Well, he did have the great year just before the strike when I think we came in second in overall points, only to go belly-up in the playoffs when Gonchar sucked and Thornton was hurt. But aside from that regular season, there wasn't much that OC did to impress. And I still don't get the Thornton trade.

Well, that's good news. I was expecting them to keep him on 'til the regular season ended, but the sooner the better. It'll be interesting to see if they hand the job to Gorton or go outside of the organization. Gorton's done a good job running the drafts and scouting department, but they may want more experience.

Farewell to Mr. O'Connell, I hope he lands on his feet but I'd be surprised if he ever finds the letters "GM" before his name in a hockey-related capacity again. Hope the new guy can undo a good portion of what MOC has done.

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins fired general manager Mike O'Connell on Saturday,[B] telling him he wouldn't be back next season so there was no point in finishing out this one.

Assistant general manager Jeff Gorton will assume the GM's duties for the rest of the season, team president Harry Sinden said before the Bruins' game against the Buffalo Sabres.

"When you think something has to be done ... you have to do it," Sinden said. "It was not proper to let him keep doing what he was doing -- signing players, making plans for the future -- when we knew that at the end of the year we were going to relieve him of his job." [/B]

ESPN Story

So much for all the pundits that said he wouldn't be cut during the season.

Unfortunately, it may be too little, too late. Sullivan's probably praying for a winning streak of about 4 or 5 games to save his neck too.

He (and Harry) absolutely misjudged what would happen after the strike, and that cost MO his job. They made a plan expecting a specific conclusion, and it didn't happen, in fact the result of the strike was disasterously bad for the Bruins, and the exact opposite of what they had planned on. Mike compounded the mistake by making panic moves attempting to deliver on some of the promises they made.

Honestly Mike had a very good regular season run in Boston. His teams were 179-130-39-39. That is a solid record, one not many GM's can match. Probably a lot better than the record of whatever retread they hire has had ( Lombardi, Patrick etc)

I feel bad for Mike. I really think most of the pre strike decisions that were made came from Harry. Harry though management would hold together and stick it to the big spending clubs, and that didn't happen.

That doesn't excuse Mike for the moves he made. He got bullied into signing Murray, as a sign of good faith to Joe, and then Joe showed up as disinterested as ever. And now Joe is gone, and they are stuck with Murray who is overpriced, and not really a good fit for the team they want to build. Zhamnov's signing was a disaster, I guess some would say that was completely predictable, but Alexi was a really good player. Then of course he went nuts signing veteran role player types, which closed out any opportunities for the young talented players they had to get a chance.

Time to move on. No doubt in my mind Jeff Gorton should be the next GM, but that won't happen, and it will be a retread, because that is what they believe will pacify the fans

Christ, the Sabres just won't stay down. Thomas did everything except stand on his head and they still tie it up. I think the Bruins could score 10 goals and the Sabres would find a way to get back in it. They just pwn the B's this season.

Edit: Saw the replay. Impossible to block that one and it went over his shoulder.

Bruins win. An all-around good day for once.

Me too. I love this. Good day for the B's. If there is a God, Jacobson will sell the team to an owner who cares, cares enough to win.

I agree pretty much with your whole post, and particularly with the Harry parts. It's good that Mike got fired, because he was a big part of the problem, but Harry has been a big part of the problem for years. It's highly unlikely that any big decisions involving the Bruins were not equally made by Harry. As a result, any Mike firing when Harry keeps his job is a complete joke.

If only the Bs had an owner who gave a damn....all recent protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, the only thing better than Harry going with Mike would have been the Jacobs family selling the team to an owner whose priority is winning.

I've avoided Bruins hockey for months now. It kills me. Just kills me.

For all of the cost control rhetoric we heard from Harry "It's not my fault the Rangers overpaid Leetch" Sinden over the last decade plus, the NHL FINALLY installs a cap and they were totally unprepared for the new era.

Trading Thornton was a grasp a straws--a gratuitous "shake em up" move.

There HAVE BEEN some good draft picks. But Harry and JJ--they just don't fucking care enough to build around the younger guys.

Canning O'Connell is pointless.

It just kills me.

Someday...

I remember hearing an interview with Jacob's son, talking the team and hockey in general, the kid (kid?) seems to know what he is talking about and is fairly passionate about the Bruins, now if daddy would just turn the team over to him.

