Bob Ryan is a longtime sports columnist for the Boston Globe. His particular focus is generally basketball, but he writes about everything, including the Boston Bruins. So with the Bruins returning from their (mostly) Western road swing with a 6-0 record, and Thursday night defeating Tampa Bay 2-1 to claim sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference, it’s not surprising he was on the job. 

Ryan dutifully chronicled Thursday night’s game here, noting that the last time the Bruins had had such a successful road trip was in the 1971-72 season, when they last won the Stanley Cup. Then he dropped this little bombshell:

… the question right now is whether or not this team is worth a serious emotional investment on the part of any Bruins fan.

Um, what?

A “serious emotional investment”? Isn’t that, y’know, what being a fan is all about? Isn’t that the whole point? What kind of “fan” studies the standings, sees a seven-game win streak, and says to him/herself, “hmmm, well, they’re winning, looks like they have a shot at the Stanley Cup, I guess I’ll be a fan now. Say, who’s this Krejci fellow? And how do you pronouce that?”

No. Those aren’t fans. They’re bandwagon-jumpers. Or what hard-core Red Sox fans cynically dubbed “pink hats,” the people who climbed aboard when the Red Sox won their first World Series in 2004 and suddenly became Fashionable.

Of course, this doesn’t just happen in Boston. When the Blackhawks won the Cup last spring, out of the hundreds of thousands (millions?) clogging the streets of Chicago for the parade, how many of those folks, do you think, had stuck with that team through thick and thin, suffered through the bad times, watched the drafts in which they selected Kane and Toews, dared to hope and cheer and dream?

Most importantly, how much did that parade mean to those fans, who never lost faith?

Nobody’s going to turn away bandwagon fans. They fill the arena, they create a buzz, they encourage the players (everyone likes to be loved and talked about). I for one am happy to welcome anyone who wants to be a Bruins fan.

But, y’know, there’s something to be said for swimming through bitter waters until you reach the sweet. You simply can’t appreciate having without going through the wanting, the dreaming, the hoping. When, someday (hopefully soon), the Bruins win the Stanley Cup, my tears — and those of my fellow black-and-gold faithful — will be all the more blessed, because we didn’t “decide to make a serious emotional investment,” we were there already. Fans — real fans – keep the faith.   

 Photo from boston.com

Seriously, Bruins fans. You’re embarrassing me.

I knew when the Bruins lost four straight to the Flyers in the Eastern Conference semifinal that a significant percentage of  Bruins fans were going to go off the deep end, but it’s gone beyond ridiculous. Blogs calling for GM Peter Chiarelli and/or coach Claude Julien to be fired, half the team to be traded, HAVEN’T WE SUFFERED ENOUGH?

Enough already.

What short memories people have. How quickly they forget how mired in mediocrity the Bruins were before the Chiarelli/Julien administration. How many other teams would give anything to be in the Bruins’ situation right now?

I certainly expected frustration and disappointment. I didn’t expect the hysteria and stupidity that is running rampant in New England right now. Even the media has succumbed: Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe (sorry, I’m not going to link his joke of an article) wanted nothing less than an abject apology from Chiarelli at his end-of-season press conference. An apology for what, exactly? A team that was within a hit goalpost (by Milan Lucic, late in Game 7) of moving on to the EC finals despite its players dropping like flies? For not trading half the farm for Ilya Kovalchuk? (Fat lot of good he did for the Devils.) For trading Phil Kessel for Taylor Hall/Tyler Seguin?

I heard a caller to sports radio (yeah, stupid me, but I figured they would have moved on to baseball by now) complain that the Bruins were steamrolling the Flyers in the first three games, and then choked. Already with the revisionist history: The Bruins won the first game 5-4 in overtime, the second 3-2. The score of the third game was 4-1, but that was misleading; it was a one-goal game until late in the third, when a fortuitous bounce put the puck on Mark Recchi’s stick for the third goal, and then Patrice Bergeron added an empty-netter.

Game 4 was a 5-4 Philly win, and the turning point in more ways than one: the Bruins lost David Krejci and the Flyers regained Simon Gagne. Game 5 was the only lopsided game of the series, 4-0 Flyers; then back to one-goal games: Flyers 2-1, and 4-3. Bottom line, this is a series that, with a lucky bounce here or there, could have gone either way. I’m amazed that nobody in the hockey media seems to have pointed this out; guess they’re all too gleeful about the OMG THEY BLEW A 3-0 SERIES LEAD. Yeah, whatever. To paraphrase that noted hockey observer Getrude Stein, a loss is a loss is a loss.

Life goes on. You cry, you pick yourself up, you move on. You don’t let a loss, no matter how devastating, define your career (believe it or not, I actually got into a back-and-forth with a Bruins blogger who is certain this is going to RUIN THE FRANCHISE FOREVER. Seriously.)

Krejci: “It seems like every year we’re getting much closer. We were really close this year but it didn’t happen. Next season everybody is starting from zero points. It’s going to be a new season, new year and everybody’s going to have the same chance, so obviously we’re going to have a good year again, make the playoffs and make a good run.”

Well said. At least the players have some sense, if nobody else does.

Image: Boston Bruins logo from NHL.com.

An Internet aquaintance just told me she supports the players on her team no matter what they do on the ice. This was in regard to a discussion about dirty players.

Wow, really?

Do you, as hockey fans, support your players no matter what? If one of your players deliberately injures an opponent, do you firmly stand behind him?

I hope I’m not the only person who doesn’t.

Discuss.

With the exposure of Olympic hockey, and with the Matt Cooke incident provoking headlines, here in New England there has been a lot of hockey talk lately in the media. Unfortunately, that means bandwagon fans and self-proclaimed experts are coming out of the woodwork. If these sorts are driving you mad (as they are me), feel free to direct them here for Savvy’s Rules of Hockey Fandom:

1. Know the sport. This seems like a given, but I’ve actually known of hockey “fans” who don’t know what icing is. There’s no shame in admitting your ignorance. We all had to start somewhere. Learn the game, THEN you can spout off.

2. Know the players. You don’t have to know the entire roster of every team (even the “experts” don’t), but at the very least you should know your own team.

3. Pronounce their names correctly. You may say you are a Bruins fan, but if you can’t pronounce “Lucic,” you are not a Bruins fan. (Hint: it’s not “Loo-shick.”)

4. Don’t wax nostalgic for the “good old days.” Hockey players are bigger, stronger, faster, and, with a few exceptions, better than they were 20, 30, 40 years ago.

5. Don’t whine that you can’t tell who the players are because they wear helmets. If you can’t tell the difference between Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin because of their helmets, you either never watch hockey, or you’re blind.

5a. And don’t opine that the game would be “better” if the players didn’t wear helmets. That is, in a word, insane.

6. Anyone who leaves a game early deserves this:

7. Don’t play the blame game. The other team doesn’t always score because your guy screwed up. Sometimes, the other guy makes a stupendous play. They get paid too.

8. Sometimes, shit happens. The game is played on ice. The puck bounces around. Guys fall down, the puck takes funny bounces. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes the other guy gets lucky. It’s part of the game.

9. Don’t ever, ever, EVER call an NHL player a pussy. Because, you know, they aren’t. And this is you: