The real story, however, was the Boston Red Sox. The once proud baseball team had gone through a stretch of 8 consecutive losing seasons, and hadn't made the playoffs since 1946, when they lost the World Series in 7 games to the St. Louis Cardinals. The franchise was still recovering from the retirement of Ted Williams, who walked away from the game in 1960 after a career that had 521 balls clear the fences, more home runs than any other player to wear a Red Sox uniform.
In 1967, the team would make a complete 180 from the year before, when they went 72-90, to go 92-70, taking the AL Pennant. They lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, but regardless of the result, it was a run that was completely unexpected. It was the Impossible Dream.
And Boston was a baseball town once again.
To this day, the Red Sox are worshiped by all those in Boston and Greater New England, with that passion for the local nine never settling. It reached a high when the Sox finally won the World Series in 2004 for the first time since 1918.
But can lightning strike a second time in the great city of Boston?
Appearantly so. The Impossible Dream has happened again, except this time with the Boston Bruins, the beloved hockey team in the hub since 1924; an original six franchise.
At one time, the Bruins were the talk of the town. Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Gerry Cheevers, and Terry O'Reilly among others started a hockey renaissance, which brought about the stars of the next generation like Tony Amonte, Keith Tkachuk, among others.
It had seemed like centuries upon meleniums since the Boston Bruins were a relevant team within the Stanley Cup conversation, a hot ticket in town, or even a common topic of conversation in a bar room near you. The last time the Bruins were in this position, the fans worshiped the likes of Raymond Bourque and Cam Neely. That was over 20 years ago.
The past years have seen playoff disappointments, questionable trades, an owner who seemed to care more about making money than putting out a good product, and two debilatating lockouts, one of which whiped out the 2004-2005 season. There was also the three other major sports teams in Boston taking the spotlight, with the New England Patriots winning three Super Bowls, the Boston Red Sox winning two World Series, and the fellow TD Garden tennants Boston Celtics winning their 17th championship in 2008. The heroes of the city were guys like Tom Brady, David Ortiz, and Paul Pierce. No love for guys like Joe Thornton, Glen Murray, or Sergei Samsonov. They were just players quietly being the NHL all-stars, with very little fan fare to go along with it. But recently, it all changed.
In 2006, after the team went just 29-37-16--74, good enough for last in the Northeast Division, their worse point total/divisional finish since 2000, it became agreed that enough was enough. The front office was blown up, President Harry Sinden being replaced by icon Cam Neely, and GM Mike O'Connell, who made the bizarre deals that sent franchise cornerstones Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov packing in exchange for little value, after both had been locked into long term deals prior to the 2005-2006 season that was supposed to keep them in black and goal for years to come. Instead, they got Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau, Brad Stuart, Marty Reasoner, Yan Statsny, and a draft pick in exchange for the two. Meanwhile Thornton went on to win the Hart Trophy that same year with San Jose, and Samsonov scored a combined 9-22--31 in 43 games for the Edmonton Oilers, a big part of the playoff run that found the Oilers in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, depsite losing to Carolina.
O'Connell was fired in April of 2006, and eventually replaced by Peter Chiarelli following a short stint in the GM office by Jeff Gorton. This marked the groundbreaking on a project to bring the Stanley Cup to Boston, something that took 5 years.
Chiarelli got right to work, signing the two biggest free agents on the market, 6'9 defenseman Zdeno Chara (largest man in NHL history), and Marc Savard, a 28-year old center who was gaining a reputation as one of the most up-and-coming pivots in hockey.
After a disappointing year that resulted in yet another last place finish in 2006-2007, Chiarelli went and found his coach: Claude Julien. Julien would bring the team out of the cellar, leading the Bruins to a 94-point season in 2007-2008, bringing the arch-rival and top-seeded Montreal Canadiens to a decisive game 7 after falling behind 2-0 in the series.
The next two seasons was the "almost-getting there" seasons. In 2008-2009, the team finished within a point of the franchise's second President's Trophy, awarded to the team with the NHL's best record. Goalie Tim Thomas won the Vezina Trophy awarded to the best goalie, Chara with the Norris Trophy as best defenseman, and Julien with the Jack Adams award for the best coach. The run would end, however, with an overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on home ice in game seven of the conference semi-finals. The next year, the playoff disappointments elevated.
This time the Bruins were right back in the conference semi-finals, this time against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Bruins would go up 3-0 in the series after a game 3 win on Broad Street by the score of 4-1. It seemed all but over, with two of the remaining four games in Boston if need be. The Flyers would storm back to tie the series at 3 games apeice. In game 7, however, the Bruins jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first 14:10 of the game. It seemed all but over, the Bruins would move on to face the rival Montreal Canadiens for the third time in as many years, this time in the conference finals. This was before the Flyers went on to score four unanswered goals, taking the fourth on a power play for a too-many-men-on-the-ice infraction. Just like that, the Bruins were hitting the links.
