How Technology Saved Me from Missing a Legendary Bruins Game

bruins.nhl.com

On Monday night, I committed blasphemy -- specific only to Bostonians.

Let me explain. My friend and I have a weekly hangout ritual, based around new episodes of "How I Met Your Mother." Say what you will about the show (I personally love it), but regardless of your feelings, it's actually been a great way to insure that my friend and I see each other regularly. 

This particular Monday, our usual routine ran into a conflict: the Boston Bruins' game seven would be on at the same time as the season finale HIMYM. Naturally, as native Bostonians, we felt an obligation to watch the game, but made the compromise to do the channel-flip in between commercial breaks to insure we could fulfill both of our commitments to each franchise. Easy enough.

Alas, it is never that easy. The Bruins had already lost their 3-1 lead in the series to the Toronto Maple Leafs, giving up the other games to their opponent with feeble efforts and only two goals. Toronto had proved to be a formidable opponent and I can't say I was optimistic that they would be able to change their current pace to take back the series. Needless to say, my friend and I were less concerned about the Bruins and more about HIMYM and finding some other way to spend the rest of the night as we were not keen on watching our beloved team repeat the mistake they made in 2011 to the Flyers. Ouch.

After HIMYM ended, we made the compulsory switch to see how the Bruins were doing. Let's just say, not good. They were losing and it was if they weren't even present on the ice. I get so much anxiety while watching high-stakes sporting events when I have a personal attachment to one of the team's involved. My palms get sweaty, my whole body trembles, and I do this weird thing where I have to put my hands on my face, as if my head is going to fly off of my body at any moment if I don't stabilize it. Simply put, I can't handle it.

My friend and I made the decision to change the channel around the same time that our Facebook and Twitter feeds turned into a frenzy of defeat, sadness and rage from our fellow Bruins' fans. I KNOW -- it is blasphemous. How can we even dare to call ourselves Bruins' fans, or, better yet, Bostonians, after changing the channel on our home team? The shame will forever haunt me, but we were downtrodden and tired! We settled on something less stressful (eating pudding pie and watching "Family Guy") and just hoped that we could recover in time for next season.

And that's when the power of texting and social media did the unthinkable: it saved us. My friend got an iMessage from another friend telling us that the Bruins were back in it. What? They were down 3-1 the last time we checked. It was the third period. That can't be right! BUT IT WAS RIGHT. I checked my Facebook and Twitter feeds, watching the posts progress from declarations of disappointment to cries of hope, pride and utter disbelief. There was a new status update every few seconds from different friends and acquaintances, all expressing the same thing, leading me to believe that the impossible was suddenly possible. The universe had smiled upon me and didn't want me to miss the end of the game -- social media and my iPhone had saved me from missing what was arguably one of the most exciting endings to a hockey game I have ever seen.

After my friend confirming that the tide had turned and every social media outlet firing off posts including capital letters and exclamation points, we changed the channel back to the Bruins and found that it was true -- the Bruins were back in it and they had a chance to win. My friend and I watched the rest of the game as the Bruins made their comeback and headed into overtime.If you don't follow hockey or Boston sports, spoiler alert: THEY WON.

If my friend and I hadn't checked our phones, we would have missed the entire end. I wouldn't have been able to watch the end of that unbelievable game had it not been for the power of modern technology. Thank you, iPhone.


More on what happened during the game here:
http://espn.go.com/boston/nhl/story/_/id/9272864/2013-nhl-playoffs-boston-bruins-pull-epic-turnaround-game-7-win