Tribute to the Fans

Hello Fellow Fans,

I am writing to you today to remind you what it means to be a true Boston Bruins fanatic. Players feed off of our energy every single time they get on to the ice. They need us just as much as we need them.

This blog was always targeted towards the true fans of the Boston Bruins. Fans that will not only be there during the good times but also during the bad. As a representation to the dedication that I have for the Boston Bruins, I am going to keep writing this blog for the rest of the Bruins playoff run. Also during the off-season I am going to post when something big happens in the league or just in the Bruins organization. Next year I  also am going to keep this blog  in hopes that someday I could be the writer for a Boston Bruins website. This is something that I love enjoy doing so why stop.

As a huge advocate for the team this is my favorite time of year. Sometimes I enjoy this time of year more than I like Christmas. The playoffs are where it all counts in the NHL. These are the games where you can see fans sometimes have a factor in the outcome. I have been to a couple playoff games my self and the crowd noise is deafening. Another cool part about the playoffs is that all of the fans are given towels to wave through out the whole game.

Be the loudest, proudest, craziest fans that you can be. Do it for Martin Richard. At this point I would just like to leave you with the reason I love the Boston Bruins and their fans.

An Original 6 Matchup

After a shortened season the playoffs are here. It seems like just yesterday the Garden was bumping with thousands of screaming fans for the delayed start to the season. I still get the chills when playoff hockey comes around from the Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup run.

Many Bruins fans went into the season thinking that we were going to run away with the North East Division Title this year. Last night the Bruins played the Senators with a chance to win the division on the last game of the season. It does not matter that much if we win the division but it would be nice to have in your back pocket.

So instead of playing the Islanders or the Rangers the Bruins drew the Maple Leafs in the first round of the NHL Playoffs. The Bruins have home ice in this round because they are the four seed and Toronto is the five. I personally feel the safest with this match up rather than either the Rangers or the Islanders. The Islanders are led by John Tavares and he can single-handedly take over a game. The Rangers are also one of the hottest teams in the NHL right now seeing as three days ago they were on the outside looking in and some how they snuck into sixth in the matter of just three games.

Lets take a deeper look into the stats. Boston took three out of four games from Toronto this season. In total in those games the Bruins out scored the Leafs 10- 7. One of those games how ever did go all the way to a shoot out. This will not be an easy task for the Bruins because every team plays better in the playoffs. One thing that will work to the Bruins advantage is that they have played the Leafs so many times that they know exactly how they play.

As soon as the Bruins lost to the Senators last night all attention shifted to Toronto. There is one play specifically that Bruins fans can’t wait to have a shot at. This player was mentioned in this blog earlier in the year and his name is Phil Kessel. If you don’t know why Bruins fans hate Kessel then click here to check out my blog post from earlier in the year.

 

Here is a photo of Phil Kessel back when he first started his stint with the Bruins. Now Kessel is public enemy number one and I am sure that Bruins fans can not wait to start heckling him when he steps on the ice on wednesday.

I personally believe that this is the Bruins best shot to make the Stanley Cup Finals. People are saying that they got a bad draw because if they win they have to play Pittsburgh. The way that I see it as is that no matter what we are going to have to go through them why not make it earlier when they don’t have Sid the Kid. But any ways this is the best time of year for me so enjoy the playoffs.

GO BRUINS!!!!

 

Two Line Pass?

A fan that watches the NHL now and complains how slow the speed of the game is has really not seen anything yet. Before 2005 NHL games were low scoring and a barn burners right to the end. Now you see people scoring on break aways left and right in games. A breakaway has become a reoccurrence in the past seven years.

These changes in the game play are mostly because of the two-line pass rule. Taking out the two-line pass really creates more opportunity for long passes that lead players in for break aways.

This video gives you a visual of what a two-line pass used to look like and what is legal to do now. Goal scores love the rule change because they have seen their number of goals jump to new highs in the past 7 years.

