In what turned out to be one of the more interesting nights in my work history, I had the privilege of meeting ten members of the Providence Bruins. The AHL affiliate of the Boston Bruins are in Wilkes-Barre, PA to take on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins in the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs.
With a morning practice in the rear view, the guys chose to eat in my establishment and watch their brothers at the NHL level take on Montreal in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Through the course of conversation, two of the guys, right wing Tyler Randell and defenseman Tommy Cross, made me aware that rookie Matt Fraser was playing in his first NHL playoff game. He had skated with Providence on Wednesday before getting the call that he would be playing in Montreal on Thursday night.
About an hour later Fraser knocked in the only goal during an overtime scramble in front of Carey Price’s Montreal net. The goal tied the series, restored home ice to Boston, and sent my two new friends into a flurry of shouts, texts and phone calls to note the landmark event.
It was a really cool night at work, a place that I’m usually never afforded the luxury of a reasonable hockey conversation. I was able to rib Malcolm Subban, whose more famous brother skates for the hated Canadiens. Yes, I asked his buddies if they were concerned about his loyalties. Half kidding. While the younger Subban assured me that he loved his brother, there is no question which team he roots for. The rest of the crew also made it very clear that Malcolm was their favorite of the Subban brothers.
None of this has anything to do with my originally scheduled article for Friday, but it’s a snapshot of how much the Stanley Cup playoffs mean and how far they reach into people’s lives. Matt Fraser was literally discussing his overtime game winner with NBC reporter Pierre McGuire, and then literally fifteen minutes later he was exchanging texts with his teammates sitting in my restaurant.
Fraser was joking with McGuire about how he got the call on Wednesday after practice while eating frozen yogurt with his Providence teammates. From a five-hour bus trip to northeastern Pennsylvania, Fraser was then whisked by jet to the threshold of hockey royalty in Montreal. With all of the world-class talent stuck in a scoreless gridlock for over 60 minutes, it was the newest Bruin who scored a goal he will never forget.
The Montreal-Boston series resumes Saturday night in Beantown, and while my new friends will have their hands full during Game 2 of their series with the Baby Penguins, I’ll still have more of a watchful eye trained on Boston’s newest hero. It was pure chance that the cast of characters happened to wander in to my restaurant Thursday night, but in a really cool, five people removed from semi-Kevin Bacon scenario, I felt for a very small moment like a part of the Stanley Cup playoffs.