The Boston Bruins store has been taken over by Boston Celtics gear.
Boston Bruins fans, like their counterparts across the NHL, have nothing to cheer about this season.
By JESSE SPECTOR
BOSTON - North Station should have been a sea of black and gold on Friday, with fans getting ready for a day-after-Thanksgiving matinee between the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. As those fans arrived at the transportation hub beneath TD Garden, they should have been streaming into Boston Bruins Proshop and leaving with full bags of goodies for themselves and the hockey fans on their holiday shopping list. Black Friday and a Bruins game - it should have been a bonanza.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Thanks for nothing, NHL lockout. On a day meant to be about the sweet ring of cash registers, the league canceled all regular-season games through Dec. 14, plus the All-Star festivities that had been scheduled for Columbus in January. Earlier, the scene in Boston was emblematic of the apathy that should be the NHL's top concern as the lockout continues.
In the first 45 minutes that the top source for Bruins merchandise was open on the biggest day of the year, four customers emerged with black and gold items showing in their clear plastic shopping bags. Two, carrying hats, did not want to talk about their purchases. Another had not bought Bruins gear, but a black Boston Celtics cap with a dayglow yellow brim.
That left Gretchen Crudle, and her 14-year-old son, Jack, who came to Boston from Rochester, N.Y., for Thanksgiving. Jack's big purchase? A pair of socks.
Jack wanted more than just the socks. His uncle works for the Bruins, and he goes to a school called McQuaid Jesuit, whose colors are the same as the Bruins'. He was hoping to get something Adam McQuaid-related, then, but found nothing.
"They've only got the one wall of Bruins stuff," Jack said. "And they said the reason they don't have more is they're not in season."
Indeed, the majority of the items for sale at Boston Bruins Proshop on Friday were Celtics paraphernalia. That's "for sale," and not "on sale," because, somehow, on the day of the year most known for bargains, there were no special deals to be had, only a couple of racks of discounted T-shirts.
"I totally understand," Gretchen said. "But if you're a hockey person, that's disappointing."
That is a familiar emotion to hockey fans these days. For Andy Jennings and his daughter Ryan, up from Virginia to watch the Celtics, the shopping experience was quite different. Asked what was in their full shopping bag, Andy said, "A couple of shirts and a Rajon Rondo iPhone case."
A Rajon Rondo iPhone case? Yes, a Rajon Rondo iPhone case.
The Celtics selection was staggering, with plenty of retro items alongside t-shirts for just about every player on the roster - even No. 0 for Avery Bradley, who has played five games for Boston over the past few seasons.
A pillar outside the store depicted a larger-than-life Tim Thomas, in full Bruins uniform except for his mask, above the club's phone number and web address. Never mind that even before the NHL lockout started, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner announced his plans to take this season off, and there is about as much of a chance of him playing another game for the Bruins than there is of Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr teaming up on The Amazing Race.
So, Boston Bruins Proshop is Celtics Central, just baring the name of a team that it feels like time forgot, with the same full-wall ad for the Bruins' phone app that has been there since last season. A wall of Bruins jerseys and t-shirts draws barely a glance from the few shoppers inside, and even if there was some interest, who's going to want to pay full price for items that only serve as a reminder of the greed that is destroying what those items represent?
"You'd think they'd be pushing hockey a bit more," said Matt Hurrell, who walked out of the store without making a purchase.
You'd also think that nobody in their right mind would shut down a $3.3 billion industry over a few extra million. But here we are, more than two months into a lockout that has no end in sight, while the interest of the customers wanes more with each passing day.