I think it's time for the B's to go the Charlestown Chiefs route and fill seats through goonery.

Orr -- Domi -- McGrattan
Boumeester -- Avery -- Hordichuk
Barnaby -- Boulton -- Shelley

Hell, it would be more entertaining than watching Zhamnov figure skate out there while the defense tries to clear the zone unsuccessfully for the 10th time.

I went to the Flyers game. I have never heard a worse verbal assault on a player by fans than what Hal Gill got. It was awesome. His showing was one of the worst individual performances I have ever seen.

Just had to get that out there.

Good. That butcher gave the puck up twice by falling on his face while trying to dodge Forsberg and Gagne's forechecks. He is the worst defenseman on this team right now.

Bruins place McEachern on waivers.


In other news - the Thrashes pass the Bs in the conference standings.

Shawn McWasteofaMillion, we hardly knew ye...

Link to McEachern story?

BTW Mike Sullivan shouldn't buy any green bananas.

link

The Bruins must be praying someone takes McEachern's corpse off their hands. Not gonna happen: that 2 year deal stinks like week old makeral.

Colton Orr was also placed on waivers. No one cares.

Dan Lacouture and Zdenak Blatny recalled from Providence. Eric Healey sent back to Providence.

Bruins are 8 points of a playoff spot and are in 12th place in the conference. They are 15 points behind division-leading Ottawa. They are 27th in the league in goals allowed.

And it's all been because of their even strength play. They are top 12 in both power play and penalty killing.

Obviously, the Rangers do. They claimed him for some reason.

They're morons. They have Purinton to goon it up, the same guy that gouged Orr's eye in preseason and got a suspension for it.

So when does the Mike Sullivan death watch start??

I don't care Orr left. But to look at HFboards Bruins board today, you'd think the Bruins waived Thornton. Actually I think half of them would be less upset if it was Thornton who went. Yeah Orr played Hard. I'd play hard to if someone gave me 450 grand to play in the NHL. I'd stink, but I'd play hard.

O'Connell has made some bad moves. he could make some terrible moves in an attempt to save his job. Waiving Orr is not a bad move

Huselieus from Florida is on waivers. Rumor has been the Bruins have been interested in him for a while. I'd take a chance. The kid has all world talent. Sure he can't play for Keenan, but a lot of guys can't, it doesn't mean they all suck

I'd take Huselieus in a heartbeat. He's got talent, unlike guys like Orr and McEachern.

Actually, you'd think the Orr they waived was Bobby and not Colton!
I agree. PJ Axelsson is another one of those guys who could not play for Mike Keenan.

I definitely go for Huselius. 2 time 20 goal scorer (on Florida, no less) at age 28? Unless he has some big contract I'm unaware of, I claim him.

I think Sully has until the end of December to right the ship. If they can't at least put together a 7-6 record over the last 13 games of this year, I tend to think he's history.

Granted, 7-6 is still underachieving for this payroll but I think it would at least buy him some more time.

Only a matter of time before the Devils scored. Raycroft has been outstanding, but the rest of the team still sucks.

And now it's tied 2-2 with the Bruins about to start a PP. Pathetic.

edit: and now a dumb fuckin penalty by Isbister to negate it, clear as day, directly in front of the ref. How dumb can you get?

edit 2: I must say as well that these refs are completely clueless. This is one of the worst officiated games I've seen in a while - Thornton hadn't touched the puck and he got elbowed in the mouth, not to mention a number of very questionable calls agains the B's.

Can it suck any worse than this?

At least green got a misconduct by telling off the ref. "Yeah, just shut the fuck up" were his words, I believe.

Key play of the game: Travis Green gets thrown out of the faceoff deep in the Bruins zone. Joe comes in, loses the draw and the fucking Devils score.

FUCK FUCK FUCK.

Worst officiated sport in the world.

Save that question for after the loss to Ottawa on Thursday.

edit: nevermind. No need for me to pile on.

I know Boston sports have inspired many a drunken night, but given the sucktitude of the B's this season, I think it's time for a Bruins Drinking Game.

