It was basically a "we agree with everything you're saying but we don't have the answer to your question. The league needs to be more transparent."
Round 2 Bruins-Panthers
- Thread starter The Napkin
- Start date
I couldn’t look my teammates or players in the face if I had the B’s lack of reaction at every level. I’d be embarrassed to show my face.
I'm sorry, I just don't know how you can live through a literal Stanley Cup Finals turning against your team specifically on the whining and complaining of the opponent's coach culminating in one of the worst missed calls (both in the vacuum of the play itself and in the wider context of the game) in any sport at any time only to come out following the latest shaftings and be coy about not complaining thinking that will do, well, anything. After the slew foot in 2019 they rewarded the B's with...the exact same number of power plays as St. Louis in the next game. Nobody's throwing us a fucking bone for being good boys.
Edit: Sorry, not done. The fact that this will be followed by more mealy-mouthed bullshit in the conference call after this series and season ends is even more maddening. You were a player! How are you this out of touch! How are you not foaming at the mouth at the treatment of your organization!
Edit: Sorry, not done. The fact that this will be followed by more mealy-mouthed bullshit in the conference call after this series and season ends is even more maddening. You were a player! How are you this out of touch! How are you not foaming at the mouth at the treatment of your organization!
I am telling you guys, the league office fucking hates the Bruins. Nothing will ever, ever change that. They beat the beloved Leafs too much and in too great a humiliating way to ever be forgiven for that.
This is a farce.
This is a farce.
I pay a metric fuckton of money to attend Bruins games. I would like to see team leadership respect me a bit more as a paying fan. I also bring my kids to the games, future purchasers of tickets. Two games in a row for my young son ended with complete officiating bag jobs. He can handle his team losing, but he’s already telling me he’d rather just go watch the Celtics because he, “doesn’t understand hockey rules.” He’s 7 and is already noticing a pattern. Such a shame we have gutless team leadership that appears inept at solving this perennial issue.
If you aren't going to come out and stick up for the team then just refuse to answer any questions. That would say more than this pleasant turn the other cheek bullshit. Just say I can't talk about it you saw what we did and leave it at that. Don't placate the clueless zebras and equally clueless league office with the mealy mouthed worried about fines BS.
In hindsight this was probably a good thing, very little chance B's were winning this series even if they pulled out last nights game and after last night that was all the impetus I needed to say goodbye to the NHL till next Sept/Oct.
In hindsight this was probably a good thing, very little chance B's were winning this series even if they pulled out last nights game and after last night that was all the impetus I needed to say goodbye to the NHL till next Sept/Oct.
Four strides late to the press conference. At least Maroon practices like he plays.
Allowing that I would have been disappointed in anything not beginning with “I’m just here to get fined…” and the highest level of professional athletes are almost universally capable of significant self-motivation, I have no idea how those wearing pads on this team can believe they are being coached and managed by anything other than gutless cowards.
At least we'll get an offseason of hearing how they need to get "grittier" and "harder to play against". So we have that going for us, which is nice, I guess.
Getting outshot against the Panthers was to be expected - they were 2nd in the NHL in SOG and 3rd in shots against while the Bruins 22nd in both. HOWEVER, being outshot 145-78 is just a whole 'nother level of ineptitude.
...why in the world was a press conference scheduled to say these things?
Did he schedule a press conference to scold the media for attempting to do their jobs? Really? Cowardice to an unbelievable degree.
The whole world saw this team get screwed and the coach and front office are literally saying nothing to avoid a fucking $50,000 fine? That is absolutely fucking pathetic.
EDIT: To me, this goes back to Neely. I think Sweeney is basically his human bulletproof vest so Cam doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do
Did he schedule a press conference to scold the media for attempting to do their jobs? Really? Cowardice to an unbelievable degree.
The whole world saw this team get screwed and the coach and front office are literally saying nothing to avoid a fucking $50,000 fine? That is absolutely fucking pathetic.
EDIT: To me, this goes back to Neely. I think Sweeney is basically his human bulletproof vest so Cam doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do
I had very low expectations and somehow they still managed to disappoint me.
Here are the messages they just sent:
To the players: you're on your own, we won't have your back with the officials
To the fans: shut up and pay us
To the media: how dare you do your job?
