Sunday, April 13, 2008

This is a home game in Boston??

I'm watching the Montreal-Boston game on CBC and the only thing that indicates that the game is being played in Boston is the fact that the Bruins are wearing their black jerseys, and the Habs are in their whites.

I guess that's what happens when the Sox are playing the Yankees.

Head coach Claude Julien said that his team might be in trouble because of that baseball game. You usually think that when you return home, the crowd will be crazy in your favour. Tonight, it's 50-50.

They say that the lineups at the border this morning were an hour long. I do believe half of Quebec traveled to Boston this afternoon.

Every time Chara touches the puck, he is booed. The fans try to get on Thomas by screaming, "Tommmyyyyyyyyy, Tommmmmmyyyyyy". When the Habs nail the Bruins, a deafening cheer goes up. If the Habs score a goal, the only thing missing from the screaming and waving towels is the horn. Oh, and there's the 'Ole Ole Ole!" song, which I happen to love.

I truly believe that no fanbase has the lungs of the fans of the Montreal Canadiens. It is always a party in those stands, and every single one of them must return home with a case of laryngitis. And now the fans have taken the party on the road.

Good times. Go Habs.

7 comments:

Stoosh said...

The Bruins are so far off the radar up in Boston, it's sad, really.

Up in Boston, the Red Sox seem to get first billing, and they probably split the second billing with the Patriots. The resurgence of the Celtics has brought the interest back to that team this year bigtime, but for quite a while, the Celtics were a mess and they'd suffered quite a decrease in popularity. The Bruins are a very, very distant fourth among the four pro teams, and that was even the case when the Celtics had been struggling over the last few seasons.

Sad thing is that the Bruins used to be one of the biggest draws there, and I'm not even going all the way back to Bobby Orr. The B's were huge through the Ray Bourque era, but the ownership and front office sucked the life out of the franchise.

I think the Thornton deal turned off a lot of fans. I know Thornton had his issues, but the organization could've handled that much better than they did. I still don't get the trade of Brad Boyes to St. Louis. Boyes is one of my favorite players, and there's nothing that can happen that will convince me that Boyes for Dennis Wideman was a good deal, especially given that Boyes had already worked up a good rapport with Patrice Bergeron (and anytime the Jacobs family is ready to trade Bergeron, I'd love to see the Pens listen).

Now that Chicago has finally rejoined the land of the living in the NHL, Boston is probably the only franchise being absolutely ruined by ownership/management. I'd say the Thrashers are as well, but I don't know much the Thrashers had to ruin in the first place.

DaBich said...

That's sad, really.

I remember when we almost lost our Pens. I was so upset. Our fan base is great, that I have to say.

Ashley said...

It is sad that the B's are so far off the radar. I keep hearing that Boston is a 'hockey town'...um, huh? The Bruins are playing a playoff game against the Montreal freakin Canadiens, one of their most hated rivals, and they can't fill the arena? Something's wrong, for sure.

And Stoosh, I'm with you on the Brad Boyes deal. The B's lost one of hockey's top playmakers in Thornton, and then they lost a (now) 40-goal scorer in Boyes.

Dabich - I agree that the Pens' fanbase is great. I loved hearing them in the first two games against Ottawa.

Ashley said...

Oh no, does the fact that I'm agreeing with you two mean that I'm participating in groupthink-du-jour??

haha

DaBich said...

LOL Ash, I guess so, but ya know what? It's all good =D

Jeff K said...

Maybe it's a sign of the times, but Boston seems to be turning into more of a fair-weather sports town than it ever has been, where interest in their teams largely dependent on their success (just like New York, who re-discovered the Rangers last week). There always were and always will be diehard Red Sox fans, but I'm so not sure about the other sports. I lived in New England for years (and my parents and sister's family live there now), and you couldn't find any Patriots fans before 1997--now they're everywhere.

Regardless, while Boston sports fans are passionate, they're also the most bipolar: they love you one day and throw you under the bus the next. It also seems that they need a superstar to root for (see: Bird, Brady, Bourque--as Stooch correctly pointed out), which the Bruins don't really have right now.

Interest in hockey in Boston is still high: they sell out most college hockey games and flock to the Beanpot Classic every year, and tons of B.C. fans went to see them win the NCAA championship in Denver. Maybe some of the disinterest can be contributed to ownership moves or the lockout, but I think it might be a shift in the nature of fandom in the Boston area as a whole. One playoff appearance after a few years off might not be enough to bring the B's fans back.

(That and the fact that they're spending all their money on tickets at Fenway. The average ticket costs $49? That's wicked expensive.)

(Sorry, that was a little wordy.)

Ashley said...

jeff - thanks for your input! I'm on the outside looking in and I honestly am not sure of what's going on with the Boston sports scene.

As for the superstar point, I think Milan Lucic is doing good things for that team. He may not ever be the biggest star in the NHL, but he's the kind of player that fans love. I really liked that kid when I saw him play for Team Canada, and he'll do well in Boston.