George Washington Is a Bruins Fan, Says MFA

The Museum of Fine Art is in a nerd fight with the Art Institute of Chicago, as the two institutions get into the Stanley Cup rivalry by editing various works of art to reflect their team spirit and sharing them on their Facebook pages.

The most recent entrant comes from the MFA, which put the (awesome) mask of Bruins goalie Tukka Rask onto the famous portrait of George Washington. “Defending the nation and the net!” the MFA wrote.

How did we get here? Well, the AIC started this back-and-forth when they put Blackhawk helmets on the subjects of American Gothic before Game 1. Sure the farmer and his daughter don’t look that pumped, and he seems to have misplaced his hockey stick, but they look vaguely disgruntled, we suppose, so that’s intimidating.

The MFA countered by putting a Bruins mask on “Samurai Sam,” the mascot for their visiting Samurai exhibit.

For Game 2, AIC put Hawks helmets on Monet’s “Stacks of Wheat.” By Game 3, the MFA was putting Bruins jerseys on John Singer Sargent’s “Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.”

As for who has the least laid-back Facebook commenters, well that’d have to be a tie between Boston (“This is my favorite painting, way to insult a genius artist. Is this what my donations and membership goes too?”) and Chicago (“Leave Monet alone.”) (Of course, most commenters seem to think it’s a cute idea.)

All this brings us to Game 4 and George Washington. When you retroactively claim the first president was a fan of your yet-to-be-founded team, things get serious. Can the Bruins back up this swagger? Let us hope so.