#EmbraceTheHate ; Pump It Up Edition

I freely admit it. I have no problem with calling the Boston Bruins the best team in the NHL right now. The stats sure show that. What I do find a bit funny, and kind of strange, is the amount of invective and hatred towards our little village from some of the media types that service the New England area.

Not all. A couple of the NESN guys were actually funny on Twitter today. Reading my timeline, thanks to Thom's ( @ArtemChubarov ) retweets was both funny, and a little sad. You cannot get upset with the kind of angry hyperbole that accompanied the announcement of Cory Schneider as tomorrow's starter. The amount of unfunny riot jokes and the possibly insulting to woman comments directed toward Roberto Luongo might have rubbed a few the wrong way. But really, how can you get upset by that stuff?

I thought this article from a Mr Wilbur at Boston.com was pretty lazy though. Again, it is written for his market, but apart from rehashing old insults, it did little to hype the game. C'est le vie.

History is written by the winners though, right?

Personally, I thought it was brilliant to announce Cory Schneider as the starter. In addition to perhaps taken a little steam out of the narrative that would have accompanied Roberto getting the start, The Ginja Ninja deserves this one. He has been in the NHL for a while now, it has been five years or so since he was drafted here, and this it the first "hometown" chance to start. Obviously, to a Boston writer like this one, it is going to be an "excuse", rather than something a coach might reward a player on his team with.

Alain Vigneault is a players' coach, and it has long been a coaching device to start the hometown boy when you can. It is not like this is Mika Noronen or Kevin Weekes backing up the #1. This is one of maybe two or three young goalies that every GM unsatisfied with his goaltending has circled as a target for next year, or even at the deadline if they blow Mike Gillis away with an offer.

EDIT ; Especially ignore the blowhards like Damien Cox. Check out this article for a dose of smarm and hitting all the same lazy narratives. He just cannot help himself, the poor ignorant bastard.

Win or lose, that is not going to change. Win, and it adds to the value, and gets Schneider the attention he deserves in a huge Eastern market. Lose, unless it is by some huge blowout score, and it is just the "one of 82" that everyone on both teams has already characterized this matchup as being.

This is not to pump the guy's tires. I would imagine that guys like Steve Yzerman and say, Scott Howson already have a pretty positive opinion of the co winner of last year's Jennings Trophy.

The most common misconception of most Canuck fans ( spoiled by a small vocal minority that get noticed away from Vancouver ) is that we don't know the deficiencies that get attached to the team. Do we rationalize and try and make the best of things that happen? Of course we do. But as we wait for Game 42 of 82 to roll around, in the light of the invective hurled at the "most hated team and fanbase in hockey", let us all realize that we have a team here to be proud of for a good many reasons, and that each year brings a new journey. If someone wants to bring up past "insults" like "pumping tires", biting fingers, no class and everything else that will come our way win or lose...let them.

It reflects more on them than us.

#EmbraceTheHate