The Boston Bruins

I need this game tonight. The Bruins have to win.

All sports fans know that part of the beauty of watching sports is that sports take you out of your life. When you watch a game, you get out of your head, you get to be insane, to yell, to swear, to laugh, to cry - you know, all those human things that society frowns upon. You feel alive. 

The Bruins have been saving my life all season long. I have watched almost every fucking game, and the happiness I experienced in this extraordinary season is immeasurable. They lifted my spirits and allowed me to forget about the torturous details of my life for hundreds of hours. An extraordinary gift.

And.............. I forced Carol to watch them too by virtue of her being in the same room as me - she is a better person for it.

I have struggled through Round 1 of the playoffs, as have the Bruins. The Panthers have made the Bruins look vulnerable; Ullmark has not been invincible. After a mind-blowing and record breaking season in many ways, a year when every other team on the ice with the Bruins shit their pants in fear, the Panthers have been pushing them around.

It's 3-3. Game 7 tonight. Do or die. This is it.

It is impossible for me to believe the Bruins could lose in Round 1. Fucking impossible. They deserve The Cup. They fucking deserve it. The perfect ending to an almost perfect season. That is the way life should go. 

But life is a motherfucker. Shitty things happen in sports, as in life, unpredictable things, things that shatter your heart when it is already cracked to the brink of disaster. Just ask the 2007 NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS. And their fans.

Carol and I watched 80 for Brady last night. An impossibly lame movie. But there was a lot of footage from Super Bowl LI - PATS/Falcons. The Super Bowl where THE PATS came back from a 25 point deficit in the third quarter to win the fucking thing in OT. Those scenes had me emotionally wired all over again.

I was thinking about the Bruins. Game 7 at home in TD Garden in front of their rabidly loyal fans. That place will be rocking.

If they lose I will be crushed. Depressed beyond expression. Because I invested my whole life and all my emotions in the Bruins this season; they were the one reliable thing I could go to on the hate-filled days when I could not wrestle my job or the insignificance of my life down to a manageable size. And they lifted my spirits every single time. Fucking magic.

I believe in the Bruins. I feel confident. But the Devil will be in the building too. Nothing is guaranteed.

I need the Bruins to move on in the playoffs so my life can continue to have some sparkle to it. So I can have something to look forward to that clears anger and self-loathing out of my head. Something pure to match the intensity of my emotions.

I choose to be confidant.