Thursday, December 01, 2005
Bruins Save, Fans Lose
The talk of the office today, as I suspect would be the same for most offices across Canada, was the big Joe Thornton trade where Thornton was shipped off to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Wayne Primeau, Marco Sturm and Brad Stuart. Boston saved itself about $1.5 million in salary with this deal.
Both teams have been struggling. San Jose has dropped ten straight and Boston is 5 games below .500. For the Boston Bruins, is this really the answer?
Every team should strive to have a franchise player. Not just to put points on the board or to log the most minutes, but how about giving the fans a player they can look up to from the start of their career to the end? It simply doesn’t happen anymore. Steve Yzerman will retire a Red Wing. Joe Sakic has played for the same team but it’s a little bit cheating to include him since Colorado was based in Quebec previously. And as my bias with the Senators continue, I truly hope Daniel Alfredsson finishes his career in Ottawa as his devotion to the city is evident in his interviews and interaction with the fans.
And that’s about all I can think of.
From strictly a team standpoint, it is not Joe Thornton’s fault the Bruins are where they are. Boston signed free agent Alexei Zhamnov to help out with offence. He’s been injured and since coming back has no goals in nine games. Patrice Bergeron was supposed to have a breakout season this year. He is an awful -11 and a mediocre 15 points in 25 games. How about G Andrew Raycroft? A sub .900 save percentage and a GAA of 3.43. Did he sign a new contract this season? When I look at all this stuff, Thornton is the only bright spot on this squad and has had to carry it on his own.
Fans become cynical when this sort of thing happens. Regardless if you think it was a fair trade, this is another story of how there is no loyalty in pro sports, all players are meat and it sends a message to the fans not to get too attached to your star players, cause soon enough they’ll be back in your rink wearing a different sweater. Joe Thornton was the type of guy that plays an exciting style of hockey, loves to get his nose dirty and fans in other arenas pay to see. Boston fans have now been robbed of him.
It should be an interesting contest when Ottawa plays Boston in their hometown tonight. I think one of two things will happen…it will either be an absolute blowout by Ottawa or Boston will squeak by with an emotional win. And GM Mike O’Connell will be privy to chants of “O’Connell sucks!” throughout the game.
# posted by SBP : 3:51 PM
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Ben, couple of things.
1. Is it wrong to try to improve your club? Boston had a bazillion holes in their lineup. It's unfortunate but to plug those holes and acquire talent, they also had to trade talent.
2. Loyalty. Interesting word. Players aren't loyal anymore so why hold teams to the same standard?
3. Boston fans and media soured on Thornton over the years and he was ripepd to pieces following the last playoff season (whenever that was) where he registered 0 points in a 7 game series.
4. Was it really wrong to trade Thornton when it was obvious there were too many problems in Boston? This way, Boston can focus on rebuilding around the nucleus they have in-house. And Thornton can hopefully play for a team with a chance to compete.
1. Is it wrong to try to improve your club? Boston had a bazillion holes in their lineup. It's unfortunate but to plug those holes and acquire talent, they also had to trade talent.
2. Loyalty. Interesting word. Players aren't loyal anymore so why hold teams to the same standard?
3. Boston fans and media soured on Thornton over the years and he was ripepd to pieces following the last playoff season (whenever that was) where he registered 0 points in a 7 game series.
4. Was it really wrong to trade Thornton when it was obvious there were too many problems in Boston? This way, Boston can focus on rebuilding around the nucleus they have in-house. And Thornton can hopefully play for a team with a chance to compete.
# posted by 
: 9:48 AM, December 02, 2005
: 9:48 AM, December 02, 2005
Some points worth exploring, whoever you are! Let me respond:
1. I don't think the trade is an improvement. Do you think Boston will now make the playoffs? I don't think they will. I sincerely believe the trade was made so the owner could save money and that's all.
2. Perhaps players aren't, but I'm talking about loyalty to the FANS. They seem to have been forgotten. With leads me to:
3. I don't think fans hated Thornton at all. Not sure what the Boston media thinks but from what I've heard Boston fans were calling up the radio stations upset at the trade. True, Thornton did have zero points in seven games in that playoff series, but it was no secret he was playing injured and not the same player he was during the regular season.
4. The problem in Boston is a tightwad owner, lousy free agent signings and an underachieveing goaltender in Raycroft. Joe Thornton still managed to get 33 pts in 23 games despite this.
Who knows, maybe in 82 games this will be the turning point for the Bruins. Only time will tell.
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1. I don't think the trade is an improvement. Do you think Boston will now make the playoffs? I don't think they will. I sincerely believe the trade was made so the owner could save money and that's all.
2. Perhaps players aren't, but I'm talking about loyalty to the FANS. They seem to have been forgotten. With leads me to:
3. I don't think fans hated Thornton at all. Not sure what the Boston media thinks but from what I've heard Boston fans were calling up the radio stations upset at the trade. True, Thornton did have zero points in seven games in that playoff series, but it was no secret he was playing injured and not the same player he was during the regular season.
4. The problem in Boston is a tightwad owner, lousy free agent signings and an underachieveing goaltender in Raycroft. Joe Thornton still managed to get 33 pts in 23 games despite this.
Who knows, maybe in 82 games this will be the turning point for the Bruins. Only time will tell.
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