It has been more than three months since the previous championship parade in Boston and the city is getting antsy.
Sure, the Red Sox won Major League Baseball’s World Series in October last year and the New England Patriots earned their sixth Super Bowl victory in February, but since then: Nothing. Boston’s sports fans are counting on the Bruins to end the interminable title drought with a National Hockey League title.
“It definitely lights a fire under you to see the other teams in the city bring home their championships,” defenseman Brandon Carlo said as the team prepared to face the St Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Finals, with Game 1 on Monday next week. “We want to be a part of it.”
Photo: AP
It was not too long ago that Boston was a sad sack of a sports city, with the Patriots the joke of the National Football League and the Red Sox mired in a dynasty of disappointment that would stretch to 86 years.
The Boston Celtics won far more than their share in the National Basketball Association, but they endured the longest championship drought in franchise history from 1986 to 2008.
The Bruins went from Bobby Orr’s two championships in the early 1970s until Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron brought the Cup home in 2011.
If that does not seem like a long time ago, try telling that to the newly spoiled Boston fans who have grown up with the Patriots of coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady and a Red Sox franchise that has won as many championships in the past 15 seasons as it did in the previous 100.
“It feels like there’s been a little bit of a gap in there,” said Carlo, a 22-year-old Coloradan who has only been in Boston for three years. “The way things have gone for Boston, we’re looking to be like the other teams.”
Now they have their chance.
The Bruins are at their strongest heading into the Cup finals, with a seven-game winning streak that includes a sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Goaltender Tuukka Rask has allowed more than two goals just twice in the past 13 games and he won the final two playoff clinchers with a shutout. Brad Marchand is the leading scorer remaining in the playoffs.
With the Celtics done, the Patriots in the off-season and the Red Sox still recovering from their early season championship hangover, the Bruins have the city’s attention.
“We want to be considered the best game in town. Why wouldn’t we?” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We have some serious competition.”
Cassidy said he has developed a relationship with the other coaches in town and he reached out to the Patriots for advice on how to handle the long layoff between series. The Celtics practice facility is next door to the Bruins’; on the morning of an NBA playoff game, Cassidy wore a Celtics shirt to his media availability.
When he took the podium for Wednesday’s news conference, Cassidy looked at the unusually large crowd and said: “Red Sox off today?”
They were on the road.
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