Fast forward 11 months.
The Bruins had finished a season in which they went 46-25-11, earning them their second Northeast Division Championship in three years. They had Tim Thomas, who posted an NHL-record .938 save PCT and allowed just 2 goals per game the whole season. Their top defenseman Zdeno Chara was the league's plus/minus champ at +33.
And they were facing a familiar foe- the hated Canadiens. After falling behind 2-0, the Bruins charged back with three consecutive wins, two of which were at Montreal's Bell Centre, with games 4 and 5 requiring more than 60 minutes to decide a winner. In game 7, with the series tied 3-3, the team faced overtime once again. This time it was Nathan Horton, who was acquired from Florida via a trade that had blueliner Denis Wideman taking his talents to South Beach last summer, scoring his second walkoff goal in three games, propelling the Bruins into the Eastern Conference semi-finals for the third consecutive year. The opponent: The Philadelphia Flyers.
The Bruins once again jumped out to a 3-0 series lead, with game 1 and game 3 blowouts, 7-3 and 5-1, respectively. Game 2 was a 3-2 overtime victory that saw Tim Thomas stop 52 shots in net, including the final 46. This year they wasted no time ending the series, winning 5-1 at the TD Garden, and the Bruins were in the NHL's final 4 for the first time since 1992.
The Conference Finals? Another series of epic proportion entertained by the Spoked-B's and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bruins got caught up in four high-scoring games, allowing 5 goals in games 1, 2, 4, and 6. All games with the exception of game two resulted in a loss. But the story of the series was game seven, which was a perfect a hockey game as one can imagine. No penalties, non-stop back-and-forth play, and just one goal, scored by Nathan Horton with 7:30 remaining in the game. And the Bruins were off to the Cup.
This time, the big, bad Vancouver Canucks. The Presidents Trophy winners and Western Conference Champions. They had a Hart Trophy Candidate in Daniel Sedin, the defending Hart Trophy winner in Henrik Sedin, a Vezina Candidate in Roberto Luongo, and one of the best, if not the best all-around forward the game has to offer in Ryan Kesler. They were expected to be there. The Bruins were huge underdogs. It was David vs. Goliath, Globo Gym vs. Average Joe's Gymnasium. The Canucks had the smug arrogance of White Goodman, while the Bruins had the blue-collar attitude of Peter LaFleur. There were not many outside Vancouver who wanted to see the Canucks win it.
Ryan Whitney of the Edmonton Oilers was quoted as saying, "I'd say that 90% of the guys in the league want nothing to do with seeing them win. The team is pretty amazing...but just who makes up that team makes them so tough to like it's frustrating to see them do this well," saying the team was, "so easy to hate it was unbelievable."
All of Boston saw what Whitney was saying right away in the series, with Alex Burrows biting Patrice Bergeron in game 1. After Burrows was not suspended for the bite, the team decided to make a mockery of it, most notably Maxim LaPierre sticking two of his fingers in Patrice Bergeron's face after a third period whistle. Goalie Roberto Luongo was then caught critiqing Tim Thomas' game following a game 5 win, saying the lone goal Thomas allowed would have been an "easy save for (Luongo)". Just to clarify, Thomas had allowed a grand total of 6 goals in the five games of the series, despite losing 3 of the matches. Luongo meanwhile allowed 14 in the five games.
The Bruins wouldn't lose another game following the comments by Luongo aka the world's greatest goaltender in his own mind. In Game 6, the Bruins chased Luongo in the first period after allowing three goals within a span of three minutes, and had Bruins nation alike asking the question, "You think Timmy would've made those saves??" In Game 7, the Bruins marched into Rogers Arena to take the cup with a 4-0 decision.
And as the streets of Vancouver quickly turned into the streets of Baghdad, the Boston Bruins were hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1972.
The road leading up to this moment was most scenic of scenic routes. It was one that included 25 games, 3 game 7 victories (unprecedented in Stanley Cup playoffs), six overtime periods (5 overtime games), a record 849 saves by goalie Tim Thomas, and an injury to their first line wingman Nathan Horton, who was knocked out of the series after a dirty hit by Canuck Aaron Rome. Horton had netted 8 goals, 3 game winners, 2 of which were in walkoff fashion.
It was this scenic route that led the Bruins to the streets of Boston, who joined in celebration with over 1 million members of Bruins nation, bringing home the Cup after a 39-year absence.
And Boston was a hockey town once again.
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