1970’s

Boston Bruins

1. So my uncle had promised me a Bruins game for about 5 years. I am 15 years old and I finally get a phone call from him in February 1973 and he tells me to be at the front of Boston Garden on such and such a date. My uncle convinced my brother to give me a ride. So this scrawny New Hampshire kid, dressed in a leather jacket my buddy let me borrow, gets out of the car and my uncle shakes his head as he shakes my hand. He offered to get my brother and his buddy a couple of rafter seats, they declined the offer. He told them the game would be over by 10pm. We were off heading into the old Boston Garden. My uncle grabbed us a couple of burgers, he had a beer and I had a soda. We turned the corner from the burger stand on the concourse and we start heading into the arena. All I am seeing is the smoke billowing up to the ceiling, the smell of food and stale beer, the vendors barking whatever they were selling. My uncle is pointing to the banners in the rafters as we are now walking down the steps toward the ice. We get to the penalty boxes and turn left. The players are warming up, not a player has a helmet on. We are in the aisle in front of the first row seats, the seats to the left, and short panels of glass stuck on the boards with C-clamps all down the rink boards on the right. My uncle gets to where the big glass and the last short glass meet each other, the ice there in the corner is where the Bruins players laid on top of Orr after his Stanley Cup winning shot in 1970 brought home the Cup. My uncle points to a seat, front row, and handed me my ticket. My uncle told me that during the game not to stand and cheer because the glass bends in toward the seats when players are checked. And that the C-clamps had been known to come loose on checks and the glass had been known to either shatter or fall from the boards - only at Boston Gahden. I was sitting right there staring at the last small pane of glass in front of me watching the Bruins warming up.. The Bruins were playing the Rangers. The only players I remember for the Rangers were Brad Park, Glen Sather and Ed Giacoman. As the Bruins were skating around their final warmups, Wayne Cashman and Kenny Hodge came over, tapped the glass and said hello to my uncle, I about dropped my drink on that one. I found out later that my uncle asked Harry Sinden to send the players over to say hi. My uncle knew Sinden from a few of the train trips my uncle took to Montreal. As for the game, I really cannot remember who won or who scored, I was so fascinated with sitting front row and listening to my uncle tell me stories that the game started and finished in the blink of an eye. My uncle pointed to the area about 10 or 15 feet from us where a photographer was sort of pushed out of the way and was told to stand when he took the famous Flying Bobby photo. Had he not been told to move, who knows what type of a picture he would have had after that goal. After the game, my uncle took me down stairs to the trains, the Rangers were taking the rails up to Montreal. We were standing there for a couple of minutes when Glen Sather put his bag down and my uncle game me the program and a pen and Sather gave me an autograph. No other Rangers showed up. We took off and found my brother out front promptly at 10pm. I had to hand it to my uncle, all those stories I heard growing up made me realize how much of a fan he was with the Bruins. If you watch the documentary Bobby Orr and the Big, Bad Bruins, there is a snap shot of my Uncle Ray standing at the glass barking something to one of the refs. There will never be another old Boston Gahden.