Can't comment on the blog, of course, so I have to do it here:
Quote:
The “Fuck Boston” aspect of this series really isn’t getting enough play. While most are quick to rightfully piss all over Steve Simmons and his vendetta against Phil “Nice Guy, Tries Hard” Kessel, the fact that this is even a storyline along with Joe Thornton is because of the Bruins’ utter ineptitude in the front office. The entire organization perpetuates the city’s self-inflated image of being blue collar white guys getting by on minimal skill. It’s why Joe Haggerty has a dog named Looch and still has a priapism as a result of Shawn Thortnon’s leadership.
The first round picks this team has traded away is almost as staggering as the horseshit return they’ve received for them. Joe Thornton for Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau. Kessel for picks. Blake Wheeler for Boris Valabik and Rich Peverley (sky point). Tyler Seguin (who was a pick in the Kessel trade) for a useful-but-who-gives-a-shit Loui Eriksson, and Dougie Hamilton (also a pick from the Kessel deal) for basically nothing. The pedigree they have shipped elsewhere because of some mythical and elusive notion of grit and leadership is truly amazing, added to the retrograde thinking at the highest levels of the team that have spearheaded three work stoppages. That they won a Cup in this era with this unbelievably bad asset management will go down as just as big of a “what the fuck?” cup winner as the Hurricanes once history gives proper perspective.
While the Bruins' track record of trading away elite talent for crap (or, at best, other elite talent which is in turn traded for crap) is indeed astounding, to write off Boston's championship as some sort of accident is to worship at the altar of "asset management" like so many Perds fans do and miss the forest for the trees.
Let's go three years forward and back from the Bruins' championship season:
2008: finished eighth in the East but took the first-place Habs to seven
2009: finished first in the East, swept the Habs, lost in seven to a Cinderella Canes team
2010: beat the Sabres, went up 3-0 on the Flyers before losing four straight when to be fair they were missing David Krejci and Tim Thomas
2011:
2012: bounced in the first to the Caps when Dale Hunter had them in trap mode
2013: beat the Maple Leafs, swept the Crosby+Iginla Penguins, lost a hard-fought Final to the best team of the salary cap era
2014: won the division, fell to the Habs in seven while Carey Price was rolling
That's not the trajectory of a team that fell ass-backwards into a Stanley Cup through blue-collar bullshit. For all the stupid trades the Bruins have made over the years, they've been strong in drafting/development, depth trades, and of course free agency, where they got Zdeno Chara. Granted, the Bruins were able to cover their multitude of sins with the late bloom to end all late blooms from Tim Thomas, who gave way to Tuukka Rask playing at a similarly high level himself. Yes, the Bruins, via Cam Neely and whatever's left of Harry Sinden, fetishize gritty plugs as the keys to victory, but let's be real, that's mostly rhetoric. In the real world, Boston's success comes from a surefire Hall of Fame defenseman in Chara, a possible Hall of Fame two-way center in Bergeron, and high-talent contributions from Krejci, Marchand, Thomas/Rask, and even Lucic, among others. (By the way, I suspect we'll be adding Reilly Smith to the list of great players the B's sent away). I trust they know what they have.
I guess what's galling to me is the comparison to the 2006 Hurricanes, not only one of the great what-the-fucks of the NHL but of all team sports. That year's Hurricanes squad did nothing so much as have a crackerjack power play in the wildly uncalibrated season where power plays were seemingly all that mattered. They exploited a loophole of circumstance by accident. They missed the playoffs before the lockout, missed them afterward, and after a surprising run in 2009 ending in a sweep to Pittsburgh, haven't sniffed the postseason since. That was an aberration. The Bruins were the second-best team in the East after the lockout. Big, big difference.
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Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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