Bruins coach Claude Julien has a long-standing policy of finding ways to keep his teams relaxed during the NHL playoffs.
In 2011 when Boston won the Stanley Cup, Julien brought his team to a Vancouver karaoke bar where veterans Tim Thomas and Mark Recchi sang many of the great Canadian classics.
“There’s nothing like a rousing rendition of Rush’s ‘Tom Sawyer’ to get the hockey blood flowing,” Nathan Horton told the Boston Globe.
“To hell with Rush,” defiant defenseman Johnny Boychuck said. “In 2011, I was all over the ice after belting out the Cowboy Junkies version of ‘Sweet Jane’ 40 times in a row.
Just a few hours after their plane landed in Chicago prior to the opening game of the 2013 Cup final, the Bruins boarded a boat at Navy Pier bound for Gary, Ind.
The tour took the team to such historic sites as long abandoned Union Station, the oldest structure in the city, the decayed Gary Land Office, and the once beautiful, but long-forgotten Palace Theatre.
“We wanted to depart the boat to visit Michael Jackson’s boyhood home,” Julien said.
“But after finding out the Ferris wheel, Michael’s Pirates of the Caribbean and Bubbles the chimp were located in California and not in Gary, the boys decided to go back to the hotel.”
