Simmer down a bit, it will, surely - but just as the Bruins remain brimming hot, of course!
;-)
No pun intended at all at the expense of one
Charlie Simmer whom I knew first as Bruin, a teammate and, I believe, a linemate of Ken Linseman, Steve Kasper or some other hard-working type, and truly appreciated immensely as such - especially on one given night when the final score was, I do believe... Boston Bruins 7, Montreal Canadiens 3. Thanks again, Charlie, for scoring - was it two or three? It doesn't matter: what mattered was that there were ten goals and seven belonged to BOSTON!
It was around those same good old days, when the Bruins tied and then bested a record for most consecutive playoff appearances by any NHL team, challenged the mighty Islanders (who were right in the midst of their little ''dynasty run'' there...) and suddenly found themselves in the Stanley Cup Finals of 1988, led there by newcomer Cam Neely, the three aforementioned veterans, captain Ray Bourque and a duo of brand-new (for the team anyway) goal-tenders... It was around those days, aye, I remember it very well (okay; somewhat well? Well enough not to have to google the info and actually pen this aaaaaaaaaaall by sheer memory -
yeah!) when JUSTICE ON ICE had to be administered by the players -
still- because the NHL and its sorry bunch of nitwit referees simply could not do it... would not do it... or were a totally clueless bunch of buffoons completely inept at doing their job!!!
And so the Boston Bruins saw this sell-out jerk, Chris Nilan, injure their proud enforcer, Terry O'Reilly one day - hitting him when he was down. I remember Brian Curran, among others, going after Nilan the very next game the two teams played again. It was time to settle that score - and then, the obtuse refs intervened and stopped JUSTICE from being served - and they did that far better than they ever could stop injustice from occurring in the first place, ironically. Goons were targeting Boston's best players? The Bruins dispatched their equalizers - and it was dealt with appropriately. It was necessary to do so, because the good players certainly were not being protected by the farcical league - or their representative zebras, the obtuse refs. Gretzky had his protector - didn't Boston playmakers Craig Janney, Randy Burridge and Ray Bourque himself deserve protection as well?
But that was then -
and this is now.
Has nothing changed in the God-Forsaken NHL?!?
When one sees the likes of Matt Cooke boarding someone from behind - and that someone happens to Adam McQuaid, the same Bruin who suffered a
life-threatening injury back in September 2012.
CBC.ca will report it as a ''season-threatening injury'' but really now: when your league is looking at a work stoppage, there won't be any hockey for months, you're diagnosed with a condition that causes dangerous blood clots to form in your body if you are severely hit (whether it is from behind or not matters not at this point) -
it's not your season that is threatened: it is your very life! And yet, in four short months, Adam McQuaid underwent not one but
two operations followed by an intense therapy in other to be in shape for the season, yes, the hockey season which finally started only in January after the wretched NHL and spoiled-rotten NHLPA finally worked out a ''deal''...
Now, you're a jerk who happens to be able to simultaneously skate and chew gum - you see this guy, who may still be pre-disposed to this horrendous condition's hazards, and you're going to slam him face first into the boards the first chance you get...?!? (And then peeps complained of the similar, but vastly different hit later on, when Boston's Marchand planted one on the Pitt's James Neal - who then proceeded to embellish it and fall all over the ice, trying, hoping, dreaming of being able to draw a 5-minute misconduct penalty too...! The hits were not the same; the parties involved neither - it was totally different in any imaginable way. But I am digressing now...)
This is not surprising, mind you - since it comes from the same dirty player -COOKE- who cuts opposing players' tendons with his skates (by accident, sure) and caused so any to simply stop playing, due to severe
concussions... Need we remind the tragedy that befell Boston Bruins playmaker Marc Savard?
And speaking of concussions... What kind of ''all-star'' player are you, Evgeni MACACO Malkin, when you try to drop the gloves and go out of your way to finally punch someone, prove you're a man, be tough on ice as all hockey players should be but you never are, really... What kind of ''man', though when you pick as your sparring partner
concussion-survivor Patrice Bergeron, of all possible opponents? And you really went out of your way to try and hit him too - with those little fists of yours searching for Bergeron's head, not caring one iota that here is a guy who's had been sidelined MANY TIMES with concussions... Maybe you want a concussion all your own, Malkin? Maybe Lucic can serve you one - please, please. pleeeeeease ask Milan for one... illico! You shall be served - pronto!
You would think that Malkin and co. would be kind to players who have come back from concussion syndrome - just like their precious Sid The Kid finally did, after taking longer than anyone - save Marc Savard, maybe? You would think that Sid The Kid had been hit by Matt Cooke too...! He sure would deserve it, too... What was
that, Sidney Boy: you shoved the opposing goalie, Tuukka Rask, after he blanked you and your entire over-rated team of punks with mercenary hearts and not much else to show for it: you, the purported poster boy of the league, the face of the NHL (a face that deserves to be bashed in considerably more than Brad Marchand's, I tell you now and I'll tell you again - in any hockey bar there is!) you showed no class, displayed no guts and proved to be nothing more than a sour puss sore loser on the grandest stage of all: the Eastern Conference Finals. You even shoved Tuukka Rask
twice - because he did not accept your feeble attempt at intimidation with the first shove, he pushed you back and you came back to shove him more convincingly...! WHAT A TOUGH GUY! Try and do this with Zdeno Chara next, with whom you were having such interesting conversations but always from a certain distance - try and shove HIM like that, you coward!!!
