Shank's Stanley Cup Wrapup

It's pretty much what you'd expect:

Feels like a lost opportunity as Bruins fall in Game 7

No one around here was ready for this.

A Boston team losing a championship game? Impossible.

But it happened. The Bruins were spanked, 4-1, on Garden ice in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final Wednesday. The St. Louis Blues won the first championship in their 52-year history. A Boston hockey season that started in September in Beijing ended in abject disappointment nine days before the start of summer. It was a stunning defeat in an era when we have become accustomed to only good things happening to Boston teams. And it feels like a lost opportunity.

Back On The Bruins Bandwagon

The Bruins won Game 6 of the 2019 Stanley Cup finals, 5-1 over the St. Louis Blues. Here's an outline of the Bruins discussion Shank will regurgitate on the radio tomorrow morning:

ST. LOUIS — Folks here were ready to knock down the Gateway Arch and party like it was 1999 — back in the days when they had a team that went on to win the town’s only Super Bowl.

The city that gave the world Stanley Musial was going to win its first Stanley Cup, and as many as 40,000 ticketless fans gathered outside the arena in anticipation of victory. The Cup was in the house, and the Blues were ready to claim it for the first time in their 52-year history.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch didn’t even bother to wait. Sunday’s e-edition of the local journal delivered several messages of congratulations many hours before the start of Game 6. The premature puck elation included a letter from Blues chairman Tom Stillman, thanking fans for a “dream come true” and referencing how excited he was about the upcoming parade on Market Street.

You know the drill by now - standard (if brief) game recap, historical Game 7 numbers, etc.

Bruins Loss = Shank Hockey Column

Like the sun rising and setting...

The script was perfect. Local star leader plays with injury, endures unspeakable pain, yet paces his team to victory.

There was that night in the Bronx when Curt Schilling bled into his sock because of a surgically repaired tendon and beat the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. And then there was that time Larry Bird slammed his head on the parquet floor of the Old Garden, went to the locker room, and returned to torch the Indiana Pacers in a playoff game. Oh, and let’s not forget Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe beating the Dolphins despite playing with a metal pin sticking out of the index finger of his throwing hand.

Not Thursday night in the Stanley Cup Final. With 42-year-old captain Zdeno Chara playing with what might be a broken jaw, the Bruins lost the crucial fifth game, 2-1, at the heavy hands of the St. Louis Blues. Boston trails in the series, 3-2, and plays Game 6 Sunday night in St. Louis.

Stanley Cup - Game 4 Recap

After the St. Louis Blues won Game 4 last night, 4-2, Shank writes a cliché-ridden, paint-by-numbers recap thereof:

ST. LOUIS — It felt a little too easy over the weekend. After the Bruins skunked the St. Louis Blues, 7-2, Saturday, some folks back in Boston started making parade plans. With another win in Game 4, the Bruins would have a chance to win the Stanley Cup on Garden ice Thursday night.

Not anymore.

Shocked

Wow - Shank bangs out his second column in a day and does a column after a Bruins win? What's this world coming to?

ST. LOUIS — The locals waited 49 years for this? Almost 18,000 days? That’s a lot of Mississippi River icewater under the Eads Bridge.

Your Bruins skated into Enterprise Center Saturday night and cut the hearts out of the St. Louis Blues and their fans. Wobbling after a 3-2 loss at home, playing without Charlestown’s Matt Grzelcyk, who was concussed by a dirty hit in Game 2, the Bruins punched back with a dominating, 7-2 win in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Speed and skill beats size and stupidity every time and the Bruins took it to the Blues in every way.

What's not shocking - his frontrunning / hijacking of the local bandwagon yet again.

A History Lesson

Longtime readers of Shank should be familiar with this type of column template by now.

Boston and St. Louis have a long sports history
...
The Boston-St. Louis pro sports rivalry started in 1946 when the Cardinals beat the Red Sox at Sportsman’s Park in Game 7 of the World Series. That was the game in which Johnny Pesky allegedly held the ball too long on a relay from the outfield as Enos Slaughter rounded third base and scored the winning run. Ted Williams, who batted only .200 in the Series, cried on the 24-hour train ride home to the Hub. Legend holds that Teddy Ballgame was out of sorts because he hurt his elbow when he was hit by a pitch in a meaningless exhibition staged to keep the Sox sharp before the start of the Series (sound familiar, Brad Marchand fans?)

The Cardinals beat the Red Sox in a World Series Game 7 at Fenway in 1967, but Boston got its baseball revenge in 2004 and again in 2013.

Columns largely built on a recital of sports events between two cities has long been a staple of Shank's, as it requires little heavy lifting.

The Predictable Shaughnessy

If it's a loss by the Bruins, you can count on a column by Shank.

The national narrative of this 2019 Stanley Cup Final is the easy-to-believe notion that nobody in America outside of New England wants the Bruins to beat the St. Louis Blues. Folks who don’t live in our six-state region have had just about enough of the duck boats, thank you very much.

The Washington Post and New York Post in recent days featured columns pushing this theme.

“We are rooting against Boston,’’ wrote Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post. “We are tired of Boston.’’

The Washington Post held that the duck boats are “joyous for New Englanders and sickening for the other 44 states.’’

I'm surprised the Washington Post didn't work in a gratuitous cheap shot at Trump somehow. What I'm not surprised about is Shank's cheap shot at New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick:

In the Patriot spirit of “they hate us cuz they ain’t us,’’ evil genius Bill Belichick served as a banner captain for Game 2. Coach Bill left the Hoodie at home and carried out his duties in a black parka. Belichick knows a thing or two about championships and also about beating teams from St. Louis. It was Belichick’s Patriots who gave birth to New England’s Sports High Renaissance when they stunned the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl in New Orleans in February 2002. That was the first of 12 duck boat parades in this century, and the Bruins are trying to make it a lucky 13 next month.

Is calling Belichick 'evil' really necessary? Shank has no class whatsoever.

Also obligatory - cheap shots at Patriots owner Robert Kraft:

The Patriots have been everywhere in this series. Freedom fighter Bob Kraft was again seen on the videoboard waving his rally towel, and the recently embarrassed Patriots owner was cheered as a conquering hero. Amazing: Kraft + towel + video = ovation. Only in Boston.

You know the rest from here - retelling St. Louis sports history, the standard game recap, etc. - read on if you're into it.