(WGR 550) -- These are the match-ups you pay to see. When the Sabres and Bruins square off in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the on-ice story will be about Tuukka Rask vs. Ryan Miller, David Krejci vs. Thomas Vanek, and Zdeno Chara vs. Tyler Myers.

And while what happens on the ice -- which we'll handle in a few paragraphs -- is what really matters, to me it's about so much more. Sure, the drama is ratcheted up in any playoff series and we can learn to hate anyone from Dallas to Carolina and beyond, but the Bruins and Sabres playing a series is everything I want and more.

When I fell in love with ice hockey in the 1980s, I fell in hate with the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens. Year-after-year, the Sabres made the playoffs and year-after-year they lost in the first round to one of those two "storied" franchises (By the way, Boston hasn't won a Cup since 1972 and is 0-5 in the Finals. Just saying).

Cam Neely, Ray Bourque, Glen Wesley, the Sweeneys, Andy Moog, Reggie Lemelin and Bruce Shoebottom. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. I learned to love Neely for the player he was, but I have to admit that the Farrelly Brothers helped.


When Brad May put that puck between Bourque's legs and hung a stunned Moog out to dry, you could've convinced me life would never feel any better than to be an adolescent running circles around his parents house, screaming with delight. "We beat those jerks! We beat the Bruins!"

We did it again in 1999, but the rivalry's been pretty tame since then. If I didn't go to high school with a Bruins fan and make a another friend in the indie rock scene who supported the B's, you could've convinced me the team became the Thrashers. It even got to the point where I was rooting for their team to get better on account of some cool players like Milan Lucic and Blake Wheeler.

Not anymore.

This is what you sign up for when you become a hockey fan. The enemy is an Original Six franchise, one of those teams you can't help but think have the refs in their pocket. They can from a city that's won a ton of championships. Their players look mostly like neanderthals, even moreso now that Marc Savard is out (He's pretty).

Let's do this.

So, who are the 2010 Bruins? Well, they're pretty dangerous. I'd imagine most pundits will use this series as their "first round upset." Boston has two viable options between the pipes, so if Tuukka Rask falls there's Tim Thomas to pick up the playoff slack.

They have a lot of trouble scoring. We mentioned Savard's absence, and Boston's missed Milan Lucic a bunch, but this is a team who's seventh-leading goal scorer is Daniel Paille. He has 10 goals.

The Bruins have underperformed after a solid 2008-09 campaign. Blake Wheeler, Michael Ryder and Krejci have seen their numbers dip like a swimmer in "Jaws," but it's what makes them all-the-more of a threat. Like Thomas Vanek scoring five goals in two games, you wonder if the Bruins will wake up now.

I don't think so. Sabres in six.