Fans Pack London Sports Bar To Watch Bruins-Canucks
LONDON (CBS) - Dawn was breaking at 4:15 a.m. as 20 die-hard Boston Bruins fans hit the street outside of The Sports Cafe in High Market. The streets were deserted as they celebrated the Bruins win.
As the game began, over three hundred people packed the upstairs bar surrounded by 15 TV sets. Vancouver fans outnumbered Boston fans 25-to-one. It was standing room only. When the national anthems were sung, the Canucks fans rose as one and drowned out the beat of the dances on the floor below.
It cost 5£ to gain admission to watch the game at London's only major sports bar.
The crowd of over 300 people were in their 20's and early 30's. They were hopeful that Vancouver would win Game 6 and The Stanley Cup. It was not to be.
The B's exploded for another first period four goal barrage and the crowd started to thin out. By the start of the third period, the bar area was half-empty.
Among the Boston fans were Caroline Burbeau of West Hartford, Boston University Class of '09 and a member of the women's hockey team.
Sitting beside her were Bill Cruickshauk of the North End in Boston here on vacation and Mike Marcouf from Springfield.
"I'm going straight to the office, sleep on the floor for a couple of hours and then start my day," said Marcouf who works for a market research company here.
The biggest cheers of the night came at the start of the third period when the Canucks scored on a power play in the first minute. When an apparent goal was waived off a few minutes later, the crowd started to leave.
It was back to Vancouver for Game 7 on Thursday morning local time. A statistic flashed on the screen here and stated that the teams had traveled 6,531 miles since starting the series. Certainly this Stanley Cup final would break existing records for team travel.
The TV feed of the game was a combination of CBC Sports and ESPN America and the pre-game show was slanted to the Canadian fan.
As the game ended, the loyal Boston fans chanted "Let's Go Bruins."
One of the great pictures shown several times was of former Bruins player and coach Milt Schmidt, now over 90 years of age, wearing a Bruins sweater and waving a towel.
Observing the scene, you would have thought you were in Vancouver and not Boston. Despite the cheering, the crowd was very well behaved.
Back on the street, it was easy to get a cab and about seven minutes back to the hotel.
There was scant coverage of the series here. English football, known as soccer in the U.S., dominated the sports' pages along with Wimbledon.
It will be another full house on Thursday morning local time.
Bob Weiss' "All Things Travel" reports can be heard weekends on WBZ NewsRadio 1030.
