Bruins Blog Project Game 6.5: 1/6/08 vs. Minnesota Wild

Final Score:
Attended With: Jon, Chris, Mom, Dad, Brothers Dave and Rob

Pre-Pregame: Few quick notes, thus necessitating a pre-pregame column.

1) I know it looks like I've been slacking, but I really haven't missed blogging a season ticket holder game. Last game I had was on 11/29 and the next one I have is 1/13. I did watch the Bruins destroy the Thrashers 4-2 on December 13th. Hell, I watched it from the 4th row:



So why didn't I blog? Well a combination of big time internet problems at home, facebook not uploading photos for about a week and, oh, a pretty big hangover.

2) Scored a sick new Bruins jersey on ebay. It is the road white jersey. The seller had it for Buy It Now: $99 or Best Offer. I jokingly Best Offered him $70 and it is now mine. I love it, but think it might be bad luck.

3) Attended the Bruins Wives' Charity Carnival on 1/4 and it was awesome. Katelyn and I got our photos taken with Zdeno Chara, toured the locker room, etc. Took 200+ photos here.

4) You may have noticed the "Attended With" section is quite full. Well here's the deal. Chris had our Section 308 seats, Jon had won 2 loge seats for $5 through some Cybear Club promotion and at the aforementioned Wives' Carnival, I won 4 seats to the game. So, being the #1 son & brother, I gave the tickets to my family.

OK all caught up?

Pregame: The MBTA fucking hates me. Allow me to explain. Got to Wollaston before 5 p.m., with the hopes of meeting Jon at Hurricane's by 5:30 or so for a beer or two, meeting up with the fam and heading in. I hate being rushed getting to the game, and being in town at 5:30 for a 7 p.m. game is so very refreshing.

A train finally comes (took about 10-15 minutes) and we pull into the next stop, North Quincy. And nothing happened. And nothing happened. And nothing happened. For a good 15 minutes, I was waiting on a packed train at rush hour while the conductor frantically walked outside. Eventually, we pulled up the extra 50 feet to the station and were let out. Train out of service. Good times! Apparently, someone had jumped onto the track to retrieve a cell phone and the train made an emergency stop or something. Great. Now you have two trains worth of people waiting for the next train and I've gone one stop in 35 minutes.

*Aside: Our train also went out of service on New Year's Eve right after N. Quincy, which caused us to nearly miss our Joel McHale show*

Finally back on the train, we are stopped abruptly for about 5 minutes in the middle of nowhere. When we get going again, finally some good news appears. This will now be an Express Train to South Station. SWEET! From there on my problems washed away and I was running to Hurricane O'Reilly's at 6.

Met up with Jon, grabbed a quick beer and my family arrived. We chatted away for a few, snapped some pics, then headed in. I didn't want them to miss the intro. Tonight's giveaway:a Ghost Ryder poster featuring Michael Ryder. The Bruins love their fake movie posters.


The Game: Not much to say here about the actual game. Fucking Minnesota and their stupid trap. They are perfectly content sitting 4 guys back in the neutral zone and winning every game by scoring 1-0. Which is exactly what they did.

Buncha B's looked really bad, and I'd say the best line was the Krecji-Ryder-Wheeler line, per usual. Wheeler was skating around guys as if they weer pylons but couldn't get a decent shot on the net, Krecji was passing too much (not always a bad thing, but in this case it was), and Ryder rang one off the post. Big Z also had a good chance but somehow couldn't pot it. For the love of all that is good and joyful, please remove P.J. Axelsson from the Power Play unit. Thanks!

The seats that Jon nabbed were sick. 21st row behind the net, which put us in the last row before the premium seats. Here is a look:



My family was up in Sec. 321 so I went up and sat with them for the 2nd period. I know this seems like a fantastic family man, but really I just wanted to sit on the side where the Bruins shot for all 3 periods. Just kidding. Possibly.

Here's the few from up in the heavens:



You might be asking yourself why I'd choose to waste a whole period way up top when I was so close. Well, my friend, it's clear you have never been to a hockey game. I love the balcony. It's livelier and you can see EVERYTHING. Remember those 4th row seats I mentioned earlier? Great for when the play is right in front of you. After that, you're at the mercy of whatever the Jumbotron is showing.

