hockey mayhem in boston

The past few days have found me rather blind to the professional hockey world. I knew very well of the Bruins’ horrible record (1 win the past 10 games) and I thought for sure, FOR SURE, the coach would be fired, and sooner rather than later (which really wouldn’t have bothered me, because honestly in the past two seasons he hasn’t shown me anything to be excited about but whatever).

You can imagine my surprise tonight when I flip on the hockey game and find out that the Bruins have traded their top player, the seemingly untouchable Joe Thornton, for three players from the Sharks. The combined yearly salary of those new guys is over a million dollars less than Thornton’s. A lot of you guys aren’t that interested in hockey and don’t know or care much about this deal, but I’m telling you it’s HUGE, especially for Boston. It’s much like when the Red Sox ditched Nomar Garciaparra.

Everyone in Boston loves Joe and the whole team sort of orbited around him, he was the foundation for this franchise, the shining star for the owners, and now he’s a Shark. A frigging San Jose Shark. Unbelievable.

I never particularly liked the guy because he can be so aggravating. He’s supposedly a top-notch “elite” forward, as he’s called himself plenty of times, and he runs around in all the local commercials here like he’s the hottest thing ever. But damn it if he doesn’t play like a sissy. He’s a big guy but you’d see more guts from my grandma, if she was alive and playing pro hockey. If you’re going to call yourself an elite player, you better make sure you make it out of the first round of playoffs. And it isn’t just me. I’m not telling you anything you can’t read for yourself on a million and one sports sites.

So yeah, he’s frustrated me, watching him twirl around in all those games. With his paycheck, you expect more.

But still…even I was dismayed to see him go. He’s a wuss, sure, but he’s OUR wuss. He belonged to us. He belonged to the Bruins. I know you can’t have pro sports teams where the players get drafted by a team and stick around with them for their entire careers and then retire with that same team. I know it doesn’t work like that, that it can’t work like that, not now, but I never imagined that it would be Joe Thornton on the cutting block. Never ever. Guess that’s why I’m not running a sports club, eh?

Maybe those guys at the top know what they’re doing (although it’s highly unlikely). Tonight, the Bruins manage to not only win, but to shut out the best team in the NHL and give them their first loss in the division. For 60 minutes, Boston played good, solid hockey. They were a pleasure to watch. A PLEASURE. I can’t remember the last time I actually enjoyed watching the Bruins play. Mostly you’re cringing and averting your eyes and feeling ashamed, rocking back and forth and saying “why why why…”

How this will all play out makes for a very interesting year and a very excited christa.

p.s. I am starting to accept the fact that I’m probably not going to be marrying a hockey player anytime soon. I’m not ruling out the possibility entirely, but I think my advancing age and my baby has made it a bit more difficult. And yes, Gordon USED to play hockey, but that doesn’t count. I USED to do a lot of things, too, and look where I am now.

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