Welcome back, Bruins fans! This week, we’ll be talking about the Bruins and their longstanding image as the “pest” team.
Boston sports are well known for having annoying fans and, for some sports, annoying players. I won’t lie to you, I probably contribute the annoying Boston sports fan stereotype sometimes. The players we have certainly don’t help with the stereotype sometimes.
I’ll start with this: Nikita Zadorov, just two games ago, was benched by coach Marco Sturm due to a need to better “his discipline on the ice.” Zadorov also led the league in penalty minutes last season with 152 penalty minutes in 81 games — an average of almost one regular two minute penalty a game — along with teammate Mark Kastelic, who had 140 penalty minutes in 82 games. Zadorov also led the league in penalty minutes the season prior with 145 in 81 games. Kastelic, again, was in the top 10, with 106 penalty minutes in 61 games. Zadorov is second in the league this year, with 29 penalty minutes in eight games. That’s nearly two minor penalties per game.
I could talk for hours about just Nikita Zadorov, truly.
The Bruins have long since been a physical team. The Bruins are third in the league for all-time penalty minutes with 92,914 in 7,046 games, and I genuinely cannot remember the last time the Bruins had a game without a fight. I’ve watched a lot of San Jose Sharks games without fights; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Boston Bruins game without a fight.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Bruins were known as “The Big, Bad Bruins,” and, to quote FLAHOCKEYNOW writer Alan Greenberg, they “were every hockey fan’s enemy simply because they were so good.” Since then, the team has continued to fill the role with different players throughout the years: Zdeno Chara (1,205 penalty minutes in 1,273 games with the Bruins), Brad Marchand (1,270 penalty minutes in 1,147 games with the Bruins) and Milan Lucic (929 penalty minutes in 644 games with the Bruins) are the most obvious of the recent generation, to name a few. For the record, all of these players had more games and far more penalty minutes with other teams; these numbers are just for the Boston Bruins.
I started watching hockey as a San Jose Sharks fan, and I can absolutely tell you that I used to dread playing against the Bruins. The team has a dirty playing style, to say the least, which makes them extremely fun to love and, as it seems, even more fun to hate. Telling people I’m a Boston Bruins fan usually gets me one of two reactions; either I get an excited agreeance or they roll their eyes at me.
In preparing to write this post, I read one of the best articles I’ve ever read. I’m going to insert an entire paragraph from it, because I truly think it might be one of the funniest things.
“Boston’s roster is full of players that are oh-so-hateable. Zdeno Chara and his incredible courage that came from playing with a full cage two years ago. Brad Marchand nibbling at heels after every play like a starving puppy. Everything about Tim Thomas. The hatred flows so easily I even hate getting the letters “KREJCI” in Scrabble.”
That article is fourteen years old now, and I honestly think it still holds up pretty well. A lot of people hate the Bruins with a deep, deep passion, and clearly, Zachary Zielonka is one of those people. (The Leafs caught some strays, too. I’m not sure if any of you are Toronto fans, but if you are, please read that article. It had me in stitches.)
His other reasons was that the fans are annoying, and I already admitted that. New England sports fans in general are highly dedicated to their teams, and it certainly doesn’t help that they’re not bad. Across the “Big Four” leagues of the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA, all four have won at least one championship in the last fifteen years, with the Bruins winning one Stanley Cup (2011), the Patriots winning three Super Bowls (2014, 2016, 2018), the Celtics winning one NBA Title (2024), and the Red Sox winning two World Series (2013 and 2018). Having winning teams certainly brews a bit of an ego for sports fans. When the Red Sox were on their 15-game winning streak and 9-game winning streak, earning a 27-3 record in 30 games, I was the most annoying person on the planet.
To put it gently, the Bruins — and New England sports as a whole — are just fun to hate. Even as a fan, I watch Bruins and Red Sox games with an extreme amount of stress and anger that surprises many people. When watching a Bruins playoff game, my older brother, who has made fun of me for my entire life, looked at me with a little bit of a scared expression and said, “Damn, you’re mean.”
Boston Bruins hockey changes you.
Next week, we’re going to talk about, finally, Heated Rivalry. We’ll talk about NHL pride night, the real Boston and Montreal rivalry, and more!
Weekly Recap
Bruins @ Ducks – 10/16
> Final score: 4-2 W
Bruins @ Kings – 10/17
> Final score: 4-1 W
Bruins @ Stars – 10/20
> Final score: 3-2 OT L
*The Bruins completed their first sweep of the “California Road Trip” since the 2023-24 season, making this the fourth in team history (2022-23 and 2018-19).
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