Anyone care to suggest some rules? I'll start with an easy one:

1. Any time the Bruins lose a lead in the 3rd quarter, finish your drink and crack open another one...because
2. Every time the Bruins lose, it's a drink. OTL's are worth a drink and a half. SO losses are worth 2.

It's over...the whole team is dead, they just don't know it yet.

Clear 'em all out. Sullivan, MOC, Harry...everyone.

In a salary cap world, when everyone spends the same amount of money, when you see a team perform as badly as the Bruins compared to the rest of the league it's safe to say that the reason is front office incompetence. If Ottawa's spending $39 million and is 17 points ahead of the Bruins by Dec. 1, it's fair to question the abilities of the front office and the coaching staff in putting together and coaching a team. A team that decides Hal Gill is an asset worth $1.6 million is a team without a clue.

I'd trade Sammy. I like him, but he's on a 1 year deal and there's no way in hell he re-signs in Boston. Trade him and see what you can get for him.

I love Samsonov but I think you're right Joe. He ain't coming back in 2006 and you might as well get some value for him.

Was there a single soul out there that saw the Gill deal and thought it even remotely made sense? Gill must still be holding onto that video of Sinden banging a stripper as leverage.

Even Gill knew it was crazy money, since it was merely his qualifying offer with the 10% raise. He signed that contract right away and sent it back before the Bruins came to their senses.

The Gill signing is the everlasting symbol of what's wrong with the Bruins' front office.

Samsonov looks like he's playing out the string, Raycroft looks like he's even slighly regressed over his Calder year two years ago. Joe can't win a damn faceoff and all the signings outside of Leetch have looked pretty bad (Zhamnov getting three years at 35. Argh!).

I would be in complete agreement that a cleaning of the house would be necessary at this point. It's obviously not working at this point. It's almost like when the B's take the ice, they know they're going to find a way to lose and that's something Sullivan needs to fix, fast.

I actually think Raycroft has been playing out of his mind the last couple of games. He's kept them in games despite facing 16 and 17 shots a period. But the defense blows and he can't do it all by himself.

Kevin DuPont with a full-scale rip job in the Globe today:

Link

I'm all for callingout the Bruins this season, but as usual KPD's column is full of lies:



Madden was quoted after the game that he was trying to pull the puck back to the point, but that it went to Mogilny because Joe got a piece of it. In other words, a fluke. Not going to stop KPD from tearing into his favorite whipping boy, though.

The Bruins played poorly with the lead again last night. But KPD is re-writing history here.

Listening to WEEI, Dale Arnold was about as harsh on a B's player as I've heard from him in a long time. His basic comment was that Thorton was "going through the motions" until he was knocked on his ass and realized that they were playing "big-boy hockey". With the looks of both the winter teams, this could be a LOOOONG winter

Was KPD correct when he said that Joe Thornton didn't get his first shot on net until the third period? I'm asking because I did not see the game.

I think he must have some compromising videos of Emrick and Davidson too. The OLN pair were in full on fellatio mode last night for Hal.

EDIT: I'm not sure about last night Nuf, but Thornton seemed non-existent in Saturday's Ottawa game.

It's possible, as he's listed as having 2 shots last night.

He did pick up an assist in the first period, so I doubt he was sleepwalking. He's got points in the last 6 games and 9 out of the last 10. He's got 33 points this year, so I'm not sure why he's constantly being singled out for criticism.

Oh, wait, I do know. It's because of the asinine tendency for struggling teams and their fans to always blame their best player for the team's struggles. It's stupid to do so; the defense has been the real culprit this year and has been truly craptastic all season long.

Thorton is tied for 11th in the league in points.

Boston is 14th in the league in scoring.
They are 5th in the league in shots.

They are 22nd in the league in average goals allowed per game.
They are 23rd in shots allowed per game.

They are 9th in the league in PP percentage.
They are 10th in the league in PK percentage.

The offense ain't the problem, folks. Hal Gill is far more of a problem for this team than Joe Thornton is.

