They were our Brooklyn Dodgers only they gave us so much more.
The Bruins of the early 70s. They won two Stanley Cups and were the sole reason that hockey rinks sprouted up all over Massachusetts. Hockey was king. Working class parents spent money on equipment, ice time and travel. They woke up at 5:00 a.m. to drive to a 6:00 a.m. practice.
As a result we made hockey players. The Boston area was well represented on the 1980 Olympic Gold medal team. The captain was a little Italian kid from Winthrop. The NHL and minor leagues are full of local kids and have been for years.
The best hockey player was not necessarily the best athlete. Hockey, more than any other sport, has a place for the scrappers. The kids not afraid to get hurt.
And for every local kid that has turned pro there are 20 who got a college education because of hockey. Now they are successful middle aged adults. Graduates of Merrimack, Bridgewater State, Fitchburg State, Holy Cross, Stonehill, Babson, and scores of other schools around New England. But for hockey many would not have had the opportunity. And but for the Bruins they would not have played hockey.
In addition, the friendships and brotherhoods created continue today. Lives turned out very different for many because of the impact those Bruins teams had on this city.
Bostonians over the age of 40 can look at a team picture from the Bobby Orr days and identify most of the players. Sure there was Espo and Orr. But there are also familiar faces named Smith (Dallas and Rick), Stanfield, Awrey, Cashman, McKenzie, Sanderson, Westfall, Marcotte, and others.
And of course Ace Bailey. Killed on 9-11. He always wore a turtleneck under his sweater. I never saw that mentioned in the news stories concerning his death.
The face of the Bruins for the last 40 years is known by one name. Harry. As in effin Harry.
The Bruins opened the new season last week, They have a new GM, a new coach, and a bunch of new players. Optimism is high.
Of all our local sports fans, pound for pound the Bruins fan is the most emotional. If they win it there will be dancing in the streets in Everett, Quincy, Medford, Weymouth, West Roxbury, South Boston, the North End, Burlington, Tewksbury, Malden, Chelsea, East Boston, Wilmington, Abington, and all the other working class neighborhoods where the Bruins hold a place in the heart not shared by the Red Sox or Pats or Celts.
The Red Sox never changed anyones life. The Bruins have changed many.
Forget the Bruins! Come on up to Lowell to see the Lowell Devils at the Tsongas Arena, named after a great Democrat and not a bank.
Sorry, couldn’t resist. Still, talk about tough on crime.
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…are the Bruins.
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Hey, Ernie – did I ever tell you about my autographed Robert Parrish Celtics stock certificate?
You prove my point. Not a sport for wussies.
They’ve made some changes though, and I’m willing to give them the benefit of a doubt.
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Ernie! How can you talk about the Bruins and not mention Raymond Bourque?! My kid’s a defenseman because of Ray Bourque. I gotta a picture somewhere of my kid at 4 years old with Ray. Good times. Too bad he had to go to Colorado to get his Cup.
I’m talking about the Big Bad Bruins. Early 70s. Bourque didn’t play for them
It kills me every time I see Detroit referred to as “Hockey Town.”
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I am more of a late 70s guy, simply because I am too young to remember the Cup win. I do remember how Bobby Orr was king, and Gerry Cheevers, Gilles Gilbert, Jean Ratelle, Johnny Bucyck and the like.
Wha’? You mean the NHL isn’t still on strike?
Just pointing out, I am selling prints of my painting, Still Life in Hockey, in case people missed it. 🙂 It’s one of the few items of my artistic endeavors that I’ve bothered trying to sell.
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The original painting itself (oil on canvas) was a gift to my Bruins-fanatic brother and hangs on his Brookline wall.
Perhaps the Bruins Pro Shop (the store at the Garden) would be interested in selling the prints. It’s pretty sharp and should adorn a few family rooms, bed rooms, offices, and finsihed basements from here to Fitchburg.
Not even Robin Williams’ character in “Good Will Hunting”?
He didn’t go to the game. Remember.
He stayed at the Cask
That’s Show Biz
Got his autograph from a family friend who worked with Westfall at Carling Black Label. I also had Kenny Hodge’s autograph. Cool stuff. Remember Orr on Ice? Used to think it was quite risque when I was a kid because there was a pic in it of Orr in his jockstrap. Geez, a long time ago….
That and the “Brothers Espo”. Just about every grade school kid did a book report on those two treatisies.
The of course there was “High Stick”. The Teddy Green story.
Question. Who hit Teddy Green in the head?
Anyone? Bueller?
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Why Wayne Macki of course.
Who guessed Keith Magnusen?
on Sunday nights on Channel 38 religiously. All those goalies from back then? Dryden, Giacomin, Villemure, Gump Worsley . Rod Gilbert was awfully cute, too, as Rangers go. And then all those Canadiens we loved to hate: Frank Mahovlich, Yvan Cournoyer, Jacques Lemaire, Serge Savard, Jacques Laperriere, and, of course, Guy Lafleur. Those were the days.
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And as for books, who can forget Derek Sanderson’s Warm, Wet and Wild? Now that guy was quite the character.
Might have been Saturday nights at 7 now that I think about it. That was 35 years ago…..damn.
It was after the Stanley Cup wins and I think he had just come from a Red Sox game. I was just a kid and he was a really nice guy. I think I got his autograph, but I have no idea where it is now. That was back when the players lived amongst us regular folks.