Bruins Blog Project Game 5: 11/29/08 vs. Detroit Red Wings

Final Score: Bruins 4 Detroit 1
Attended With: Katelyn

Pregame: This is the one I'd been waiting for. You may remember, back in September, my fellow Season Ticket Holders and I got together for our Season Ticket Holder Draft, to divvy up the games. I had first pick. That pick, happened to be to last night's game vs. Detroit.

Originally, I just wanted to see the defending Cup champs and how my fledgling B's would fare against them. Little did I know, it would be a match-up of, arguably, two of the best three teams in the entire NHL.

Katelyn and I had the rare occurrence of finding both of our trains (Red in Quincy, Orange @ Downtown Crossing) waiting for us as we got there. That never happens, so we were pretty stoked, despite missing out on a full experience by our favorite street performer ("Someone needs to tell her she's not Johnny Cash," says Katelyn.)

Got to North Station shortly after 6, visited the merch stand there, and Katelyn got a pretty sick sweatshirt for only $20. Highly recommended.

We had plans to scrap grabbing a drink on Canal Street and get one inside, and it's a good thing we did. It was PACKED. The line to get into the Garden was spilling outside (possibly because of a busted escalator.) I was shocked at the amount of Red Wings fans in attendance. There may have been less than Sabres fans, but the red really sticks out. Overall, they were good natured and didn't cause any problems. Still, I swore to Katelyn that I would scream, "Go Back To 8 Mile" at one point.

We were in our seats, fed and quenched 15 minutes before the drop.

Third Jersey Mea Culpa: OK, I had gone on record saying I hated the 3rd jersey for it's sheer disregard of the classic Bruins jerseys. After seeing the on-ice product Friday and Saturday, I have to vary my opinion. I think it looks great on the ice. The numbers and arm stripes evoke the 80's Boston Bruins jerseys which I grew up on. I would still like to see a lace up collar and a bear on the shoulders. I also dislike the jersey without a name/number on the back.

The Game: I will be the first to tell you that I never expected to hear another "Manny Manny" chant in Boston after Manny Ramirez got traded. I was pleasantly wronged. The Manny cheers rang out in our section after one of his many flurries of saves to preserve a 3-0 lead.

The Red Wings are fucking awesome, however. The Bruins were held without a shot for half of the first period as the Wings just flew around (pun intended?) the ice. The B's did score on their first shot, a nasty 2 on 1 started by Ryder and finished by Wheeler (love that line.) With the Wings, you never feel safe with a lead. I was still nervous up 3-0 with an entire period ahead of us.

This was probably the least physical game I've seen in person this year. The Wings would rather finesse than get dirty, and the fact that the B's could take it to a team playing that way speaks volumes about how good they are. Still searching for the hit of the game, BTW. Chara absolutely leveled Datsyuk (or as Steve would call him, Dat-SUCK) on the Wings first PP of the day. If anyone gets a hold of it, let me know.

The Killer K's (Kessel, Kobasew and Krecji) finished off the scoring for the Bruins, and the Red Wings only goal of the game came off of Marc Savard's skate (that guy gets in on EVERY goal) on their ridiculously insane Power Play.



Postgame: Wasn't planning on really going out after the game, as I had to work the next morning, but I got the call that Chaves and crew were attending the Randolph High School Class of '98 High School Reunion at the Greatest Bar so we headed down to meet up with him. At face value, this seems like a perfectly normal sentence, but when you examine a few facts you can note the insanity:

• Chaves, Katelyn and I were not members of the Randolph High School Class of '98 (Dave and I were '00, Katelyn didn't even go to RHS.)
• The Greatest Bar is (arguably) the most popular Garden-area bar. Post-game on Thanksgiving Reunion Weekend and we were looking at a massive, massive line and a steep cover.

We were upstairs at the Greatest Bar, for free I might add, in seconds.

How? Well, not only does smoking kill, but it also gets you into bars you didn't pay for. Next time you're meeting up with friends who are already inside a bar, tell them to come out, make them smoke cigarettes (Peer Pressure!) then walk in with them. It also helps if you utter the phrase, "Go Blue Devils!" Bonus: You don't even have to smoke!

Once upstairs we ran into Klotz ('00 represent!) and others from '98 whom I hadn't seen in awhile. Fun times.

We had to jet, in order to get home, and as we were walking to the train station we noticed a group of rowdy Bruins fans (waiting for autographs) boo two girls wearing Wings jerseys. They were giving it right back, so I screamed, "Go Back to 8 Mile!" (told you I'd bust it out.) It elicited a pretty good laugh so I was happy with myself.

On the train ride home we met a family from Oregon State here visiting their daughter. They were all decked out in black and orange, mourning the loss of The Civil War to the hated Oregon Ducks. I don't know what it is with out-of-state college football fans, but like the Clemson fans from earlier this month, I took it upon myself to be an ambassador of Boston and made sure they were enjoying themselves and having a good stay.

That's it for now. No games for me until January 13, 2008 vs the Habs, so I will filling this space with other stuff that I hope you will enjoy.