Flip flops T shirts beads and shorts.
Welcome to the new look uniform for Bruins fans as players on the quintessential winter team battling for the Stanley Cup become the boys of summer after the solstice at 1 04 a.m. Friday.
It is an unprecedented bit of time travel for a sport that was born on frozen ponds nurtured in unheated rinks and conjures up images of woolen hats and knotted scarves.
At South Boston Waterfront bars this week as the Bruins wrested Game 3 from the Chicago Blackhawks the pumped up crowds could easily have been cast for a tiki party. No one asked for hot chocolate on a day when the temperature hit 87 degrees in Boston.
When you re playing hockey in the summertime it means the team is awesome said Adam Rousseau 29 a former college hockey player from Tewksbury. In other words the late date means a championship is possible.
It does seem a little odd. . . . It almost seems too warm to be watching hockey.
But the summerlike heat and humidity are taking a toll on the TD Garden ice which has become rougher and riddled with ruts as the games progress.
I feel terrible for the poor guys in the ice crew who were working so hard to get a decent surface said Jack Edwards the Bruins play by play announcer for NESN. There was nothing they could do about it. There were puddles on the ice at the beginning of the second and third periods.
For the players Edwards said the game becomes simpler if not visibly slower as they are forced to adapt to a climate that makes pinpoint passing more difficult.
Game 4 of the best of seven series which the Bruins lead 2 games to 1 is Wednesday night in Boston. Game 5 which will officially be played in summer is set for Saturday in Chicago.
Although climate control is much more advanced than in the old Boston Garden where the Bruins were asked to skate in circles to disperse fog during timeouts in the 1988 playoffs the combination of high temperatures humidity and body heat from 17 000 fans can gain an edge over the ice.
Still for fans and many businesses these warm weather Bruins are a reason to feel good about the late late show that has become the Stanley Cup Final. The series has become appointment television for Boston sports fans and bars with open decks are crowded with patrons watching hockey under the stars.
The roof deck s open and we turn up the sound said Roger Berkowitz president of Legal Sea Foods whose Harborside restaurant in South Boston is drawing Bruins fans for an al fresco experience. It does seem a little odd though. It almost seems too warm to be watching hockey.
Edwards described the sensation as bizarre particularly when he leaves an arena after calling a late season game.
It s when I go outside and I m motioning to draw my scarf tight and I don t even have a topcoat Edwards said. That s when the shock sets in It s a pleasant evening and it s summer.
The march into summer the latest season in National Hockey League history is the result of a players lockout that cut 34 games from the season which did not begin until January. As a result the playoffs were extended deeper into June. If the Bruins and Blackhawks play a full series Game 7 will be next Wednesday less than a week before July.
During Game 3 on Monday patrons at the Atlantic Beer Garden on the South Boston Waterfront said the victory was just as enjoyable on a sultry evening as it would have been in a February blizzard.
It doesn t really matter that it s warm out it s professional sports said Cabell Wallace 45 a flip flop wearing visitor from Williamsburg Va. They work their whole life to get on this ice. They don t care.
Rousseau a Maine native who played hockey for St. Michael s College in Colchester Vt. said the tropical conditions outside TD Garden made the inside performance more impressive. These guys have to be that much better conditioned to play in the summer. They have to focus so much more.
That focus ratcheted up during the playoffs will be followed by weeks of deep decompression. But for these players their offseason will be the shortest in NHL history.
Edwards predicted that regular season games next season will begin earlier than normal probably in the first week of October because of the need to break in early 2014 for the Winter Olympics.
Berkowitz the Legal Sea Foods president thinks this winter sport will end quickly with a Bruins trophy.
I think they have momentum and I think they can do it in five Berkowitz said. I m not sure if that s better for business or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment