Bruins/NHL 2005 Season Thread

O'Connell admitted last night that this trade was made out of desparation. He was given many offers for Thornton by a few different teams and this one with San Jose made the most sense to him.

Ironically, the 's won last night shutting out the best team in the league 3-0 ! They even got some help from their new players too.

 

It's funny that O'Connell said he spoke to a couple of teams because I've read reports from several sources saying that according to other GMs in the league, they new nothing about the B's wanting to trade Thornton until the deal was done. They had heard the B's were in negotiations to trade Samsonov for Stuart straight up.

Sounds like O'Connell might not be telling the whole truth here.

 

Well, the Olympic break is coming at the end of this week and the B's hav somehow managed to claw their way back into contntion for a playoff spot. Goalie Tim Thomas has been a god-send for this team. He has a GAA under 2.00 and is routinely coming up with 30+ save nights and stealing wins.

Patrice Bergeron is starting to evolve into one heck of a player. Last Thursday against the Canadiens he turned in one fo the prettiedt goals you will ever see. He rushed up 3/4 of the ice, performed a sweet little give-and-go and ended up tipping the puck past the goalie as he wet by the net.

Here's hoping the B's don't decide to trade him out of town for fifty cents on the dollar.

 

Yup, it appears that the Celtics, who have lost 6 straight including last night, have supplanted the Bruins as Boston's sports laughing-stock.

 

Where have I been I didn't realize it was time for the Olympics. Boy does the time fly when you are busy as heck with no social life. lol Hopefully team USA led by Chris Chelios can do well this year. At this point he is the only one I know who is on the team. I haven't been keeping track of that stuff lately. Since hockey has come back I think I haven't watched a game and since the Icecats left Worcester I haven't been to a game. Hopefully my wife and I will go to a B's game at some point this year if not we will surely go to a few Worcester Sharks games next season.

If the B's owner can quit trading the farm every year he might actually have a good team to put on the ice. The trade of Thorton surprised me big time. I just don't get why teams trade their captains. I have seen the Blackhawks trade away their captains for yrs now and every time it drives me nuts because they usually don't get crap back in return. lol

 

Hey, a Sharks game would be a really good idea for a meet next fall/winter. When I lived up on the North Shore I used to go to a couple of LockMonster games a year and would have a blast.

 

That would make for a pretty good meet. I know I had fun when I went to the Icecats for the last couple of yrs. I like the minor leagues in hockey better since they seem to try harder. There are a lot more fights, which is cool because I love the fights. When I was growing up we would go to Dayton Bombers games (ECHL) when they would face Toledo and you wouldn't believe all the fights that happened. Then there were the Fort Wayne Komets and Indianapolis Ice (IHL) games were they would fight all the time.

 

The Lockmonsters are a great time! I've been to a few games and had a fun time, and I'm not even a fan of hockey. The nice thing about the Lockmonsters, and any other minor league affiliate of any sport, is that the price of admission is low enough to take the whole family out for the night without breaking the bank. Tickets start at $10 and the food at the Tsongas Arena is not only good but also reasonably priced.

 

Agreed. The Tsongas Arena is probably the best place I have ever seen a hockey game. My first time there I couldn't believe how close all of the seats were to the ice. At my last job, one of our print vendors had season tickets to the LM and gave everyone in my dept. a pair to a game. The seats were fantastic! They were aisle seats, second row on the red line.

I guess when the Sharks open for business next season, the Centrum (or whatever they are calling it now) is going to have a new seating plan. They're going to close off the entire upper sections to make it alot more intimate. A very good idea IMO.

 

It appears that Bruin Travis Green has been implicated in the breaking gambling scandal. Former Bruin, now Phoenix Coyote assistant coach, Rick Tocchet, is alleged to have financed the New Jersey-based operation. And I have a feeling they won't be the only Bruins, past or present, named before this is over.

 

This whole gambling ring thing threw me for a loop. Which is shouldn't have considering that people do it all the time. I just wonder how many hockey players are involved in this especially if you have Gretzky (sp) wife doing it. I guess if you have money to burn might as well risk it.

 

The big thing hinging on all of this right now is that hopefully none of these players were betting on NHL games. Because then you get into the whole 'throwing games' aspect. That would not be good. If it was just football or maybe baseball, then okay. Obviously that doesn't make it right and they should still be punished for it but at least it spares the NHL a potential HUGE blackeye.

 

The whole sticking point with this case was the gambling was done through illegal bookmakers. Gambling on other sports is NOT illegal in the NHL so long as it is done in Las Vegas or anywhere else sportsbooks are legal.

Remember, Michael Jordan was a gambling fool back in the 90's, at times losing millions, but because it was all done legally, there was no case against him.

 

Oh yeah; Tocchet's screwed. And you just know this is gonna turn into a Jose Canseco thing where someone will 'name names' somewhere down the line.

 

We should send congratulations to Bruins forward P.J. Axelsson, who was a big part (3 goals, 3 assists) of Sweden's gold medal performance in the Olympic tournament.

The B's resume NHL play Wednesday night @ Carolina.

 

Well, with their playoff hopes all but flushed town the toilet the Bruins began the offseason house cleaning a bit early today by firing GM Mike O'Connell. O'Connell had been the B's GM for almost 6 years.

 

A little late in postiung this, but Saturday night with their latest loss the Bruins were finally eliminated from playoff contention. Here's hoping that whoever is in charge over there finally wakes up and cleans house, top to bottom. Has any other GM/President in professional sports been allowed to keep their job after going 34 years without a championship?

 

Alrighty folks, time to bid farewell to the individual sports threads. From here on out feel free to post away about all things Bruins here:

The 2006 Boston Sports Thread