There's Trouble Bruin...

I didn't want to be Bruins fan. I still DON'T really want to be a Bruins fan. However, the fact of the matter is that it is really, really hard to be an obsessive Red Wings fan in Connecticut. I do not have the time to devote to searching the television night after night hoping to find a western conference game when the eastern conference is playing out before my eyes.

Don't get me wrong - the Red Wings still are and always will be my number one team. But I am being realistic - I am not going to get to watch every game. I am not going to get to GO to many games. And they only come to my seaboard once or twice a year.

But reading scores and blogs and Freep.com from afar doesn't totally satisfy my need for almost constant hockey during hockey season. I'll still do it, but I need to fill that hole in my soul that requires game-watching and screaming at the television and making witty signs out of players' names.

So I've weighed my options. There's really only two teams close enough to physically GO to games (since the Hartford Whalers now only exist in the form of the Carolina Hurricanes). My only options were the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins.

At least they're both Original Six, right?

On the surface, the Rangers probably would have been the better choice. Most of the time they are the better team. However, the defection of Shanny and the fact that it is much easier to get to Boston than to New York City led me to the Bruins.

The Bruins have not had a lot going for them in recent years...make that recent decades. But coming from Detroit, I have had a ton of practice rooting for losers (hello, Tigers and LIONS). Plus, the Bruins fans have foam claws - and foam bear heads - which are kind of cool.

In addition, the Bruins have a kind of cool lineup at the moment. Besides Tim Fat-Ass Thomas, they have former Red Wing Aaron Ward playing defense (according to some, Aaron Ward popularized the use of the term 'wham!' in reference to sports) and big, bad Milan Lucic, the "Hit Man."


Last night, I joined Amanda - a major Lucic fan - at her house to watch the Bruins slaughter the Canadiens 6-1. (Can I just say that I am thrilled to find a girl besides Mini Wiseman that likes to yell at hockey players with me?) We have purchased tickets to two games and are planning on purchasing at least one more.

I do feel a little like I am cheating on the Wings, but I am justifying it with the fact that I did not pick another Western Conference team to root for (THAT would just be wrong). And it is very unlikely that the Bruins and Wings will meet in the Stanley Cup finals, although stranger things have happened. And even if that did happen, I would obviously be in the Wings' corner.

But for now, over here on the east coast, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy what I've got. Although if I ever say anything along the lines of "That was a wicked cool goal" - or just use the term "wicked cool" in general - somebody please slap some sense back into me.