By Jill Saftel, News Staff
Every Boston fan knows what disappointment feels like. From the Red Sox to the Patriots and this year, the Celtics, all experienced that pang of heartache when hope is lost.
The Bruins are fighting for the Stanley Cup, but they’re caught in a 39-year title drought, and last year’s 3-0 slip to Philadelphia was, well, a let down.
This past season, Northeastern hockey fans were not strangers to the let down that has become commonplace to New England teams.
NU hockey fans got their hopes up twice this season, once in an overtime Beanpot battle and again in the Hockey East conference semi finals, both against Boston College. With the Bruins season coming to a close, who better to sound off on the final series than NU students who are hoping the Stanley Cup makes its return to the “Hub of Hockey.”
“When the Bruins play well, this city bleeds black and gold,” senior political science and economics major Sean Maloney said.
It’s a sentiment felt by many Bruins fans in Boston, but Maloney really hit the nail on the head.
A hockey fan since he can remember, Maloney, a North Attleborough native, said he’d like to think that deep down, Boston’s always been a hockey town.
“This series is really bringing this city back to where it was as a hockey town,” Maloney said. “I don’t think it really went away at all, the Bruins just got overshadowed by the other, better-performing teams. The Celtics/Lakers Game 1 from last year even got a lower TV rating than game one of this Bruins/Vancouver series.”
Maloney’s right, the numbers don’t lie. According to the Associated Press, Game 1 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals received a 25.5 TV rating in Boston – meaning 25.5 percent of people watching on the tube tuned in to the Cup – compared to last year’s Celtics vs. Lakers Game 1 with a 19.1.
The Bruins and Canucks series has certainly provided an air of drama. From a biting incident involving Vancouver’s forward Alex Burrows to relentless taunting on both sides and a terrifying hit that left Boston’s forward Nathan Horton out for the rest of the series with a severe concussion, the Stanley Cup Championship has had no shortage of difficult calls for the NHL and its officials.
Coincidentally, the two players with the most controversy around them, Burrows and Horton, have had quite an impact on the success of both teams, scoring pivotal goals after what many would describe as bad behavior.
For Horton, that meant spraying water at fans during the previous series against the Tampa Bay Lightning and for Burrows it was the aforementioned biting of Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron’s gloved fingers during a scuffle.
“The NHL has been criticized for years for a lack of clarity/fairness in its punishments to players and these playoffs seem to be no different,” said senior finance major Matt Ritter, a New Jersey native who said he roots for the Bruins although the N.J. Devils remain his number one allegiance. “I did think that Burrows should have been suspended for biting, but I also thought that Horton should have been suspended after Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals for throwing the water bottle. Although, I don’t think it’d be much of a discussion now though if it weren’t for the fact that both players went on to important factors.”
Maloney agreed with Ritter when it came to Burrows.
“With the finger biting, I was pretty upset. The NHL stated that they saw no conclusive evidence that Burrow’s ‘intentionally’ bit Bergeron’s finger,” Maloney said. “What I took out of that was the word “intentional”, how do you unintentionally bite a finger?”
Overall, Maloney and fellow lifetime Bruins fan, sophomore business major and Andover native Mary McQuillen, both said the officials have been as fair as they could be.
“Even with the controversies, I’ve felt most calls have been pretty justified,” McQuillen said.
For two other Northeastern students on co-op, keeping up with the Bruins Stanley Cup buzz isn’t just a hobby; it’s their job.
Mike Brown and Lindsey Schmidt are both sophomore journalism majors who have experienced the Bruins season from the inside, working with the team’s media relations department as interns.
Brown says when he began his co-op position in January, he hoped the Bruins might make it to the championship, but wasn’t expecting it to happen.
“They’re in the finals for the first time in 21 years, it’s so cool to be completely immersed in it,” Brown said.
A lifelong fan from South Berwick, Maine, Brown said working for the team is like a dream come true, despite the long hours required of himself and Schmidt.
“I got about one hour of sleep [Monday night],” Brown said. “But even after 16 hours of work, standing in the locker room with those guys, it’s all worth it.”
Schmidt, a Shamong, N.J. native, said she agrees the occasionally long nights are well worth it.
“After so many hours, I still enjoy coming to work every day, which really says something about the position,” Schmidt said. “I don’t know how any other co-op will ever live up to it.”
Schmidt didn’t enter her position with a lifetime love of the game like Brown. She had never intensely followed hockey, but said after spending a lot of time learning with the team, she now loves the sport.
“It’s so much more than just watching hockey,” Schmidt said. “The players have been absolutely amazing and everyone here is so pleasant to work with.”
Despite the added pressure the playoffs have put on Brown and Schmidt, they both say they’ve enjoyed the fast-paced atmosphere.
The remainder of the finals series is sure to be fast paced, which Ritter, Maloney and McQuillen will all be watching, albeit with hesitant optimism.
“If the Bruins win the Cup I think it will be reminiscent of the Red Sox winning in 2004,” Ritter said. “The drought hasn’t been nearly as long, but there are still entire generations of fans that have never seen a championship. Bruins fans tend to be crazier than the other fans in Boston, even if there are fewer of them.”
One “crazy” Bruins fan hopefully awaiting the end of the Finals is McQuillen, who says if the Cup were to return Boston, she’ll be heading straight to TD Garden.
“When the Bruins win, because they will, I’m going to run out of my apartment screaming and cheering,” she said. “I’m hopping on the T and heading to North Station to celebrate the amazing win.”
