The Celtics opened the season as title favorites. The Bruins didn't make anyone's list. Now they're gunning to give Boston its most memorable spring ever.
The B's and C's have never won simultaneous championships, but the stars are aligning for an unprecedented commingling of black, green, and gold confetti.
The Bruins just rampaged through the NHL to set records for most wins (65) and points (135). The Celtics claimed the NBA's No. 2 overall seed. If both clubs reach their respective Finals, TD Garden will play double host, transforming Causeway Street into a non-stop party for the first two weeks of June. Mayor Wu should probably approve overtime sanitation pay now.
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If the rest of the country found us insufferable before, just wait until we're throwing dueling parades. Suck it up, rest of the country. We don't call ourselves the Hub of the Universe out of a sense of modesty. We deserve this! The last 20-plus years have provided so much to celebrate, delivering a winter double would put a definitive capper on the longest stretch of extended greatness in the history of American sports.
We can't be the Popes of Chili Town forever, after all. The Patriots are floundering, the Red Sox have been hollowed out as if by carpenter ants, the core of the B's is aging, and the Celtics must contend with the uncertainty of Jaylen Brown's future. Our time, perhaps for one last time, is now.
So let's create some more magic. The Bruins are what our pal Tony Mazz would call a wagon. They didn't luck into those records, they stormed to them. David Pastrňák might be the league's best pure scorer. Linus Ullmark went an absurd 40-6-1 and even scored a goal from his own net. Trade deadline acquisitions Dmitry Orlov and Tyler Bertuzzi provided exactly the right punch in support of the ageless core of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Krejčí.
About the only force beyond injury that can stop the B's is the vagaries of the NHL postseason, where the No. 1 seed can lose in the first round and the No. 8 seed can win it all.
Boston Celtics
Bruins vs. Panthers first-round playoff preview, odds and prediction
The Stanley Cup playoffs are the most uniquely stressful of the four major sports. Games are decided in sudden death and can last forever, the tension ratcheting like a torture implement. They're also a meat grinder of attrition. Only when they're over do we learn that Bergeron played with a shattered pelvis and lacerated kidney. So if they win, they'll have earned it.
The Celtics boast an easier path by comparison, starting with the inconsistent and defensively challenged Hawks, who pose some problems on the glass, but should otherwise be overwhelmed. Then it's a likely date with the Sixers, whom the Celtics absolutely own, before a probable showdown with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks.
The C's play Antetokounmpo as tough as anyone in the NBA. There's no reason Jayson Tatum and Co. can't return to the Finals to face whatever comes out of the wide-open West. It could be Durant and the Suns, Joker and the Nuggets, or even freaking LeBron and the Lakers. As long as it isn't Steph and the Warriors again, the Celtics shouldn't fear any of them.
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It also helps that they rediscovered some of their early-season mojo down the stretch. They are the proverbial team no one wants to play behind not only Brown and Tatum, but the game-changing Robert Williams and Sixth Man of the Year favorite Malcolm Brogdon. Don't sleep on Derrick White's all-around game or Sam Hauser finding his stroke from 3, too.
So let's buckle up for what could be one hell of a ride. The C's open at home on Saturday. The B's host the Panthers for Game 1 on Marathon Monday.
Boston is once again the center of the sporting universe. The rest of you aren't done with us, sorry-not-sorry to say, and we've got a chance to throw our biggest party yet. May the kaleidoscope of confetti rain.