AUSTIN, Texas – Boston’s recent six-game road winning streak showed the Bruins at their very finest. The western swing allowed many around the league and in the media to consider the Bruins as a dark-horse in the upcoming Stanley Cup playoffs. The fact the club is considered a dark-horse should be somewhat insulting to the organization due to the fact they lead the Eastern Conference in goals against and rank second in goals scored.
Frankly, based on their record, the Bruins should be considered one of the favorites as they attempt to win their first Cup in nearly 30 years.
Yet the point should be made the Bruins have done whatever they can to lose the Cup whenever they can. Look no further than blowing a 3-0 lead versus Philadelphia and clinching the defeat with a too-many-men-on the ice penalty which eliminated their Cup candidacy. Salary cap management is an issue too as this club basically gave away Marco Sturm and Matt Hunwick while overpaying for Richard Peverly to fit Tomas Kaberle onto the roster. Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart are the players most teams try to add, not subtract, at the deadline.
On top of it all, if Kaberle does not sign with the club the team will have lost prospect Joe Colborne and a first round choice for a rental player-that’s Marian Hossa and Ilya Kovalchuk territory, a neighborhood where Kaberle does not reside.
The club’s record since February 1st is 10-6-2, but the losses should send alarm bells ringing. In games against teams known as skating clubs, the Bruins are 1-4. Yes the win over the Vancouver Canucks in British Columbia was an excellent win and it showed the Bruins can handle anyone defensively. Yet against skating teams the club has issues.
The Bruins were punished in a home-and-home sweep by the Detroit Red Wings, lost convincingly to the Montreal Canadiens and saw the Buffalo Sabres erase what would have been a stirring come-from-behind win. While you may not consider the Toronto Maple Leafs a “skating” team, that club does have individuals (Phil Kessel and Mikhail Grabovski to name two) with jets and they knocked off the Bruins too.
Frankly, it appears the Bruins playoffs success will be determined by who their opponent is rather than their own skills. Should the club draw the Canadiens or eventually the Red Wings, one should bet the house money on the Bruins opponents.
Around the League
Zdeno Chara went through a hearing with the NHL office after his hit on Montreal’s Max Pacioretty. I have my own opinion on the hit, but with the NHL’s haphazard supplementary discipline policy, who actually knows what would happen in that hearing? Keep in mind the officials initially ruled Chara’s hit a minor penalty, and if the hit was directly on the boards, rather than on the stanchion, it wouldn’t have even been a penalty. In the end, the NHL let Chara go on his way, but the Montreal police and other NHL players took notice.
It is my opinion the league disciplinary system is arbitrary and has conflicts of interest. Colin Campbell, the dean of NHL discipline, must recuse himself from cases with the Bruins, because his son Greg plays on the team. This leaves Bruins discipline to Mike Murphy. So how does the league have any consistency in these issues if two different people are meting out punishments independently? Do they think exactly alike? To make matters worse, the Bruins are looking at the loss of one of their top players (Marc Savard) to a potential career-ending hit by Matt Cooke, who as a matter of record, went without supplementary punishment.
There are so many discrepancies in the league’s case that it is hard to defend the system.
One has to look no further than the Bruins against the Canadiens to find inconsistencies. In one incident Milan Lucic was suspended for a blow to the head to Maxim Lapierre. While Lucic was entangled with another player, Lapierre attempted to intervene and Lucic raised his arms and stick which connected with Lapierre’s head mainly because Lapierre was ducking in defense.
After suspending Lucic, Campbell said, “while it is unclear whether Lucic’s glove or stick makes contact with Lapierre, what is clear is that he delivered a reckless and forceful blow to the head of his opponent.”
Apparently Campbell’s standards were tested as the goalposts changed, not a month or year later, but in just a few days. In another incident two games later, Mike Komisarek cross-checked Lucic in the face drawing blood while breaking his stick in the process. Was a suspension for “a reckless and forceful blow to the head of his opponent” meted out? No it wasn’t. So for all of you calling out for consistency in the league, stop wasting your breath. The league cannot even show consistency in a space of two games in the same series, so why should our expectations be for anything more?
Eventually, maybe as soon as the NHL general managers’ meeting, the NHL will place rules easier to decipher rules on the books. Perhaps there might even be a banning of all hits to the head. Why not make it easier for Campbell (or Murphy as the case may be) and put the suspensions in black-and-white?
In an earlier article ( Salary cap putting the squeeze on excellence ), I detailed how the league could consolidate divisions, which would include a Canadian division. Now it looks as if the first piece of the puzzle might be getting fitted into place. A group called the Goldwater Institute is on the verge of forcing the Phoenix Coyotes out of Glendale, Arizona. If that should happen it appears the Winnipeg area might have their team back. In brief, my plan calls for a 32-team NHL with four eight-team divisions playing an 82 game slate. One of the divisions is comprised of all Canadian clubs (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Quebec City and Hamilton).
Former NHL defenseman Barry Beck is making a push for hockey in Asia. Based out of Hong Kong, Beck has the unenviable task of pulling young Chinese away from their English tutors, piano-lessons and nannies in an attempt to grow the sport in Asia. Yet the potential for the NHL is Asia is awesome. Beck is doing his part by teaching the game and hitting the schools to get kids to try the sport out.
The NHL could do their part by trying to schedule exhibition games in the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China or in Macau. The league would seem to have a perfect match in New York Islanders owner Charles Wang, the Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs and/or Los Angeles Kings. Wang has Chinese roots, Vancouver, San Jose and Toronto have large Chinese populations and the Kings ownership is affiliated with the building in Shanghai. What does the league have to lose by going there? It is a tough adjustment back to the North American time zones, so the games should be scheduled early in the exhibition season. Both locales (Shanghai and Macau) cater to the rich and famous, so the players should not be put out by the amenities.
Contact Tom.Schettino@prohockeynews.com