This management is a joke and needs to go from Neely on down. Everyone needs to go and they need a completely new philosophy. This one isn't capable of competing anymore.
Here are the messages they just sent:
To the players: you're on your own, we won't have your back with the officials
To the fans: shut up and pay us
To the media: how dare you do your job?
This management is a joke and needs to go from Neely on down. Everyone needs to go and they need a completely new philosophy. This one isn't capable of competing anymore.
would be nice wouldn't it?
I wonder if they'll do the STH meeting thing again this year. We should get a bunch of us to go and ask question after question about it
Penalties are 22-10 in favor of Florida in this series. You cannot outshoot your opponent when the officials are only sending one team to the penalty box.
Bennett cheap shots Marchand in game 3, injuring him and knocking him out of at least game 4.
Bennett cross checks Coyle in the crease which smothers Swayman and scores the tying goal.
Bennett is fast becoming hockey enemy #1. How does he do both of these things and not get penalized for either?
They will be doing Marchand a terrible disservice to let him play without a serious concussion protocol and fMRI. He was clearly concussed on the first based on his wobbling etc. The second collision while concussed makes everything worse. He gets his bell rung and it could be really bad for him.
Now the Bruins have taken some bad penalties in this series and they've had I belive 2 double minors. But 22-10 is a joke.
Then he needs to just fight someone anyway, even if that guy won’t fight back.
Namely, Bennett.
I don't know if I really meant it when I said it in the game thread, but I do now: I'm done with this league.
I literally laughed out loud reading that.
They are just trolling at this point.
"two players engaged" is comic gold.
It is shocking they didn't call it "Marchand delivers late hit on dasher boards -- two minutes!"
I agree.
I agree with you. My question is whether you need to do a PC to accomplish this? Like, did the league receive said message? I'd guess no.
Eh, you're right that there's some pathetic inconsistency on messaging, but I chalk this up to giving canned answers. I don't particularly care what players say about intangibles, versus when they talk about a specific play and strategy. But maybe I'm being naive.
Narrator: The league wasn't.
This 1000%. I agree with the posters that say this message was intended for the league, but the message to the players and fans is abjectly horrible. I hate sports media more than most, but you're right about the organization's disrespect of them too. It's part of the ecosystem owners have created to feed fans content, so to snipe at them in this instance is low.
I doubt the players take away is that management doesn’t have their backs. The likelihood that Sweeney didn’t discuss this with the player leadership before going out there is remote. Maroon wouldn’t be out there if players weren’t in the loop.
The point was to push the media to look harder where the blame is. The between the lines is “I’m not saying that something is going on, but….” I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some back channel work being done with a few members of the media. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” and you may want to look here.
Coming out with a flamethrower would be fan service. Can’t argue they are not taking the fans for granted and they should consider who is actually paying the bills for once.
Maroon was trying to call them all cowards without saying the word. That’s more perplexing. Just say it. They are a bunch of punks who won’t answer the bell.
We’ll see how it plays out. I’m not a betting man, but I would be surprised if the penalty calls don’t favor Boston in game 5. League invited the microscope and now they will try to show that there is no bias or anything to see. That’s easy to do now that it’s a 3-1 series lead for the growth market. Ever the optimist, I’m also not throwing in the towel on a series comeback. What’s the point of watching if you don’t have some faith.
The point was to push the media to look harder where the blame is. The between the lines is “I’m not saying that something is going on, but….” I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some back channel work being done with a few members of the media. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” and you may want to look here.
Coming out with a flamethrower would be fan service. Can’t argue they are not taking the fans for granted and they should consider who is actually paying the bills for once.
Maroon was trying to call them all cowards without saying the word. That’s more perplexing. Just say it. They are a bunch of punks who won’t answer the bell.
We’ll see how it plays out. I’m not a betting man, but I would be surprised if the penalty calls don’t favor Boston in game 5. League invited the microscope and now they will try to show that there is no bias or anything to see. That’s easy to do now that it’s a 3-1 series lead for the growth market. Ever the optimist, I’m also not throwing in the towel on a series comeback. What’s the point of watching if you don’t have some faith.
