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BHN Puck Links: A Final Goodbye To The Fours From Boston Bruins fans

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There are almost always feelings of sadness and loss when an era comes to a close, and that is the sentiment for Boston Bruins fans with the news that The Fours Restaurant and Sports Bar on Canal Street was coming to a close. We’ve known for a few weeks this was going to happen, and the good news is that the locations in Norwell and Quincy are still around while the North Station location became another sad business victim of COVID-19 economics.

The scab was re-opened this week with the Boston Globe’s report about the Fours famous memorabilia going up for auction in what will be the official end to the best sports bar that the city of Boston had ever had. I can’t tell you how many times fans, media, coaches, scouts, referees and players alike would be crammed into the bar postgame to talk about what they’d just witnessed on the ice.

The Phil Kessel trade from the Bruins to the Maple Leafs was even shook on by Peter Chiarelli and Brian Burke at the Fours according to Burke’s new book. Who knows how many other NHL transactions were consummated over a couple of beers and a Bobby Orr sandwich?

It was as much a part of the Boston Bruins experience as the TD Garden, yelling “Woo!” after a Bruins goal was announced and singing along with Rene Rancourt to the anthem.

The sad truth for this humble hockey writer is that I hadn’t been able to hit the Fours all that often in recent years due to my postgame TV work responsibilities I had at NBC Sports Boston, and because there comes a time when it just isn’t that easy to burn the candle at both ends when you have young kids that get up super early. So I don’t even feel like I got to say a proper goodbye since COVID-19 hit prior to the bar’s closing, but that’s just par for the course since this disastrous virus wasn’t initially properly contained within the US.

So, I’ll raise a pint to the Fours from my home this weekend in a final goodbye to the best damn sports bar in the city of Boston’s history. It’ll never be the same around TD Garden.

Now on to the links:

*Interesting stuff from Hall of Fame hockey coach Scotty Bowman about how analytics have a place in today’s NHL along with all of the traditional player evaluation tools. (Fan 590)

*We still have some NHL teams with work to do on their rosters ahead of next season. Here’s a rundown of those teams that still feel a little complete with some big names still up on the free agent board. They still seem to think the Boston Bruins might still have a big move up their sleeve. Me? I’m not so sure about that. (RotoWorld)

*I’ll bet you can’t guess which former Boston Bruins defenseman has cracked the top-5 worst contracts in Pittsburgh Penguins history? PHN has you covered on this one. (Pittsburgh Hockey Now)

*Alex Ovechkin has no plans to leave the NHL or the Washington Capitals anytime soon, but the Russian star did say he’ll play for the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow before he completely hangs up his skates someday. (Sportsnet)

*The Hockey News has a storied list of the top-100 defenseman in NHL history, but it was excruciating for them to leave Vladimir Konstantinov off the list as the 101st best D-man in league history. (The Hockey News)

*For something completely different: It was just a so-so episode of the Mandalorian this week, but the show is always good for some fun Star Wars cameos even during the run-of-the-mill entries in the streaming series. (CBC.ca)

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