Ottawa Sun Calls Bruins 'Cocky' For Selling Playoff Tickets
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Bruins announced Monday that playoff tickets will go on sale on Friday.
The Boston Bruins have not clinched a playoff berth.
These two facts have not gone unnoticed in Ottawa.
The Ottawa Sun ran a story on Tuesday morning with the following headline: "Cocky Bruins announce playoff tix."
Reporter Don Brennan went all-in on the sarcasm.
"The race for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference is apparently over," Brennan began his story. "The Senators have lost."
Brennan then quoted some anonymous Bruins fans on Twitter to sample the displeasure in the Boston fanbase. He also referenced a tweet sent out by the official Senators account, which suggested the Bruins were putting the cart before the horse.
Of course, it makes for a story up in Ottawa, particularly if you intentionally omit the following part of the Bruins' release: "If a Boston Bruins playoff game at the TD Garden is NOT played, any single game ticket sold for such game will be eligible for a refund of the face value and any service fees paid at the point of purchase (except UPS and retail pickup fees). Any refunds will be issued to the same method of payment as the original purchase."
The realistic digest of the Bruins' ticket announcement is that the organization is not cocky but that the Jacobs-run team does value business first. If the TD Garden does indeed host first-round playoff games (and they have a 72.6 percent chance of doing that, according to Sportsclubsstats.com), the Bruins want the building filled as quickly as possible, so as to maximize their profits. They don't believe in jinxes. Because jinxes aren't real.
Alas, the "cocky" angle plays well in Ottawa. The Senators sit three points behind the Bruins for the final wild-card spot, they have lost three straight games, and they could probably use a bit of an emotional charge. Perhaps they'll use it as motivation. The Bruins will likely just continue to try to win games the old-fashioned way. Because jinxes aren't real.
