Lori Mitchener is a Bruins Season Ticket Holder and will be contributing to BSD this season
BY LORI MITCHENER
Boston Sports Desk Correspondent
Did the hockey season end? I must have missed it between summer skills, street hockey, and Bruins camp; alas that is the life of the “rabid hockey mom” as a friend of my so affectionately refers to me. You can add coach to that title now, and winning coach to boot, we won our first game today! While the hockey season never really ends when we wear our helmets, when we wear our Black and Gold we are keenly aware that the 2009-2010 season came to a screeching train wreck of an end. That was painful.
Game seven snapped a 12 game win streak for my six-year-old; he had never seen the Bruins lose in person. We stayed for all three periods. Walking out he asked, “Does this mean we have to root for the Habs?” Kids say the darndest things. We did not root for the Habs; however I am glad the front office kept our former Canadian. Of course the knee jerk reaction was to show Claude Julien the door once all the rally towels were cleared. One can only hope that Peter Chiarelli (GM) realized that he was equally to blame in the implosion on ice and decided to keep Julien and build a better team. The decision to bring on Julien’s old bench-mate, Doug Jarvis, was a sound idea, provided he reminds the team that THERE ARE THREE PERIODS IN A HOCKEY GAME.
Someone who is keenly aware that there are indeed three periods in a hockey games is of course Bam Bam Cam (Cam Neely). Yes, Bruins hockey needs three well executed periods, but does it need three vice presidents? I dare say not. Alas, what else to do with Cam Neely? Making him head coach could be disastrous. What if the team failed to produce, and did not make it into round two of the playoffs even? Could the Black and Gold faithful endure Bam Bam Cam as the face of failure? Evidently we could not. However, making him president could be the shot in the anemic arm we as fans needed. Oh fearless leader, we will follow you anywhere so long as we may drink from The Cup.
How many times will I have to scream “What the Ference?” on the way to The Stanley Cup? He is not pretty in the corners, but I’ll take him over (Dennis) Wideman any day. I frolicked poolside as the text alert came across my phone that we traded Wideman for Horton. All of the ifs and injuries aside, Horton is a welcome compliment to the offense. We have never recovered from the loss of (Phil) Kessel and the defense is plenty deep (though I will miss Sobotka). Another forward to watch, though I suspect he will have limited ice time is Tyler Seguin. Some question why our first round draft pick made the roster only to be a glass banger. It is back to the implosion on the ice: he is good for business. He is the face of the next generation. I hope he can keep up with the learning curve.
The hockey season never really ends it just slows down long enough for us to lick our collective wounds, apply the tourniquet and mend the heart that bleeds Black and Gold. Ask me any day and my answer will always be the same: Who is going to win The Stanley Cup this year? The Bruins, did you really have to ask?
The day Wideman was traded was a glorious day in Bruins hockey. If Ference somehow ends up somewhere else in exchange for a more capable (and gutsy) defender, I will tap-dance my way to hockey bliss.
Great article, Lori!