I mean, check out this video I took for no reason while really, really drunk to illustrate my point:





Additionally, the atmosphere down low is nothing compared to the heavens. There's rarely any chanting, nothing beyond clapping, really. To really put things in perspective, at that Atlanta game, there was a woman in my row wearing a fur coat.

/Soapbox.

Post game: Went to the Penalty Box with Jon and met up with Chris, Jackie and Andrew. We discussed the upcoming Sharks game we are all attending, Chris' love for Joe Thornton, Jon's eBay addiction and the soon-to-be constructed epic Cam Neely hooded sweatshirt.

Early night, work in the A.M.

Stay tuned for a busy month from me, however:

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.

Bruins Blog Project Game 4: 11/8/08 vs. Buffalo Sabres

Final Score: Bruins 3 Buffalo 1
Attended With: Katelyn

Pregame: Part of the reason this blog is a bit late, is that I noticed a sizable crack in my windshield on my way home from work to pick Katelyn up and I've been kinda dealing with that. I did what any New Englander would do if they noticed their windshield busted and called 1-800-54-GIANT. It was done fast, and hopefully done right. I digress...

Windshields notwithstanding, we were off to a good start to gameday. We headed down to the T around 5:30, and as we were crossing Hancock Street, a guy in a white van rolled down his window to say something to us. Unfortunately, he did not offer us candy, but he did ask us if we were going to the Bruins game (I think my jersey and Katelyn's shirt gave it away), then he asked who they were playing and heard they were doing well. It was pretty neat albeit weird. Less than a month ago I was getting dirty stares for wearing a B's jersey, now creeps in vans were stopping me to talk B's. I don't know where this will lead...

My brother's favorite street performer was jamming at the Downtown Crossing Orange Line station, I actually left him a message of her playing, and saw that she's selling CD's. I memorized her name for about 5 minutes (Beth something? Maybe?) for the purposes of further mockery, but I ended up forgetting it. I like beer better than blogging.

Hurricane's for a beer prior to the B's, and to watch Penn State choke away their title hopes.

Inside the Garden was mobbed. For whatever reason, Buffalo fans always crowd the Garden whenever the Bruins play. They were all wearing their horrid Sabres jerseys and singing their stupid "Let's Go Buffalo" chants. I had a bad feeling about these asshole taunting us after a Sabres win. Honestly, looking at everyone and mentally thinking "Scott Norwood" really helped.
As the Sabres were announced and all of the upstaters began to cheer I yelled out, "Get a real city!" I have no fucking idea what it meant, but it made me feel better.

Also had a minor news scoop pre-game. Riding up the escalator, I saw a dude wearing the new Bruins third jersey. For most people, this means nothing, but I'm a huge uniform geek, and it was imperative that I talk to this man. You see, the B's have only "unofficially" unveiled the jersey at the State Of The Bruins event, and it won't be on sale until the end of the month. I snapped a quick pic of the dude, and ran into him a few minutes later. Apparently his brother works for Reebok and was somehow able to buy two jerseys early. Very nice guy, and very stoked about the new 3rd.



I was actually excited about the 3rd jersey, too, which is weird, because I don't like it. In my opinion, it's boring, uninspired and totally devoid of the classic nature that make their primary jerseys tops in the league. Here are some images of the jersey. I love the primary logo, but that's as far as it goes. All black uniforms look pretty stupid, not "badass", would've loved to see a yellow third, or at least some more color involved in this one.

/Rant.

The Game: Great game and a huge one. A Bruins win, coupled with a Habs loss would mean the Bruins would be in first place. The Sabres got on the board first, much to the delight of their strong fanbase in the house. Dennis Wideman answered back a few minutes later and the Bruins never looked back, scoring two more times to make win it 3-1.

The crowd was great, it was a playoff atmosphere for 3 periods again. This is very encouraging for a team that's pretty much ignored by the mainstream media. Much like the "Tuuuuuur-cooooooo" chants from last week, the "Millllllllerrrrrrrrrrrr" chants overtook the house (even when the B's were down 1-0, which was weird.)

Milan "Moses" Lucic was all over the place, hitting everyone (8 hits) and no one would go with him. Kinda weird, considering Buffalo has 3-4 heavyweights on their roster. Of all people, Maxim Afinogenov nearly got into a few scraps, which is ridiculous. He's a finesse forward and he's a Russian. Pretty sure the last Russian to get in a fight was Ivan Drago.

