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 captain of the team, Zdeno Chara, is playing on, even though he's hurting all over (...)
The team has under-performed throughout the season, dating back to last year's playoffs even, plagued by all sorts of injuries, too. But they battle on, even as they teeter on the edge of the abyss: and an abysmal non-playoff qualifying year appears to be more than a very plausible end to it all, at this time...
They learn that their rivals for those last two playoff berths are doing well: better than they presently are. And to think that, a mere few days prior, they sat comfortably atop both of them in the standings, having all but clinched that first ''wild card'' spot already...
But that is the thing: it was all but officially clinched. Ottawa made a push, so improbable and so impressive though it was, that they leapt ahead and past the Bruins, and they overtook that spot, relegating our B's to the situation they were in then: to fight until the last puck drop for the very last berth, the second wild card.
The fight was on: and it was with old rivals Pittsburgh Penguins that it would take place. The final game of the season would decide it all: the luck of the draw had the Pens play the lowly Sabres in Buffalo - an easy task if there ever was one.
Meanwhile, the Boston Bruins, the best team in the East just one year prior -the certifiable Beast of the East- had to match up with newly-confirmed juggernaut Tampa Bay. The Bruins had won 2 out of 3 games against the Lightning; however, the Lightning had also been coming on strong towards the end of the season, which was good in and by itself for it was all done in their attempt to disallow the atrocity of seeing the Montreal Canadiens finish atop the division - which is an abomination sans nom right there! The Lightning hates the Canadiens even more than the Bruins do, this season: for the simple reason that the Hateful Habs halted their playoff push so very prematurely last year, too, when the Lightning's top goalie was out with an injury himself... The Habs had swept the Lightning, i fact: ever since, much like the Boston Bruins of 2008-2009, the Lightning was merciless towards the Canadiens, not giving them an inch and having won every single game against them afterwards. That non-meritorious sweep was to be avenged - and it would be, just the Bruins had done to the Canadiens in 2009, the Habs' centennial, sweeping them in four straight in the first round - so the Lightning would do to the Habs in 2015, in the second round.
But back to THAT GAME... Bruins vs Lightning, with the Bostonians' dreams of playing for the cup again on the line...
The Boston Bruins did not hold their fate in their own hands - and they knew it very well. They were dependent upon the Sabres -of all teams- to make it into the playoffs. In order for them to squeeze in, the Buffalo Sabres (a lowly team, bottom-of-the-standings dwellers, comprising several former Habs such as Gionta and Gorges) had to find a way to defeat the Penguins simultaneously while the Bruins did their part by defeating the Lightning. What did the Sabres do? They didn't hold their end of this. They dropped the ball - or the puck, in their own net. They lost to the Pens, who were, themselves, playing for their playoffs lives, let's not forget that!
Learning of this as they still played in Tampa - trailing the Lightning by one goal, on top of that - what did the Boston Bruins do?
They dig deep into their resources and tied the game nonetheless.
The game went into overtime... and then a shootout. They lost the game only then - on one shot, one lucky bounce, during a shootout; as it had happened too many times during the course of this season to forget as it is... Once again, Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Loui Eriksson, David Krejci (even at 50%...) - they all gave it their all, to the very last...
Even if the season was already over.
Those are the Boston Bruins. Those are the true champions I know and have known since the days of Rick Middleton... Charlie Simmer... Keith Crowder,... Cam Neely... Dave Reid... Randy Burridge... Steve Kasper... Craig Janney... Bob Joyce... Vladimir Ruzicka... Bobby Orr and Ray Bourque, of course!
The dream ended valiantly, this year - as it does every year: win or lose, they fight until the end.
It was just that much obvious in defeat, this time around, than it was, say, in 2011 when the cup was won - at last... Or in 2013, when the cup was stolen from us, by a mini-Chicago blitz in game 6...
Boston will be back.
The Bruins will rise again.
The dream continues...
Dreaming is often rife with nostalgia - my favorite word for it is saudade, personally - and so, why not look back at the highlights of a season that ended disappointingly -especially because of that ending, actually- as the Boston Bruins are doing on their own website...?
