Boston Sports Then and Now

Campbell and Bettman's refusal to take a tough stance on headshots and intent to injure is going to cost a player his career.

Bruins All-star center Marc Savard fell to the ice Sunday afternoon after a devastating blow to the head at the hands of Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke. Savard left the ice on a stretcher and was later diagnosed with a Grade 2 concussion and his return this season is in doubt.

But don’t blame Matt Cooke. Not entirely at least. It was Cooke who struck Savard, yes. Savard never saw Cooke coming and had no opportunity to defend himself. If not for Cooke’s errant elbow Savard would likely be playing tonight in Toronto.

But Cooke doesn’t deserve all the blame. Instead look to the NHL offices, specifically head disciplinarian Colin Campbell.

Campbell’s “spinning wheel of justice” has been so erratic and senseless that it offers no deterrents to hits like these. At times it seems as though Campbell flips a coin in his office to determine whether or not someone is punished. Campbell is so maddeningly inconsistent that it is almost impossible to tell what types of hits and plays will be penalized.

Headshots are a regular occurrence around the league, especially this season, largely because there is little to no punishment for driving your shoulder or elbow purposely into an opponent’s head. And if you’re a first line star player the wheel of justice never affects you.

Read the rest of this entry →

Matt Cooke should have been missing more teeth after his hit on Marc Savard.

Sean Connery’s character, Officer Malone, said it perfectly in the 1987 movie, “The Untouchables.”

“If they put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue!”

Granted Matt Cooke isn’t Al Capone, but the Bruins aren’t no Elliot Ness.

How can you not retaliate after your star offensive player, Marc Savard, was clocked by the notorious Matt Cooke?

Cooke, the player who has been suspended a multitude of time for cheat shots.

This isn’t your Daddy’s Big Bad Bruins.

If this happened in the days of Terry O’Reilly or even Lyndon Byers, Cooke would be holding his teeth in his hand.

Paging Milan Lucic.

Paging Shawn Thornton.

Paging Steve Begin.

Paging Claude Julien.

Why didn’t the Bruins coach send one of his “enforcers” to avenge the hit on one of their team leaders?

Read the rest of this entry →

Calm, collected and focused, Tim Thomas sets out to prove doubters wrong again.

“I’m not going to lie, it feels really good right now,” said Thomas after the game. “First win I’ve had in a long time.”

On Thursday night Tim Thomas defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs, snapping a six game personal losing streak and getting his first win since January 14^th. The Boston Bruins didn’t defeat the Maple Leafs, Tim Thomas did.

The team in front of Thomas played very poorly despite grabbing a win. The fiery netminder faced numerous odd man rushes, numerous break away chances and three shootout attempts but stood tall. On a night where the Bruins did their best to give a game away Tim Thomas refused to lose.

Some might point to the opposition and say it was Thomas grabbing a victory over a weak team but that doesn’t tell the story. Most of Thomas’ saves were high quality chances and despite their record Toronto has some players that can do damage. What Toronto didn’t count on was Thomas finding his swagger.

In the first period Thomas gave up a goal to Viktor Stalberg that made fans and Boston media members groan. Thomas saw the shot and partially stopped it, but the red light went on. However something was different about this night for Thomas. On this night he showed why he is a Vezina trophy winner.

Rookie goaltender Tuukka Rask had made 7 straight starts for the Bruins and seemingly had taken over the starting job. Before and after the break Thomas had to endure calls by fans and media to trade him because Rask was no longer the future, but the present.

Read the rest of this entry →

Bad deals have limited Boston's options.

Let’s drop drinking the black and gold Kool-aid here.

The Bruins were not one top six forward away from being a Stanley Cup contender. There are multiple holes on this team and Bruins management apparently decided it was best to wait until the off-season to address these issues. Or was there something more?

The Bruins were fairly quiet at the deadline. They made a couple of deals the day before, acquiring the rights to defenseman Steve Kampfer from the Ducks in exchange for a conditional 4^th round pick. Then they acquired defensive prospect Cody Wild from Edmonton for forward Matt Marquardt. Neither deal had any immediate impact and may not have any future impact.

Perhaps Chiarelli was just restocking the shelves in anticipation of something bigger.

Then trade deadline day came and Boston sent Derek Morris packing for a conditional 2011 4^th round pick (upgraded to a 3^rd round pick if Phoenix re-signs Morris). Surely Boston was clearing cap space for something bigger, maybe a scoring winger.

Boston then traded Byron Bitz, Craig Weller and a 2010 2^nd round pick to the Florida Panthers for defenseman Dennis Seidenberg and prospect Matt Bartkowski. This was not the move most were expecting but they got another defenseman and Peter Chiarelli surely had another move up his sleeve. After all, Seidenberg was $1 million cheaper than Morris and could play the same type of game.

But then 3pm came and the trading window closed. No more deals from Boston trickled in and fans were left scratching their heads.

Read the rest of this entry →

Ron Tugnutt made the Bruins pull out their hair with 70 saves.

This month marks the 19^th anniversary of one of the most remarkable games ever played by a NHL Goaltender.

It was March 21, 1991 at the Boston Garden. Adams Division Rival, Quebec was coming to town to take on the first place Boston Bruins.

The last place Nordiques had an uphill climb against one of the best teams in the NHL.

On paper, the Nords didn’t have the talent the Bruins had. However, in hockey an inferior team can compete if their goalie can stand on his head.

And goalie Ron Tugnutt did just that, literally.

Tugnutt was one of five goaltenders used by Quebec over the season. Jacques Cloutier, John Tanner, Stephane Fiset, and Scott Gordon all played between the pipes for the Nords.

To say there was instability in the net for Quebec, was an understatement.

Boston was an offensive juggernaut with the likes for Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, Craig Janney, Ken Hodge Jr, and former Miracle on Ice Olympian, Dave Christian. All of them finished the season with 50 points or more.

The Bruins must have been licking their chops for the sieve like Nordiques. They were at the bottom of the league in goals against.

But sometimes players get in the zone.

And they make you pull out your hair.

The Bruins must have been bald at the conclusion of this tilt.

Read the rest of this entry →

Boston needs to come out on fire tonight against the Habs

With the Olympics over and the medals handed out, all those who generally wear black and gold sweaters begin the taxing job of making a playoff push.

Boston entered the Olympic break on a semi-high note, defeating the Florida Panthers in an uninspired, sloppy game to win their fourth game in a row and climb back into the weak Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Marc Savard had time to rest his injured knee, Johnny Boychuk had time to recover from a broken orbital bone and Claude Julien had time to get a heavy dose of blood pressure medication after watching his team continually allow the opposition back in the game after big leads. For the first time in months Boston will finally ice a healthy roster.

“Time off is so important at this time of year, for the injuries. Even the mental break,” said Julien. “And it was nice to see the guys come back that were excited to be back and practice again. It’s a long year and so those sort of things aren’t bad.”

Boston needed this break as much as any team in the NHL. The injury bug has been especially harsh to the Bruins over the course of this extremely disappointing season. All the injuries have lead to a lack of chemistry in their lines combinations while questionable goaltending from the Vezina winning Tim Thomas has paved the way for Tuukka Rask’s opportunity to carry the team.

The last place Boston offense scored 14 goals during their 4 game win streak and Rask allowed just 8 goals during that game. Heading into the break Boston had swagger, they had momentum but most of all they had confidence. The Bruins were starting to look like they did last year on their way to a first place finish in their conference.

The key question for the Bruins, and team management, is whether or not they can re-ignite that fire after the break or if their mini-vacation will snap the momentum they were building.

Read the rest of this entry →