2 fights in first 2:30 min vs Atl. Can't win, sick of losing, let's just goon it up. Tons of teams bunched up in the middle, Boston is 0-4-1 in last 5. Should be some more action in this one, the fights broke up quick.

It's pretty sad how the Bruins turned one of the best and most loyal fan bases in the NHL into the least watched team in New England.

Bruins were running good there... every team goes thru bad stretches a few times a season.

i made a post the other day about how they were 3rd in the entire NHL in pts. A week later, WTF????

I get sad whenever I hear the names "NHL" or "Boston Bruins". I used to be the biggest Bruins fan you ever met. Now, I can't name three players.

I didn't leave the NHL. The NHL left me.

(Read a great quote the other day from a disappointed season tickets holder, who told the team's new GM that he enjoys watching re-runs of old games more than he enjoys the current on-ice product.)

This is true of probably 40%+ of major sports franchises.

4 straight goals how you like dem apples ATL. Talk about momentum, lost 5-0 to Atl, then down 2-0 after 1 in the home and home matinee. Then boom 4 straight goals. Big period. Up 4-2, kill em.

Huh?

I don't mean, "I wish our team was good, like they used to be."

I mean, "I wish our sport was watchable, like it used to be."

That's fine.

But your quote said that the guy would RATHER watch re-runs of old teams than the current product. This IS true of at least 40% of pro teams.

I'm a Knicks/Rangers/Yankees/Bills fan. I would WAY rather watch old Knicks and Bills games.

Because nothing was better than watching players get mauled down without a penalty. I loved watching the sport where only one player would have his stick within 3 feet of ice level.

New NHL > Old NHL

It's funny because, a couple weeks ago (and probably even now), the Bruins were a GREAT bet to sell. The Hockey Numbers guy puts their expected goal differential at -22 and their expected winning percentage at 39 percent (27th in the NHL). Essentially, they'd been running really good wrt shooting percentage, and had been getting great goaltending from Thomas. Regression to the mean is a b!tch.

....surely you can't seriously mean this?

As a FORMER Bruin's season ticket holder when the Big, Bad Bruins truly were the BIG, BAD BRUINS (Orr, Esposito, Bucyk, etc.) I seriously disagree with you.

The game has gone to hell in a hand-basket.

It all started when the 'powers to be' of the NHL attempted to 'legitimize' the game by taking the fighting out of it. The thought was advanced (and subscribed to by many) that the on-ice fighting was the major obstacle to popularizing the game, which would allow the NHL to get a national TV contract and the league to expand......everyone makes more $$$, right?

IMO, once the 3rd man in penalty was put into effect, players/teams no longer were able to "police" what was considered truly 'dirty' play: spearing, butt-ending, two-handed slashing, elbowing & hight-sticking above the shoulders, etc.

Players coming into the league back then learned pretty quickly that if they engaged in that behavior, that they would (quite literally) get the bejeezez kicked out of them until they changed their errant ways.

Policing bad behavior now became the province of the referee's, and it simply didn't work.

Couple that with an overly aggressive expansion policy, fed by more and more college hockey players (who were well-schooled as to how to get away with some of the not-so-sportsmanlike behavior seen at every college hockey rink these days).

Let's also not forget that the new generation of players were, bigger, stronger faster and were encased in equipment best described as bullet-proof armor.....throw in some of the new coaching strategies that have been put into effect (neutral-zone trap, etc.) and you end up with 'today's game', which is both dirty and boring as hell, even though the players are more athletic and more skilled than most of their counterparts of 30-40 years ago.

So, you can put me down as one of those whining "the-old-game-ain't-what-it-used-to-be" fans, but that's the way I see it.

Since you are talking about the Mid 90's to 2005 yeah the on ice product was complete horse****.

However, there was a time say 1979-1995 (probably a year off but close enough) where the NHL was just amazing to watch. I would say right before the first strike. Hockey was on a roll and then everything just ground to a halt. There are many reasons for that time period being great most of which involved Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier etc in their primes but still there was no more fun time to watch Hockey that I can recall, even today.

