By Stevo, AllHabs.net
MONTREAL, QC. — It occurred to me today, that in these 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs, most people have not exactly been fair in regards to the Boston Bruins.
Let’s be honest with each other, even prior to the start of the these playoffs, the Boston Bruins were tagged as villains and evil monsters who would eat your children the second you aren’t looking. This was especially the case back in February when the Bruins hosted the Canadiens in Boston, with what can only be categorized as a beat down suffered by the Habs, in an 8-6 loss.
The game had ended with several fights breaking out, and many will remember Shawn Thornton who went after Roman Hamrlik, and also Johnny Boychuck who took on Jaroslav Spacek. Both fights involved Canadiens’ players who clearly are not fighters, and who clearly did not want to fight. Let’s not forget Gregory Campbell’s elbow pad which got involved in a fight with Tom Pyatt, the elbow pad clearly getting the edge there.
Carey Price also had the nerve to fight All Star goaltender Tim Thomas in this game, who had huffed and puffed across the entire ice.
According to the Bruins, the Canadiens were deserving of their fate, for being a chippy team, and let’s not forget Max Pacioretty, who had one-handedly nudged 10-foot tall Zdeno Chara following his overtime goal in the previous game between both teams. Makes sense right?
With both teams playing only a month later, the game was more than anticipated and the media jumped all over it. Local Boston media were hyping the game like it was going to be a boxing match.
The Montreal Canadiens showed everyone who the real villains were in this game.
Let’s start with Max Pacioretty, because obviously the kid needed to have some sense knocked into him, still having not suffered any payback for his push on Chara. Taking lessons from P.K. Subban in being a disrespectful rookie, Pacioretty tried to beat a veteran like Zdeno Chara to a loose puck and the rest is history. Chara knocked Pacioretty into the stanchion with arm extended, Pacioretty suffered a broken neck, and everyone got sidetracked with who the real victim was in this entire incident.
While Max Pacioretty was under the great care of hospital staff, poor Zdeno Chara was left to feel sad for the unfortunate incident which was obviously not his fault. The NHL categorized this as a hockey play and unfortunate incident where the Bell Centre stanchion was more to blame, than poor Chara who really only stuck out his arm to direct Pacioretty’s head into the stanchion, which he had no idea was there.
It made a lot of sense that the Bruins would think that Pacioretty was embellishing the entire incident, because only two days later, he was tweeting from his hospital bed, thanking his fans for all the support. So selfish that Pacioretty.
And so the playoffs began, and the Bruins had to face the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs and they [Bruins] were clearly not the villains in this series.
First, Chara was clearly not himself, still suffering the effects of the hit to the stanchion (cough). The big bad Canadiens would go on to have Jaroslav Spacek put himself in a position to get hit from behind by Milan Lucic, and also have Jeff Halpern get blindsided by Andrew Ference (both incidents unpunished).
Then, a group of Montreal Canadiens fans had the indecency to stand up as Andrew Ference celebrated a goal, and by coincidence, his glove got stuck in the now famous “accidental bird” position. Unfair how Ference had to explain his actions here…
It’s clearly unfair that the Bruins had to deal with all of this, and players like Brad Marchand never wasted a second explaining their frustration through the media. So it only makes it sense that in the end, most of their complaints were directed at P.K. Subban, for embellishing a few plays. “That’s a travesty to the game” said Tim Thomas, and rightfully so, right? Riiiiiight…
Fast forward to the third round, the Bruins are now up against the Tampa Bay Lightning, another big bad team.
Once again, the Boston Bruins were not respected and they had to end the first couple of games throwing well deserved sucker punches at their opponents.
In order to have a chance of winning this series, the Boston Bruins had to resort to diving, which we saw on numerous occasions. Marchand on Malone, and Chara on Brewer to name a couple) Unlike other teams, in Boston’s case, it was justified, for reasons that are too complicated to explain.
Michael Ryder even had to knock Blair Jones with a vicious elbow during the 5th game of the series, in order to create some space for his team. Patrick Roy was clearly correct about the 1-3-1 system. (cough)
Near the end of the series, we saw Nathan Horton step off the ice at the end of a game and first squirted some water from his bottle onto a Tampa Bay Lightning fan, and then followed it up by throwing the bottle at the fan. In Horton’s defense, the fan was yelling at him.
Now we move on the Stanley Cup finals where the Boston Bruins are now down two games to three against the Vancouver Canucks, the dirty feminine Vancouver Canucks I should say. (Mike Milbury referred to the Sedin twins as Thelma and Louise)
When Nathan Horton went down and didn’t get up, after being hit by Aaron Rome, it was not surprising to see the Bruins’ reactions to the hit, because the hit was unlike any other, in this case, the player being hit was a Boston Bruin. That’s a travesty to the game.
Nobody should question Mike Murphy for consulting with Brian Burke in regards to the suspension. It’s not like Brian Burke was once GM of the Canucks who opted not to resign him following the end of his contract, and it’s not like Brian Burke has a great relationship with Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli, with whom he’s made numerous trades in recent years. So I don’t see what the big deal’s about here. (cough)
Nobody should even question Patrice Bergeron on why he stuck his fingers into Alex Burrows’ mouth, he’s a Boston Bruin, he can do that if he chooses. Burrows however is not deserving of any credit for anything he does, because he’s a bad bad player, that’s true, I heard the media say it, it has to be true.
“Now let’s not miss the forest for the trees – Burrows is a peach off the ice, and on the ice – though he can often be a total jerk and embellisher – hes’ not the sort of cheap-shot artist who intentionally tries to injure other players (cough, Matt Cooke, cough, Zdeno Chara). He’s as aware a player as there is in the NHL (look no further than his OT winner for proof of that), and though reasonable people can disagree, I don’t think he was trying to hurt Bergeron by biting him, he was trying to piss Bergeron and the Bruins off. It worked.” — Thomas Drance | canucksarmy.com
Oh and let’s not forget Alex Burrows again in the last game, who fell over Milan Lucic’s sleuth-foot, and although 100% of players would have fell in that same situation, this was Alex Burrows. He’s a bad bad man.
Max Lapierre also does not deserve any credit for his game winning goal the other night, or simply the fact he’s having great playoffs, because he embellished a poke from Zdeno Chara’s stick, so he should be burnt on a stick for hit.
Let me make one thing clear, it is not okay for players like Max Lapierre and Alex Burrows to embellish plays, however it is okay when players like Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara do it, they are members of the Boston Bruins. Oh and, it’s also okay for Rich Peverley to give Kevin Bieksa a two-handled slash in the back of the leg, hockey play!
On a side note, how about those rude Vancouver Canucks fans who made their way to TD Gardens to watch those dirty Canucks? I heard one of them tried to prevent a Bruins fan from urinating. Others refused to have Boston Bruins fans’ insert their fingers into their mouths. Party poopers.
It was appalling that Roberto came out the way he did in the media following the last game, saying he would have stopped the puck that Tim Thomas let by. How dare he say something like that?
I thought it was classy of Shawn Thornton to come out in the media and not comment on the situation, saying they would choose the “higher road”. In the end, that’s always the words that come to mind when I think of the Boston Bruins, a team that chooses the higher road.
Sarcasm intended.