Oh, the inside joke has officially been completed and Katelyn is now the proud owner of a foam Bearclaw. It's parts ridiculous and awesome.



Another post-script to the game action... It was military night and there were many classy tributes to our Armed Services. Aaron Ward even spent $15,000 of his own money to buy 300 seats for servicemen and women. Great move by him. It got a little dusty in their at times.

Post Game: Looked to mix it up a bit, but Fanueil Hall was a clusterfuck. Ended up walking to South Station and headed home, not before drunk dialing and texting several people to let them know about the 1st place Boston Bruins!

(Sorry, for lack of pics and no video. Camera was running on battery fumes. Yea, I suck.)

Bruins Blog Project 1st Star: Chuck Kobasew. Poor bad luck, Chuck. Last year he broke his tibia thanks to a Zdeno Chara slapshot, this year, he breaks his foot in the 1st game of the year. In his first game back, he picked up a goal and an assist, and played gritty all night.

Bruins Blog Project Last Star: The city of Buffalo. Sabres and Bills all falling to local teams in big games this weekend. Ouch.

Bruins Blog Project: Game 2 10/24/08 v.Atlanta

Final Score: Bruins 5 Atlanta 4
Attended With: Katelyn

Pregame: Polar opposite of last game, really. Not much emphasis on pregame and much more on post. We cruised from Wollaston in good time and got to the Garden at about 6:45. They tweaked the intro montage to include the two big hits from Thursday's Leafs game (Wideman's hit on Stajan was in the middle and Lucic's glass shatterer on Van Ryn ended the entire montage. The place went nuts.) Like good Americans, we got beer during the Anthem. Whoops.

The Game: Like I said, polar opposite of Monday's game. The Bruins played like garbage in the first period and the goals were fast and furious. Down 2-0 after 1, most of the building was grumbling. I went on a search for one of those foam bear claw things for Katelyn. It's kind of an inside joke that dates back to Opening Night 2007 and involves frightening a child. I won't go into it. Anyway, they were no where to be found. I walked around the entire Balcony level like an idiot. It was tough maneuvering, especially around the Hungry For Hockey section. That's the all you can eat section of the Garden. It looks like the cleared out a Fan Zone and made a food stand/cafeteria type deal out of it.

Back to the action, the second was a totally different story. Stephane "Old" Yelle(r) actually scored the first Bruins goal on a great tip in. Next up was the man, myth and legend Milan Lucic. Was wide open in the slot and Ryder found him to tie it up. All 3's after 2.

Katelyn will tell you, that after Lucic's second goal, I said, "How about a Milan hat trick?" and sure enough it happened! The place went bonkers. A hat trick, coupled with a game winning goal with under 2 minutes left in the period combined to drive fans into a euphoria.

Once again, here's another video I took:



The Looooooooch chant is really taking off, too. It's the next Youuuuuuuuuk (which was the next Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu [which was the next Drewwwwwwwwwwwww.])

Post-Game: There's nothing like a hapy exiting crowd, things just seem better. A couple of nice guys complimented me on my great game today (I was wearing my Lucic jersey) and we had a laugh.

Then it was off to Hurricane O'Reilly's for post-game drinks, of which I was happy to take part in. We had a good spot watching the Penn St/OSU game until some nerd wearing a full Philadelphia Phillies uniform had the bartender change the channel to the World Series. I checked my watch and noticed that the game didn't start until after 10:00 p.m. and I felt a twinge of horror for all of my FOX co-workers stuck at work until the game ended. We eventually moved to a better area to watch football (not before talking to a real live French Canadian in a Quebec Nordiques shirt!) and left shortly thereafter.

While waiting for the train, there were these 4 dudes playing kick hockey with an empty Mountain Dew bottle. They were all wearing Bruins jerseys (including a Manny Fernandez jersey, wtf?) and, seeing how I was a bit buzzed and had the need to take part in some sort of game, I stood a few feet away and, would you know it, the bottle came to me and I kicked it over to them. I felt like the last kid picked in gym class.



T ride home was uneventful. I may have booed the Ashmont train, but I may just be making that up. I'll have to ask for confirmation. Talked to my brother on the phone who was at USC/Arizona, and hoped for the upset for him then passed out.