That may happen sooner as opposed to later. According to Kevin Paul Dupont, Jacobs doesn't think O'Connell deserves all the blame for the disaster that was last off-season.

http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins...onnells_excuse/

For those not interested in reading, Jacobs hangs Sinden out to dry, then implies that O'Connell may not be the end of the slaughter on Causeway St.

I know popular opinion is that Jacobs is responsible for the mess the team has become. Up until this season, I'd be inclined to agree. Up until last season, the Bruins have been a consistent top revenue performer, and despite that, the payrolls were almost always among the bottom third of the league. However, there are two things to remember: first, when motivated, Jacobs spent the money in the past. Marty LaPointe was nothing more than a revenge signing, taking Mike Illitch's favorite player away from him by giving him a deal he couldn't refuse. Also, when the Bruins could've played coy and decided they couldn't spend the money for a top-4 defenseman at the deadline two years ago, they sacrificed and picked up Gonchar.

Second, money is no longer the bottom line. There's a cap. When the season started, they spent to it. Since O'Connell's gone, it's a good guess that the Thornton and Samsonov trades were not pure salary dumps as much as they were poor talent evaluation. Examples? The Bruins felt they were not going to receive anything better than they had from Thornton and valued a troubled defenseman more than an unmotivated top-line center. With Samsonov almost certainly headed to test the market, the Bruins attempted to recoup an earlier loss by nearly giving him away for a prospect they had as recently as last October. The talent in both deals was significantly more than the talent received, and O'Connell paid the price. If Jacobs isn't hiding behind a smokescreen, and since Sinden has been his right-hand man for decades now, you have to believe he isn't, Jacobs may finally be what many of the fans here wanted him to be: an owner concerned with the ability of this team to compete at a high level. If Sinden goes by force this summer, the message is clear: you may have thought I was callous about the success of the team before, but I am by no means callous now. Makes sense that he'd come around to that thinking, since the money issue is no longer there and he's still perceived as the ultimate bad guy. It also doesn't hurt that attendance at games of late has been downright pathetic. The Thrashers game last week had many empties BEHIND THE GOALIES.

As a light aside, what the heck is Ric Jackman doing on the ice for the Panthers? Darcy Hordichuk broke his jaw a week ago.

Tim Thomas has to be the most snakebitten goaltender in the world right now. He had stopped Jokinen's shot perfectly, but knocked the puck backwards with his own glove as he tried to gather himself.

Not surprisingly, Luongo is himself vs. the Bruins when it matters and they lose as a result.

That's going to be eating at Thomas for the rest of the season if they miss the playoffs by a point (which they won't, they'll miss by a lot more). At least they picked-up a point tonight, but letting Florida take the extra one is basically running in place.

Sinden should've fired O'Connell after the Samsonov trade.

If I was Jacobs (or his son), I would have fired Sinden and MOC BEFORE the Thornton trade. Don't get me wrong, firing MOC (and, inevitably, Sinden) is the right move and a step in the right direction (for once), but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that those two deals were duds. Zhamnov, Leetch and McEachern? That's what the B's get from free agency in a year with two years' worth of free agents? The best thing for this team now is to clean house and try to pick up the pieces (and be thankful for the few good, young players still left on the team).

The depressing part is how long it took for ownership to realize what Bruins' fans started to get a whiff of at the end of the off-season. Sinder and MOC were abysmal when it came to evaluating talent in trades and free agency. Their only saving grace was a decent draft record and Bergeron in particular. I am not one to jump on the "the owner let the FO have their way and they screwed up" bandwagon as I can't believe Jacobs didn't have knowledge of these deals before they happened.

Perhaps it was simply that he wasn't paying enough attention, but when you have a devoted fanbase that keeps your club consistently among the league leaders in revenue I think it's a good idea to pay a little attention to what the hell's going on. I will continue to pray that ownership is able to right the ship, but giving the Jacobs a pat on the back for firing MOC and eventually Sinden now, after all of the damage they have caused, is not what anyone should be doing.

Well, had to assume the positive momentum would disappear: Sabres beat B's again. They need a miracle to win the chance to get knocked-off by the Hurricanes...though if the Senators end up being the top seed, I bet the B's would find a way to beat them. Too bad it won't happen.

