Dreaming Of... Death & Justice?

''Punishment must fit the crime...'' - and in this case, it probably does? But one has to remember how many lives were affected by what happened, on that day of April 2013, when the Boston Marathon was interrupted by two misguided radicals. One has to be Boston Strong to see this: one has to look past a boy's seemingly angelic demeanor, on such shots as this, too:

AP File Photo - Boston Herald

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev justifiably deserves what he has coming his way now - if he did set up those bombs that killed four people and injured a host of others, along with his brother. There will be those who will claim that he has been set up himself (hell, there are even ''Boston Marathon Fakers'' the same way as there have been ''9/11 truthers'' since 2001...!) and there will be those other folks who will hail him as some sort of martyr now, on the international civil liberties scale...

There is no logical reason to believe that there was some hoax here, perpetrated by whom, for what purpose? To kill two brothers? This will not propel the entire nation towards martial law exclusively aimed at muslim citizens now; come on!  This is not a Boston Tea Party for racism and social prejudice basing itself upon the fear of terrorism and radicalism: it cannot be. There would have been a full scale round up of the truly dangerous rotten apples in the basket if it was: and it wouldn't have started with two kids, or at the Boston Marathon of all places.

There is no case to make for this kid's defense either: he wanted to avenge what happened to ''his people'' and went about it the wrong way. Why didn't he and his big bro just go abroad try to help out in Chechnya, instead, huh? And by help we mean rebuild, not bring about misguided retaliatory actions that only make things worse: because an eye for an eye brings nothing in the end. Haven't we seen it a million times over in the hockey rink, on the gridiron, on the basketball court or in the baseball field (well, usually the pitcher's mound, really) whenever one team tries to pay back, in kind, the other team for one of their player's injuries...?  Nothing is ever accomplished that way. And being American by proxy, to whatever degree, the young Tsar here should have learned from America's allegories for life, which are not just baseball games at three different levels...

Because here was a kid with dreams - just like any other kid growing up in the Boston area. He had, like any one of us, aspirations and, perhaps, delusions - maybe greater delusions of grandeur than the norm, but then again, perhaps not. He and his brother came to the United States to live out their dreams: not to end so ignominously. They certifiably had their very own Bostonian dreams, like all of us Boston fans do; Like all of us, they hid a dark side: most of us keep in check, fight it off, subdue it throughout our lives - because we all strive to do good, be good, be the hero. Nobody wants to do evil outright: many of those who do are like Tsar and his bro here - they think they're doing what's right! Sort of like the Habs when they are stealing victory from greater teams: they firmly believe it is right to do so! Maybe like the NFL cheaters do randomly, too - and in this we include the Patriots, of course! But that's another story - for another blog post!

The point is: these two brothers were not 100% evil: like all of us, they are shades of grey. And there may not quite be fifty shades of it out there: but there are enough to distinguish moderate criminals from upstanding citizens - from those deserving to serve as examples that thou shall not do that. Having said that - Tsar is not the worst there is, out there; there are many more deserving of the lethal injection or electric chair or guillotine... Hell, Tsar looks like Habs goalie Carey Price! Looks may be deceiving and all, but tell me now or forever hold your piece - do we really wanna hang Price? Even when he is so dead WRONG: do we really want to see him hang, high and dry, now do we? I don't think so. I just want to see him as he really is: a sieve, on most nights throughout the rest of his damnable NHL career - or his CH career, tenure or whatchumightcallit at any rate. For 2014-2015 was a fluke - but that is another story, too.

It may never be 100% certifiably sure that it was the two brothers who set off those bombs.

One thing is for sure, however: the younger brother's dreams come to an end now, just as the older brother's did, shortly after the Marathon bombing...

Dreams Of Returning To Boston...?

''Well, I have my dreams - and they surely have me. I'll be moving on... on... I want them all!'' 
Paraphrasing here, the lyrics of an old song from parts much akin to L'Ancienne-Lorette rather than any town in the greater Boston area or in Massachusetts, so - suffice it to say, Patrice Bergeron might know what it's all about; he might recognize it. But few other Bruins might have a chance to... at all! It's not all that important right now, though...

Who hasn't dreamt of going back to Beantown? Once you've been there, been born there, lived there a significant part of your life...? I know I want to go back, too! Hence it is not surprising one bit that Jeff Gorton would want back in - into the city, into the fanbase, into the Bruins organization!

Those are rumors though - only rumors! But they make a hell (or a heaven) of a lot of sense!

Gorton basically built that Stanley Cup championship team of 2011, and all within a very short timespan, years prior, when he was acting as the interim G.M. after Mike O'Connell was dismissed and just before Peter Chiarelli was added to the mix with the mission to add the final pieces of that puzzle. And what did Pete add, of note? Mercenary marksman Nathan Horton. That's it. All the other pieces he added (Gregory Campbell, Michael Ryder, Tyler Seguin, Claude Julien himself... Brandon Bochenski?!?) have proven to wear out their welcome a tiny wee bit too fast... And, lately, the additions were all subpar, to say the least: Miroslav Satan?!? Reilly Smith, Matt Fraser, Joe Morrow, Brendan Connolly, Matt Mottau... Brian Rolston?!? Loui Eriksson doesn't count: he's a certifiable veteran! And though one still hopes that Connolly (and, maybe, Smith too) can blossom into lethal top scorers, in time...? That is, most unfortunately, less than certain, at this time!

