| 01 June 2011
Hello, NHL, it's been a while. The Bruins haven't been one of the last two teams standing for 21 years. That's a pretty long time.
The last time the Bruins made it to the Conference Finals was 1992, but they were swept by Mario Lemieux's Pittsburgh Penguins en route to their Stanley Cup victory, also a sweep, over the Chicago Blackhawks. We have to go back a little further to 1991 for the last time the Bruins won a game in the Conference Finals - they won two, actually, but fell (again) to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won four games to two.
The last time the Bruins got as far as they are now - sitting in a Western Canadian city, ready to start the Stanley Cup Finals - was 1990. 21 years ago. Obviously, times have changed significantly since then. For starters, the Bruins last played a Stanley Cup Final game in May, in the Boston Garden, a building that fit entirely in TD Garden's front parking lot. It's certainly been a while since that building was knocked down.
Can you imagine BizNasty trying to tweet from something like this? Welcome to cell phones circa 1990.
If you can remember the last time the Bruins got this far, congratulations - you're sort of old. What else was going on in the world in 1990?
For starters, Victor Hedman, Jordan Caron, Marcus Johansson, John Tavares, Derek Stepan, and Zach Bogosian were born this year - albeit after the Bruins were done - and Jordan Eberle had just been born. Steve Stamkos was alive last time the B's made it this far, as were Tyler Myers, Alex Pietrangelo, and Natick's own John Carlson - but only just barely. They're all 1990'ers.
Tyler Seguin was two years from being born. Brad Marchand, Milan Lucic, and Steven Kampfer were two years old. Mark Recchi, of course, was already in the NHL, a year away from his first Stanley Cup with the Penguins.
The 1989-1990 season was the last time the Detroit Red Wings missed the playoffs. It was the last season Bernie Federko, Borje Salming, 1980 Gold medalist Mark Johnson, 1980 Silver medalist Vladimir Krutov, and current Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray played in the NHL; conversely, it was the rookie season for Olaf Kolzig, Igor Larionov, Curtis Joseph, Tie Domi, Rob Ray, and Alexander Mogilny.
The Nordiques, North Stars, Jets, and Whalers all still existed; nine teams in their current iterations did not - including the Sharks and Lightning.
The Bruins' uniforms that season looked like this:
Image from NHLUniforms.com
That season, the Bruins won the President's Trophy; the Oilers, obviously, beat the Bruins for the Stanley Cup. Wayne Gretzky won the Art Ross; Ray Bourque won the Norris Trophy. Mark Messier won the Hart Trophy, as well as the Pearson; Reggie Lemelin and Andy Moog won the Jennings trophy for best goaltending stats. Patrick Roy won the Vezina. Gentlemanly Brett Hull won the Lady Byng, a full nine years before he'd make Sabres fans everywhere miserable when he won the Cup with Dallas.
That same year, the Springfield Indians won the Calder Cup in the AHL. The Providence Bruins did not exist yet.
Canada beat the Soviet Union in World Juniors. The San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowl; the Detroit Pistons won the NBA Finals. The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series - by way of a sweep.
The Red Sox won the AL East that year with Roger Clemens as one of the starting pitchers, but were swept by the A's in the ALCS. The Patriots had a hell of a year, going one and 15 under coach Rod Rust. The only team they beat was the Colts, and the Buffalo Bills won the AFC East. Times have certainly changed.
The changes in other parts of society - technology, fads - seem gradual as you live through them, but looking back 21 years can be shocking. In 1990, if you ordered the most advanced computer possible, you'd end up with a huge box containing something that looked like this at your doorstep:
So high-tech. Image from www.ssplprints.com
Internet? Not likely, unless you worked in academia. Forget following games in other time zones outside your market in 1990 - unless you wanted to rack up a huge long-distance bill on the phone with a friend giving you play by play. Video games? Your options here were pretty limited, as well - Super Nintendo didn't come out until 1991. But - there was Ice Hockey for NES!
Dances with Wolves was the Academy Award winning Best Picture in 1990; however, if you wanted to see a movie slightly less cerebral, Home Alone, Pretty Woman, and Die Hard 2 all came out that year as well. In music, Céline Dion made her English debut in 1990. The biggest hit singles that year - which of course you had to listen to on cassette tape or vinyl - were Sinead O'Connor's 'Nothing Compares 2 U', Madonna's 'Vogue', Ice Ice Baby by....Vanilla Ice, and MC Hammer's 'U Can't Touch This.'
Also big in 1990? These things:
Did you know they sell slap bracelets in the Bruins pro shop?
In 1990, George H.W. Bush was President, Dan Quayle was VP, and the Hubble telescope was launched. The Gulf War began this year. Sue, the famous T-Rex on display in Chicago's Field museum (and on twitter at @suethetrex!) was dug up. The Cold War was winding to a close. And the biggest art theft in American history took place in Boston in 1990, when a dozen paintings worth hundreds of millions were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum...and never recovered.
Kids born before this date in 1990 can now drink legally in the States. They've been able to vote for three years, and have been on the road behind the wheel (in most states) for five already. Of the writers here at Something's Bruin, I'm fairly certain Doug Watson and Dom Tiano are the only two that REMEMBER the last Stanley Cup final in Boston; Kathryn Uggerholt wasn't even born yet, and the rest of us were too young to care.
Basically: it's been a while, and we're all glad to be here. Here's to a great series.
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