I still remember my first exposure to Boston Bruins hockey. The moment is particularly memorable because it was narrated by Michael J. Fox.
'Reach For The Stars 1990: The Official Boston Bruins Video' is a little piece of history, which I still own. The 35+ minute VHS tape, presented by the now defunct retail store Lechmere, is not on YouTube and I've never seen another copy in person. But it holds all the season highlights, montages, and cheesy production quality that you can handle.
1990 was of course the year that Boston captured the President's Trophy, and made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final only to be swiftly defeated by the Edmonton Oilers. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the video doesn't say a whole lot about that series beyond a recap of the classic triple-overtime Game One. The summation of the rest of the series, in its entirety, was "there would be other games, and other goals, but the pain of that long night in May never quite went away."
Ain't it the truth?
The same can be said for this past spring. With my brain working the way it does, I couldn't help but draw a lot of comparisons to the 1990 season as the Bruins playoff run unfolded.
Round One: The heavily favored Bruins needed seven games and a historic comeback to defeat kinda-sorta rivals that they've traditionally bullied (1990: Hartford Whalers, 2013: Toronto Maple Leafs).
Round Two: It took five games for Boston to defeat a strong original six rival donning red, white, and blue. (1990: Montreal Canadiens, 2013: New York Rangers)
Round Three: The Bruins swept their way into the Final. (1990: Washington Capitals, 2013: Pittsburgh Penguins)
Stanley Cup Final: Boston would lose a triple-overtime heartbreaker in Game One and never quite recover. (1990: Edmonton Oilers, 2013: Chicago Blackhawks)
The difference, of course, is that Boston's Cup draught was significantly shorter this time around. The 2011 championship did help cushion the blow, though my mind still finds ways to periodically cycle through "what-ifs."
Hello, by the way. I'm a new addition here at SCoC. For the last three seasons I've covered the Bruins for TheHockeyWriters.com, which afforded me the opportunity to awkwardly loiter in the Boston locker room and overhear Anton Khudobin make his way through the crowd of media ("weeooo, weooo, goalie coming through").
I'm truly excited to join this site, and I'm hopeful that I'll be an interesting (or at the very least, tolerable) addition to what's already a strong pool of talented writers. My first proper post will be up in a little while, but I figured I'd take this opportunity to introduce myself.
Oh and it's, what, July 16? Only like 62 more days before pre-season hockey. That's nothin'. A cup of coffee, really.