Boston Bruins center Sean Kuraly is very familiar with the B’s upcoming second-round opponent of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Kuraly grew up a Columbus Blue Jackets’ fan, and living about 20 minutes outside of the city in Dublin, Ohio, he idolized players like Rick Nash. The 26-year-old often found himself rooting on the Jackets at Nationwide Arena any chance he could.
🎥 Ohio native @kurals9 discusses the #NHLBruins second-round matchup with Columbus and the influence the Blue Jackets had on him growing up: pic.twitter.com/dRmt4yzWgh
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 25, 2019
Although the Blue Jackets’ organization played a key role in Kuraly’s interest in the sport, the Bruins’ center noted that he would’ve played hockey even if Ohio didn’t have an NHL team.
“I was at games from the day they played their first game until I left to play hockey,” Kuraly told reporters. “It was huge, like I said, we grew up on guys like Rick Nash and it was always a dream of mine to play.”
From practice to games, rink to rink, Kuraly’s love for the game all started in Columbus. While many kids dream about playing professional hockey, Kuraly was lucky enough to make that dream a reality. The fourth-liner was able to reminisce about the good times he had playing hockey in Columbus, and if it wasn’t for the Blue Jackets, maybe he wouldn’t have had such big aspirations to make an NHL roster some day.
“Dreaming about being an NHL player definitely started at the rinks in Columbus,” said Kuraly.
Kuraly is set to take on his hometown team in Game 1 of round two on Thursday night at TD Garden.
