Voice Coach Gives Safe-Screaming Tips To Bruins Fans

No matter the outcome of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals on Monday night, one thing is certain: the Garden will be a cauldron of excitement and tension — and Bruins and Canucks fans alike will express themselves in loud, boisterous voices.

Chances are, though, most of them won't give any thought to protecting their vocal cords. But one fan is hoping to change that.

Elena Zoubareva is a Boston-based opera singer and vocal coach — not the kind of person you'd expect to find at a professional hockey game, and not the kind of person you'd expect to be hanging out with fans before a game. But on Monday afternoon, she held two "scream-offs" with Bruins die-hards outside the Garden. She was teaching them to cheer for their team in a way that won't damage their vocal cords — and that will still leave them with a voice on Tuesday morning.

Zoubareva spoke with WBUR's All Things Considered host Sacha Pfeiffer about her safe-screaming tips, as well as her findings that men tend to be tougher on their vocal cords than women and that fans of different types of sports use their vocal cords to different extremes.