In 1773 Boston merchants, furious at the taxes they had to pay and the monopoly exercised by the India Company over trade in the colonies, disguised themselves as Mohican Indians and threw 342 chests full of tea into the harbor. The American War of Independence would only take two years to begin. In 2023, what Bostonians throw are caps, and not into the water, but onto the ice at the TD Garden, every time David Pasternak (the most famous Pasternak since Boris Leodinovitch, author of Doctor Zhivago and Nobel Prize for Literature ) scores a hat trick for the Boston Bruins. A tradition to honor the player who scores three goals.
The Bruins have closed a glorious season, in which they beat (with 133) the record for points held by the Montreal Canadiens, and the record for victories held by the Detroit Red Wings. But it is a milestone that will taste little, even bitter, unless they lift the Stanley Cup for the seventh time in their history in May. The first round of the playoffs, in which they face the Florida Panthers, began yesterday, and no one should ever be underestimated, even if Miami is not a city of cold and ice. In Russia, Canada, Sweden and the Czech Republic it is a sport that reflects the climatology, but the United States is different and has teams in Los Angeles, Phoenix, North Carolina and even Las Vegas, where in the summer it reaches 50 degrees and fried eggs are fried on the asphalt, like in Carmona.
The Bruins are one of the classics, the real ones, the oldest club in the United States, founder of the NHL almost a century ago along with Montreal, Detroit, Toronto, Chicago and the New York Rangers. They share with the Celtics the venerable TD Garden, where both usually play on the same day and an army of workers put in or take out the famous hardwood floor on the underlying thin sheets of ice in a matter of hours.
Despite their illustrious history, the 6 titles in the showcases do not overshadow the 24 of the Canadiens, the 13 of the Maple Leafs and the 11 of the Red Wings. The last one came in 2011, after a 30-year drought, almost as severe as the one afflicting Catalonia (reprimanded by the EU for delaying the water management plan). And his supporters think that, 12 years later, it is time to raise another Stanley Cup. They are the favourites, but Edmonton, Colorado and Los Angeles will compete to the max.
After the tragedy of the death of a son three years ago, this season has been the one of his great explosion with 60 goals, which no bruin scored since Phil Esposito in the great team of the seventies.
The credit for the great season is widely shared, but a big chunk goes to manager Jim Montgomery, in his debut year, after he replaced Bruce Cassidy and changed his aggressive style, unpopular in the locker room, to one that was very more diplomatic He brought back veterans Patrice Bergeron (1,000 NHL points) and David Krejci, restored confidence in Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm, made Swede Linus Ullmark an almost impregnable goaltender and signed well.
Boris Pasternak, a Russian Jew unenthusiastic about the October Revolution, had to send the manuscript of his Doctor Zhivago to Italy to be published, and the regime forbade him to accept the Nobel Prize. David Pasternak, Pasta , wants fewer obstacles to celebrate the Stanley Cup, not with tea, but with champagne.
