Obama celebrates Bruins’ championship and philanthropy
Click on photo to enlarge or download: President Barack Obama praised the Bruins work both in the hockey rink and in the community. From left, Jeremy Jacobs, the Bruins’ owner, Obama, Charlie Jacobs, a Bruins principal, Cam Neely, Bruins president. SHFWire photo by Frank BumbWASHINGTON – President Barack Obama hailed the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins’ work on and off the ice at a White House ceremony Monday.
“These Bruins understand that winning the Stanley Cup is more than just men on ice. It’s about the people that stand behind them,” Obama said.
The Bruins were the first team in NHL history to win three, full seven-game series. “They had some pretty long playoff beards to show for it. An I appreciate them looking a little more clean-cut as they come here today,” Obama said.
Obama pointed to the Boston Bruins Foundation that “raised and donated more than $7 million in charitable contributions for organizations all across New England.”
Obama praised individual performers, including Brad Marchand, “The Little Ball of Hate,” who scored five goals in the final five games of the Stanley Cup finals, team captain and defenseman Zdeno Chara, the tallest player in NHL history, and Tim Thomas, who set an all-time record for saves in the postseason. Thomas did not join the team at the ceremony.
Click on photo to enlarge or download: The Bruins were the first team in NHL history to win three, full seven game playoff series. Here the Stanley Cup awaits the president and 2011 NHL champion Boston Bruins at the White House on Monday. SHFWire photo by Frank BumbThe president also pointed out the unique ways that individual Bruins players spent time with the Stanley Cup after their victory. “Zdeno invited his mailman to check it out, wheeled it around town in a baby carriage. Coach [Claude] Julien’s daughter ate her morning Cheerios out of it,” Obama said.
The winners of the Stanley Cup follow an unofficial tradition of allowing each team member one day with the trophy to celebrate in his own way.
“The Cup has traveled from the back of a duck boat in the streets of Boston to the greens of Pebble Beach, and from a sauna in Finland to a Slovakian castle. Dennis Seidenberg even brought it to his son’s christening,” Obama said.
Obama ribbed the many guests of the team in the audience, inclujding Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation. “The Bruins, the Sox, the Celtics, now the Patriots. Enough already, Boston,” Obama said.
Reach reporter Frank Bumb at bumbf@shns.com or 202-326-9871. SHFWire stories are free to any news organization that gives the reporter a byline and credits the SHFWire.
