After having his contract bought out a few weeks ago, Chris Drury officially retired today...As a Hockey fan, I always loved the guy...Of course I love to see American born players do well...But it was his Awesome play in the playoffs that really got me fired up...

After putting together strong runs in Colorado, he landed in Buffalo, where his leadership skills shined...Then he signed the monster contract with my New york Rangers...While he was still a great leader, and one of the best defensive players around, he never lived up to the contract...Especially once injuries started taking a toll on his body the last couple of seasons...

I hope he won't be just remembered as a bust with the Rangers...I hope he isn't just remembered for his little league world series performance, oh so many years ago...I hope people will remember the drive...The leadership...The clutch play...The face-offs won...The shot blocking, penalty killing, do whatever it takes kind of guy he was...

Best of luck to Chris Drury!

Later, The Beeze.

 

I thought since I live in the Mid-West where hell has taken over for temperatures over the past week, I would cool myself off with a little bit of hockey. It was a sad day here in Michigan, when it became apparent that Chris Osgood had played his last game in Detroit.....

Who would have thought he would finish his career with 401 wins, 3 Stanley Cups and one of the most memorable moments in Detroit Hockey history a fight with Patrick Roy then with the Avalanche. He will remain with the Red Wings as a scout, which I thought was a great move by the organization, kind of like saying thanks for all the good work that you have done over the past 17 years.

Thanks for the memories Ozzie, you gave us many over the years and I hope you have a great retirement.

Before I delve into the Stanley Cup Finals and the Bruins winning their first Cup since 1972, I want to let you all know that if it wasn’t for me getting Mo to remove his picture of the Stanley Cup yesterday from Facebook this could have all gone to hell in a hand basket really quick! I brought it to his attention that the Stanley Cup is never touched by players who have never won it, and therefore we shouldn’t be cocky and have it even posted on a wall somewhere until the deal was sealed! It’s back up, and appropriately so!

I was on the phone with Lanz today (who I’m sure will have a lot to say about this game today) and we were talking about the last time the Bruins hoisted the Cup, I was 11 years old, sitting on the floor of our living room while the Bruins polished off the Rangers in 6 games and setting a record for points scored in an NHL final 28-8. Those were the Bobby Orr/Gerry Cheevers days, these are the Tim Thomas/Zdeno Chara days!

I had been asked by numerous people all day if the Bruins could pull out a win in Vancouver after both teams had won all their home games and I said the same thing to all of them;, if the Bruins score first on Roberto Luongo they’d get inside his head and once they did that their defense which had been smothering would take care of the rest, and it did. Luongo no doubt was the reason the Canucks faltered losing 3 games in Boston miserably and being pulled twice but let’s not forget the highest scoring team in the NHL this season was held to 8 points. After the game in Boston Monday Daniel Sedin had predicted a Canucks victory in game 7, really going out on a limb there being no one had lost a game at home in the series. I assumed when hearing that the Sedin twins had chosen to actually show up in the final game and put some shots on the net and score some goals, that didn’t happen, these two had been absent basically all series, same with Ryan Kesler.

The Bruins outscored the Canucks in the series 23-8 with Thomas getting 2 shutouts, one in Boston then tonight in game 7. And how about Tim Thomas, is this guy fucking great or what? Not just a great goaltender, but he’s a class guy, willing to give props to Roberto Luongo after the game even when Luongo said that Thomas took unnecessary risks out of the crease, yet Thomas is a shoe-in for the Vezina Trophy, won the Conn Smythe for the Stanley Cup Playoffs MVP and as far as I’m concerned he’s the league MVP as well. Thomas has been a bull all season, the Bruins always playing with confidence with Thomas as the anchor.

Then there’s Brad Marchand, the pesky forward who scored 11 goals in the playoffs and who the Canucks had no answers for. Marchand’s wrist shot in game 6 gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead, he picked up two last night and his future is nothing but bright for the spoke’d B’s! Patrice Bergeron, the Bruins center whose faceoffs were missed when he went down with a mild concussion in the Flyer series but was a force to be reckoned with for these last seven games scored two goals on Luongo, the second shorthanded as he crashed the net and managed to push it by the Canucks netminder. Captain Zdeno Chara, the towering acquisition from Ottawa who had brought back the BAD in the Big Bad Bruins with his aggressive, physical play and 100 mph slap shot no doubt was the defensive backbone for this team which proved to be extremely stingy when it came to goals allowed.

I’ll never be able to cover the play of all the Bruins roster, but Krejci the finesse scorer, Thornton who was a healthy scratch until Nathan Horton was drilled in game one by Aaron Rome, Recchi, the 43 year old 3 time Stanley Cup winner, who is now retiring, the trade deadline that brought Tomas Kaberle from Toronto, along with Chris Kelly from Ottawa and Rich Peverly from the now defunct Thrashers and all the rest made this a season to remember.

