Back To Earth

Shank's seventh hockey themed column of 2011 was a lot less hyperbolic than yesterday's column. While realistic Bruins fans knew for months that their power play was, to put it mildly, lacking, Shank barely acknowledges this fact.

The last time most of us actually saw the Stanley Cup was in 2001, when Ray Bourque, who toiled 21 seasons for the Bruins, brought it here from Colorado to remind us what it looks like.

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Believe it or not, some Bruins fans like it better this way. There were folks in Boston yesterday who were saying they’d rather see the Bruins drop Game 6 and come home for a Friday night Game 7 to advance to the Stanley Cup finals.

Back in 2004, there were arrogant New York fans content to see the Yankees lose Games 4 and 5 of the American League Championship Series at Fenway Park so they could come home and win it at Yankee Stadium. How’d that work out for them?

You know Shank's about to bail on a local pro sports team when he refers to them as...

No Teddy Bear Picnic this time. Your Bruins tomorrow will be lugging decades of pressure onto the ice.

The rest of the column is generally a game recap, the usual paint-by-numbers closing for the typical Shank column.