This is where I should credit NHL PROPERTIES - hmm?
Sid The Kid, at his most pathetic, about to be bitch-slapped...
And he will be - trust me - he will be!
No one will spare him from the lesson he deserves -
not Iginla, not Cooke - NO ONE!
Now how about Bylsma, the Pitt's coach - you better not take a page out of one of your predecessors-ancestors, DAN... We mentioned 1988 - flash-forward to 1991, and we have the same Cam Neely (now the fully empowered Cam ''The Man'' Neely) leading the Bruins' offense and single-handedly beating the Pittsburgh Posers that included Mario ''the magnificent'' and several other inflated egos who thought themselves to be greater than they truly were - ironically, that included even one Mark Recchi, who aptly replaced Marc Savard in the Boston Bruins line-up for the 2011 championship run. But that is another story... What did the old
Badger do when he saw this? He dispatched the most despicable cheap shot artist he had at his disposal to ''take out'' the opposition's number one weapon, with a sneaky insidious knee-on-knee attack... Up until then, Neely was virtually scoring at will - much like
David Krejci does, did in Game 1 against the Pitt's Posers, and will continue to do - heck,
Krejci has 45 points in his last 45 playoff games! He's even more reliable than Neely himself, being a playmaker primarily, not a power forward like Cam redefined the role of, christening it in the process...
Don't even dream of it, Danny Boy - because if you send anyone after Krejci, Nathan Horton will tear him limb from limb!
It was a wonderful sight to behold: David Krejci and Tuukka Rask silence the rowdy crowd at Consol Energy Center in the first game of the series. Boston proved they can beat you in so many different ways: with physical play, surely, but with finesse plays too. With teamwork, neutral zone entrapment and flawless defensive execution all throughout the game. With excellent coverage and even more excellent goal-tending! Any given night, any given game, it can be any one of the four lines scoring against you: and it will be so delightful when Jaromir Jagr breaks out with two or three goals against his former team! He doesn't have to score them himself though - he can always assist on Bergeron and Marchand goals! Or Lucic's... Or Seguin's... Or Krug's - KRUG THE BRUIN KING!
I have just had about enough of all this talk that "the Boston Bruins use intimidation to win their games, playoffs series, Cup championships..." -
they simply play the damn game the way the damn NHL wants it to be presented as a spectacle ''different enough'' to have a chance of progressing in an extremely tough and competitive sports market in the damnable U.S.of A. - dammit!!! Anyone too blind to see that deserves only to be condemned to a lifetime of watching nothing other than curling and figure-skating - 24/7 - without the slightest chance of parole!
The fools who claim this do so, of course, on message boards such as those found on... NHL.com! What a coincidence... Some claim that the league plays favorites with the Bruins, due to the Bruins' ''Merlot line'' forward Gregory Campbell being the son of one Colin Campbell... I see no evidence of favoritism, any nepotism stemming out of that and, in fact, I see the league constantly being unfair to the Boston franchise just as they used to be back in the old Boston Garden & Harry Sinden days...! When a pro-Bruins commenter tries to post something, something totally devoid of cynicism, disguised profanity or ill-intent of any kind, it gets blocked by the so-called moderators - who then turn around and let a dozen inane and revolting bits pass by their ''keen eye for censorship''... MY FOOT! There is bias a mile long and if I didn't know any better, I'd say
this crappy site is run by Montreal Habs-Not fans...!!! What with titles and headlines reading in such uninspired ways as ''Bru-te Force'' and ''Trouble Bru-in?''
when the Boston Bruins soundly defeat the Pitt Posers - how can anyone with half-a-brain even pretend that the nhl is biased towards the Bruins? It makes no sense whatsoever, you nhl ninnies! And by that I mean the FANS - of course!
I am through bothering to dignify such a lowly website, owned by such an abysmal league run by inept sapsuckers in it for nothing else than the money, with any of my commentaries! They will remain exclusively here - on B.D.! And if the masses miss them entirely - too bad for them and their lack of enlightenment...!
The wretched NHL sure missed
their chance -once again- to make an example and send a message not only throughout the blasted league but throughout the world of hockey as well; they refused to suspend repeat offender Matt Cooke for his reckless play relapse... What they deserve to see now is one of the Bruins -Shawn Thornton, maybe- send Cooke to the hospital. But then they would suspend Shawn, I suppose...? For what, I wonder, Brendan "Blind Sonovabitch" Shanahan? Using his fists? Rectifying an oversight on your damnable part? DOING YOUR JOB FOR YA? And to think that I once wanted to see a guy whose initials are ''B.S." finish his uneventful career as a member of the Boston Bruins... He went on to become the ''senior vice-president of player safety"" instead, imagine that - and he can't even prevent things from happening, seize the opportunity to do so, when he can do so - WHAT A JOKE! Curse you, Shanahan - curse you to hell! Where Badger is, with Ulf - and his Cooke is heading there too!
Cooke and his idiotic teammates better ease off the Boston Bruins' best elements - and their most vulnerable -yet courageous and resilient- ones, such as Bergeron and McQuaid - or else, Pen Posers... You're going to be in a world of hurt, courtesy of the fists of Milan Lucic, Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell - to name but three possible providers of JUSTICE ON ICE!
Since the zebras and NHL hierarchy seem to be so devoid of any sense of justice...
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