The city of Boston will now roll out the Duck Boats for another cruise through the city and a spin around the Charles River and join the other of the major sports franchises that have now given the The Hub it’s 7^thchampionship in the last 10 seasons, and Boston will hold the title as the only city to win championships in all four major sports in a 7 year span! We’ll take it!

Boston Bruins, 2010-2011 Stanley Cup Champions!!! 

 
Hey Roberto Luong, you feel like talking anymore shit about the guy who out played the shit out of you? Let's see he's got the Cup and the Conn Smythe...What the fuck do you have, you mental case!?!

The Bruins went into Vancouver, and took it the Canucks in game seven...The Canucks started out playing well...It was looking like a great game...Hell Vancouver had to try and show up for that Sedin that said they'd win...Eventhough him and his brother had been non-existent in the finals...

But once Patrice Bergeron knocked in the first goal, off of a great pass from Brad Marchand, you could feel it happening...Luongo was going to make sure LeBron James isn't stealing his title for the King of the Choke...

In the second period, Marchand scored his first of 2 goals, the second being an empty netter...But the kill shot came when while on the penalty kill, Bergeron broke in on Luongo and was taken down by Christian Erholf, as they went crashing into the ice and net, the puck beat them across the goal-line...It was done then...Yes there was a period left, but Tim Thomas wasn't going to allow a comeback, as he stopped all 37 of Vancouver's shots...

The Canucks looked to tap out late in the third...They had been physically beaten the entire series, and it was showing...They had no offense, especially from there top two lines...

All four of the Bruins lines played great hockey...Guys like Paille, Campbell, Thornton, who don't get much credit, played excellent two-way hockey...43 year old Mark Recchi, didn't look 43 playing with Beregron and Marchand...And picking up Rich Peverly in the Blake Wheeler deal really paid off, especially how well he filled in for Nathan Horton, on the Krejci/Lucic line...This was a true team victory!

As for Vancouver, I have grown to really dislike these guys...They played like punks...And Luongo did what I said he would...He choked, just as he always does...Because he's an overrated cunt! Oh and people of Vancouver way to go...Nothing says class, like starting fires and riots after your team loses...



Didn't you do this before...Oh yeah, back in '94 when the Rangers beat you...Glad to see you're still acting like fucking children!

Congrats Boston, and the Bruins!

Wow, in the ten years I've been married to a gal from Boston, we've seen The Patriots win 3 Super Bowls, The Red Sox win the World Series twice, The Celtics won a title, and now the Bruins win the Stanley cup...Bostonians, you're lucky fucking people!

Later, The Beeze

Growing up, I lived across the street from an elderly woman, Minnie.  She was the stereotypical “old lady” who just didn’t like kids in a neighborhood just crawling with kids.  Frankly, we were all a little afraid of this large, scary woman who really didn’t like us.  My family moved to the neighborhood when I was 4, and for the next 6-years I pretty much lived in fear of this woman. 

1980 saw the US Olympic Men’s Hockey team defeated the heavily favored Soviet team to advance to play for  the gold medal – “Do you believe in miracles?”  At age 10, I had no idea what had happened, but I knew it was something big.  Jim Craig, the US Goalkeeper, was from Massachusetts and was a bit of a crush for Minnie.  To this day, I have no idea how I came to be in her favor, but it was like a thaw had occurred.  She began to share with me her significant collection of Sporting News back-issues, and fostered in me a love of the Boston Bruins.  What a pair we must’ve been – the elderly shut-in and the junior high student standing together on her front porch, with nothing apparently in common, talking about the Bruins. 

I don’t think I ever learned the origin of this love of hockey – whether it was simple infatuation with the hometown hero or if it went back to a childhood in the Canadian Maritime Provinces – but it was real and it was genuine. 

She did not live to see the 1987-1988 Stanley Cup Finals, and perhaps it is just as well given the way her beloved Bruins fell to the Oilers, in 4 ½ games.  With the arena air-conditioning battling to control the rising temperature, the electric system in the Boston Garden became overtaxed and ultimately failed.  The 3-3 game was canceled in the second period.  In the next game, the Oilers won their 4^th Stanley Cup on home ice.

 I think about her today on the brink of Game 7 of the 2010-2011 Stanley Cup finals.  I can picture her large frame in a drab housecoat and slippers cheering on Tim Thomas, Shawn Thornton, David Krejci, Zdano Chara, Milan Lucic, and Mark Recchi, although I can also imagine her sometimes ribald commentary about how to actually pronounce some of the names and asking “exactly what is a ‘Canuck’ anyway?”  There might even be a play on the phonemes that the slang for “Canadian” and the slang for carnal activity share in common, although I cannot say for certain.  I got to share a bond with this woman in a way that I think she had not allowed herself to share with anyone in a very long time. 

So tonight, as the puck drops on Game 7, I’ll be thinking of an elderly woman, long since deceased who is doubtlessly cheering on the Black and Gold “B.”  Godspeed Minnie, and God Bless.