Myrtle:

hogwash. Also, the NHL took fighting out of the game to sell tickets to corporations, not to extend the national TV contract.

You still couldn't have it in there anyway. The first time someone got seriously injured in a bench clearing brawl, it'd be all over ESPN. The sports world is a lot different now.

The other three sports seem to do just fine without fighting. While I enjoy fighting in hockey, it is always a dubious argument that removing fighting removed the balls from the game.

79-94 were probably glorious years, but not many different teams won the Cup in those years either.

But nobody ever got seriously hurt in a bench clearing brawl!

You know how guys get seriously hurt? By butt ends and high sticks and slashes and elbows and charges--all the things that never used to happen when the perpetrator had to worry about getting jumped by three guys if he dared to try such a move.

It's about perception, not reality. Going to a no-touch icing rule would reduce serious injuries more than any ban on fighting.

When was the last serious injury on an icing play?

...not to get into a pissing contest with you about this, but, what is your perspective?

I'm looking at it from the NHL from the 50's on. I'm not defending the issue of fighting in hockey, just recognizing that it has always been part of the game, especially the way it had been played by the Canadiens (who, if you may remember) dominated the game from its' inception.

The nasty-arse, cheap chit penalties that had the potential to seriously injure or end a players career were pretty rare prior to the inception of the 3rd main in and game misconducts for leaving the bench penalties.

Do you remember Wayne Maki? He came down on Teddy Greens head with a two hander and damned near killed him. Maki wasn't a "dirty" player.....he just lost his temper. From that day forward, he was a marked man, and he behaved himself pretty well for the rest of his career.

Do you remember Stan Mikita? Hall of Famer and one of the best center ice men of all time. One game he speared Wayne Cashman in the face and cut him. With the blood streaming from his face, Cashman chased him around the rink TWICE and couldn't catch the faster Mikita. As this was going on, all the players and the refs just stood by and watched. It ended up being pretty funny as Mikita finally ended up going round and round one of the nets and Cashman just couldn't catch him. Thank god too.....or Cashman would have really hurt him, as he had totally lost his composure.

The point that I'm making is that all of those guys knew the "rules". If you violated them, you'd better be prepared to drop your stick and gloves and duke it out.

No helmets, no bullet proof body armor.......and no chicken-**** attempts to hurt someone during the course of play.

Don Cherry has an entire highlight reel of guys getting maimed when they get hit as they race back to touch up an iced puck. He shows it on his show about once a year, hoping the league will go to a no-touch rule on icings. He says the NHL is just about the only league in the world, and any level, that has not abandoned this rule.

Two guys race back to touch up, generating tons of momentum between them--and the guy who wins the battle usually loses the war, getting planted into the boards at full speed as soon as he makes the touch.

The most famous case was Pat Peak, who played for the Caps, until the day he got buried on an icing touch-up. He never played again. I think Roenick got rubbed out for a season once, due to one of these hits.

I wish I could find a clip, but it didn't pop right up in a search, and I don't have time to wade through dozens of Don Cherry clips right now. If you saw it, you would quickly agree that the rule should be changed.

6 minutes into this video clip. brutal
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hnic...gal_but_n.html

Lucic didnt lose a fight, but kinda got the worst of it, team skating around like monkeys. But its early.

Savard scores! How easily Chara defeats these earthlings.

PJ crashes the net and scores, tied 1-1, tough when Bruins and C play at same time, what to do, what to do.

Shorthanded 3-1 bb's ohohohohoh ohohohohoh oh oh oh oh.

That was 100 percent awesomeness, great hockey game, 4-3, mad scrabble at the end, and then the everybody gets into a brawl. Chara is so bad ass. Keeps his mouth shut all game, and then when enough is enough its on.

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?service=p...008&gameType=2

Whole game was great, the last 10 seconds of this video is cool, I like how they say no punches were thrown in the article.