Maybe this is a stupid question, but bear with me. The Bruins seem to score early, play hard through most of the second period, then fall apart in the third. What are they doing wrong in the third period? I can see the results, but what's the cause? Is it an endurance problem? Does the Boyes-Bergeron-Sturm line spend more time on the bench in the third? Are they giving up more penalties in the third than in the other periods? What's going on?

Sliding, I missed last night's game (LOST is far more important than the Bruins, especially these days, at least for me) but in past games I've seen, the Bruins play hard all game long. There have been very few contests where you could question their grit and determination on the ice.

The problem is that against teams that are clearly better (Buffalo, Carolina, etc.), they're inexperience from their rookie players isn't enough to compliment the skills that their veterans bring to the table. As a result, the better teams are typically a step ahead in crucial spots. The Bruins give up a lot of ugly goals, which speaks to how much work their defense needs in the coming off-season. Thomas has been solid, maybe even great, but still has too many holes.

How does this explain their mastery of Ottawa? I don't know; I guess the Bruins just match-up well against the Senators and, to a lesser extent, could be in their heads. The last time out, the Sens didn't lose in regulation to Boston for the first time in awhile, ultimately dropping the contest in the shootout (I believe), which is equal parts skill and luck and has absolutely no bearing on how well the team itself played but, rather, how well a guy can deke the goalie and how well the goalie can defend.

I usually hear how young teams frequently clinch defeat from the jaws of victory because they're too young to know how to close out games. Late and tight, those teams supposedly ease up too much, thinking the other team can't possibly come back against them.

Whether that's the problem with the Bruins is beyond me. Perhaps it is, even though the team isn't particularly young. Perhaps it really is the idea that they play the third not to lose as opposed to win it. Or maybe they're just a bad team. Either way, it's a season that will cost people jobs.

I keep thinking about a couple things, was the Thornton trade all MOC, Harry must have had some input, what about Sammy was that more of the same, did someone panic?

I can't believe that Harry would let MOC trade away your two star players and one of them a legitimate top 3 player in the league without agreeing with it.

Edit: eye kant sphell

Some news. kevin Paul Dupont reports that Boynton has a torn labrum and is done for the season. Just as well, as this should force Mark Stuart and Alberts to get plenty of minutes the rest of the year.




Sammy is not a Star player, at least he certainly hadn't been one in Boston for at least 3 years and debatable as to whether you could ever say he was a star player. Sammy was a nice 2nd line player, but in no way shape or form was he one of the 4 best players on this team (Bergeron is easily the best, then Sturm, Boyes, Stuart). Was I thrilled with what the B's got for Sammy, no, but he wasn't going to be resigned, this team wasn't going to make the playoffs, so they got some value for him. Better than watching him play 15 more games then leaving for nothing.

I think the biggest thing you could criticize MO for about the trade deadline is that he didn't dump more of the slop, not that he did dump Sammy

In terms of the Thornton deal. Joe is not a top 3 player in the NHL. Yes he is a very good offensive player, and can be exploxsive when playing with really talented line mates. I just don't see him as a top 3 player. A great player makes his linemates better, and I just never see that from Joe

Whoa, I don't see where you are coming from on that. Cheechoo isn't better w/ Joe? Murray?

Thornton has holes in his game, but what he does well, he does Very Well. That volume of offensive production is extraordinarily hard to find, and it's too bad the Bruins were too frustrated w/ the other aspects of his game to maximize his either on-ice or his trade market potential.

Thornton is a playmaker who needs guys around him that can put it in the net, he has shown top shelf productivity when this is the situation. JT is a top player, not in the top 3 but he's up there. He sets guys up as well as just about anyone in the league. Jonathan Cheechoo had benefited tremendously (hes going to finish with 50-some goals?!) from JTs presence. The key with Thornton is to get him on a line with some other stars/fringe studs and the production says the rest.

I was hoping to see a Thornton-Cheechoo-Dimitrakos pilot line but Niko was traded to the Flyers after getting buried deep on the SJ bench, and has since stepped up his production big time despite still only getting 8-10 minutes of ice time per game.

I'm sorry I thought 2nd in the NHL in points made you one of the top 3 players. My bad.

Because points are all that matter?

