Boston Sports Then and Now

Savard may not be so excited to play for the Bruins this season.

The 2009-2010 season was perhaps the worst of Marc Savard’s career.

After leading the Bruins in points for three consecutive seasons, Boston’s most dynamic offensive force suited up for just 41 games in an injury riddled season. During training camp prior to the season Savard took a shot to his foot, but decided to play through the pain.

Just seven games into the regular season Savard was struck in the same foot, an injury later revealed to be a broken foot. Savard was put on the injured reserve list as he watched his team a struggle. Savard returned to the Boston line-up in November scoring seven points in his first seven games back, including a hat trick in old pal Phil Kessel’s return to the TD Garden.

Savard’s bad luck struck again in January when the Bruins vicious injury bug hit him less than a minute into a game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Savard collided with Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews and Savard went down clutching his leg. He was later diagnosed with a slight MCL tear, an injury that did not require surgery but put Savard on the shelf once again.

He returned to the ice just 22 days later but exactly two months after going down with that knee injury Savard was lost for the remainder of the regular season when the Penguins’ Matt Cooke struck Savard in the head with an elbow. Savard was diagnosed with a Grade 2 concussion as many wondered if his career might be at stake. A horrible season for Savard became that much worse.

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Marc Savard may not be a Bruin much longer.

The salary cap is both loved and loathed by fans at the same time. Fans love the cap because it prevents teams in markets with bigger, more dedicated populations from wildly spending on all the hottest free agents and basically buying a Stanley Cup.

Fans also hate the cap for a similar reason; they want their team to be available to sign all the hottest free agents so they can get a Cup, but sometimes the money just is not there. Because of the cap teams sometimes have to make hard decisions and send productive, fan favorite players packing.

With Savard rumors still swirling it appears the productive, cap friendly center may have a new address next year, but is the salary cap the real reason?

You can almost never believe what you hear in regards to hockey rumors, especially in the off-season. Trade rumors get tossed around like Mike Komisarek in a fight against Milan Lucic. The Savard story and reasons for his potential departure change almost daily.

Rumors started circulating that Savard was having family issues and asked to be traded to a Canadian team to be closer to his family. GM Peter Chiarelli down played these rumors, saying Savard never asked to be traded.

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Savard does not want the image of him leaving the ice on a stretcher to be the last time fans see him on the ice this season.

On Monday morning Marc Savard skated for the first time since his concussion, a result of a Matt Cooke elbow that went unpunished by the league and barely punished by the Bruins.

In the weeks that followed after the “revenge game,” Boston was haunted by questions of heart and character, and constantly asked how they think Savard felt watching at home and seeing his team lay down for 58 minutes. Boston responded by surging into the playoffs playing their best hockey of the season and capturing the 6^th seed. Today, they may have received even more motivation to keep their season going.

Savard held a press conference after his skate, saying he was feeling much better, and had not experienced any symptoms for about a week. He said he was feeling like himself again and looking forward to getting back on the ice.

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Boston could be prepared to do a lot more celebrating.

A little more than a month ago Boston was left for dead. They were a team struggling to score, struggling to stay together and struggling to put together anything resembling a 60 minute effort. Fans called in a priest to say the last rites for their beloved Bruins and began to look ahead to next season. As the injuries mounted on the blueline and Savard’s recovery didn’t progress fans gave up hope completely.

But somewhere along the line Boston found reasons to rally. Despite the bad luck, despite the injuries and despite the season long poor play the Bruins found a reason to play their game. They still had trouble scoring but they rallied around each other… they started playing for each other.

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Zombie Bruins: The Black and Gold Undead!

If the Bruins season was a horror movie, it may be entitled, “Zombie Bruins: The Black and Gold Undead!”

This hockey team would not die.

Matt Cooke, as vile as Freddy Krueger himself, nearly decapitates Marc Savard and puts him in a concussed state of darkness for the rest of the season.

The NHL Axis of Evil looks the other way and the Pittsburgh headhunter walks away unpunished.

The Battle of Black and Gold between the Bruins and Pens was supposed to be a bloodbath. Any horror fan or hockey fan would love this script of revenge and retribution.

It was straight out of Hollywood.

Unfortunately, this dud went right to DVD.  The Bruins fans all but wrote off this band of underachievers.

But they were the undead.

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Bruins' fans wanted Old Time Hockey justice.

I had to sleep on this putrid effort displayed by the Bruins against the Penguins. I went to bed mad, frustrated, and just disappointed being a life long fan of the Black and Gold.

Or should the Bruins be called the Slack And Fold?

The bout with Pittsburgh had been one of the most anticipated regular season games in recent memory.

It was time for payback.

Old West Justice.

It was time to make Matt Cooke “sleep with the fishes”.

This was the opportunity to avenge their fallen teammate and brother, Marc Savard. The Bruins star offensive player who still hasn’t shown much improvment since the concussion he sustained on March 7^th.

Cooke’s crime went unpunished by the Bruins during that game. Then to add insult to injury, NHL Director of Operations, Colin Campbell did not suspend Matt Cooke. His ruling was that the hit was legal this year but will be illegal next year(the rule had since been changed at the NHL GM meetings).

So now it was up to the Bruins to make things right!

Bruins talk was dominating the radio for almost two weeks.

The fans of the Black and Gold were in a feeding frenzy.

The NHL Brass was in town.

Security was increased at the TD Garden.

And for even more motivation, the 1970 Stanley Cup winning Bruins team was in town for their 40^th reunion.

The Bruins were poised to seize the moment!

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