For those of you who have seen the extremely underappreciated film Vanilla Sky, the ensuing comparison will likely make a bit more sense. If not, I shall do my best.
For Tom Cruise's character David Aames, much like the fans of the Boston Bruins this season, the happiness and utter perfection that suddenly entered his life was nearly incomprehensible.
You see, Aames, born into wealth and possessor of anything he so desired shy of true love, had his life flipped upside down after suffering significant facial scarring and the immobilization of his right arm after a scorned lover drove them both off a bridge while traveling 80 MPH, killing herself in the process. Think: the Bruins hiring Dave Lewis to be their head coach.
While doctor's did the best they could, Aames suffered unbearable headaches and couldn't even handle the sight of his own reflection. One evening he finally came out of his shell and reconnected with his friend Brian and a woman he had become infatuated with prior to the accident, Sofia. Think: the Bruins qualifying for the playoffs last year.
But he felt as pessimistic as ever about rekindling things with the woman he had fallen in love with at first sight, just before the accident. Suddenly, a hot-shot team of surgeons (in the Bruins case: Claude Julien, Blake Wheeler, Michael Ryder, David Krejci) concocted a way to completely cure all of David's physical woes.
And just like that, his life began turning around. Things came as easy for Aames as they did in November and December for the B's. His scarring was now just a memory and his precious car destroyed in the accident was restored to like-new condition. He and Sofia fell madly in love and moved in together. His creativity began to flow like a river and his company thrived. He had never been more grateful to be alive nor happier at any moment of his entire existence.
Then, right at his peak, life became a catastrophically surreal experience for Aames. His supposedly dead lover returned, claiming to be Sofia. His scars returned and his arm resumed it's once deformed state. His best friend became his worst enemy. And soon, David found himself behind bars for committing a murder his mind had erased from his memory. Quite simply:
The dream became a nightmare. In reality, Aames was cryogenically frozen, and all of the happiness that so easily came his way was in actuality a controlled state of dreaming, all while his lifeless body was being housed in a frozen chamber thousands of feet underground in a laboratory. Everything he believed to be real was in fact a mirage. Every element of his life was all being directly chosen by his subconscious. It was a farce.
Was the first half of the 2008-2009 season for the Boston Bruins merely a lucid dream, much like that of David Aames', that we all imagined? It kind of seems that way now, doesn't it? I mean, think about it: at the beginning of the year, where did you realistically expect the Bruins to be at the end of this season? A 6th, 7th, or 8th seed sounded possible. But what if they regressed? Had a major injury occurred this team seemed like it could be devastated.
And sure enough that injury bug bit. It bit hard and it bit often. This team could've been cooked by it's youthful inexperience and the bevy of key players constantly out of the lineup. Yet for a while there, they were as invincible and darn near unbeatable as any team this town has ever seen.
Throughout November and December the Boston Bruins annihilated every helpless opponent that tried to stand in their way of sheer domination. All at once, everyone, even the Providence plug-ins, played out of their collective minds. The B's breezed through the first half of the season and found themselves atop of the standings with a seemingly insurmountable lead. They had everything imaginable going for them:
* Phil Kessel was on his way to a 50 goal season.
* Marc Savard was on the path to 100 points.
* Blake Wheeler was assuredly in the top 3 for rookie of the year honors.
* The Jack Adams' Award was Claude Julien's to lose.
* Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez were both playing All Star calibre hockey.
* David Krejci was having a breakout year and on his way to 90 points.
* The trio of Wheeler-Krejci-Ryder was the hottest line in the league.
No one stood a chance against these guys. Everyone was on the streak of streaks, every bounce went their way. The Bruins were an unstoppable force, on cruise control, undoubtedly heading toward a President's Trophy and a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1990, where they would easily be favored to win their first championship since 1972.
It all seems so long ago, doesn't it?
The B's, now 6-9-4 after opening the season 39-8-6, bare no resemblance to their once dominant selves. Their swagger and confidence have vacated their bodies. They once approached every challenge with the knowledge that they would succeed. Now they show up for every game hampered by hesitation and trepidation. The same group that felt and played like world-beaters, now has zero faith in it's own abilities.
And as the regular season dwindles down, with that long stretch of dominant play now a mere tiny dot in the rear-view mirror, one must begin to fear the worst. In fact, at this point you're probably foolish to not brace yourself for what may be ahead. You know what I'm talking about. You don't want to say it but I will: 1st round exit.
The Bruins were that shiny corvette, the car of your dreams, speeding through the city streets at over 160mph. There were no cops, no traffic, no kids crossing the street to worry about, no red lights to avoid. But then, one of the tires got a slow leak, and then another. But it was okay, they could bounce back. Unfortunately now, with the playoffs just 10 games away, our Corvette has lost its steering and is repeatedly slamming off of the guard rail while smoke begins to rise at an escalating pace from the hood. And as the sun begins to set, the headlights fade out, and the brakes fail, we are all finding it harder and harder to hold out hope.
This entirely unexpected dream-like season, once seemingly perfect, grows more and more painful week by week, game by game, shift by shift. For weeks the B's have corrected problems only to see others rise. They have made promise, after promise, after promise to put in a full 60 minute effort. Now surely there are things beyond the control of a hockey player while he is out on the ice. A whole lot of them in fact. But a lack of effort, dedication, perseverance, and a will to compete hard and win at all costs is simply inexcusable.
Last night's collapse against the Kings boiled my blood like no other loss has this season. Time and time again this team has pulled a disappearing act in the third period that would make David Copperfield and the great Harry Houdini stand up and applaud. With three days off prior to the game, there was no reason they shouldn't have come out energized and continued to take it to LA. Yet, they crawled in their shells and aside from waking up briefly after the Kings tied things up, got man-handled the entire period.
So here they are, with two more days off until the biggest game of the season against the team primed and ready to leap-frog them in the Eastern Conference standings and supplant them as the #1 seed, the New Jersey Devils. Forget bringing their "A" game. If this team doesn't realize how much is at stake and get their act together for the playoffs, or if they bring anything shy of their "A+" game while playing anything less than 60 minutes, well consider yourself warned.
Because, should that happen, there will be a young man up on Level 9 of the Garden so thoroughly convinced that the first half of the season was all in his imagination, and that maybe he, like David Aames, is actually cryogenically frozen somewhere deep in some mad scientist's basement. He will be enraged, berserk, screaming out for tech support to wake him from his nightmare. And he will be very, very sorry if you are the sad sap he happens to land on, after deciding to conquer his fear of heights, from his high perch at the TD Banknorth Garden.
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