Boston Sports Then and Now

Seguin is selling tickets already.

Before Tyler Seguin has even played a single NHL game, pre-season or otherwise, the Boston fan base is already clamoring to see their potential superstar in action. Boston Bruins President Cam Neely announced that all season ticket packages have been sold out for the upcoming 2010-2011 season.

There is certainly no guarantee Seguin will make the Bruins opening day roster and Boston management has done their best to temper expectations regarding their hottest commodity in years. Bruins management keeps repeating the mantra that nothing is guaranteed for Seguin based on his draft position but based on ticket sales, are the Bruins under any pressure or obligation to keep Seguin around anyway?

Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli and the rest of Boston’s brass have made it known that there is certainly an opportunity for Seguin to stick with the big club and they have no intention of sending him back to the OHL for seasoning if they feel he is ready to go. While they do their best to tell Bruins fans there’s a chance he will not be around come September, the excitement over his arrival has perhaps led to management’s words falling on deaf ears.

Seguin-mania has quite clearly taken hold of Bruins fans, as indicated by Neely’s announcement. Seguin did his best at the Bruins prospect camp to give fans hope that he would be around come September, displaying great speed, instincts and a better than advertised shot. The young forward is certainly saying all the right things, but one has to assume he has no intention of going back to the OHL.

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In San Antonio, the crumbled remains of an old outpost serve as a warning to anyone who tries to forget the history of a young, yet tortured nation: Remember the Alamo, they cry. Remember those who fought and died for their country. Remember them, and fight for their honor.

On the shores of the Charles River, in Boston, there lies a similar icon. Its meaning only locally understood, its life much shorter, it still serves as a painful reminder of what happened when an army gave up and lost a battle it had no business losing.

Seguin and fellow linemate Andrew Fallstrom celebrate a goal during intrasquad scrimmaging at Bruins' development camp.

Since that glorious day when Mayor Menino waxed eloquent about Jason Varitek’s Super Bowl-winning field goal and so many bigwigs pulled a sheet from around the newly minted statue of Bobby Orr in front of the TD Garden, the Bruins have not won a hockey game.

But that, as we all well know, was then.

And this is now.

And now, for Bruins management and fans alike, is not just now, but is also the future.

It is a future that holds a swath of promise and – amidst financial uncertainties – hope for a franchise that has but whiffed the Conference Finals since 1991.

Nowhere was that promise more evident than this Saturday when over 1200 fans packed into Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington to watch the final day of Bruins development camp – for the record, that’s a violation of fire codes, but nobody seemed to notice, much less complain.

Many of them were there to see the savior, the Boston hockey Messiah, Tyler Seguin – likely only a few dozen of those in attendance knew how to accurately pronounce his last name. But they got much more than they came for.

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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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Chiarelli should be working the phones on draft night.

It is that time of year again. No, not just mourning yet another Bruins disappointment, but rather looking forward to the draft… and potential trades.

Boston GM Peter Chiarelli has indicated he will likely look to improve his team via the trade market rather than free agency. You can never really trust a GM this time of year, with all the posturing and signals they send to try to gain an advantage in the market.

But a trade 43 years ago changed the direction of two franchises, one ending a drought and one perhaps prolonging their own drought.

In 1967 the Boston Bruins traded Pit Martin, Jack Norris and Gille Marotte to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield in what is considered one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history.

Esposito was certainly no slouch in Chicago, playing with Bobby Hull and amassing 74 goals and 174 points in 235 regular season games for the Blackhawks, but Chicago was apparently expecting more from a young Espo and he was sent packing. With the Bruins, Esposito became the first player in NHL history to score 100 points in a season and would help bring two Stanley Cups back to Boston. Chicago has not won a Cup since 1961.

Hodge and Stanfield never really lit up the scoreboard in their short time in Chicago, but found magic when they came to Boston. Hodge played 143 games (regular season and playoffs) for the Blackhawks, netting 16 goals and 58 points.

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Chiarelli and Julien's words mean nothing without action.

Yesterday was “break up day” at the TD Garden. Players came in to pack up their stuff, get their end of the season medical exams and have their exit interviews. Then much like the second and third period of Game 7, they went home.

Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli gave his end of the season press conference. For the most part, the media took the same approach Bruins management and coaching took with the players… they danced around the tough questions.

This was a Bruins team that was complacent. They went up 3-0 on the Flyers and stopped playing. They spent almost an entire regular season acting as though they were entitled, destined to win. They never had to answer to their poor play or underachievement.

After listening to GM Peter Chiarelli’s press conference, it is clear this attitude stems from the top.

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Chiarelli re-signing Ference is just another in a long list of questionable decisions.

Imagine you are an NHL GM. You have two young, developing defenders entering restricted free agent status at the end of the season and you have another defender you traded for at the deadline becoming an unrestricted free agent.

The two younger defenders certainly are not Norris candidates yet but they are solid and show great promise. The defender you traded for at the deadline has yet to have a minus rating in any game he has played for you and has immediately stepped into big minutes on your team. Outside of your captain they are your three best defenders this season and will most likely be even better in the future.

And then you have a fourth defender who hasn’t played more than 60 games for your team in the three full seasons he’s been with your team and is an average defender at best. He is 31 years old and chances are he is not suddenly going to be an all-star. He has reached his peak, as average as that is, and is prone to spending long stretches on the injured reserve list.

Your team is tight up against the cap due to a series of questionable signings and buyouts. As you look at all four defenders, you would assume the three performing the best would be prime targets to re-sign and get new deals. You make your first offer and it is accepted. One of the four inks a new 3 year deal worth $2.250 million a season. Any rational GM surely would have offered that deal to one of the younger, better performing players.

Instead Boston GM Peter Chiarelli inked Andrew Ference to that new three year deal, a puzzling move for a cash strapped team and even further puzzling when you consider how completely average Andrew Ference is.

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