This, out of all of those highlights, has to be the one single moment that warms one's heart the most - for this is when the Bruins did better than well: they did good.
For more on that heartwarming tale - and more on Sam, whose dreams did get fulfilled, to a degree, as he did meet all of his heroes, from Tom Brady to Zdeno Chara, in the shortest span of time there could be; for his time was so short - click here.
From the 2-0 deficit against the hated Montreal rivals
To the sweetest revenge of a sweep versus the Philadelphia nemesis
On to a clash with a new adversary in Tampa Bay
And finally to a showdown with the alleged best team today, in Vancouver
The Boston Bruins triumphed truly against all odds
- with a battle-weary team that comprised it all already -
even before the little tweaks that brought in Chris Kelly,
Rich Peverley and Tyler Seguin - and sealed the deal, basically!
Unfortunate for those Bruins warriors who came so close before
and were traded away just before the fulfilment of this tremendous team's potential:
The Blake Wheelers, Matt Hunwicks, Mark Stuarts, Dennis Widemans,
just like Boston Bruins of yesteryear such as Randy Burridge, Brian Curran, Steve Kasper, Peter Douris, Glen Murray, Steve Leach, Dave Reid, Keith Crowder, Terry O'Reilly, Dave Poulin, Moe Lemay, Rick Middleton, Glen Wesley, Greg Hawgood, Gord Kluzak, Geoff Courtnall, Ken Hodge Jr, Barry Pederson, Michael Thelven and so many others...
All the teams led by Ray Bourque
And goalies such as Matt Delguidice, Blaine Lacher and my favorite: Doug Keans.
All of them, and many more who have worn the uniform before them even, were so deserving of winning the Cup themselves.
Alas, for the majority of them, something was always missing - or going awry, at some point, in the course of the 16-team tournament each and every spring. Bad luck was oftentimes the sole reason of defeat. All of these Bruins of the past could have and should have been Stanley Cup champions too.
But the team of 2010-2011 had it all, or all that was required in order to go all the way and "get over the hump" as Mike Milbury would say. This team truly had all the tools it needed as of May 2011 - and they went all the way indeed.
Team owners Jeremy M. Jacobs and Charlie Jacobs, long criticized for not being able to or not being willing to provide the necessary commitment to build a champion, finally answered all the demands and criticisms by simply giving the green light to their general manager to go ahead and make ALL the changes that were deemed to be necessary...
And so a tremendous team started to take shape, as early as 2006, I would say...
Years of adjustments that saw the comings and goings of the likes of Petteri Nokelainen, Glen Metropolit, Peter Ferraro, Randy Robitaille, Brad Boyes and... Joe Thornton - finally led to the dream team of this spring of 2011.
Brad Marchand proved to be the better Brad.
Nathan Horton - a sturdier version of Peter Ferraro.
Shawn Thornton - a bulkier, brainier, all-around better Thornton, better suited for the task at hand...
This tremendous team of 2010-2011 accomplished it all
even when deprived of not merely one but two of their best offensive weapons in Marc Savard and Nathan Horton - both victims of vicious and highly reprehensible and arguably premeditated acts of violence meant to take them both out of the game.
Just as, many years earlier, a similar and definitely premeditated act had taken out of action the greatest Bruin of all, arguably - Cam Neely.
Neely was deprived of a well-deserved Stanley Cup championship of his own, as a player, whether in the years 1988 and 1990 or the years 1991, 1992 and 1993 - for, in those years, the Bruins were top contenders, arguably peaking in 1993, when they were the best team in the Eastern Conference at season's end... That team, built around Neely, would come so close but would be denied the ultimate prize hockey can offer and, in effect, be denied the fulfillment of its true destiny.
But no one could deny Cam Neely the right to hoist that trophy, one day - and he did just that, finally, as the team president of all things, in the year of Our Lord 2011.
No one could deny this well-deserved crowning of a champion - no one!
Not the execrable ghosts of the Montreal Forum - he'd dealt with them in 1988 and all throughout his remarkable -if short- career.
