You aren’t dreaming, Bruins fans

I wonder how many Bruins fans wondered if it was all just a dream.

I know after the Red Sox beat the Yankees in 2004, I woke up the next morning and thought “Wait, that HAPPENED, right?” And had to read about 59 newspapers and kept slapping myself to confirm it.

(By the time the World Series was over, I was just numb.)

So I can imagine that Bruins fans are stumbling around this morning thinking “Did the Bruins REALLY just win the Stanley Cup?”

Well, if you are saying that and NOT running naked to the S.A.T.s on the backs of dolphins, then you are NOT dreaming.

Now, I can not claim to be a Bruins fan. I am a casual hockey team and MY team is the San Jose Sharks (as I mentioned a few times) so I can not participate in the celebration.

But many of my friends are lifelong Bruins fans and are loving it today.

Friends like Adam Wade, the terrific comedian and storyteller (originally from New Hampshire) who loves and bleeds all Boston sports. He live tweeted the game last night.

The great Nick Stevens, creator of the character Paul Fitzy Fitzgerald and writer of Townie News, who has been telling Vancouver fans to Go Canuck Themselves.

Horror master and Inglorious Basterd Eli Roth who wrote on his Twitter feed “I am actually crying like a cougar watching the Sex and the City movie. This is amazing. Congratulations #Bruins!!”

But most of all, my best pal Ritch Duncan… werewolf author and great comic mind and without a doubt the biggest Bruins fan I know.

During our bachelors years, we’d hang out in my apartment eating Chinese food while watching Return of the Jedi (we were available, ladies!)

Usually during one of the Ewok scenes, Ritchie would sigh and say “I’m never going to see the Bruins win the Stanley Cup, am I?”

I’d shrug and say “I’m never going to see the Red Sox win the World Series, am I?”

We’d scarf down some sesame chicken. Ritchie would add “We’re never going to meet our wives, are we?”

Well now we are both married to beautiful women, are parents and we’ve seen our teams win.

What else do we have to do?

So for all the Bruins fans out there, especially the one I watched movies with in my apartment, I hope you celebrate like Ewoks!

Go Bruins… for Ritch Duncan’s sake!

This year I am more excited about the Stanley Cup Final than any year since 1994 when I was living in New York and the Rangers were on the verge of ending their curse.

The only common thing is Vancouver being in it.

The Boston Bruins are in it… and being a native New Englander I know my share of Bruins fans. But nobody I know has the passion of my great friend, frequent collaborator and the man who would hang out in my apartment more often than anyone I know, Mr. Ritch Duncan.

Ritch is a very talented writer for TruTV. Check out his wonderful take on Eddie Vedder’s ukulele album.

Ritch is a comedian and writer in New York and we performed in more shows than I can remember, worked together on the radio, he had a role in my movie and we spoke at each others weddings.

Along with Bob Powers, he wrote the hilarious “Werewolf’s Guide To Life: A Manual for the Newly Bitten.”

And he is as big a Bruins fan as I am a Red Sox fan.
I was at his apartment to watch the Red Sox beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS.
He saw ME at the zenith of baseball happiness (let’s face it Sox fans, we remember the Yankee win MUCH more than we remember the win in St. Louis!)

Ritchie deserves that moment too.

Go Bruins!

Once again, hockey shows Instant Replay works

Did you see the end of the hockey game tonight? It was a great game and it had a peculiar but eye opening ending…

The Flyers sent it into overtime with a late goal in the third period. Philadelphia was going bananas. But then Patrick Kane shot one past Flyer Goalie Michael Leighton… and only one person on the planet Earth saw it was a Stanley Cup winning goal: Kane.

It wasn’t clear to the announcers, the refs nor the Flyers. Kane went down the ice yelling like a madman and his Blackhawk teammates followed suit. But nobody was 100% sure.

Then the replay showed clearly it was a goal. The refs checked it and confirmed it. There was no doubt. The Chicago Blackhawks had won their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

Contrast that with 1999 Final game. Buffalo scrambling to stay alive at home and force a 7th game. They went into 3 Overtimes and each team left their hearts and guts on the ice. Then Brett Hull crossed the crease and scored off of Domiik Hasek. There was no video review right away and the Stars celebrated the Cup victory, Buffalo was enraged and to this day there is a lack of satisfaction regarding one of the best hockey games you and I will ever see.

And why? Because we all saw one thing and yet the officials on the ice ruled differently from reality.

Taking the time to review Kane’s goal last night will be long forgotten. What will be remembered is it won the Cup and there isn’t a Philadelphia fan who can disagree with that.

And afterwards, one of the best traditions in sport unfolded… the presentation of the Stanley Cup.

You see folks! You can HAVE replay and also have your traditions.

One doesn’t destroy the other.

Chew on that and congrats to the Blackhawks. (It takes the sting out of them eliminating my Sharks.)