Gorton, for his part, built the true core of the contending Bruins: he drafted, recruited or signed all of the following: Brad Marchand, Tuukka Rask, Milan Lucic, Zdeno Chara. Phil Kessel and Marc Savard. (Even though Chiarelli is often credited, totally wrongly, of some of those coups!) He had a hand in extending the contracts of other key figures, such as the goaltender that would change everything,Tim Thomas, and Bergeron himself. That was all back in 2006 - a year of transition, if there ever was one... And it's (almost) all reminded right there, on his short bio on the website of his current employer - the execrable New York Rangers. But let's not go there...!

Can Jeff Gorton accomplish his dream - this wonderful dream of going back?
Most importantly of all, though, should he be allowed to?
The Bruins have a perfectly suitable G.M.-to-be within their ranks already: home-grown talent, groomed within the organization at any rate, Don Sweeney! A teammate of team president Cam Neely back in the days when they should have won, at the very least, one cup (...) Sweeney would probably be as reliable a G.M. (ha, almost typoed that into a GEM here - lol) as O'Connell and, in retrospect, that is quite the compliment indeed. After all, what did good ol' Mike do, above all else? He got rid of that over-hyped, under-achieving perennial choker, Joe Thornton! He shipped him off to San Jose, where he has been choking ever since, allowing the Bruins to turn the page and find themselves a new franchise player: who turned out to be, arguably, Patrice Bergeron. (Though many will be of the opinion that the Bruins do it by committee - and I would agree with that wholeheartedly! Bergeron cannot do much by himself: he needs a Chara, Rask, Krejci, Lucic, Marchand, a hired gun of service too - in order to get it properly done! Franchise committee it is!)

I can see Sweeney being the guy who would pull the trigger on just such a deal, too: shipping off Lucic and, maybe, Marchand too, for some package with which to build from, just like in the much-maligned Thornton deal. And, hopefully, it would turn out much better than the Seguin deal, in the short term, too? Or Sweeney would meet the same fate as O'Connell and Chiarelli did, but that much faster than they did...!  My, how cruel this is: here the man hasn't even been hired as the G.M. yet that we're discussing the conditions for his dismissal already! Sorry, Don...! I'm on your side, really: I loved it when you were one of those ''big four'' defensemen, ever reliable, protecting the Bruins' zone: it was you and Garry Galley, Ray Bourque of course and... Al Iafrate? Michael Thelven? Gord Kluzak? Anyway...!

One can understand why Neely would want to have a chance to bring back Gorton instead of giving a chance to his old pal Don -a neophyte, basically- to fill this role.  Rumors are Neely is awaiting the Rangers' elimination in order to be able to speak to Gorton, as per NYR head honcho Glen Sather's wishes... That slithering snake-in-the-grass, Sather: he was a viscous scumbag in Edmonton and he is only a bigger one now, in New York! All Bruins fans should hate him with a passion! Who cares that he was a Bruin himself in his formative years, under the tutelage of the one and only Harry Sinden? Sather sucks - period! That he would prevent one of his underlings to achieve his homecoming dreams (that is assuming that there are such dreams in Gorton's head! Sure - there should be!) with the inane excuse that his team ''is still competing'' - what the hell has it got to do with front office personnel defections? The team on the ice would not even know, let alone be affected by it - come on! That is all hogwash and bulls*** coming from a master hogwasher (?) and bulls***ter known as Glen SATHER - that is what it is, I'm telling you, folks!

Neely has had other candidates in mind, sure: but one was scooped up by those pitiful, if hellbent, Devils (and he came from another pit, too - how ironic is that) while the other one is a mystery man who, I personally hope, will turn out to be... Don Cherry!

Just Do It - for Blue!

Alas, like it or not, Cam ''The Man'' Neely has to wait it out before he is granted permission to simply talk to Jeff Gorton about a return to this position he held so very briefly, on an interim basis, back in 2006...  And he might have to wait a while longer, to, as those other perennial chokers, known as Washington Capitals, and their own all-star franchise choker, Alexander Ovechkin, appear to be doing it all over again, in their series against the New York Rangers... Ah, those damn Caps: they seem to enjoy playing up to their full potential of mere spoilers whenever they come to face the Boston Bruins; but, then, whenever the stakes are really high, they will always fold and choke on the very spot! Just like Joe Thornton's Sharks. And, this time, it frustrates the Bruins organization and their fanbase on a whole new level: stifling their G.M. hiring process, which grinds down to a halt, unable to move forward because of them - and SATHER! (Yes, folks: feel free to think of Sather and of Satan in the same way, why don't you now...!)