Bruins Blog Project First Star: Those of you who frequent Celtics games may know who Soulja Boy, Jr is (LINK) and the Bruins may have found their match. They showed this little kid on the Jumbotron who was probably around 6 years old. The kid popped his shirt off and had a full Bruins logo painted on his chest. It was pretty impressive. He danced and flexed and served as the Bruins Jumbotron mascot all night. I hope he's a fixture.

Bruins Blog Project Last Star: The Harp. I like to go to The Harp after most every Bruins or Celtics game I go to. No, it's not because I'm an alcoholic, it's because I don't like insane crowds. Going to the T after immediately after a game is like taking part in a human cattle call. Going after 1 drink is like being an extra in 28 Days Later. It's a ghost town, and a no-brainer if you hate crowded trains. Anyway, we got in line and found out it's a $10 cover AND you can't wear hats. Most everyone was OK with the cover, but the hat thing was a deal breaker for half the line and a lot of people left. Didn't The Harp realize that 67% of their crowd was heading there directly from a hockey game? What's up with that?

So, it was off to Hurricane's. $5 cover and fucking hats EVERYWHERE.

Bruins Blog Project: Game 1 10/20/08 v. Pittsburgh

Final Score: Penguins 2, Bruins 1 (SO)
Attended With: Co-Season Ticket Holders Jon, Steve & Chris; Dave B.

Pregame: Pregame took on a whole new meaning as this was the home opener for the Bruins. We had found out more than 5 months ago that we had become season ticket holders, so this was a long time coming. The plan was to hit Fan Fest, which began at 4:30, mostly to pick up the t-shirt, then fuel up on beer and food at a Canal Street locale of our choosing (Hurricane O'Reilly's) before making it in.

I don't think I've ever headed down to a game this early, as I donned my Lucic jersey and left my apartment at 3:40. I got some weird looks as I walked down to the Wollaston T, especially outside of the Hancock Tavern and Alumni Cafe. I don't think people are ready for hockey season one day after ALCS Game 7. Whatever, it's helping me get over that loss.

Met up with Dave and Steve on the line for Fan Fest. Very impressive line formed, a few hundred deep before 4:30. We got in and got a pretty sick free t-shirt. Bruins' theme this year is "We Want It Just As Bad As You," and the shirt plays off that theme. Whatever, it beats, "It's Called Bruins." I still don't even know what that means.



The rest of Fan Fest was pretty par for the course (aside from the giant Patrice Bergeron ice sculpture. Sweet!) They had some booths were you could shoot some street hockey balls (at pedestrians, it seemed) and sign up for free shit. We were also graced with a performance by one of the worst cover bands I'd ever heard, One Night Stand. Good god... Actually Bad god. They were terrible.

Once Jon hooked up with us we headed to Hurricane's by about 5:15. We beat the crowd which never happens and had beers (no pitchers?!), burgers and our bill paid by 6:15. Very clutch on our part. Then it was off to our seats! (But not before picking up our second freebie, thundersticks with lights inside of them [weak sauce])

Love section 308. We are in the end zone, so you can see a lot of particulars of the game that someone like me, who never played, likes to pick up. The breakout, the changes, the outlets, etc. Section was pretty packed and spirited, we have some rowdy sections along with us.

Pre-game intros were great. Patrice Bergeron's ovation was nearly the loudest I'd ever heard the Garden. Additionally, they forgot to announce Mark Stuart which was pretty hilarious. He took it well and got a great ovation.

The Game: This post is pretty pre-game centric, because of the nature of things, but the game was fairly uneventful. We were switching seats a bunch, too. We had a few extras near us and since we only own 2 seats and came with 5 guys, we did some mixing and matching.

The "Hall Gill sucks" chants were unbelievable. Because he does. Two guys behind us were getting pissy at us when we stood during breakaways and close plays in front of our own net. I'm sorry, but I imagine they'll get a better view in their living room. Additionally, they smelled really bad.

Dave and Steve got caught on the Jumbotron. Actually, Jon did, too. Nice to know we'll have a cameraguy handy.

Speaking of the Jumbotron, captured this video, which I thought was utterly mindblowing. Arcade Fire and Boston Bruins. Two of my greatest loves, together at last??


Strangely, first shootout I'd ever witnessed. B's were a few inches from finishing and winning their home opener, especially after soundly outplaying the Pens. I really look forward to watching this team through the year. They're going to seriously make some noise.