That was depressing. I’m not even mad, I haven’t gone into a rage, but I’m thoroughly disappointed. If you live under a rock, I’m talking about the Bruins’ 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. You know, those guys with headhunter Matt Cooke.
The game seemed to be headed in the right direction, especially after Shawn Thornton approached Cooke to fight the second he skated onto the ice. Cooke obliged, despite his reluctance to remove his face mask, and Thornton beat him all the way down to the ice. And then he didn’t stop punching him. I don’t know about other fans, but I was practically standing on my couch cheering Thornton on. I didn’t care that he didn’t stop beating the crap out of Cooke’s already hideous face, I didn’t care that he would get a prolonged penalty, I felt like justice was being served. Almost legally, even. Shove it, Colin Campbell. I’m sure there are some people out there who frowned on Thornton for continuing his barrage of punches long after the refs tried to break it up, but he was fighting for a fallen friend and teammate who is still laying around in a dark room. It was justified, it was passion-fueled, and it was what needed to happen when Savard went down over a week ago.
And then, the Bruins checked out. Despite Thornton’s attempt to light a flame, the Bruins fizzled. Their passing was sloppy, they couldn’t stay on their feet, and the only other altercation was between Zdeno Chara and Michael Rupp whose face Chara had a hard time reaching. Does that even make sense? Aren’t his arms like 4 feet long?
I’m not going to go into the gory details of the game. I’m not going to tell you how many chances the Bruins missed. I won’t even talk about how many shots each team had (the B’s only had 17, the Pens 31). What I will say is that there’s no way fans are satisfied.
There was a lot of hype that went into this game and plenty of debate about what would make the fan base content. Some people wanted the Bruins to beat the crap out of players like Crosby and Malkin. Others, such as 98.5 The Sports Hub sports talk hosts Toucher and Rich, wanted Thornton to “sit down and have a grilled cheese sandwich” with Cooke. And then there were those who just wanted a win. After watching the game, I’m not satisfied. It’s not because no one was beaten up – Cooke got it handed to him. It’s not because of the loss either. It’s because we saw the same lifeless Bruins that we’ve been seeing night in and night out. Had Cooke gotten knocked around and the Bruins had lost something like 3-2 after a hard played game, I would have been happy. Expecting to beat Pittsburgh was unrealistic. They’re an excellent team and it would have taken a late Christmas miracle. And Santa Claus doesn’t even like the Bruins.
As a Bruins fan, I’ve got about as much passion left in me as the players seem to have. I’m sick of calling for management’s heads, I’m sick of questioning Julien’s coaching, and I’m sick of pointing fingers at players. I feel bad for guys like Shawn Thornton who try to carry the team but simply can’t. I even feel bad for Chara as a captain because despite being as dead as his team, it can’t be easy in that locker room right now.
There is one thing I’m questioning. Why didn’t Chiarelli call Savard’s mom up?
Samantha Lewis is the Creative Director of North Shore Editorial. She is starting to have nightmares about Bruins games. You can follow her on Twitter here, or read more from her at Beantown Athletic Supporters.
0 comments:
Post a Comment