Hmmm

Boston doesn't deserve the Cup??


BOSTON Enough, Boston, enough.

Aren't two World Series titles, three Super Bowls and an NBA championship enough? Do you really need the Stanley Cup, too?

The Carolina Hurricanes have a chance to eliminate the Boston Bruins from the playoffs tonight, and they should have the backing of the entire free world of sports fans tired of titles ending up in New England.

That's nothing against the Bruins or their fans specifically. In the first two games the Hurricanes played at TD Banknorth Garden, the fans were loud, rowdy and enthusiastic, even when booing the Bruins off the ice after a 3-0 loss to the Hurricanes in Game 2.

You feel for these people, because they've seen a lot of bad hockey over the past decade. Too much bad hockey, in a building that too often sat empty and lifeless, and for good reason.

"When I got here, we were jealous of those other Boston teams," Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference said. "We wanted a piece of that, and we set out to do it."

You'd like to root for them to see a Stanley Cup in Boston for the first time in almost 30 years, because they're good hockey fans who have made this once again a great hockey town, and the game of hockey needs it that way.

But you can't, because they're still Boston fans, and you can't bear to see the rest of the residents of this wonderful, charming city get any more insufferable.

Boston Celtics fans went from reminiscing about the golden days to yelling about the current days. Boston Red Sox fans went from patient, downtrodden stoics to the most obnoxious bunch of braggarts outside of New York.

(Hey, Sox fans: There's another group of long-suffering fans who were waiting even longer than you for a mere appearance in the World Series, let alone a championship, and are still waiting. Ask a Chicago Cubs fan about a ball going through a first baseman's legs to lose a playoff game, and he'll say Leon Durham did it first, in 1984.)

As for the New England Patriots, well, if you didn't grow up with it, it's hard to root for a team run by the most cynical, ruthless, mechanical coach in the NFL. Rooting for the Patriots is like rooting for the swine flu, except the swine flu might be more likable.

Oh, for the days when Boston fans savored their misery and altered the "reverse curve" sign on Storrow Drive to "reverse the curse." You felt for Boston fans back then, because they cared so much and received so little. Is it too late to reverse all this success?

Stephen King, long-suffering Red Sox fan: sympathetic. Most Red Sox fans these days: characters in a King novel.

Which brings us to the Bruins, the only Boston team waiting to win a fresh title. The rebirth of the Bruins is an amazing thing, and the new Garden is rocking just like the old Garden did, at least as close as it will ever get.

When they play the Dropkick Murphys' "Shipping off to Boston" in the third period, and the whole crowd sings along with the "Whoa oh oh" chorus, it's stirring.

The renaissance of the Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks has been fantastic for the game of hockey, because the poor management of these two Original Six teams hamstrung the NHL for too long. The league is lucky those markets were dormant, not dead.

The NHL needs strong teams in those cities, and thankfully, Bruins fans voted with their feet, forcing the Bruins to join the 21st century.

With a Harvard-educated Canadian lawyer as general manager, the Bruins spent big money to bring Zdeno Chara to Boston, outbid other teams for the services of 21-year-old free agent Blake Wheeler last summer and have a strong core of young players.

So bravo to the Bruins for bringing hockey back to life in Boston, but let's stop it there. Their fans deserve a title, no question about it, but the city of Boston has had more than its share lately.

It's time for the Hurricanes to say the same thing to Boston teams that anyone stuck sitting on a plane next to a Red Sox fan has been saying for the past five years: Enough.

- Thanks to MJT and the Charlotte Observer

I don't know how to feel about this. I mean the guy isn't really bashing the Bruins but rather all the front running fans of the New England area. And he has a point. Pink hat nation makes us all look like dicks to the rest of the sports world. I don't know what mastermind decided that a real fan has to join Red Sox nation but he is a dick. I am pretty sure buying tickets to games, team jerseys, and a few hats makes you a fan. Not paying $100 bucks for a card to be a member of Red Sox Nation! Like I said he has good points but I say fuck him. The Bruins have as much right as any other team still playing for Lord Stanley's cup. Let them play it out on the ice. I had no beef with the Carolina Whalers until they started taking dives, cheap shots and then bitching about the Bruins physical play.

Eric Staal you are probably the best of all of the Staals, you already have a Stanley Cup but come Friday morning you will be making tee times for you and your buddies.