Friday, May 04, 2007

So, am I the only Bruins fan-


-who keeps hoping that every time the guys from Versus interview Vancouver assistant coach Rick Bowness on the bench that he will be struck in the face by an errant puck?

For those who don't know, during Bowness' mildly successful season as Head Coach of the '91-'92 Boston Bruins, a puck flew onto the Bruin bench, and hit Bowness right in the face.

It was pretty awesome.

For at least a week after, he appeared behind the bench with a swollen face (even more than usual) and a huge, ugly shiner. For Bruins fans, spoiled by two recent Stanley Cup finals appearances (and not wild about Bowness's performance) it was a rather ugly reminder that Rick didn't seem to be paying too much attention to what was happening on the ice. At an awards dinner later, he was awarded a gift from his players, a helmet with full face mask.

He was replaced after the end of the playoffs, a loss in the third round, which back in those salad days, was considered a huge disappointment.

Interestingly enough, the bench reporter who was interviewing Bowness last night was Billy Jaffe, not Bob Beers, another behind the glass guy for Versus, who I recognized as the career up-and-down from the minors guy who actually played for Bowness's Bruins for about 30 games in the 1991-92 Bruins campaign.

He was immediatley embraced by the Beantown faithful, more for his last name than his play on the ice. Beers only got five assists that season, but you have to admit, hearing a PA announcer say "assisted by Beers" would be entertaining. You know, for 30 games or so.

So here's the question-

Why wasn't Beers the guy interviewing Bowness?

My guess is they're afraid he'd show up for the interview with a full helmet and face mask for his former head coach.

I know I would have.

1 comment:

Jack said...

Based on the title of your post alone, the answer is yes.