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?
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