3/19/10: I Really Can’t Be Bothered Anymore
A few weeks ago, in the living room of my parents’ split level in East Dennis, MA, with a log crackling in the fireplace and the Magnavox on blast, my Dad and I watched a plucky U.S. Olympic hockey team give Team Canada everything they could handle.
It was a great day to be a hockey fan.
The game had everything you could want. Skill. Grit. Passion. While our team (and our country) came up short that day, there was nothing to be ashamed of. Hockey is Canada’s thing. It was a good game and the better team won.
My girlfriend is from Chicago. Her family is chock full of Blackhawks fans. A few months ago, I got in a little row on Facebook with a few of her relatives prior to a Hawks-B’s game (which the Hawks won in a shootout). At the time, the Bruins were one of the hottest teams in the league, having finished first in the Eastern Conference last year and predicted to compete at the same level this year. Given last year’s effort, I actually had a genuine interest in the team again. They’d given me something I hadn’t seen in a while: a competitive spirit and a level of emerging talent not seen since the Bourque/Neely days of my youth.
At the time it didn’t matter to me that Chicago won because, I rationalized, the Hawks were still the most pathetic of the Original Six franchises, and just a couple years ago weren’t even broadcasting their games on TV. Some hockey city. But the Hawks aren’t the frauds. The Bruins are the damn frauds, man. A few months later, I realize my mistake — I never should’ve stuck up for the Bruins. There’s a reason my support of the team has waned over the past 15 years.
This is a franchise that will stop at nothing to give their fans just-above-mediocre hockey, year after year, as long as they’re making a buck. Every year, we get the spin about the team making the playoffs (first round exit be damned), and how’re they’re going to build on that and make a run at the Cup the following season. You can talk all you want about “they can’t be cheap anymore, there’s a salary cap!” — the evidence is on the table.
After last season’s #1 seed and disappointing second round playoff exit to tradition-rich Carolina, the Bruins’ biggest offseason acquisition was “puck-moving defenseman” Derek Morris. They love their puck-moving defensemen. If I hear the term again, I’m gonna pound that person senseless.
They got rid of Aaron Ward, got rid of 10-year Bruin and penalty killer extraordinaire P.J. Axelsson and traded Chuck Kobasew for a couple of guys who are down in Providence and a 2nd round pick. And they spent like $3 mil. on Morris, who sucked, so at the 2010 trading deadline, they sent him packing, too. Brilliant.
Their other “puck-moving defenseman,” Dennis Wideman, also sucks, but they’re stuck with him, so they brought in another “puck-moving defenseman” at the 2010 trading deadline in Dennis Seidenberg. The jury’s still out on him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he also sucked. Know this: swapping Morris for Seidenberg saved the cheapskate owners some money.
Phil Kessel scored 36 goals last year — the leading scorer on the B’s by far. So, what did the Bruins do? Trade him for a draft pick, then sit around and feed the fans some b.s. about “we expect (Player X) to step up this year.” Guess what? Nobody, not Michael Ryder, not Blake Wheeler, not Milan Lucic, not Marco Sturm (the haul for Joe Thornton, remember?) — none of them stepped up.
It seems like half the team has been down with an injury at some point. Even captain Zdeno “The Sleeping Giant” Chara has underachieved. Any Grandma in New England could open the local Standard-Times this winter and see the Bruins need a scorer. Were we so stupid to think the management would trade for one? After trading Phil Kessel and his 36 goals and saving some serious cash — wouldn’t they bring in somebody? Maybe not Ilya Kovalchuk, but somebody?
No. Nobody.
So the Bruins went from making the final eight last year to trading their leading scorer ‘cause he wanted to get paid (dropping a dime about him being a bad teammate to smear him on his way out of town), got rid of a couple other useful pieces from last year’s team for draft picks and then did NOTHING to grease up this year’s model for a potential playoff run.
What? Is Peter Chiarelli asleep in the boardroom? Does he realize that, in the real world, people get fired for even a fraction of this level of incompetence?
These guys aren’t cheap, you say? The homepage at bostonbruins.com is a full-page ad hawking 2010–11 season tickets! These guys can’t shoot their way out of a paper bag and they want their blue-collar fan base to pony up for that shit show?
They held a conference call yesterday for season ticket holders because NOBODY’S BUYING. No mention of the front office incompetence. No mention of the mediocrity on the ice. There’s no Winter Classic next year to draw them in — why would people want to buy season tickets to the Bruins?
Let’s fire up a conference call! Good seats are still available!
And now, we’ve got the Matt Cooke/Marc Savard thing. Cooke cold-cocks Savard on a blindside hit to the head - literally waffles the guy - and now the only legitimate playmaker on the B’s is out for the season. Thoroughly concussed. Guy can’t even watch TV or go get groceries without getting a headache. Fans expected the Bruins to retaliate and ring Cooke’s bell at the next possible chance: March 18th.
Meanwhile, Colin Campbell, the weasel who fancies himself the Dean of NHL discipline, decides that it was a clean hit based on the rule book, despite the fact that multiple players have been blasted by blindside hits to the head in recent years and their careers have been ruined. The NHL rule book must be the same coloring-book format as the “Guide to Expansion” Gary Bettman consulted in the early 90's. Elmo and Snuffleupagus could run the NHL better than those clowns in Toronto.
Regardless, the city of Boston, those who still cared about the franchise, were frothing at the mouth Thursday night. The phone lines on WEEI and The Sports Hub were lit up in anticipation — the fans wanted the Bruins to prove something — that they’d stand up for their teammate, drop the gloves, kick some ass, show some heart and beat the crap out of the defending Stanley Cup Champs in Boston because that’s what Bruins hockey used to be about.
No matter that Campbell warned the teams beforehand — if Cooke’s hit was okay with Campbell, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Macho Man Randy Savage come out of the crowd and leap from the bench with the timekeeper’s bell and not get penalized.
So Shawn Thornton swats Cooke upside the head a couple times in the first period and then…nothing. Pittsburgh scores. Pittsburgh scores again. Chara makes a halfhearted attempt to joust with some Rupp character — Rupp was obviously so exhausted from the affair that he later scored the third goal in a 3–0 Pittsburgh victory.
What? The Bruins showed no heart and got walked on at home. And did I mention the team honored the 1970 Stanley Cup Champions before the game? So the B’s rolled over in front of Bobby Orr, Chief, Pie McKenzie, Turk, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield? As Ed Lover would say, “C’mon, son!”
After the game, Claude Julien had all the excuses. Boston talk show host Damon Amendolara compared Julien to a high school student who didn’t turn in a term paper. First, the team was tired from their road trip. Then, apparently, the plane had mechanical problems coming in yesterday. I guess the buildup to this game was a distraction, too. Oh, and did we mention the flu that’s been going around the locker room?
That’s four excuses. Four too many. They’ve had their chances. The Bruins organization, from the skinflint Jacobs ownership to the pop-gun toting GM Peter Chiarelli, to the apologetic coach and lackadaisical players, even Cam Neely, have run out of excuses. No more. I’ve seen enough to know this is never going to change.
So I’m done with the Bruins. I’ll probably check out the Blackhawks in the playoffs, or if you feel like it, drop by my parents’ house in East Dennis for the 2014 Olympics. We’ll keep a log in the fire. ‘Cause that’s probably the next time we’ll see some decent hockey in New England.
This post was originally published to Fire It Up Radio on Blogger, March 19, 2010.
