I can’t think of the Boston Bruins without remembering what I think was the greatest game in NHL history. March 21, 1991. Ron Tugnutt of my Quebec Nordiques made 70 saves, including a point-blank glove save off of Ray Bourque late in overtime, to preserve a 3-3 tie against the Bruins in Boston. It was one of the few highlights of being a Quebec Nordiques fan before the team moved away and won the Stanley Cup in their first year in Denver. By and large, that means the NHL is dead to me. The one infrequent exception to this is when I’m visiting an NHL city and there’s a game on.

Back in November in Boston, I picked up a cheap ticket on the secondary market (I refuse to directly fund the NHL or any of its teams) and made my way to the rink to check out a Bruins game against Minnesota. Cheap ticket means an upper deck seat, but pre-game I settled into a couple of pricier vantage points to check out the TD Garden.

It is a nice enough rink, but they all look so much alike these days. I miss the feeling of walking into an old barn, like the Colisee in Quebec City, and exploring its nuances and quirks. Aside from the Bruins logos and the colour of the seats, this could be an arena anywhere. Minor nostalgic griping aside, from a seat between the blue lines in the lower level, I enjoyed watching the two teams warm up.

During the warm ups, a couple passed by me in the aisle and asked if I was a season ticket holder. Thinking they were normal occupants of the seat I was in, I demurred, said “no, I’m visiting here.” They asked from where and when I said Saskatoon, they laughed – they were visiting from Edmonton. A few minutes later, someone entered the row from the other end. We smiled at each other – him noticing my Roughriders hat, me noticing his McGill sweatshirt. He was visiting from Toronto. A row of Canadians… does anybody from Boston actually attend these games?

With pretty much a full house for the game and a low likelihood of picking a better unoccupied seat down below, it was off to the upper reaches of the rink for the opening faceoff. This actually wasn’t that a bad seat.

This ended up being one of the more entertaining NHL games I’ve been to over the past few years. There were some great hits, a fight, and lots of end to end action and scoring chances on the night. Plenty to keep the home fans enthused including a nice goal early in the second period by the Bruins.

There was even a critical third period penalty shot. With the Wild down by two, Mikael Granlund broke in on Tukka Rask and was denied by a nice right pad save.

With 4 minutes left in the game, the Wild closed the gap to 4-3 on a shorthanded goal that rendered the fans silent and made for a tense finish. An empty net goal by the Bruins in the last minute salted away a thoroughly entertaining 5-3 win sending everyone home happy. Not as exciting as that game back in 1991, but a pretty good night of entertainment for my only really free night in Boston.