It's an interesting question. Certainly points (production) are an important measure. Cut to it though: rank the 10 best players in the league for a 7-game Cup series which is to happen next week (i.e., don't consider potential, consider the now). Who do you pick (exclude goalies for the moment)? How much do those intangibles weigh, and do you consider them as much for Joe and you would for someone like Jagr? Mine:

1. Peter Forsberg
2. Alex Ovechkin (hits, scores on a godawful team)
3. Nick Lidstrom
4. Joe Thornton
5. Jaromir Jagr
6. Brad Richards
7. Dany Heatley
8. Joe Sakic
9. Ilya Kovulchuk
10. Eric Staal

Jagr's resurgence comes after years of indifference, and nobody's ever accused him of being a 2-way player. Richards has intangibles up the hockey pants, but doesn't put up huge offense. Forsberg is #1, but you can count on him missing large chunks of games due to injury. Lidstrom is calming presence on the blueline and a PP lightning rod. Sakic would be higher if he were younger. Kovalchuk--still learning how to play with his teammates. Staal got off to a torrid start and has faded ever so slightly. Every one of these players has faults.

Well it doesnt. He is not in the top 10 IMO.

Erfus, not to continue this from the Hfboards discussion, but there is no way Thornton is the 4th best player in the NHL. To me he is basically Craig Janney on steroids. He doesnt shoot, he doesnt go to the net like he should, he thinks pass first, second and third and is not a big time goal scorer.

I would also include Chara and Redden in that group as well. Perhaps Patrick Elias as well--his stats may be down because he missed most of the first half, but his stats over the past few years are very good--ditto Naslund.

Also, to me Patrice Bergeron is very close to what Brad Richards is. If the Bruins played a more aggressive system Bergeron would likely have more points. He is a very complete three zone player that wins faceoffs, more takeaways than giveaways and plays the body. Thornton, on the other hand, will be LUCKY to finish his season with 40 hits total, his faceoff % over 50% and will most likely have 3x more giveaways than takeaways. Good thing the NHL is so liberal with giving assists.

He might not be having his BEST season so far - and like most Canadian players he stunk at the Olympics, but I don't see how you can leave Jarome Iginla off that list.

The Bruins play a system?

Bergeron doesn't have many giveaways because he doesn't play a puck control game. He's a quick strike offensive player, but he's clealy not yet in the same kinda offensive realm as the list above. Consider the league leaders in giveaways (other number is takeaways) and let me know if it's a really meaningful stat.

1 ILYA KOVALCHUK 119 47
2 ALES HEMSKY EDM 117 36
3 CHRIS PRONGER EDM 103 46
4 JAROMIR JAGR NYR 102 40
5 JOE THORNTON SJS 92 37

Thornton's FO% is 51.7. At this point, he'll have to be extremely ineffective to finish below 50. He doesn't hit people. Neither do Jagr, Richards, or Lidstrom. I'm again not saying he's a complete player. He's not. I simply believe there's a large, hairy element of "the grass is greener..." going on here.

Honestly, I think Patrice Bergeron is still on his honeymoon. Once he becomes "the guy" he'll be in the frying pan and we'll do our best to find each and every fault. Whether it's his skating, his shot/shooting percentage, or whatever.

I simply forgot about him. There's probably a reason that list was Eastern Conference heavy, given that's usually what I see.

As we did with Rick Middleton, Barry Pederson, Ray Bourque, and Cam Neely? Bruins fans don't turn on guys who show up to play each and everty night.

I think erfus was referring to KPD.

With 2 goals and an assist, Bergeron now has 28-40-68 totals on the year, and 44-64-108 totals for his career.

In Joe Thornton's first three years, he scored 42-66-108, and his 3rd year total was 23-37-60.

A bit of an unfair comparison EJ. Thornton only played in 55 games his first year in the league, and genius Pat Burns played him only on the 4th line for that season and gave him practically no ice time. I'm not sure that first year should really be included in the discussion.

That is true, but you saw him play that season, he did not belong in the NHL. They had build a marketing campaign around him, and could not let him go back to Juniors. And then as it happened the Bruins had a very good team that year, and couldn't just give games away playing Joe on a top 2 line.

The unfair comparison is that Begeron has done more in 2 NHL seasons, than Joe did in 3

I dunno, Mike, it was tough to tell if Joe belonged in the NHL that year because Burns sat him in the press box half the games and gave him 4 minutes in the other games. Not sure how not playing at all was good for his (or any player's) development.

