A True Fan

Bobby Orr flying through the air after scoring the game winning goal. (Once again the image is misplaced...oh well).

“The 1970–71 [Bruins] season was, in retrospect, the high watermark of the Seventies for Boston.”.

1924: The Boston Bruins are founded, entering the NHL as the first United States-based expansion franchise.
1929: The Bruins won the Stanley Cup for the first time.
1939, 1941: The Bruins won for the second and third times.
1943: The Bruins lose the Stanley Cup to the Detroit Red Wings.
1946: The Bruins lose to Montreal.
1953: They lose to Montreal.
1954: Tom McKenna Jr. is born in Concord, Mass.
1957&1958: The Bruins lose to Montreal some more.
1958-1966: The Bruins don’t make it to the Stanley Cup finals.
1967-1968: The Bruins overall record (Win-Loss-Tie) is 17-43-10. Needless to say they don’t make it to the Stanley Cup that year either.

In the meantime, (1960 onward), Tommy Jr. plays hockey. He also follows the Bruins on the radio and goes to every game he can. Games were not televised, despite that hockey at the time was “ten times more popular than baseball and football now.”

1969-1970:
Tommy Jr. still plays hockey.
Tom Johnson, a former Bruins player and current Bruins assistant general manager, is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Tom McKenna Senior gets season tickets to the Bruins games at the Boston Garden from Tom Johnson. Tom and Tom are good friends from Concord. McKenna has four tickets in the first row behind the penalty box for every Bruins game. Tommy Jr. goes with him to every game that season. It’s likely they wouldn’t have had the tickets if The Bruins hadn’t been the worst team in the league for years. As of 1969, they haven’t won a championship in twenty nine years or even made it to a championship series in eleven years.
But, in 1969, Bobby Orr, a new star player, starts turning the Bruins’ performance around, dominating opponents they were formerly no match for.
In 1970, the Montreal Canadians narrowly miss the playoff series. The Bruins beat the New York Rangers and then the Chicago Black Hawks to proceed to the championship game. Alongside them, the St. Louis Blues won against the Minnesota North Stars and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Thus, it is the St Louis Blues who make the Stanley Cup championship game against the Bruins.
1970 is the only year in hockey history that two US teams have played each other in the championship. That isn’t the only thing The Bruins and The Blues have in common at that time though. The Blues are one of the only teams who can understand the anguish of the Bruins’ fans and players, having been swept 4-0 the previous two years in a row in the championship series.
The Bruins won the first game at St. Louis 6-1. The next game at St. Louis the Bruins won 6-2. At home the Bruins won 4-1. It seemed they were going to win the finals with ease, but St. Louis was not ready to give up.

May 10th, 1970: Mother’s Day
The Bruins, coached by Harry Sinden, are playing their fourth Stanley Cup championship game against the St Louis Blues, coached by Scotty Bowman. Game four is for the championship title.
Cue Tom McKenna Senior, a fifteen year old Tommy Junior, his thirteen year old brother John, and his best friend Dave, sitting five feet from manager Tom Johnson, coach Harry Sinden, and the Bruins’ players’ bench. Tommy Junior and John won tickets to this game over their three other brothers because they were able to name all of the state capitals that started with the letter "A." That is how Dad decided who would accompany him to this big game. Where was Mom this Mother’s Day? I don’t know. Home watching her other three children I suppose, perhaps listening on the rad-BUUUZZZZZ.
The final buzzer has rung. Is it a win for the Bruins at last? No. But they still have a chance; the score is tied, 3-3. It’s overtime.
Play in overtime begins rapidly, with Tom Johnson and all of the tried and true Bruins fans are screaming their heads off.
Cue the fans at home listening to Dan Kelly announcing the game:
40 seconds on the clock. Derek Sanderson of the Bruins has the puck. He’s rushing up the ice, closing in on Blues' goalie Glenn Hall. He’s looking to pass to Bobby Orr…OOOOOH Noel Picard of the Blues TRIPS Bobby Orr and he goes down!!! Sanderson to Orr behind the net to Sanderson to…OOOORR! BOBBY OOOORR! scores and the Boston Bruins have won the Stanley Cup!”

The Bruins fans, at long last, have a Stanley Cup championship. For most it is the first in their lifetime. For every person it was the first Bruins championship they had actually seen. Every person in the rink was going WILD. Instantly, fans started rushing the ice. This is significantly harder than rushing a field or a court because: 1. it is hard to get onto the ice (you have to find a wall low enough to jump), and 2. ice is not made to be ran onto. Nevertheless fifty people, mostly made up of kids Tommy Junior’s age, jumped the walls and ran, hands over their heads, screaming onto the ice.
Tommy Junior looked at his dad, without a word. Tom Senior waved his hands toward the ice and told his oldest son, “get out there!” So Tommy jumped over the wall and joined the other fans who were on the ice with the Boston Bruins as they were celebrating their fourth ever championship, and as the Stanley Cup itself was being brought out to the ice.
Tommy’s brother John was next to try to get on the ice, but as he jumped to get over the wall he was pulled backwards by one of the many police officers patrolling the rink at that point. Tommy’s friend Dave didn’t get on the ice either. Only about fifty people did, including Tommy.
Of course, the formalities associated with the Stanley Cup Championship, such as actually giving the team the cup, had to happen. So, every person on the ice was evacuated pretty quickly. But it didn’t matter. For that brief moment in time Tommy Jr. was on the ice with the hockey team that had, fifteen seconds earlier, won the championship.

The 1970 Stanley Cup championship game was a turning point for the entire history of hockey. Games were unavailable on television until that day, but starting in 1970 almost every game could be found on TV.
In 1972 the Bruins, lead by new coach Tom Johnson, attained yet another Stanley Cup championship, this time against the New York Rangers, with Bobby Orr scoring the winning goal once more.
To this day, the picture of Bobby Orr soaring through the air with arms outstretched after scoring the 1970 overtime goal is the most famous photograph in all of hockey, and maybe even in all of athletics. Orr is still considered by many the greatest hockey player of all time.
Unfortunately, the Bruins haven’t won a championship since 1972: their longest losing streak yet. But their true fans do not give up. (Edit: this piece was written only months before they won it!)
That game in 1970 was a turning point for Tommy Jr. Tommy kept playing through high school and played on a club team at his alma mater, the University of Vermont. There he also joined a fraternity made up entirely of hockey players. Since college, he regularly plays street hockey with the same friends he watched the 1970 championship with. When his three children were old enough, he taught them all how to skate. His two daughters were enrolled in figure skating lessons and his only son played hockey – for about two weeks. Regardless, thirty one years after the 1970 game, Tommy Jr. is content to watch the games whenever possible, bringing his kids to see the Bruins (though in much worse seats than he had) as often as he can.
Thirty one years later every game is televised and watched in Tommy’s mom’s house in Concord. The McKennas are true Bruins fans, just waiting for another championship, another piece of history.
Edit: they finally got another one! =)