Andrew Ference says Bruins fans sent him money after infamous Habs goal 10 years ago
Andrew Ference #AndrewFerence
Thanks to COVID-19, there won’t be any new chapters of the fabled Boston Bruins-Montreal Canadiens rivalry this year (unless the teams happened to meet in the Stanley Cup Playoffs).
But Wednesday marked the 10-year anniversary of a moment that just about sums up the Bruins’ and Habs’ feelings for one another, courtesy of former Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference.
Hockey writer Mike Commito shared a tweet Wednesday commemorating Ference’s second-period goal in Game 4 of the 2011 first-round playoff series between the two teams in Montreal, which the Bruins would go on to win 5-4 in overtime.
The goal, while important in keeping the Bruins in the game at the point, was chiefly notable for this: Ference appears to raise a middle finger to the Montreal crowd while celebrating the shot, a move that earned him a $2,500 fine from the NHL.
Ference expressed remorse for the incident and claimed it was unintentional. But as he revealed Wednesday in a reply to Commito’s tweet, the Boston faithful didn’t seem to mind the former Bruins’ apparent slight of the Habs and their fans at all.
“So I come home to Boston..I live in the North End (Little Italy)..and taped to the entrance of my building were a bunch of envelopes with money and notes from the neighborhood,” Ference, now the NHL’s Director of Social Impact, Growth and Fan Development, recalled.
The rest, as they say, is history. The Bruins would go on to knock off the Habs in the hotly contested seven-game series en route to taking home the Stanley Cup in 2011. Ference would stay with the team for three more seasons, making another Stanley Cup appearance against the Chicago Blackhawks, before playing out the rest of his career in Edmonton.
But if nothing else, it seems his famous flip — intentional or not — endeared him permanently to some Boston fans.
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