With all due respect to Detroit, and to the old rink bearing that name on Route 1 in Saugus, the TD Garden is the capital of Hockey Town for at least one night.
For the first time in 39 years, the Bruins take the ice as reigning Stanley Cup champions. The rings have been handed out, and head coach Claude Julien is talking about looking ahead at the next challenge and not living in the past. Before the B's can start doing that, however, there is one more bit of celebrating to do. There will be a ceremony — a banner raised to the rafters as one more metaphorical sip from Lord Stanley's cherished hardware.
You have to be of a certain age to remember the last time hockey meant so much to so many people around here. For most of the last three decades, hockey has been on the outside watching the championship dreams of the other teams in town.
That was especially true in the new millennium. As the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics held a duck boat relay race through the streets of Boston, the Bruins struggled. Things hit their lowest point in the fall of 2004. That spring, the B's were upset by archrival Montreal in the first round of the playoffs. As Red Sox Nation celebrated the end of an 86-year title drought, the NHL shut down for a season-long work stoppage.
Now, that seems like a distant memory and there is a fresh new generation of hockey fans in Boston. Even before winning it all in June, the organization had done a terrific job connecting with the community at a grassroots level.
Everyone knows there are rinks dotting the New England landscape. Parents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles and grandparents forgo sleep to bring kids to early morning hockey games and practices from September to April, with summer teams and hockey camps rounding out the endless youth hockey calendar.
Not that long ago, the kids taking the ice for those 6 a.m. practices would be wearing the jerseys of their parents' heroes with names like Orr, Bourque and Neely. Now, those jerseys have been replaced by a new list of stars, like Chara and Krejci and Bergeron and Thomas. The Bruins finally have us thinking about the modern game and about the future.
And that future looks bright. When the pregame celebration ends on Thursday night and they drop the puck on the new season, will anyone be lamenting the loss of Tomas Kaberle or of Michael Ryder? General manager Peter Chiarelli replaced them with Joe Corvo and Benoit Pouliot, respectively. He has kept the majority of a championship team nearly intact, with breathing room under the salary cap to keep most of it in place going forward.
This isn't the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks, who won it all and then started jettisoning players before the confetti from the parade had been cleaned up. That team was built for one championship run, and one only.
This Bruins team is built to contend. Tyler Seguin was a role player for most of last season, and has the skill and speed to blossom into a star at the age of 20. Thirty-goal scorer Milan Lucic is only 23. David Krejci is 25. Twenty-year-old Jordan Caron edged out longtime veteran Chris Clark for a spot on the team, and half of the defensemen on the current roster are 27 years of age or younger.
The game's best goalie, Tim Thomas, is the team's elder statesman. But Tuukka Rask is only 24, and is in place to eventually make the transition to everyday starter.
In other words, a repeat is not out of the question. At the very least, the B's should be contenders again next spring. Optimism continues to radiate out of the Garden, long after the Duck Boats have been put away.
Optimism on the Garden ice? Times sure have changed. And there's no better time to watch this team, whether you're a long-suffering fan or a newcomer to the championship bandwagon.