SJH, Thornton is a non-factor over and over and over again. The points are misleading. I can't think of a single close game in which he made his presence felt in the third period. Actually, he did once, scoring a nice individual effort goal to put the B's ahead of the FLyers 3-1, but they went on to blow the game.

He is paid as if he is one of the top handful of players in the league, and his play does not merit that kind of pay.

But that's quite besides the point. Their defense is the major problem this season. They're getting killed in shots allowed and don't clear the puck out of their own zone at all. That points to problems with the defensemen. To say that Joe's getting his points but doing nothing to help the team is contradictory to me.

I just read the constant criticism of Joe and I am baffled. While he's not taking control of the games, he's pretty much the least of their problems right now. Getting the defense fixed is priority number 1, 2, 3, and 4.

It also points to problems with the forwards, and the team as a whole.

They are ther ultimate "play it safe" team, when they ought to be the ultimate forechecking team. Having no forecheck puts more pressure on the defense, not less, because it means:
1) Less offense, and therefore fewer even strength goals.
2) More defensive zone time, and therefore more pressure on the defensemen.
3) The other team is basically allowed to regroup under no pressure, and get their offensive attack going exactly the way they want to.

When the play is in the Bruin zone, which is most of the time, the Bruins play as if they are shorthanded. All the forwards collapse into the slot. This might make it harder to drive to the net and score, but it makes it much easier to hold the puck in the Bruin zone, and gives the other team plenty of time to set up their offensive attack. When the Bruins do regain the puck in their end, they are not in good position for a breakout.

I am sure lack of confidence in their defense is the reason why the Bruins play it safe, but playing it safe is exactly the wrong thing to do, and only makes the situation worse.

The Bruins have more talent than they have shown, but they have only one win in the last ten games. That is also the one game when the team, led by the fourth line, actually skated and forechecked and attacked instead of just playing it safe.

The system they play is a system would be good for an offensively challenged team with excellent defense in their own end. A team like that could take the ice with the goal of playing solid defense, taking no risks, and just hoping to capitalize on a mistake by the other team to score the odd goal.

But it will never wortk for the Bruins because their defense cannot handle spending the whole game in their end, with no forwards available on breakouts. It just won't work.

If they want to ever win a game they need to GO FOR IT!!! The forwards need to disrupt the other team's offensive attack before it gets anywhere near the Bruins' end. When they do this, you get a nice result like the 5-2 win over the Leafs. When they sit back and wait to get their asses kicked, that's exactly what happens.

EJ, wouldn't all that point to a lack of problem solving by the coaching staff?

I think that's part of the problem.

This also contributes to a significant number of screened shots, on which the B's seem to give up at least a goal per game. I remember one in particular vs. OTT (gloveside goal from highslot/point on Raycroft's right) and last nights game winner was a partial screen by Gill. Good assessment EJ.

Great point, I've noticed this as well. There's always a d-man in Raycroft's face or in the crease itself.

One of the biggest things that has pissed me off all season is watching how other teams camp out in front of our net all game but, yet, our forwards seem to avoid the front of the other team's net.

You would think this would be a no-brainer. Oh wait, it must not fit into their "system".

This is where Thornton criticism is valid. He should be the one camping out in front of the net making things happen. He doesn't. Not to go all KPD here but that part of his crticism of Joe is correct.

A minor quibble, but as a center I can believe he should crash the net more. Camp out in front? Probably not so much. That seems more like a winger's job...and we know Muzz likes to hang out on the perimeter to unleash his half-slapper. Boston doesn't really have guys that are prototype front-of-the-net types...Bergeron, Samsonov, Murray, Boyes, Zhamnov are all perimeter players. This is another example of a flawed roster.

Anyway, I don't think Joe has forgotten how to play. I still believe there's something physically wrong. He just doesn't seem to be skating well.

Jonathan Girard officially retired today. He couldn't make it back after the car wreck and he had to decide to accept an insurance payout.

He's making the right decision. I wish him well.

Woulda been nice to have Marty Lapointe back on a short deal, eh?

Too bad, but I agree with you. It's probably best for his future overall, good luck to him.