I am not much for apologies

I am a man who believes that most apologies are nothing more than empty words used to ease the tension when you either realize you have said or done something wrong, or you are just too tired of the same fight and are trying to end it. Most of the time it works and you can continue to believe that everything is cool until the next time it happens. So most of the time I won't apologize for my wrongdoings and instead will just admit that I was wrong and move forward with things, however there are a few times that even I must apologize for doing something unfair and somewhat cruel. Today I stand before you (well I sit but you get the picture) offering my full and most sincere apology to a man who I have criticized since I was a wee young lad, a man who was the butt end of many of my jokes since I can remember. That man is Jeremy Jacobs, owner of the Boston Bruins hockey franchise. For those of you who aren't familiar with Mr. Jacobs and my hatred for him, I will give you a little detail about him. Jacobs took over the Boston Bruins franchise in 1975 just three years removed from the Stanley Cup Championship and their second in the last three years having also won in 1970. It would be thirty-nine more years before Bruins fans had another taste of the cup. Now I am not saying that the thirty-nine years without the cup is by any means the driving force behind my hatred for the man, but rather the way Jacobs went about those thirty-nine years that drew a lot of well deserved criticism towards his ownership and desire to actually win the championship. Yes the Bruins had their chances under the ownership, they reached the Cup finals in '77, '78, '88, and '90, and looking at this you could make an argument that they were a very competitive team under his reign. The underlying tone though was that Jacobs knew that he had a gold mine franchise in Boston, people would sell out the then Boston Garden night in and night out regardless if the team was winning championships or not as long as they stayed competitive and played "Bruins" style hockey, that is to say the Bruins are the more physical of the teams often muscling their way to victory and scoring a few ugly goals in front of the net. So it came to be that the Bruins would make the playoffs year after year, sometimes accumulating a good regular season record and tricking the fans into thinking that perhaps this is the year they finally get over the hump, only to drop in the first round of the playoffs every time. I still vividly remember the Bruins losing to the Wayne Gretzky-less Edmonton Oilers in 1990 and though that Oilers team was filled with great talent and led by future hall of famers Mark Messier and Jari Kuri, the Bruins looked helpless against them and the scores really indicate just how lopsided the affair was with the Bruins losing 3-2, 7-2, 5-1, and 4-1, losing the championship in five games. It marked the last time the Bruins ever really had a chance to win the cup for the next twenty years. In the subsequent seasons the Bruins would go on to trade Andy Moog, their franchise goaltender, Cam Neely would suffer a career ending injury, and Adam Oates, Rick Toccet, and Bill Ranford would be traded for Jason Allison, Anson Carter, and goaltender Jim Carey (no not the comedian). Now those of you who are Bruins fans will say to me that Jason Allison was great for the Bruins and the Capitals with Oates and the others were really no better than before, and to that I say bully, Jason Allison was nothing for the Capitals and was thought of as nothing when the Bruins received him, the gem of the trade at the time was young stud goaltender Jim Carey who would last the rest of the 1997 season as the Bruins goaltender and was replaced by Byron Dafoe the following season, Adam Oates meanwhile led the Caps to the Stanley Cup Finals the next season. My point in all of that babble was that the Bruins packed in the 1997 season and got nothing for it, yes they were better with the emergence of Jason Allison as a star, but Carey and Carter were both garbage. Carter lasted until the 1999-2000 season when he was once again traded this time for bonafide superstar Bill Guerin, who lasted a grand total of two seasons with the Bruins. The Bruins would continue to flounder making boneheaded trades along the way, the trading of Joe Thornton comes to mind, before finally emerging as an up and coming Eastern Conference powerhouse in 2009. That was nineteen years of bitter and pure hatred as a hockey fan towards the man everyone claimed was responsible for such atrocities to the original six franchise, a team that deserved so much better, and a city that deserved so much better.

Now for the apology part of all of this as I feel I have laid my reasoning for the bitterness out there pretty thoroughly. It has come to my attention in the short few days since the Bruins have won that Jacobs had other, more important, things to attend to during this time of mediocrity. What could possibly be more important than winning the Stanley Cup, you might ask. Well how about the fact that Jacobs was instrumental in the creation of the salary cap in the NHL, without which the league would have folded entirely. He also has been the Chairmen of the NHL Board of Governors since 2007, and prior to that had served on its executive board for many years. Finally, once thought to be a tight wallet when it came to spending to get the players needed to finish the puzzle, Jacobs has consistently been at or above the salary cap since its inception, so since you can no longer blame him for the teams inability to find the 'right' guys. Finally sensing the teams need for a major overhaul Jacobs cleaned house in the front office even parting ways officially with longtime president Harry Sinden, the team has since made the playoffs every season and had been making progress consistently moving further into the playoffs finally culminating in the championship run of this past season. For this Jeremy, mind if I call you Jeremy? I feel that as a fan once turned away from the storied team from the city which I love with all my heart and soul, that I finally owe you a great apology for everything I have said to bash you and your franchise, and I can finally say that I look forward to watching the Bruins for many more years to come.