Bruins 5 - Avalanche 4: Should we care?

So, the curtain went up for the 2008-2009 NHL season last night. Did you notice? Oh, playoff baseball, huh? Well I suppose that's a good reason. What about tomorrow night? MORE playoff baseball!? Well the baseball playoffs end at the end of the month and then you'll have some time to catch some hockey, right? No?

Unfortunately after the players strike, the NHL has plummeted in popularity. So much so, that ESPN no longer considers it a major sport (and ranks it behind NASCAR in their minor-sport category). The hockey divorce most fans are feeling pales in comparison to the way we feel about hockey in Boston. Boston is a city primed to love it's hockey team if only the ownership would buck up and spend some damn money on players. This is the city of Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, Gary Doak, Gerry Cheevers and Terry O'Reilly (and most people won't even know who a few of those guys are). I've even got a couple of YouTube Videos showing how passionate this town used to be, and can be about hockey (and how awesome it is in general). These videos are in crappy quality so bear with them.

-Bruins players climb over the boards (that plexiglass stuff that keeps fans away from stray pucks) to fight Ranger fans at Madison Square Garden in New York. Notice Mike Milbury rip off a guy's shoe and beat him with it. THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED! By the way, Terry O'Reilly led the charge into the stands.

-In this one, we can watch a Bruins fan taunt Steve Yzerman (Hall of Famer, eventually) and when Steve goes over to see what happens, the fan punches him in the face!


How awesome is that? REALLY!? Even hockey-haters have to admit that those videos are pretty cool and exemplify the passion surrounding hockey...well the passion that used to surround hockey.

Well hockey has been diluted, so we won't be seeing much of that, probably ever again. So the question is, can we be excited about this Bruins team? Well, they have some young talented players: Bergeron, 23; Kessel, 21; Krejci, 22 (scored the game winner with 2:36 left last night); Lucic, 20; Wheeler, 22. And these guys are all somewhere between pretty good and very good. They also have a few good veterans in Mark Savard, Zdeno Chara (one of the best defensemen in the league), and Marco Strum. However their defense is weak (Chara being the only strong one of the bunch), their goaltending is inconsistent, and they don't quite have enough talent to do anything but making the playoffs and MAYBE make it to the second round (although I don't even expect that). However, with the emergence of the Rays as a power in baseball, I might be willing to risk a little hope. This team is like the old Devil Rays - young and talented but with all the wrong veterans (remember the Rays had Fred McGriff, Wade Boggs, Greg Vaughn, and their staff ace was Tanyon Strutze - this was only 5-6 years ago). This team is much of the same - if they continue to develop young players they could, in time get there.

But I do not risk a lot on this shimmer of hope. The Jacobs brothers and Sinden will find a way to drive this team into the ground, you can bet on that. So I sit, holding my hope and hoping to see the Bruins finally make some good decisions and win back some fans. Last night was encouraging, but there's a long way to go yet.

Written by Mad Scientist: Kyle Baxter