It’s unconscionable. At first, with the original angle, I thought, meh, that kind of play happens all the time in hockey. Then I saw the reverse angle and Bennett clearly punches Marchand. Like, it’s not close to anything but that.
Its like when Johnny Most famously called the play where Chamberlain “hit Russell’s elbow with his face.”
Hell, I couldn’t look my corporate America work colleagues in the eye if I stood up for them like this after they got fucked like the Panthers and league have been doing to the Bs. And we’re pretty damned far from a professional contact sport.
My response to this (not you specifically) is: why is Maroon the player presence here? Where's Pasta? McAvoy? Zacha? Swayman? Frederick? Carlo? You know, anyone who's been on the ice for this team for more than a month? It's weird to me that - even accounting for his rings - that Maroon is the one out there. Where's the long term Bruins leaders at?
I'm getting whiffs of "Charlie Jacobs doesn't want to piss off the other owners" here. Feels very Kraft-ian from the Spy-and-DeflateGate era.
This is the same management that signed that wretched piece of crap Mitchell Miller without bothering to ask the team leadership (not to mention their pathetic "we had no idea this would blow up on us and did zero homework whatsoever on him, but when we investigated ourselves after we determined we'd done nothing wrong).
I don't believe they checked with Marchand on this at all. Maybe Maroon saw talking points on the way to the PC? Even that I'd be surprised.
It's absolutely pathetic and cowardly. They have a self-defeating culture problem, and it starts with Sweeney, and, somehow, given the player he was, Cam. I was skeptical in the Toronto series that Monty ripping the officials would make much tangible difference. And I'm not sure it would have here, either. But for larger, longer term reasons, they have to do it. They have to establish that "nobody fucks with us without consequences" culture. They used to be the home office of it. This group has utterly failed at it. The FO and Monty need to be gone. Time for a new/old approach.
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then he's a fucking idiot because he may lose out on $10 million or so from a game 6 at home.
As I posted in the West thread: https://www.nhl.com/news/topic/player-safety/nikita-zadorov-fined-for-cross-checking-in-cancuks-game
I think the league is broken....
Although looks like they are going to make an example out of Soucy: https://www.nhl.com/news/topic/player-safety/carson-soucy-to-have-hearing-for-cross-checking-connor-mcdavid
The fine is $25,000. I don't know who would pay it but it's pocket change regardless. I don't think it has anything to do with the finances, I think it's more of the control what you can control, no excuses type culture they have. FWIW, Cassidy got fined in 2021 for complaining about the refs in the Islanders series.
FWIW, I think in general NHL front offices and coaches are pretty tame and it's not unique to Boston. This "go scorched earth" thing doesn't happen much. By my count, since 2021 there's been 8 seperate fines for coaches criticizng officials. Zero for the front office. The most memorable one I can recall was Mario's "garbage league" but that was more than a decado, IIRC.
Isn't this how we got to the incredibly ugly Bertuzzi-Moore assault? Steve Moore cheap shots Markus Naslund, the referees and home office sit on their disciplinary whistles, Moore refuses a fight, and Bertuzzi sends him to the hospital?
No one in their right mind would hope for this but given Bennett's cheap shots on David Kampf last year, and Matthew Knies and Brad Marchand, with the league unwilling to discipline, a player seems likely to their this into their own hands at some point
No one in their right mind would hope for this but given Bennett's cheap shots on David Kampf last year, and Matthew Knies and Brad Marchand, with the league unwilling to discipline, a player seems likely to their this into their own hands at some point
Cool, here comes the Canadian media to point and laugh.
View: https://twitter.com/pierrevlebrun/status/1790086960100323585?s=46&t=QgPlur015YjYmVsNzWFFfg
View: https://twitter.com/pierrevlebrun/status/1790086960100323585?s=46&t=QgPlur015YjYmVsNzWFFfg
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the finances. So Sweeney shouldn’t haven’t brought it up as the reason. It’s a bad look to the fans.
interesting thread from Jan
View: https://twitter.com/JeffVeillette/status/1750903135411814793
buried in the replies:
To this point, 5+ regular/playoff game suspension rulings... Under Parros in the last 6 1/2 years: 14 Under Shanahan in his first year: 11 League basically just decided it wanted to punish less
Sharks,Leafs and Bruins in the top 3? I bet there are absolutely no personal biases based on his playing career influencing suspensions. Clearly none. A+ job.
