Happy Heroic Hockey Happiness!

The view from the balcony.

This weekend, I experienced by first Boston Bruins game in person, and I must say that it was an awesome experience at that. They got a small measure of revenge against the team that eliminated them from the Stanley Cup playoffs last year, the Carolina Hurricanes, as they brutalized them on the scoreboard and in the fisticuffs, 7-2.

I consider myself somewhat odd in that I love watching blowouts by teams that I follow far more than watching a close game. I was thrilled when the Celtics blew out the Lakers to win the championship in 2008, and when the Red Sox mashed the snot out of the ball in their game seven win against the Yankees in 2004. I could careless that the games lacked drama, because the margins of victory meant that I could relax and enjoy the games.

Similarly, the Bruins jumped ahead of Carolina by three goals after the first period, and added a couple more in the second before the Hurricanes could score. Carolina failed in all aspects of Saturday night's game - They couldn't clear the puck when the Bruins were on the attack, their own scoring chances were sloppy executed, and a porous defense forced them to switch Ward out after he gave up four goals in a period and a half.

The best part though was the fisticuffs. At the end of the second period, Milan Lučić beat the crap out of Jay Harrison. Sure, he got in a couple cheap shots to bust Harrison wide open, but that'll teach Harrison right good! After that fight, Zdeno Chára also mixed it up with someone, and the Bruins got a total of 19 minutes in fighting penalties, which was awesome.

To make the night even better, I was there with my friend Amanda Meyer. Thanks to her Twitter account, she won a free ride on the Zamboni! I was secretly a bit envious, but this is something for me to shoot for the next time I go to a Bruins' game. She also got her face on the big screen, but of course, I couldn't get my cell phone camera out fast enough to snap the shot.

Picture taken by me, with my cell phone camera, which is shockingly good, at least by my standards.