Autographed 98.5 B-LIEVE Poster

First of all, pardon the poor quality of this scan. The poster was too big for my scanner, and I had to cut and paste 3 scans to get it all…

It wasn’t much of a decision when I heard they were letting fans see the Bruins off to Vancouver. The only question I had was which members of my family I was going to meet there. After a text message to my older sister, I left my friend Carl’s place in Quincy to meet her and my parents at the Fleet Center (again, there was only one “Gahden”).

Not surprisingly, I scored a parking spot right across the street, and met my family by the Bruins Pro Shop (which was closed today – even though it is a holiday, you’d think they’d open it for the B’s Faithful?). I put on my sunscreen (SPF 85), my parents waited by the building, and my sister and I found a spot near the gate. It was warm and humid, but well worth being a little uncomfortable to cheer a team that’s done something 20 teams before them haven’t.

After waiting for over an hour, and hearing a few words from my hero Cam Neely, the players started showing up. Tuukka Rask, Steve Kampfer, Brad Marchand, Tyler Seguin, and Dan Paille came down by us. With the exception of Paille who had some excuse why he wasn’t giving autographs, they all signed everyone’s 98.5 B-Lieve posters (I got Marchand in red and Seguin in black). Someone told Brad, “Go win The Cup”, and he replied, “I’ll try.” I had to whip out the Star Wars, and told him, “Do or do not, there is no try.” Speaking of Holy Trilogy references, Adam “Darth Quaider” McQuaid was making his way down to us, but we saw someone tell him it was time to go (I’m sure he would have kept going down the entire line signing and taking pictures with people).

The B’s then got on the busses, and took off…

After the crowd had cleared, my sister and I found our parents who were (not surprisingly) BEHIND the barriers they had put up – they know a lot of Bruins people. We were walking back to get inside, and were interviewed by a Boston Herald writer. We told him about the McGrath’s love of everything Bruin, our dog (Rest in Peace) L.B., my parents’ living room “Bruins Corner”, and all the superstitions when we watch the games. Then, my dad was interviewed by NESN and explained how awesome it would be if three generations of McGrath got to share a Bruins Stanley Cup victory.

We all B-Lieve. I hope the Bruins do, too…

Can’t wait until Wednesday…GO BRUINS!!!!!