The Bruins’ 2011 Stanley Cup Champions DVD was premiered Monday night at Loews on Tremont Street, with Brad Marchand, Shawn Thornton and Andrew Ference strutting down the red-ish carpet with the Stanley Cup in front of boatloads of fans and media. 

After learning that Marchand is not worried about the status of his contract and that Ference found another funny way to transport the Cup around Boston (on Monday it was pedicab), the media was let in for the screening of the DVD. Based on seeing it only once and taking feverish notes on my iPhone throughout the thing, here is one man’s attempt at a review:

In general, (and here comes a movie review cliché) this is certainly a must-have for any Bruins fan. It captures many of the storylines of the season and playoffs, and if tossed into the DVD/Blu-ray player five, 10, 15 years from now (like DVDs or Blu-rays will exist in two years, let alone 15), it will serve as a reminder of some of the little tidbits that may be forgotten along the way: things like the Bruins’ 6-0-0 road trip in late February/early March that included a win over the best team in the NHL – the Vancouver Canucks. It certainly didn’t hit on every point it could have, but overall it is an excellent retelling of one of Boston’s favorite stories. 

Prior to the screening, Bruins director of communications Matt Chmura chimed in during Ference’s scrum to note that the defenseman stole the show in the DVD, and after seeing it, that will be what most fans will come away thinking. The clips with Ference mic’d up during the Cup finals against the Canucks were fantastic, with the best moment of the entire DVD coming when he sarcastically shouted, “Are you OK? Are you OK?” at Henrik Sedin after the Vancouver captain went down easily in Game 1 on a cross-check from Ference, a sign of things to come in a dive-fest of a series. 

The other bits in which the players were wired for sound stood out as well, including Gregory Campbell yelling on the bench in Game 4 for his teammates to stay physical and not relent as the B’s evened the finals against the Canucks. Tuukka Rask and Shawn Thornton were among other Bruins who could be heard on the bench. For a DVD that was definitely lacking in behind-the-scenes footage (though the theater chuckled at a scene on the plane home from Vancouver in which Milan Lucic speaking to the camera was drowned out by a very “tired” Marchand in the background), hearing the players on the ice was probably the only “new” information the DVD will provide. 

Plenty of time was dedicated to Game 7 of the Conference finals, which was undoubtedly the best game of the season, and most likely the best hockey game most Bruins fans will ever see. From an analytical standpoint, the job done by Dave Goucher and Jack Edwards, amongst others, to break down the play that led to Nathan Horton’s game-winner was superb, making sense for both hockey nerds and those who had to fake an understanding of the 1-3-1.

The biggest sin in the entire DVD came in the form of there being no mention made of Lightning coach Guy Boucher. In this writer’s opinion, Boucher was easily one of the biggest stories of the postseason, right up there with the Game 7 wins, Chris Kelly and the cage, Tim Thomas in the finals and Ryder’s scoring/saving resurgence in the Montreal series. To not at least have one of the talking heads (Edwards, Goucher and Steve Conroy were terrific throughout the DVD) say something about the evil genius with a psychology degree was a big disappointment. 

In addition to Peter Chiarelli and Claude Julien, the players that provided commentary throughout the DVD consisted of Mark Recchi, Thornton, Michael Ryder, Thomas, Tyler Seguin, Nathan Horton, Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic, Campbell and others. A funny recurring theme in the DVD was that every time a bit of adversity was shown (falling behind in a game, falling behind in a series or dealing with an injury), it seemed they would always cut to Kelly saying the same thing about the situation being “tough.” 

"I think Kells had a written script," Marchand, who takes great pleasure in busting Kelly's chops, said at Best Buy in Watertown as he signed DVDs from midnight to 2 a.m. "He's not the best talker, so when he went in there, I think they had a written script and just told him what to say."

While it may be hard to believe, the argument here is that there wasn’t enough about Tim Thomas. Tiregatem was covered, but the big picture wasn't painted well enough. If his record-breaking save percentage in the regular season was mentioned at all, it was only for a second, and the DVD inaccurately conveyed that he had lost the starting job at the beginning of the 2009-10 season (he started 14 of that season’s first 19 games before eventually losing the job down the stretch and into the playoffs). The DVD also failed to underscore the fact that Thomas went from a major question mark to being the best goaltender in the league.

Obviously, the DVD couldn’t cover everything, and the few areas in which it was lacking were more than made up for by great storytelling and insight. The DVD featured a terrific opening scene with none other than Bobby Orr. 

There was very little not to like about the whole thing, and whether it was the highlight-reel Tyler Seguin goals, the saves that earned Thomas the Vezina and Conn Smythe or Chara explaining what it was like to lift the Cup, the DVD contained (mostly) everything that captivated Boston last season. Now that it's in stores, it's certainly worth grabbing.