The defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins were eliminated from the playoffs last night by the Washington Capitals in an overtime shocker. Joel Ward knocked home a rebound past Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas just 2:57 into overtime. This was the closest series in NHL playoff history, all seven games ending with the teams separated by only one goal and four out of seven going beyond sixty minutes.
(Courtesy of NHLVideo on YouTube)
The ousting was something that Bruins fans were certainly not prepared for. And I have to be honest, I was pretty upset after they lost. But what people don’t understand is that New England has been so spoiled with championships since 2001. The Patriots have made the Super Bowl five times since 2001 and have brought home the Vince Lombardi Trophy three times. The Boston Celtics have been to the NBA Finals in 2008 and 2010 and captured the title in 2008. The Boston Red Sox ended the 86 year drought and won the World Series in both 2004 and 2007. Lastly, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup last year. The last team to win back-to-back Stanley Cups was the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998. New England has seen seven titles in the last eleven years. That’s pretty darn good, so we can’t complain.
The most appalling thing to come out of this game came after Ward buried the puck in the back of the net. Joel Ward saw immediate backlash from “Bruins fans” on Twitter for being black. Numerous “Bruins fans” sent out racist tweets about Ward. I don’t even want to tell you them because they are absolutely atrocious. The N-word was constantly being associated with Ward, and “Bruins fans” took their frustrations out on Ward because a black guy scored the game-winning goal to knock “their team” out of the playoffs. An absolute atrocity. Come on people, seriously? There is no need to bring race into this. Give the guy some credit. He scored the biggest goal of his career in game seven of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals to knock the defending Stanley Cup champions out of the playoffs. I am willing to bet that the people sending out these tweets were bandwagon fans. The reason why I say this is because if they were real Bruins fans they would know that the Boston Bruins were the first team in NHL history to have an African-American on their team, and have had eight on the their roster in the teams existence. In 1958 the Bruins signed Willie O’Ree to become the first ever African-American to play in the National Hockey League. Darren Banks, Anson Carter, Sandy McCarthy, Ray Neufeld, Nathan Robinson, Graeme Townshend, and Sean Brown were the seven others to suit up for the black and gold. So the Bruins are no stranger to having an African-American on their roster. The fact that Ward had racial tweets sent out about him is a travesty. Wake up and smell the coffee people, this is 2012.
If you want to see some of the tweets from people here is the link:
It’s unfortunate that Boston is now receiving this attention because some immature idiots tweeted something they shouldn’t have. It takes away that the passionate sports city that Boston is. I am deeply upset that the Bruins lost, and I am also deeply disappointed in the reactions that followed the loss.