So This is It Then

This is it, this is what we Bruins fans have waited for all these years. It's really quite amazing, and different, to be a Bruins fan this season. On TV I watched yet another team head for the locker room in dejection and disappointment. I wonder if the Flyers will go into a long slide now, as other devastated Bruins opponents have. But mostly I wonder if they even realize that they didn't come close to seeing the best that the Bruins had to bring... because they simply weren't good enough to bring it out in them.

Ah, but there's the rub. I know that some fans will want to hit me over the head with my beloved copy of "Black and Gold" for saying it, but this is getting boring. We've recently seen that you have to remove at least one full line of forwards from this team to make it a fair contest. Otherwise they just breeze past most opponents like they aren't even in the same league. There's no drama.

In a weird way I miss the previous three seasons. The Bruins struggled. They were always the underdog. Some idiot fans even wanted Timmy replaced because they couldn't tell a great goaltender from an armadillo... unless the team was winning. That was drama. When the Bruins won against a good team it was due to sheer grit, heart and determination. Every game was a battle... drama.

Now I tell my 10-year old that the Bruins won "again" and he looks at me as if to say, "So?" I watch other teams play each other and I'm struck by how poorly they seem to play. "Why didn't he just pass it to the other D man behind the net?", I ask the TV. Or, "Why do they have so much trouble on the breakout?" I mean, it's not like it's all that hard. I've seen the Bruins do it, again and again and in pretty much exactly the same way, something like 500 times. Other teams don't seem to be playing the same game. How weird is that? It's like playing NHL '06 after you long ago figured out how to score at will. Every game and every goal is the same.

Now some people will think that this can't last. The Bruins may fall like Ottawa before them, and I'll regret not enjoying it more. But that's just the point: we learned last year that this team has huge reserves of heart that it can draw on when facing adversity. This team has enormous character, but they seldom need it anymore. I cannot imagine much that can stop them from cruising into the playoffs, and past the first round.

Only after that will the drama finally begin.

Other than February 10th of course. Damn, I need to find someone who gets Versus!