The quality of the 1997/98 team is overstated, IMHO. They got bounced in the 1st round by Washington in 6 games. They were decent, but not a very good team. They were miles better than they had been the previous year, of course.

I don't think it was good for his development, he should have been in juniors. Maybe if he had played 18 minutes a night, then by the end of the season he might have become a decent NHL player, but when he was on the ice he absolutely looked lost most of the time.

They were a 91 Point team. No they weren't an incredible team, but they were a legitimate playoff squad. In terms of the Cap series wasn't that the one the Bruins had a critical game wone in overtime at the Fleet, only to have the officials overturn it because a fraction of Tim Taylor's skate might have been touching the opposite side of the crease from where the play happened (thank goodness the NHL got rid of that rediculous rule). If that is the right series, I am convinced they win that series were it not for that rediculous call

Yeah, that's the series. Taylor's skate in the crease. Stupid rule. Thank God it's gone.

While the season has been an utter disaster, a nice story last night, as Tim Thomas got the shootout win on the same night he deservedly won the 7th Player award.

Considering the number of shots Thomas faces each night, what he's done this season is pretty damn impressive.

Even now that they have been eliminated, the Bruins are still acting like the last playoff spot is within reach. Why is Thomas playing, when Raycroft needs to be showcased? I hate to see the team winning when all that accomplishes is a shittier draft pick.

Thomas playing last night is inexcusible to me. I guess the only way it makes even a modicum of sense is if it was because he won the 7th players, so the wanted the fans to celebrate him.

I can justify Thomas starting when they play Montreal for example, and Montreal has a lot riding on the game. The argument is that you owe it to Tampa dn New Jersey to give your best effort against Montreal. But playing Thomas in a meaningless game to both teams, especially given the draft implication is just baffling.

Is Boyes a hell of a player or what? He should be a consistent 35-40 goal a year player.

If anyone from NESN is reading this PLEASE pull those stupid "It's called Bruins" ads NOW.

Well, I'm off to the final game of my 10 game Bruins package. I skipped the last game and tonight I'm only going because it's the final hoorah and I have this insane notion that I'll be upgraded for sticking it out with the team all year. I know, it'll never happen. To be honest, I just love the chicken fingers and fries and I assume the beer line won't be too bad.

I'm bringing with me the miniature Stanley Cup they handed out on opening night. My plan is to throw it at Hal Gill at the end of the game.

Bruins in 2007! We're going all....the...way! Or not

Our long seasonal nightmare is over.

Lousy hockey...it's called Bruins!

So when will Sullivan get canned? I woulg guess they will wait until a new GM is hired.

Mercifully, it ends. I hope Atlanta had a priest on-hand to administer the Last Rites.

I hope Sullivan doesn't get fired, personally. At first, I did. But I slowly began to realize that he was doing everything he possibly could with the effort he was being given and the talent he had available. Did he make mistakes? Certainly, but even the greats behind the bench do that. The team made the playoffs in '03-'04 and was jobbed by a flopping Habs player with a chance to put the series away in Montreal before choking in Game 7.

No one could predict that Razor would be so awful now that he was "healthy" again or that his fill-in, Toivonen, would get hurt when they needed him most. Sullivan had nothing to do with the Thornton trade, but got a lot out of the guys they received in return.

I think he should get one more crack now that MOC is gone. If they're sucking it up a month or so into the season again, give him the pink slip. The team was either hurt or underachieved on his watch and that wasn't entirely his fault.

His problem goes beyond making mistakes. This is a man who had no idea Brad Boyes could play in the NHL. Or knew Boyes could play but kept him on the bench anyway. Either way he's not a guy who should be coaching the Bruins.

Goldstein's pics for NHL awards ... some decent choices

Hart -- MVP: Joe Thornton, San Jose
Norris -- Best Defenseman: Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit
Lady Byng – Sportsmanship: Simon Gagne, Philadelphia
Jack Adams -– Top coach: Lou Lamoriello, Devils
Calder -– Top Rookie: Dion Phaneauf, Calgary
Lidstrom Vezina -– Best Goaltender: Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary
Selke -– Best defensive forward: Rod Brind'Amour, Carolina

I was suprised by his Calder winner even though he made some good arguments for his choice I still see it going to Ovechkin though.


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