But, one can hope that, maybe, even though the Rangers move on to the next round (and the Canadiens don't - bwah-ha-ha: CH-okers! They wrote the book on choking, actually: and the Price is always WRONG! But that is another story...) and NYC finds itself in the final four on ice (not the ''frozen four'' - that's the other tournament! They got so far only because they didn't face the Bruins! It was the only reason why they reached the Finals last year, too; only to lose so miserably to the Kings!) perhaps Glen ''Satan'' Sather will have a change of attitude, if not of heart...? And maybe, then, he will allow Cam Neely and Jeff Gorton to meet up - and talk business!  While his Rangers try and best the Lightning for the honor of losing to the Ducks in the big finale!  :-)

Yes - Jeff might yet make it indeed: and prove some old adage wrong in the process (you know which one: the one that has it that you can't go back or something...?)

Then again - I am not holding my breath on that one... not at all!

Dreaming... Of A Lot Of Scoring!

Isn't it beautiful to behold now: Tyler Seguin, the Rawhide Kid himself, shooting 'em precisely and accurately as his entire team appears to be firing off on all cylinders, winning games handily by such scores as 9-0 and 7-2...

Ah, don't you long for those days when the only lashes seen in these hockey arenas are the long eyelashes of Seguin groupies, trying to lure him to their beds? No tomahawk slashes from mischievous slow players trying to prevent greater talent from doing what they do best: carrying the puck forward and lodging it in the net! Don't you remember all those beautiful goals the Bruins scored on their postseasons of 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and even 2013 and 2014... eh? Seguin was potting quite his fair share of those; when he was on his game, of course.  And there it is again: a hat trick for the kid! Way to go... kid!

No, this is not 2012 and defending STANLEY CUP CHAMPION BOSTON BRUINS playing up to their full potential: no, this is actually... Team Canada. 2015.

They beat everybody: USA, Germany, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Belarus, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Tyler Seguin (dare we say ''the once and future Bruin'' now? Hey - you never know!) has not the usual suspects as teammates anymore: those we won a Stanley Cup in his very first try at it. Instead, he is scoring alongside talent such as Sean Couturier, Cody Eakin, Tyler Toffoli, Aaron Ekblad, Jordan Eberle, Nathan (not Horton) McKinnon, Jake Muzzin, Matt Duchesne and even the execrable Claude Giroux. Hmm... Maybe the Boston brass should look into trading for one or two of those guys... eh?  Don Cherry would recommend so, I am absolutely sure about it!

Coached to score without regard to balloon up the margin of victory by one Todd McLellan, this collection of supposedly patriotic snipers truly seems destined for gold - unless the referees have something to say about that! Bad refereeing has been the only thing preventing Canada from raking in all the gold medals over the years, or so have alleged many beer-guzzling observers as the odd authentic sportscaster, at times. Regardless of the veracity of those claims, maybe this Toddster is the kind of coach the Boston Bruins should be looking at in order to fully exploit the offensive talents the organization already has on hand - as those they could be acquiring in the coming months, via free agency, trade or draft! Pastrnak, Spooner, Griffith, Khokhlachev, Ferlin, Robins (hey - he's a Bobby!) and Florek are all Bruins of the future who, along with the existing big league finesse players on the roster (need we go through the list again? Sigh! Okay, here we go: Krejci, Bergeron, Eriksson, Marchand, Connolly, Lucic, Smith, Kelly, Talbot and Soderberg (?) - for it is bye bye Paille and Campbell, for sure! And maybe a few more on this roster...)  so need a new system that deviates from the old one-goal defensive system Claude Julien seems to love so much; a new system that promptly and properly opens the floodgates for the offensive weapons on this team to score lots and lots more goals!

Like they used to do, somehow, back in the day... And that was not all that long ago, actually...!

McLellan: the Bruin coach to take the team in this bold, new offensive direction it needs to undertake right now! Well, perhaps... And, this time, not only Don Cherry might agree with me, but one Joe Haggerty, too! (I just like the fact the names rhyme, really, that's all: I do not now nor will I ever have the same degree of admiration for Joe as I do for Don - come on!!! After all, they call one guy ''Grapes'' and the other they call ''Hags'' - and that says plenty, if you ask me! But that's another story...)

One sees what the lack of scoring punch (or the lack of willingness to implement a system of play that calls for an offensive mindset rather a defensive one) can do to a team with higher aspirations: the Boston Bruins are certifiable contenders, they entered the disastrous 2014-2015 season as such and had won the President's Trophy the season prior! But they were inconsistent on the score sheet throughout the year - and wound up missing the playoffs entirely because of that!  Their detestable arch-rivals up north were getting by through stealing one-goal games with a truly exceptional (as in: it won't happen again) seasonal performance from their goaltender: but their lack of scoring talent caught up with them in no time come playoff time; they barely stole victory from Ottawa before being dumped by a true scoring machine such as Tampa Bay. Boston can compete with those high-octane scoring machines and is the only eastern team that can match the western juggernauts - when they play to their full offensive capabilities, that is!

They need this new direction and they need it NOW!
It is not too late to recoup what this team deserved to reap as long as the talented nucleus remains: they should have won more than one single cup between the years 2009 and 2014. And they can still get at least another one and match the extraordinary (and, yet, still underachieving) Bobby Orr era... which we celebrate the 45th anniversary of right now, hmm?