View: https://twitter.com/JeffVeillette/status/1750903135411814793
buried in the replies:
To this point, 5+ regular/playoff game suspension rulings... Under Parros in the last 6 1/2 years: 14 Under Shanahan in his first year: 11 League basically just decided it wanted to punish less
Sharks,Leafs and Bruins in the top 3? I bet there are absolutely no personal biases based on his playing career influencing suspensions. Clearly none. A+ job.
Parros played all but ~60 games of his career in the western conference. I'm not sure where the bias against Boston and Toronto would come from based on his playing career.
(I think he's just incompetent)
(I think he's just incompetent)
The Rangers called out Parros a few years ago. They did what the Bruins should be doing.
He was an enforcer. He clearly has always had the mindset that shit players like Tom Wilson or Bennett do is stuff he would have done.
He was an enforcer. He clearly has always had the mindset that shit players like Tom Wilson or Bennett do is stuff he would have done.
It's disappointing that those heavy Bs teams in the late 90s and early 00s couldn't win because they were slow, somewhat unskilled bruisers. So the league changes the rules post lockout to emphasize skill, the Bs finally adapt and... the league let's them get dry humped up and down the ice with reckless abandon. I semi quit the Bs after 2019 chalking the finals loss up to a hot goalie and timely scoring. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But I'm sort of coming around to the idea that there is something really strange going on with how some games are called and the Bs seem to be on the wrong side on an awful lot of tough luck (no) calls.
Biz says the *new* camera angle of the Bennett/Marchand play came from Sportsnet. Apparently the TNT camera at the same location was blocked out by a stanchion. Somehow, Colby Armstrong found it. Doesn't know if the league had access to it prior to last night but assumes they did (FWIW Sweeney said the Bruins didn't have it until last night and doesn't know if the league did).
View: https://twitter.com/marinakmaher/status/1790082879440957539
View: https://twitter.com/marinakmaher/status/1790082879440957539
I mentioned this in the Western Conference thread but the league doesn't care about its star players. Not when known and repeat dickheads like Trouba, Zadorov and Bennett are allowed to get away with anything and everything.
I love Chara dearly but part of me is disappointed that he didn't play more like Scott Stevens or Dave Manson.
I love Chara dearly but part of me is disappointed that he didn't play more like Scott Stevens or Dave Manson.
Also, after listening to the whole thing, I thought Sweeney came off a bit better today than the real-time summaries on Twitter. It wasn't great and won't be satisfying but it was a little more pointed and direct.
He shouldn't have led off by telling the media to not ask Monty about officiating. I believe his intention was to lean into the league needing to be more transparent but it came across as whiny and him tsk tsking the media. He went on to say that the Bruins challenged the play so their opinion of the call is obvious and the league needs to make the officials and supervisors available so they can explain "whatever interpretation they applied to rule 69."
As for Marchand/Bennett, he called for DoPS to put out an explanation for their interpretation of the situation. "We've seen every angle you can possibly imagine, no different than when Marchand is called to the carpet and we go through all the comparables, that's their job." Then backs off and says they have to live with DoPS judgement.
I think he likely gets fined, it wasn't as bad as the original reaction made it seem, but he also didn't quite get his monies worth if he indeed does get fined.
He shouldn't have led off by telling the media to not ask Monty about officiating. I believe his intention was to lean into the league needing to be more transparent but it came across as whiny and him tsk tsking the media. He went on to say that the Bruins challenged the play so their opinion of the call is obvious and the league needs to make the officials and supervisors available so they can explain "whatever interpretation they applied to rule 69."
As for Marchand/Bennett, he called for DoPS to put out an explanation for their interpretation of the situation. "We've seen every angle you can possibly imagine, no different than when Marchand is called to the carpet and we go through all the comparables, that's their job." Then backs off and says they have to live with DoPS judgement.
I think he likely gets fined, it wasn't as bad as the original reaction made it seem, but he also didn't quite get his monies worth if he indeed does get fined.