Some people say Boston sports fans are spoiled. Some people say we don't appreciate what we've got. Others complain that we are too hard on our players and don't give credit to other teams for playing well.
Well, I don't really care what people say because you could waste your lifetime feeding the trolls and never get anywhere. And hell, I like to make progress. I'm all about putting forth effort and reaping the rewards. Obviously sometimes the rewards are immediate and sometimes you need to wait around a while. The fact that effort and reward go hand in hand is what makes this Bruins loss inexcusable and the reason I can't just say what a great job the Canadiens did and call it a day. Yes, the Canadiens played great, I can admit to that no problem. However, the Bruins played like crap. The coach admits it, the players admit it. I mean really, when was the last team a team had all of it's star players lay an egg during a 7 game series?
Going down the roster looking at all the name of the nominees for individual awards, I don't see one player's name who stepped up in this series. As a matter of fact I think all of them took steps backwards. All in all, the rookies and young players we were so concerned about did pretty well. The older role players played their role as expected. But all, all of the stud veterans played like crap. Yes, some of them had brief moments of solid play during the over 7 hours of hockey, but all in all, they stunk.
Now, well I'm not going call for Claude Julien's head or say we need to get rid of him. I do think some decisions he made (really, lack of decisions) need to be assessed. The definition of insanity which is usually attributed to Albert Einstein comes to mind, "Insanity- Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Personally, I didn't see many changes being made by Claude. It felt like every time I looked up Big Z was on the ice. Whether he was hurt or just plain tired, running him out there for almost 30 minutes each night is ridiculous. The other thing that seemed to be a reoccurring theme was seeing "Steel Hands" Lucic mishandle the puck, that is when he actually got a stick on it.
Now this is a totally random thought that just came to mind regarding sticks. Did the players change sticks between rounds one and two? In round one it seemed like the sticks were breaking at a rate of maybe 5-6 per game. Most of the time it was on slap-shots. This series there were few, if any broken sticks that I can recall. There was however some, make that many, mishandled pucks.
With season now over and the planning for next season about to begin. I think the position that we may need to get some offensive reinforcements is left winger. While he didn't produce much in the post season, I think Marchand is getting a lot more grief than deserved. For the most part he played hockey and avoided being a pest. The officials rewarded him with some ridiculous penalties and way too many non-calls. Hopefully it's a lesson learned for him that if he wants to get the calls, he needs to avoid the shenanigans during the regular season.
Now, well I'm not going call for Claude Julien's head or say we need to get rid of him. I do think some decisions he made (really, lack of decisions) need to be assessed. The definition of insanity which is usually attributed to Albert Einstein comes to mind, "Insanity- Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Personally, I didn't see many changes being made by Claude. It felt like every time I looked up Big Z was on the ice. Whether he was hurt or just plain tired, running him out there for almost 30 minutes each night is ridiculous. The other thing that seemed to be a reoccurring theme was seeing "Steel Hands" Lucic mishandle the puck, that is when he actually got a stick on it.
Now this is a totally random thought that just came to mind regarding sticks. Did the players change sticks between rounds one and two? In round one it seemed like the sticks were breaking at a rate of maybe 5-6 per game. Most of the time it was on slap-shots. This series there were few, if any broken sticks that I can recall. There was however some, make that many, mishandled pucks.
With season now over and the planning for next season about to begin. I think the position that we may need to get some offensive reinforcements is left winger. While he didn't produce much in the post season, I think Marchand is getting a lot more grief than deserved. For the most part he played hockey and avoided being a pest. The officials rewarded him with some ridiculous penalties and way too many non-calls. Hopefully it's a lesson learned for him that if he wants to get the calls, he needs to avoid the shenanigans during the regular season.
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