:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/2571558/GYI0064469171.jpg)
This one will draw some ire on a day like today.
Those of you who know me know that my history with the Bruins is a bit spotty. I grew up in a Rangers household, although they were my stepfather's team. And anyone who knows how kids interact with their step-parents know that they'll do the opposite of whatever the parent does just to prove a point. So, despite living in New York for my entire childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, the Rangers were out.
My first NHL game was a Bruins game and I still have the only Bruins sweater I've ever owned - the one with the bear heads on the shoulders - hanging on the wall in my office (it was huge when I got it at the ripe age of ten, and still fit last year, but the Bruins lost every time I wore it during the playoffs, and it's now retired).
I tried the Sabres on after the season that never happened, in large part because I went to school in Buffalo and it seemed the right thing to do. But we got CBC in Buffalo, so my appreciation for the game flourished more than my love of any one particular team (especially the Leafs, their fans were the worst when they came across the border).
But it wasn't really until Game Six of the Bruins - Canadiens series in 2008 that I really started to appreciate the team. They were different then, of course, with a healthy Marc Savard, a productive Phil Kessel and a high-flying lineup to support them that wasn't necessarily typical of a Claude Julien team.
But the grit was. And in the game, the Bruins went down a goal three separate times, only to fight back and fight back and fight back. And in the end, it was Marco Sturm who put the finishing touches on the game that forced one more meeting - that result, of course, wasn't so fortunate - between the two rivals.
Perhaps fittingly, Michael Ryder was a healthy scratch in his last game at TD Garden before he became a Bruin. Oh, and Dennis Wideman was a -2. Some things will never change.
We all remember what the Bruins did to the Canadiens in the following postseason, sweeping them away before falling to Carolina in the Eastern Conference semi-finals. And we remember the year after that, where the Flyers did the unthinkable. And of course we remember last year.
But for me, it was that Game 6 so many months ago that showed us who these Bruins were going to be with David Krejci and Zdeno Chara and Claude Julien calling the shots. There have been higher highs and lower lows since then, but I'll never forget that game.
It begs the question: what's your favorite Bruins moment?