B’s Go From Zeroes To Heroes!
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Unbelievable! What other word can you use to describe the transformation of the 2010 Boston Bruins?
Only a month ago this team was fighting on the second to last day of the regular season to get one of the last of sixteen spots in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And now? They’re a win away from hockey’s final four.
Last night’s 4-1 win in Philadelphia gave Boston a stranglehold on their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Flyers putting them up three games to none. They are now a victory away from a place they haven’t been since 1992 – the Eastern Conference Finals.
This has been an amazing turnaround for a franchise that was considered dead in the water only a few short weeks ago. Bruins fans, the media and hockey experts nationwide gave Boston little chance to win in the postseason. And why would they? The Bruins offense ranked dead last in the NHL. They were a slim four points away from not even making the playoffs.
Their troubles started following that magical New Year’s Day game at Fenway Park against, ironically enough, the Philadelphia Flyers. A 2-1 overtime win energized the sold-out crowd at Fenway and gave Bruins fans hope that maybe something good could come out of this season after all. But then it all fell apart.
The Bruins proceeded to lose 14 of their next 16 games which included a 10-game losing streak. They also went more than two months without winning a game at the TD Garden. Before their March 4thvictory over Toronto at the Garden, the B’s only home win of 2010 was the New Year’s Day win over the Flyers.
It got worse. On March 7thin Pittsburgh, Matt Cooke delivered a cheap shot to Boston’s top play-maker Marc Savard knocking him unconscious on the ice. Not one of Savard’s teammates came to his defense and retaliated drawing the ire of Bruin Nation. It was bad enough that the team was losing hockey games, now they had lost their heart.
The Boston newspapers and talk radio hosts hammered the team for its lack of heart and rightfully so. Fans were very vocal about their displeasure with the entire organization demanding change and declaring this a dead team.
Somehow, someway, the Bruin players didn’t let that phase them. They won 10 of their final 18 games to slip into the postseason where no one expected this.
An upset win over Olympic standout Ryan Miller and third-seeded Buffalo brought those who had jumped off of the bandwagon back on to it. And thanks to upsets of top-seed Washington and the #2-seed New Jersey, Bruins fans started to believe in this team again.
Now, with their outstanding play through the first three games of the Philadelphia series, the Bruins are tops in the hearts of Boston sports fans. Sorry Celtics! We’ve lived through many of your 17 NBA championship seasons. Sorry Red Sox! It’s May so there’s no sense of urgency with your season yet. Plus, you’ve been a boring team to watch so far.
This is the Bruins time! Can they win a Stanley Cup which they haven’t done since 1972? Maybe not. But this ride has been pretty damn fun and is far from ending soon. So continue to enjoy it B’s fans. You deserve it.
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