In 1773 Boston merchants, furious about the taxes they had to pay and the monopoly exercised by the Company of the Indies on trade in the colonies, disguised themselves as Mohican Indians and dumped 342 chests full of tea into the port. The American war of independence would only take two years to start. In 2023, what Bostonians throw are caps, and not into the water but into the ice at TD Garden, every time David Pastrnak (the most famous Pasternak since Boris Leodinovich, creator 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 concluded a glorious season, in which they have broken (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 an achievement that will taste very little to them, it will even have a bitter taste, unless next month they lift the Stanley Cup for the seventh time in their history. The first round of the playoffs (they are winning 3-1 against the Florida Panthers) is on the march and you should never look down on anyone, 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 weather, but the United States is different and has teams in Los Angeles, Phoenix, North Carolina and even Las Vegas, where in summer it reaches fifty degrees and the fried eggs are fried on the asphalt, as in Carmona.
The Bruins are one of the classics, one of the authentic ones, the oldest American club, founder of the NHL almost a century ago along with Montreal, Detroit, Toronto, Chicago and the New York Rangers. They share the venerable TD Garden with the Celtics, where they often play on the same day and an army of workers put up or take down the famous parquet on the underlying thin sheets of ice in a few hours.
Despite their illustrious history, the six titles in their showcases do not overshadow the twenty-four of the Canadiens, the thirteen of the Maple Leafs and the eleven of the Red Wings. The last one came in 2011, after a thirty-year drought almost as severe as the one afflicting Catalonia (reprimanded by the EU for delaying its water management plan). And their fans think that, twelve years later, it is time to lift another Stanley Cup. They are the favourites, but Edmonton, Colorado and Los Angeles are going to fight hard.
The Oilers have the best player in the world in Connor McDavid, but the Czech Pastrnak, agile, fast, with a powerful and precise shot, is not far behind. After the tragedy of the death of a son three years ago, this season has been the one of his great explosion with sixty goals, which no bruin scored since Phil Esposito in the great team of the seventies.
The credit for the great campaign is widely distributed, but an important piece belongs to coach Jim Montgomery in the year of his debut, after replacing Bruce Cassidy and changing his aggressive style, unpopular in the locker room, for a much more diplomatic one. He reinstated veterans Patrice Bergeron (1,000 NHL points) and David Krejci, restored the confidence of Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm, made Swedish Linus Ullmark an almost impregnable goalkeeper and signed well.
Boris Pasternak, a Russian Jew half-hearted about the October revolution, had to send his Doctor Zhivago’s manuscript to Italy for publication, and was forbidden by the regime to accept the Nobel prize. David Pastrnak, Pasta, wants fewer obstacles to celebrate the Stanley Cup, not with tea but with champagne.
