For years, teams have been doing things during their playoff home games to give their fans and team a moment of solidarity. Being a Calgary Flames fan (my Western Conference team), I’ve watched the “Sea of Red” when the Flames make the playoffs (and sadly will not see it this year) and recently the Penguins have done a “White Out”. Here is Calgary’s “Sea of Red” in Game 1 against the Ducks.
Here is Pittsburgh’s “White Out” from last year.
So it makes me question why certain teams are willing to do this solidarity and the Bruins are willing to sit on their hands and do nothing. It seems to me that the smartest thing to do is a “Black Out”. The Bruins should provide the fans black t-shirts that say something on them in gold (Go Bruins, Black Out with the spoked B starting the word black) so the fans can stand together in solidarity and also become a menacing force. Players who have played in the Boston Garden, the REAL Boston Garden, said that the fans were not only there watching a game of hockey; they were a part of the game of hockey.
How do you think an opponent is going to react when they skate out onto the ice and see nothing but a sea of black t-shirts with fans chomping at the bit? How do you think the Bruins would react? There is no doubt in my mind that guys like Shawn Thornton and Tim Thomas would feed off of the energy and the “Black Out”.
Unfortunately, whether it begins with Jeremy Jacobs or with the Bruins marketing/PR department, this will probably never happen. For some reason, when a team does this it screams that they’re dedicated to their fans and dedicated to winning a championship. I don’t know what it is, but it does.
The playoffs are a different animal and teams should treat it as such.
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