Well Peeps, it's playoffs time....The fight for the Stanley cup has begun...
If I am on point, the Boston Bruins HAVE won the cup in my lifetime, however I was a wee little munchkin and although I have no doubt that there was lots of commotion in my house that night and I was probably awake and in the thick of it - I don't remember it at all and I say, it's high time for a memory of this nature.
One of the things that SUCKS about living in the South is the lack of availability to my New England sports teams, cause really we do have the best clubs and the best fans, no doubt about it.
The worst of all where accessibility is concerned here in VA. is my beloved Boston Bruins...sure I could do the hockey channel, but it still wouldn't change the fact that I live in an area that lacks the "hockey mentality'....It sucks to say the least and I hate it. Major draw back.
Where I come from, if you have a penis, as soon as you can stand, you are on mini hockey skates and pushed out on the ice. If you have a son, brother, cousin who is male and is not skating by three years old, there is a hush hush about it at family gatherings - we won't acknowledge that Timmy has issues....something wrong with him shhhhh, here comes his father.
Seriously - a New Englander, you live and breathe the sport of hockey, it is a way of life.
Although I have no real access to the sport here in CVILLE, I do every once in a great while get a man in my store who has been playing on the adult league at the rink at the end of the downtown mall (pedestrian historic walking mall fyi in case you have no idea what I mean and picture a massive high rise),
every once in a great while I get convo about hockey...
And don't I love to talk to the talk about my Bruins and don't I love the looks on their faces when they realize I am no demure Southern Belle, I am a Northern girl with hockey sensibility. Yessir I do know what icing is, thank you very much.
My love of hockey started right out of the womb, I had little choice, my Mother was a huge Bruins fan. We watched every game on channel 38 back in the day when rabbit ears would need to be messed with regularly to ensure a good clear picture of the puck. I loved the sport from as far back as I have memories of my life, in fact it was a focal point really, a place where I felt happiness....on the floor of my apartment in Brookline Mass, watching my boys skate back and forth making that great sound of spraying ice. When I was a muchkin I had chronic ear infections and suffered terribly until I had tubes put in - before the tubes I luckily always had ear aches that kept me awake on nights the games were televised and past my bed time. I would listen to the game from my room, tossing and turning and think, if I could just see this, my ear would stop hurting...Footie pajama'd me would come softly walking down the hall, head hung low, praying furiously she didn't make me go to back to bed, hoping to get my hockey on....
Back in the day - the Boston Bruins played at the Boston Garden and I was lucky enough (I say lucky because we were not wealthy people) to frequent the Garden as much as I did the symphony and the ballet - My Mom wanted me cultured, one of the things I credit her for - my love of theater, music and hockey.
I vividly remember the sights and sounds - hearing the word "fuck" in unison of thousands of voices - perfection. The sound of the boards getting hammered on brutal checks and the music that whipped us Boston fans into nothing short of a fantastical frenzy. I loved a home game at the Garden more than life itself.
I think I was seven or maybe eight maybe a little older when a nineteen year old defense man hit the Garden ice for the first time and I fell instantly in love and nearly died on the spot for my heart stopped beating in my chest at the sight.
My number 7 lover Ray Bourque - in my opinion the best defense man the NHL has ever ever and will ever see. A God on the ice, my greatest hockey obsession, one that will never be matched - although Gord Kluzak was some kind of fine in person and when I met him at a benefit baseball game in Watertown one year, I considered a three-some at a ripe young age - sorry faint of heart, I only speak my truths. My teenage years were spent in hockey fantasies....
I loved Ray Bourque and number 7 has been my lucky number ever since....Not 77 either, 7...
My favs consisted of Gerry Cheevers, Stan Jonanthan, Gord Kluzak, Terry O'Reilly for a good scrap, Mike Milbury and I think I was at the game when they retired Peter McNabs number, what was it 8 maybe? Bobby Orr was the Godfather of hockey in my day - I channeled his energy in times of great sudden death over time stress.
Then there came Cam Neely later on, I crushed pretty hard on him too.
But no one could take my Ray's place in my heart, no one ever will - he signifies a happy hockey childhood. And although he was not wearing a Bruins Jersey when he finally got the cup - I cried as though he were, happier than I have ever been to watch a captain hoist that massive trophy up over his head for the victory lap...A great moment in hockey history...
Did I mention that his wife's name is Debbie and that always burned my ass???
And so here we are in the playoff's a devastating loss with 18 seconds left on the clock in the third period - a beautiful goal with an beautifully attempted save by Goalie Tim Thomas - his legs split so wide I am sure his groin hurts today.
Three periods of scoreless hockey makes for some serious game... That game is what playoff hockey should look like.
And, although I would prefer that we are up against the Canadiens, because that rivalry is as bitter and beautiful as the SOX and the YANKEES, I will say that I am glad we are in it to win it with the boys from Canada - the Canadien folk are the original badasses of the sport and it's fitting...
Last night I watched the game in pain from a brutal sunburn (yes I wore sunscreen) and I hearkened back to my youth, I was seventeen and lived in a house with four girls - one of my roomies Caroline had a sunlamp and so I set it up in my bedroom on the floor in front of the tv - I made myself a bed on the floor and tuned into TV38, butt naked attempting a little tan time coupled up with some playoff hockey...
Who knew that the Bruins and Canadiens would battle it out for not only three grueling periods, but oh wait an over time, oh no wait another overtime and we may as well make it a sudden death hat trick and go for three additional periods....
With the stress of the game, I forgot about the lamp - like literally forgot.
HOLY HELL BURN, I couldn't sit on my own ass for two weeks straight and... we eventually lost and I was bitter beyond words - burned in more ways than my ass cheeks.
GRRRR can you tell I am still bitter?
Personally I am glad we lost last night - lets get our losses out of the way. No sweeping a series when you play the Canucks, better to get it done now and get focused for game two. I am soooo looking forward to this series, and seeing that it is Stanley Cup Playoffs - it is nationally televised and so we here in the South can partake too.
I hope we take it all, I hope Chara gets to skate that sucker around the ice - if he does, people in the nose bleeds will have a better view than those up against the boards - that Dude is a giant.
I laughed hysterically as he batted at players with his gloved hand, kinda like my Dog does when he gives paw - and the players went down like a leaf on the wind.
Dude you have to be nuts to think about checking him, NUTS, If it were me I would cry for the shame and skate the other f'in way...
Well I think the time may have come to dig out my Boston Bruin Bear and give him a righteous cuddle - he has been with me for 35 years and looks it. Poor guy is missing his B patch and his black fur is matted and ripped, he has sewn up holes all over his legs and still has my name sewn to his tag from his trip to Pleasant Valley Camp...He is one of my prized possessions for sure. He knows all my childhood dreams, all my teenage secrets and houses my very heart in his stuffed chest.
Time to pull him out and have a serious talk about getting to see the cup at HOME in my lifetime. Gonna channel me some Bobby Orr and Ray Bourque too.
There are a lot of things that make me proud to be New Englander - but being a Boston BRUIN takes the cake, or in this case (hopefully fingers and toes crossed) THE CUP....There is no sport I love more, no team I love more, no city I love more.
Da na na na na da na na na na.....
LET'S GO BOSTON LET'S GO!!!!!!
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