ON GLEE

Last night, the Boston Bruins lost game seven of their best-of-seven playoff series to the Carolina Hurricanes. In overtime, no less. The guy who scored the game-winning goal had cheap-shotted a Boston player in the face in game five. It was a very tough moment for Boston sports fans...and I couldn't have been happier.

I have lived in this area for over two and a half years. When I got here, I was definitely caught up in the enthusiasm; this is a region that loves its sports passionately. I would root for Boston teams against anyone but my hometown teams. I genuinely liked it when Boston teams won.

But over the past two-plus years, something has changed. Part of it is that it doesn't seem like at least two of the teams have exactly conducted themselves ethically. There was much hullabaloo about the Patriots videotaping signals from opposing coaches a few years ago, and Bill Simmons recently wrote an excellent column detailing the 2004 Red Sox Championship team and its curious relationship with steroids (I was not here for that, but have certainly seen the fallout from it since I arrived). So those serve as reasons to dislike two of the teams - there's no tangible reason to root against the Bruins, right?

I think the reason I delighted in the Bruins loss is that I interact with a lot of Boston sports fans. True, they are passionate about their teams, and I admire that. But I work on a college campus where students are ridiculous about each and every Red Sox playoff games, breaking bottles and windows to either celebrate or commiserate. After the Patriots loss in the Super Bowl, someone wrote "NY GIANTS SUCK" in an elevator. Their medium? They wrote it in feces. IN FECES.

I spent most of any playoff game praying that the game will be a blowout, so that students would have time to get used to the outcome, win or loss, and that there wouldn't be a dramatic finish that got all the students out of their rooms and into public areas - which is where trouble starts. And by "trouble," I mean "dumpster fires."

I have friends who are Boston fans, and I like to see my friends happy. So a part of me is always rooting for their happiness. But last night, when the Bruins lost in heartbreaking, punched-in-the-stomach fashion, I could NOT stop smiling. I was positively gleeful in their defeat, not because I like the Carolina Hurricanes (I don't), but because I knew that all of these troublemaking Boston fans would be SAD. Their alcohol-fueled destruction would be accompanied by angry swears, not by joyous angry swears. Seriously, I looked like the Joker, with a smile positively cut into my face - and I'm sorry to all my friends who like Boston sports, but I am glad your team is done. I also hope the Red Sox don't make the playoffs, so that I won't have to worry about extra nights of work during October. I hope the Patriots play well enough to support any players on my fantasy team, but I hope you miss the playoffs. Again.

This whole post may seem contrary to a post from a few weeks ago, in which I confessed to rooting for the Celtics. I root for the Celtics only because a friend's husband gets a (bigger?) playoff bonus if they continue on, and they have a new baby to take care of. Plus, as I mentioned, I have a free Celtics T-shirt. And I know that the only person who "rioted" with the Celtics title win last year was another RD who set off fireworks in my parking lot, and I don't anticipate any feces-related graffiti from him if the Celtics lose to either the Magic or the Cavaliers.

Perhaps someone will end up accidentally clicking on this post expecting a review of the upcoming FOX series "Glee." Sorry. It looks good, but for now, I'm just absolutely basking in the sports-related depression of some hungover, angry-at-the-world students.

By the way, the Blackhawks are still alive.