BOULDER, Colorado -- This season the Boston Bruins have revived one of the great New England hockey institutions, the Mini 1-on-1.Being a kid growing up in New England, Mini 1-on-1 was one of the highlights of watching Bruins games on TV with my dad (in addition to watching the likes of Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, and Adam Oates kick some ass).
It's great to see the next generation of American hockey players on television screens across the region. One of the great strengths of the Bruins as an organization has been their ties to the local hockey community. Putting on the Bruins jersey has been special for a lot of local kids who played from mites through college in the Boston area, guys like Steve Heinze, Ted Donato, and Chris Nilan.
Mini 1-0n-1 is a shootout tournament featuring youth hockey teams from all over Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine and is shown during the intermissions of Bruins games. There are three brackets, including boys mites (8 and under), girls mites, and boys squirts (9-10).
The Bruins are an organization that has fallen on hard times of late (they just lost their eighth straight game to the Montreal Canadiens, 5-2), but the return of Mini 1-on-1 is a good sign that the team is interested in rebuilding its fan base.
Last month Sports Illustrated ran a great article by Michael Farber, "In Search of ... Hockeytown, U.S.A.," in which they crowned St. Paul America's new hockey capital. It won the title largely on the strength of its support for grassroots hockey:
"This is the unwritten hockey schedule in the Twin Cities: boys' hockey Tuesday night, girls' hockey Thursday night, the University of Minnesota Friday and Saturday nights. Boys and girls also play on Saturday afternoon. It is no coincidence that the Wild often plays on Wednesday and Sunday. This is a franchise respectful of the game, aware of its niche and almost obsequious in its treatment of fans."
New Englanders also have a rabid interest in their youth and college hockey, and the Bruins should do everything they can to support what remains the second-largest player producing region in the country (after Minnesota, of course). The other contenders to be named "Hockeytown" were Philadelphia, Buffalo and Detroit - Boston wasn't even part of the conversation - but perhaps sometime in the near future, Boston will again be the hockey hotbed it was during the Big Bad Bruins days of the 1970's.
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