With the preseason beginning and the days ticking away until the Bruins kick off their 2014-15 regular season, the reasons to get excited for their return can’t be numbered – but we gave it our best shot.
5) The Camaraderie
There’s nothing quite like being a Boston sports fan when the stakes are high and all you want to see is your favorite team win. The Bruins are no exception to that. Hockey fans are passionate, loud, and sometimes a little mean – but there’s a certain camaraderie hockey fans have that is hard to find in other sports.
4) The Goals
To this day, nothing gets me more pumped than the Bruins’ three goal comeback to go on to the Stanley Cup Finals. My sister, my dad and I all jumped to our feet screaming when they scored that last goal. It’s my favorite sports memory by far. Patrice Bergeron is a SAINT. It’s hard to not get excited when these guys score, because they do it often and they do it beautifully.
3) The Goal Celebrations
With most goals comes a goal celebration, most commonly known as a ‘celly.’ Some guys do a fist pump, some get down on one knee – and then we have this beaut of a celly from Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk. I honestly don’t even know what he was doing (and neither does he, probably), but it has a way of pumping you up.
2) The Rivalries
With every team worth watching comes one major rivalry. Just the sound of the other team’s name gets your blood boiling, but you look for when your team plays them each and every year. The Bruins most notable rivalry, in my opinion, is with the Montreal Canadiens. When they lost Game 7 of the second round of the playoffs last year to the Canadiens, I cried and took a 15-minute drive in my car. It wasn’t the fact that they lost rather than who they lost to. The rivalries make sports that much better, even if they make you feel like killing someone while it’s happening.
1) The Playoffs
The playoffs are a very serious time, especially in hockey. Some of my favorite players play for teams other than the Bruins, and I enjoy watching them play– but during the playoffs, I wish them nothing but bad luck. I want my boys to win, and I want them to demolish everyone and everything in their path. My friend, a recently converted Bruins fan, felt the stress of her first playoff experience during the 2013-14 season. I had to explain to her that the regular season is really fun, but the playoffs are a whole other ballgame – it’s do or die, and that’s what’s so exciting about it.
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