The Bruins-Rangers Rivalry Is Firing On All Cylinders
Anyone who watched this game yesterday was treated to the most exciting sporting event televised this fall. It absolutely blew any NFL game out of the water. Fast pace of play, heavy hits (to prove I’m not a total homer I’ll admit that Beleskey hit was late. Stepan shouldn’t be admiring his pass and should protect himself, but Beleskey didn’t even cock back until that puck was long gone. There’s finishing your check then there’s a late hit, this was the latter), fights, and timely goal scoring. It was a perfect hockey game that proved the Bruins are for real, as they’re now in the midst of a five game win streak featuring a tough road W in Detroit and a 3rd period comeback against the #1 team in the Metro.
But things really heated up after the game ended and I LOVE it. You don’t get enough of this shit in hockey but Claude, Marchand, and Vigneault didn’t give you the standard boiler plate answers with their comments. They made it clear that these teams absolutely do not like each other. Of course, Claude and Marchand are correct because the only time I’ve seen a worse dive than Hank’s was Louganis ’88. Marchand didn’t “knee him in the head,” he made contact with a goalie outside of his crease and Hank sold it like Chris Kyle was up in the banners. It was a bogus call with 10 minutes to go in a tight third and at the very worst both Marchand and Lundqivst should have gotten calls. Goalies shouldn’t be exempt from diving penalties. Nonetheless, the situation lead to the airing of grievances and let some bad blood spill so I can’t be all that mad about it. It was excellent promo for the next meeting on January 11th (quick sidenote: the NHL scheduling sucks. Bruins-Rangers needs to happen more than 3 times in 82 games and Bruins-Canadiens need to play more than 4).
As for Vigneault’s question, who would you rather have as a son? I think that’s pretty easy…
Marchand is cute as a damn button. He also has a Stanley Cup ring (Alain may recall that and still be a little bitter that he bitched around one of his ex-favorite children) and if I’ll never win a Cup myself I think celebrating that with my kid is the next best thing.
Hank? Well Hank looks like Ben Stiller in Something About Mary. I’ll give you he’s matured into a handsome man, but I’d be so pissed if this is what my dork kid came home looking like every day. Also, he has zero Cups.
No brainer, I’d rather have Marchand as a kid. Way, way more fun.
h/t @CataCarryOn for the Marchy/Hank pics