When there is a positive there will always be a negative that comes along with it when it comes to changing a rule like this. Just these past couple years we are starting to see more and more concussions around the league. Some might say that the two-line pass rule being taken out is the reason for all these injuries. Here are some statistics from an article which will explain to you everything you need to know about the concussions in the NHL.

So when it comes down to it what is more important the safety of the players or scoring goals?

Tragedy Brings Unity

Tragedy hit the streets of Boston on Monday when two bombs were detonated towards the finish line at the Boston Marathon. This sent the city into a huge panic. Later that day we found out that two people were killed and many were injured severely.

One of the victims of this explosion was 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester Mass.

This is a picture of the youngster just a week before at the Bruins game. This was the picture that was released of him for the public to see. There was not one dry eye in all of Boston when they saw this picture. Here is another picture of the Martin just a year before hoping for world peace.

The Bruins game was the first event held in Boston since the Marathon. The building was filled for emotion. There was a video showed before the national anthem about Martin Richard and it brought everyone to tears. With Boston running on pure emotion Rene Rancourt walked out ready to perform the most heart-felt national anthem of his long career. Little did he know the song would take care of itself.

I have never been more proud to be a Bruins fan in my whole entire life. That national anthem showed the world that you can do what ever you want to us but you can’t hold us down. We are proud be an American and together we will recover. Everyone has a little bit to contribute even if it is just praying every little bit helps. Claude Julien said “We have the ability to help people heal, and find some reason to smile again by representing our city properly. We have an opportunity here to make our city proud. We’re all in for it and hopefully we can do that for this city, right now.” This is why we as fans love our Bruins. This year we bringing home the cup for Martin Richard. We are Boston Strong!

 

Race for the Playoffs

With just a couple weeks left in the season the Bruins should start to turn up the heat on  other teams. With the addition of Jagr the Bruins are trying to make their move. If you ask me I think that they are a little bit behind the 8 ball seeing as Pittsburgh got Morrow and Iginla.

But I still have faith in the team we have. Injuries have really hurt our team in the second half of the season.

This was a tough hit for the Bruins while trying to make their push towards the cup. Arguably the Bruins most valuable player Patrice Bergeron got diagnosed with a mild concussion. This was after Kelly went out with a broken leg and McQuaid went out with a shoulder injury.

This is not what the Bruins needed at this point in time. Another player going out with a concussion. This makes fans very nervous when they look at the Bruins chances of winning the cup this year. This is Marchands first concussion in the NHL so hopefully he will be able to bounce back fast.

I believe that if they Bruins can stay healthy then they have a shot at the cup this year. It

Countdown of the Top 5 Bruins Jerseys of All Time

5. To start it off at number 5 I am going to have to go with the St. Patrick’s day green warm up jerseys. These are really cool because they only wear them on St. Patrick’s day. After those games they give the fans the green shirts right off of their backs.

4. Coming in at number four on our count down are the 1920’s sweaters. I used the word sweater because their jerseys were literally sweaters and not jerseys. These are so old and vintage Bruins that I had to put them on the countdown.

3. Getting the bronze medal for the best Bruins jerseys all time is the classic 1990 style white jerseys. I think that the white jerseys look so sharp on the road. It is amazing to see how much the symbol has changed throughout the years.

2. Coming in at number two on my countdown is the 2011 Saturday alternate jerseys. These jerseys are all black and the Bruins just look tough in them. This jersey tried to bring back the old Boston Bruins symbol that they had on the 1920 jersey’s.

1. Finally we are down to the best Boston Bruins jersey of all time. This jersey is Bruins gold with black trim. They is a huge bear face on the front. This jersey just screams intimidation, or should I say roars with intimidation because the mascot of the Bruins is a bear.

Rask or Khudobin?

I get into many arguments with my roommate about Rask and Khudobin. He believes that the Boston Bruins should start Khudobin. I strongly disagree with him when he tries to chirp a little bit at me. I want to take a deeper look at Khudobin in this post.

Khudobin is 8-3 this season which is pretty impressive. He has come in and given the Bruins a nice energy boost because he plays a different style than Rask. He plays a more flashy style which makes him have to reach and make some great saves. Rask is the type of goalie where he will get to the spot and make you shoot the puck up and over him to score. But back to Khudobin, last game against the Senators he had 45 save in a huge win for the Bruins. The game before that he had a shut out with 26 saves in that one. One thing that I could not say is that Khudobin has not been playing as good as Rask because he has been playing just as good if not better.

When you get into an argument where two people are arguing about something that they both love you have to look at the other persons point of view just to fully understand where they are coming from. Both goalies are doing unbelievable. The hardest part of looking at the other persons point of view is accepting that the other person thinks that there is a better player than the one that you like. But when it comes down to it I believe that the best goalie at the end of the season should start in the playoffs because its all about winning in Boston.

 

All About Winning

Many Bruins fans are upset with the Bruins lack of effort in acquiring someone at the trade deadline. Remember fans we still have two days before the deadline. Fans got really excited that the Bruins name was being tossed around in the Iginla and Morrow sweep stakes.

Bruins fans came out and expressed their anger on social media once again saying how much they hate Jerome Iginla and Brenden Morrow. The organization held a press conference to talk about what happened because they were told that they had a deal.

The management was a little bit disappointed with the way that everything panned out. Both of the players were given the choice of where they wanted to go to either Boston or Pittsburgh. Both of them picked Pittsburgh which is just unfortunate for us fans of the Bruins. Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli came out and said that the Bruins can not be mad at  players for trying to win.

In my opinion I respect both players more now. This is because in every other sport players just go where the money is. In both of these deals the Bruins could have given both of them more money and a couple more years to their contract. After this season both Iginla and Morrow will be looking for jobs else where because the Penguins don’t have the money to sign both of them back. Plus they are both at the tail end of thier careers so they do not have much value to the team after this year. This year the Penguins have a legitimate chance to win and that’s all that matters at this point to these guys. So say what you want Bruins fans about both of them but don’t be mad at them for not coming to Boston.

A Home and Home Split

The Bruins stopped the bleeding a little bit on the back half of a home and home this weekend. They have been sliding of late because of their lack of scoring. They are not producing which is not fare to Rask because he is coming to play night in and night out.

The Bruins went into the game on Saturday and battled Toronto till the buzzer sounded. They were not playing their best hockey but they were in the game right up to the final horn. The Bruins ended up losing the game 3-2 which they were not happy with.

On Monday the two faced off again on the ice but this time in Boston. It is a whole different atmosphere when you are playing at home. The Fans are the 6th player on the ice night in and night out. On this night they got their moneys worth as the teams went back and forth throughout the whole game. In the end it all came down to the shoot out. It only took three shooters and after Jack Edwards was screaming “Two U’s, two K’s, two points.” The final score was 3-2 in a shoot out.

These two points are huge for the Bruins in the standings. Montreal is still leading the North East Division but the Bruins are tied with them in points. Right behind the Bruins in 5th in the Eastern Conference are the Senators. They are only two points out of the lead.

 

The Trade Deadline is Approaching

The trade deadline is approaching and the Boston Bruins rumors are flying around. The past couple years they have not really done anything too big. But this year if they want to keep in contention they are going to have to make a big splash. After losing  four out of their last 10 games prior to last nights; Bruins faithful will  tell you that something needs to be done.

Well we now know one thing and that is that veteran winger Brandon Morrow will not be traded to the Bruins this year. The Stars made a deal with Pittsburg last week that was challenged by the Bruins. It came down to Morrows choice and he went with where he thought he could win. You really can’t blame a player for that.

This means that the Bruins should make a very wrong push for Calgary Flames star winger Jarome Iginla. If they are looking for a veteran that could add to their team during a lengthy playoff run this is the way to go.

Here is a little video that will help you get to know the star winger.

I would like to end this post with a list of past trade deadline deals from the Bruins.