As far as another Boston championship goes, I'm a little late to the bandwagon once again. I confess I don't follow hockey as much as I used to when I was a kid, when I practically lived for it. The Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 1970 and 1972, and it felt like their dominance would last forever. Little did we know that we'd be in the wilderness for decades.
Ever since those halycon days die-hard fans of the Bruins, who were one of the original six NHL franchises, watched in misery as cups were won in cities like Tampa, San Jose, and Anaheim, where hockey usually elicits a big yawn.
It's not like they haven't had good teams over the years. In the playoffs, though, they've been stoned quite often by hot goaltenders. This time, however, we had the hot goaltender in Tim Thomas, and it made all the difference. He made nearly 800 saves in the playoff run, in which the Bruins won an unprecedented three seven-game series.
Another reason this series caught my interest... This Vancouver Canucks team was a really classless bunch, and their fans turned out to match them in kind. As far as I'm concerned, the city of Vancouver really disgraced itself last night by booing in deafening fashion during the presentation of the Conn Smythe Trophy and Stanley Cup, throwing things on the ice, and burning cars in the city.
As for Boston, we will enjoy a long awaited celebration when the cup finally comes back to its proper home later this week. Well done, B's!
9 comments:
It should be noted that not all Canucks fans acted like crap. (Most of my friends on facebook were rooting for them, so I've had to be...restrained...in my postings about the Stanley cup.)
But yeah, I'm glad the team who appeared to take the moral high ground got the cup. If you noticed last night, the ones to start the shoving weren't the Bruins.
What got me were the ones who were saying Boychuck should've been suspended--if you look at the video, it was clear it was a colossal case of shit happening, since he got tangled in Boychuck's legs. You can't say that Rome's hit against Horton was anything *but* malicious, and there were a hell of a lot of late hits in game 7. Like the one against Chara? Hello, he got an elbow to his head.
The whole Burrows thing...gah, don't get me started.
I've been reading this morning that most of the booing during the trophy presentations was for Commisioner Bettman. He's so hated around the league, I guess it happens every year. I really wouldn't know about that, but still, I saw bottles getting thrown on the ice.
The thing with Boychuck? He had the guy's helmet sort of stuck between his knees and they rode into the boards together. There was no way for him to stop. It's not like he drove the guy into the boards. I don't remember people "cheering that he had a broken back" either.
The hit on Chara was a complete cheap-shot.
Yeah, I know. Boychuck was finishing the move, which they're *trained* to do in order to prevent worse injury.
I have no clue why they weren't calling crap last night. It was nothing like game 7 against TAmpa. that one they were total boy scouts, not out for cheap shots.
And Steve's brother is about Chara's height. You'd have to deliberately *try* to hit his head, so I don't buy that the hit against him in the third period was anything other than a cheap shot. And to actually knock the guy over, you'd have to hit pretty damn hard.
Team sports - I never get the attraction.
Crystal,
Why's that?
I don't know - it doesn't seem interesting, which is strange, I guess, bcause it's so interesting to so many.
Congratulations, Jeff. Was thinking of you during the series. I watched bits and pieces of several games. For the non-partisan viewer, I thought it was a disappointing end of the series, after an exciting beginning. Boston just blew them out in 6 and 7. I'm not a big hockey fan, but I enjoyed the bit I watched.
Though not nearly as much as I enjoyed watching Dallas beat the Miami Prima Donnas!
Thanks William.
The Mavs win was pretty cool.
Yep, all sorts of titles being won here in Boston. Now, if only that damned football team could get its act together...
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