Canadian Hockey Journalists hate the Boston Bruins - Part 2

I wrote this a month ago after hearing that my once beloved Joe Thornton had been traded. In the wake of the trade I have had to listen to every single sports news cast tell me over and over what a bad deal it was for the Bruins. I know I get it. What is pissing me off more than anything is that as time passes these clowns are just plain wrong. They talk about the Bruins struggles since the trade and how well Thornton is performing which is all true, but everything I wrote below is still true about Thornton.

In my rage I came up with acceptable trades for Thornton.

Thornton for Heatly okay
Thornton for Nash Okay
Thornton for Pronger okay
Thornton for Naslund okay
Thornton for Crosby maybe okay
Thornton for 10 other guys in combination MAYBE
Thornton for a First round flop, stick boy and 20 goals not so fucking good

That said

I don't know how to feel, I'm torn. I was in shock, denial all of the above. Then I started reading the Boston press. Then I remembered the game we saw where Thornton was nowhere to be seen, apparently that has been the whole season for this guy. Then I thought about the fact that he never opened his mouth, before or after a game. Sure he was putting in points, but did they mean anything? This year it was always a different guy on the team night in night out with more points in a game, or with the winner. Also, he hasn't taken a shot all year. He hasn't been hitting and the press seems to think he hasn't been skating. Don’t even get me started with the fact that he had 6 fucking penalty minutes through 23 games in a league where wrinkly pants get you five and the game. Nobody in the Boston media thought he was doing what was necessary and so in that respect I can sort of understand the move.

He clearly didn’t want to be there

Boston offered him 2 five year deals in the off season and he turned both of them down. The first was early in the summer and was a bit low, but when they saw how much Nash and Iginla got they upped to equal levels, but he still would only commit to a 3 year deal with a no trade clause after the first year. In other words, if he hated it after the first year Boston couldn't trade him to a shitty team, but he could play it out and go where ever he wanted after 3 years, and guess what he would only be 29. How much money do you think he gets popping in 80-90 pts without trying as a 29 year old free agent? Worse still he could force a trade by sitting in the second year after he was in the no trade situation. I was worried when the year started about that contract and I guess it all comes to that.

HOWEVER

You don’t trade that guy for a bag of pucks. You go out and you get someone big or a couple of relatively big guys. I have heard people say that it is time for a change in the front office. Well I think O’Connell deserves a season to see how his moves pan out. The GM went out after the strike and made a lot of moves (not one of which has turned out yet, but regardless). Love him or hate him, he did something to make the team a contender regardless of whether or not they look like good moves now. The coach on the other hand has done nothing. He has gotten zero out of the new arrivals and clearly is not coaching a game that works in the new NHL. So he should have been fired 5 games ago.

Thornton always, ALWAYS plays better with a hard assed coach. That is what gets his hippie ass moving. Burns, Ftorek, Keenan and even Pat Quinn with Team Canada, all loved him, but they said they had to make him work. Sullivan is like 35, first time coaching and has no idea what to do with "the superstar" so he treats him with kid gloves, which is the wrong thing to do. So Joe goes out and gets his 2 points every night no harm no foul, but isn't a factor in the overall game. Is that his fault? For $6 million, yes it is, but fix the coaching before you get rid of a 26 year old guy who almost won the scoring championship 2 years ago if not for 2 five game suspensions.

After the coach, then you fire the GM. He signed Zhamnov for $4 million and he has done nothing. He signed Bryan Leetch for $4 million (starting to look like a good move). He signed Shawn McEachern for $2 million (A guy he also traded 10 years ago) and had to put on waivers. He let Andy Hilbert go for nothing. He signed Raycroft to a monster deal before figuring out whether or not he could play in the league, which he can't, but he still forces the coach to put him when the Finn is a better player. This team’s performance is on the GM's head. He had 6 players after the strike, so every single new player is his responsibility. They suck, he sucks, you're fired.

After the Bruins lost in the playoffs two years ago when they had a 3-1 series lead over the Canadiens I said I was going to take a break from cheering for them. They had broken my heart so many times. Of course the strike let me cool off and I was ready to go, but now with the new rules (that I fucking hate) and the shitty (again) Bruins.

FUCK HOCKEY, FUCK THE BRUINS

Liverpool is on a five game win streak. They have moved from 12th to 4th in 3 weeks and they are looking good in Champions League. The world cup in coming up (June-July ...VEGAS) . The Heavyweight boxing division is being organized for a winner take all tournament (Finally) and once we have our winner it is wide open for some new blood to kick all of their asses. And if I get really bored, Duke is the #1 college basketball team in the country.

Hockey, what the hell is hockey? Don't offer me anything.