Not the hated Montreal Canadiens of the day.
Not the putrid Pennsylvania hockey teams, be them from Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.
Not the rivals of old, envious as ever: Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, Hartford Whalers (RIP).
Not any supposed western Canada powerhouse, be it hailing from Vancouver or Edmonton!
Not any supposed "pure winners" and up-and-coming forces to-be-reckoned with from down south...
Not any Badgers, Bobs, Ulfs or Samuelssons, alive or dead and buried!
NONE of these adversaries could prevent
the crowning of a
TRUE CHAMPION!
The Boston Bruins:
Cam Neely
Peter Chiarelli, Jim Benning
Scott Fitzgerald, Scott Bradley, Harry Sinden
Don Sweeney, Wayne Smith, John Weisbrod
Andy Brickley, Mike Chiarelli, Adam Creighton
Jack Higgins, Jukka Holtari, Denis Leblanc
Dean Malkoc, Mike McGraw, Tom McVie
Ryan Nadeau, Jeremy Rogalski, Svenake Svensson
Claude Julien
Doug Houda, Geoff Ward, Doug Jarvis
Bob Essensa
John Whitesides, Don Delnegro, Scott Waugh
Derek Repucci, Keith Robinson, Matt Falconer
Jim "Beets" Johnson
Amy Latimer, Jen Compton
Jim Bednarek, Chris Johnson
Tim Thomas
Zdeno Chara, Johnny Boychuk, Dennis Seidenberg,
Andrew Ference, Adam McQuaid, Shane Hnidy
Tuukka Rask
Tyler Seguin, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron
Mark Recchi, David Krejci, Milan Lucic
Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell, Michael Ryder
Steven Kampfer, Shawn Thornton, Matt Bartkowski
Normand Léveillé
and more
- so many, many more*
(* = all of the fans
helped win this one -
ALL OF THEM!
Because they
BELIEVED.)
This entire organization, all the individuals that comprise it, past and present, and all of the team's fanbase - they can all seek solace now for, in the future, whatever rough times may come off the hockey rink ice or on, they can forevermore fondly remember that they saw here - one of their dreams come true.
The HC (hockey club, I presume) Liberec Tigers of Prague know a thing or two about dreaming themselves --- dreaming of championships, heroics on ice, crowd-cheerings...
From that 7-1 win over the HC Liberec Tigers in Prague that ended the pre-season and heralded the 2010-2011 season that would be a dream one, to the mid-season mini-shake-up and the subsequent adjustments the team made: there was that special feeling surrounding this team all the while through as the season progressed...
One could feel that something was finally going to fall into place for this team - that nothing could deter it, rob it of fulfilling its destiny as it had happened countless times in the past.
And that feeling was RIGHT - completely right.
Several players (seen in the video{s} above) would not complete the season with the Boston Bruins - and, thus, would not taste the sweet nectar of victory come round 4 of the NHL playoffs...
Players such as Blake Wheeler, Mark Stuart and Matt Hunwick vacated their spots in favor of newly-acquired weapons Rich Peverley, Chris Kelly and Nathan Horton who did win the Stanley Cup with the team instead of the previous trio therefore. These moves (and others like them) were regrettable on the spot but, in retrospect, they were obviously the right ones to make as the new chemistry produced by the new pairings of players was a championship-clinching one.
A trip to Europe seems to bring out the best in NHL teams: it ressources the few players that originate from there just as it gives a new perspective to the majority that are Canadian or American born - although many of these have played there before too; just ask netminder and 2011 Connie Smythe Trophy winner Tim Thomas, unquestionably the most valuable player on the champion Boston Bruins team that took to the ice in Prague -most notably- before the regular season -the season of vindication- started in the fall of 2010.
The Boston Bruins also went to Belfast, most notably - facing other local heroes...
May The Bruins make many more trips abroad like this - both they and I made such trips (in the same year too - what a coincidence) and 2010 was the year of our DREAMS COME TRUE...! (Okay - for the Boston Bruins, it was really 2011... Let's settle for the 2010-2011 season, alright?)
