Where Have My Big, Bad Bruins Gone?

If I may steal a quote from defunct Celtics head coach Rick Pitino: "Cam Neely's not walking through that door, neither is Ray Bourque, Bobby Orr or Phil Esposito." Remember that famous saying from "Little Rickey" some eight years ago? Of course, I replaced the Bird, Parish, and McHale with Orr, Espo and those fabled B's characters. Let's see, where do I begin? I was actually excited about this up-coming season, new rules and financial structures seemed to have made the "newer" NHL both more competitve and fan-friendly; well, if you're a Boston Bruins fan, none of those have happened. With a 29-35-16 record, Boston has fallen to 13th overall in the Eastern Conference, a full 14 points behind the eight-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning.

I'm not a happy camper, by any stretch of the imagination. It's now time to let the ranting begin, Bruins fans. I'm sure that makes you happy, right?

Let's first discuss the pure unprofessional attitude from the Bruins front office brass. When the lockout had finally come to an end last summer, former Bruins General Manager Mike O'Connell told team owner Jeremy Jacobs he had wanted to re-sign forwards Mike Knuble, Brian Rolston, Michael Nylander, as well as defensemen Sergei Gonchar. Sure enough, Jacobs told O'Connell to let them go.

"This was a buyer's market and they could pick better players," he told Mikey. So, these players went their seperate ways while Bruins decided to replace them with Brad Isbister, Brian Leetch, Shawn McEachern, Dave Scatchard, who was eventually traded for journeyman defesman David Tanabe, who was in turn was released. Oh yes, the best one yet, Alexi Zhamnov. Let's see, McEachern has been a total bust, Isbister has been injured all season, Leetch seems washed up, Scatchard wasn't even here for a cup of coffee, and Zhamnov has been a total waste of both time and money! Don't forget, "We didn't go after Peter Forsberg because he's too injury prone," O'Connell said at the beginning of the season.

All I know is that Forsberg has been a driving force all season long on a playoff contending team in Philadelphia. One more thing, both Rolston and Knuble have scored over 30 goals this season, while Nylander has netted over 20 and 50 assists, and Gonchar has played stellar defense. All of us Bruins fans were sitting back blaming O'Connell for these moves, when in fact, he really had no other alternative and Jacobs proceeded to throw him under the bus, saying that he gave O"Connell total reign.

How about their trades? Trading team captain Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks for forwards Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau, and defenseman Brad Stuart. Sturm is a good scorer, he's a 30 a year kind of player; does that make him a marquee player? No. Brad Stuart has been touted as the next stud defenseman, but I'm not buying it. He reminds me of another Glen Wesley, remember him? And Primeau was just a throw in--he's irrelevant.

I don't know B's fans, even though I wasn't a big Jumbo Joe fan, but you couldn't get better worth than this??? I mean, Joe is a 100 point scorer. He has 115 points this year by the way, and his team, the Sharks, is one of the league's hottest teams in the league. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Jacobs! How about trading winger Sergei Samsonov for bench warmer Mary Reasoner, rookie Yan Stastny and a future draft pick! Woopty-doo!

This has been a lost season; perhaps next year will be a "do-over?" O' Connell is gone, a new GM will be in place, Mike Sullivan (head coach) will get the axe, and hopefully, Jacobs will let his hockey people make hockey decisions. If Bob Kraft could smarten up, so can he. There are a few big name free agents on the market next year, for example defensemen Wade Redden and Zdeno Chara will be un-restricted free agents.

The Ottawa Senators can't compete with the American dollar so those two are as good as gone. It would behoove the black and gold greatly to go after one of these two. These are the kind of stud, big-name defensemen you build your franchise around. Hopefully the B's will surprise us and sign a player who is actually in their prime.

Seeing this mess makes me realize how lucky we are to live in best baseball town in America. At least we have both the Sox and Pats to fall back on. I don't think changing the name from the Fleetcenter to the TD BankNorth Garden will bring back the glory days of the past. Players and good management does that!