Of course, if there was any justice in this world, 

the Boston Bruins would already have won 

their seventh cup - a long, looooong time ago... 

They'd be a 10-time... no...  make that a 

20-time Stanley Cup Champion 

--- easily. 

And everyone who knows the game 

- truly knows the game - 

knows the veracity of this statement. 

Big Things Are Coming - signed Don & Dan!

We saw the Sox do damage... now 

The Pats Are Coming!

"They're just jealous (sic) 'cause they ain't us!"

And The Bruins and Celtics, Too! 

YOU JUST 

WAIT...! 

THE GM IS AT WORK... putting it all together! 

This Don Sweeney:

NOT this Don Sweeney: 

And then there's DANNY...

#CUsRise

The Rook 

and #CUsRise 

were opposed by the alleged King 

and the dubious hashtag 

#WhateverItTakes 

(how very mercenary of you, 

 Damned Cavaliers...!) 

 And, in the end... 

without three of its top players in the line-up, 

the Boston Celtics' Rise 

was halted... Alas. 

Is it sufficient that, 

-just like the Bruins 

in the previous round 

in the NHL playoffs- 

the Celtics will see 

their hated opponent 

be destroyed systematically 

(even more so than the 

Tampa Bay Lightning was - 

by the NHL's version of Lebron: 

 Capital Ovechkin!)

in the very next round 

- this time not the East Finals 

but THE FINALS... 

(by the NBA's version of 

Cristiano Ronaldo: 

the Golden State Warriors' 

 Stephen Curry!)

It is small consolation, indeed. 

 May be enough for the Leprechaun... 

 But it is not enough for the 

 17-Time World Champion 

 (that's one more than Ric Flair!) 

 most storied franchise 

 in ALL of SPORTS - 

 The Boston Celtics 

But that is it - that is all -  

for this season...

Paul Pierce is most right: 

this is a learning experience for the young Celts 

 #CUsRise 

NEXT SEASON - 

when Kyrie, Gordon & 

maybe even Isaiah 

are BA-ACK in the line-up! 

because it certainly is not Cleveland!

+++