Thursday Morning Skate: I Love Bruins Hockey

Yesterday in the Game Recap, I and the rest of the staff here all got called out for "not liking Bruins hockey,"

Why do all the writers for the Bruins SBN blog seem to hate Bruins hockey? Go watch Tampa Bay if you want pretty passing plays and no fighting. Hockey is ALL about momentum and effort, and sometimes a fight can change the way a team plays.

Which is ridiculous. I love Bruins hockey. I just don't like the stupid powder (ground up sudafed? perhaps!) they sometimes like to cake it in. Dale Arnold is a big fan of it, and he can't even do that awful Chris Collinsworth laugh. Anyways, I feel like I need to clarify some things.

I love Bruins hockey, I really do. Hard-hitting, high-scoring, well-defended hockey. I get a little giddy when I see Lucic has a guy lined up on the forecheck, especially if I was cursing that guy earlier. I love it when Marchand won't shut his yap (until he gets bullshit penalties called against him because he's an asshole. C'mon, Brad.) I love line brawls against Montreal.

Bruins hockey, to me, is setting a record for scoring 3 shorthanded goals in a single PowerKill. Bruins hockey isn't somebody on the team taking a penalty because they're mad someone won't fight them. Like Lucic looking like a goddamn fool against Landeskog near the beginning of the year, for one.

Bruins hockey, to me, means rolling 3.5 lines of guys that can score and overloading the opponents attempts to stop them. Wheeler-Krejci-Ryder, anyone? Soderberg-Spooner-Smith? The list continues, but those are the big ones.

Bruins hockey, to me, is a 30+ streak of killed penalties, layering Selke over Norris over Vezina (or at least Jennings) in a nigh impenetrable wall of puck stopping, with a counterattack to match.

Bruins hockey, to me, is getting the goalie pulled in the first five minutes before the bet fills completely to the brim with pucks.

Unfortunately, there's a dark side. Bruins hockey: is it McSorley taking down Brashear? Chara and Pacioretty? Thornton and Orpik? I don't want these things to be Bruins hockey. I don't want the best thing about the team to be watching whoever the fighter du jour is tuning up dudes because nothing else interesting is going to happen.

Bruins hockey, to me, is Cam scoring 50 in 50 and coming back as president to win 16 in 25 2011 playoff games.

And I love it.

But what do I know? I'm just some blogger. What's on tap, y'all?