Who are we?
We aren’t the 1972 Bruins. We aren’t sitting on the bench alongside Bourque and Neely. We aren’t the hockey squad that made history by being the first to blow a 3-0 lead in the playoffs. We certainly aren’t Marshall, so who the hell are we?
Right now, it doesn’t seem like the Boston Bruins really know. Are they the team that went down 2-0 against Montreal in the first round, looking like a wounded duck constantly playing short-handed, or are they the team that just took a decisive two-game lead while on the road against Philadelphia? All these Bruins keep telling us they’re not the same team that suffered such a colossal collapse a year ago, but they haven’t given us any clues into their current identity. At times this season, Boston looked like they could skate circles around every team in the NHL, but on several other occasions they went into awkward lulls where five-game losing streaks seemed to be the norm. Even some of the rocks of the team have been wavering on their consistency.
Milan Lucic seems just as confused by his poor play (thus far) in the playoffs as the rest of Bruins nation. Most local journalists thought Lucic had taken great strides this season with his improved and far more aggressive play, but the same critics are starting to question whether the forward’s nerves will ever be wired correctly for the playoffs.
And what about the Bruins defensive MVP? Zdeno Chara has done a hell of a job fighting though whatever illness he isn’t telling the public about, but there’s no question the bout of the Asian Bird Flu (or whatever it is) has taken a massive toll on his body. For the most part Chara has been sharp, but there have been lapses in his play at key moments in games that make you question whether he’s full recovered from that unfortunate spell of “dehydration”.
You could also ink a seven-novel series on the puzzling play of Tim Thomas, but you’re risking your head exploding by the third chapter. In game 2 on Monday night against the Flyers, the Bruins goalie let up a couple squishy goals early, and then blocked the next fifty shots on net seemingly blindfolded, leading his team to an overtime victory. I’m sure you can feel a twitching nerve in your head right now just thinking about it.
How can you categorize such a bearded bunch of rag tags? The only fixed figure on the Bruins seems to be Mark Recchi, a middle-aged man potentially destined to die on the ice if his plan is to keep playing until he wins one last Stanley Cup, but what about the rest of them? Who are they as a collective whole? Do we as sports fans put too much emphasis on the necessity of a team’s identity?
“Whooooooooo are you? Who who? Who who? Come on, tell me who are you?”
The Bruins don’t know the answer to that question, which might be the best thing they have going for them.
—–Seth Newton
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