Saturday, June 30, 2007

Fernandez to Boston


I thought this nightmare was over after the trade fell through during the draft. Apparently not, seeing as tonight the Bruins traded F Peter Kalus and a 4th round pick to the Minnesota Wild for goalie Manny Fernandez. This was not a good trade for the Bruins for multiple reasons. One, Fernandez is wildy inconsistent and an awful presence in the locker room. The last thing that a young B's team needs. Secondly, Fernandez has a contract comparable to Glen Murray. I'm sure glad the Bruins would rather take on a big money goalie than go after high-impact free agents come tomorrow. Personally, I dont think Fernandez is much of an upgrade over Tim Thomas, who I really like. Lastly, with a name like Fernandez, you should be playing baseball, soccer, or even basketball, NOT HOCKEY. There is a reason there is almost no diversity in the NHL. When Peter Kalus becomes a very good player Chiarelli will have one more mark against him.

Free Agency Flop


Well, the amazing Peter Chiarelli has done it again. The day before free agent season starts, a day more exciting than the regular season for teams like Boston, he tells everyone he wont be making a run at any big free agents. Way to get everybody excited about the team. You just fired the only guy who was willing to spend money to get results. But Bruins Nation, dont be too upset, my boy Fluto Shinzawa from the Globe says they may still go after Greg DeVries or Eddie Belfour. I hope no one was alarmed by hearing big names like that. (I know what your thinking, aren't those two guys getting their AARP membership cards soon? The answer is Yes.) In defense of Peter, this order is probably coming from the top, Jacobs spent enough money last year for the rest of the decade by his standards. Maybe they'll surprise us, but I'm not expecting much as tomorrow rolls around.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

More MiStAkEs from the Front Office

Sad day in Bruin nation today, as longtime assistant GM Jeff Gorton and Scout Dan Dore. These were two unnecessary firings. Gorton has done good work in Boston, he was there when they drafted Kessel, signed Chara and Savard, and traded for Tuuka Rask. He did nothing this year to show he didn't deserve his job. The ownership may finally be realizing Peter Chiarelli was a mistake, light years behind everyone else, so they turn everyone else into scapegoats. As for Dore, no one knows much about scouts, but the Globe reported that he is "one of the industry’s most respected scouts." Why would you fire someone like that when player development is such a big part of your teams plan? Chiarelli should be the one to go. He has done nothing but make mistakes since taking the job. Hiring Lewis to begin with, trading Boyes and Mara, making a rash decision in hiring Julien, another soft coach all could have been avoided. All the changes the Bruins are making at the top are causing all the wrong people to be shown the door.

Cross coming to and staying in Boston


Apologies to my adoring public, its been a while since I posted. This was an exciting second day of the draft for the Bruins, trading up to select Tommy Cross, a big, powerful defenceman out of Westminster Prep right here in CT. We wont see Cross for a while though, as he is planning to play this coming year in the WHL before moving on to Boston College for the 2008-09 year. Physically, Cross is NHL ready now, but having never played above Prep School level, he needs some time against better competition. (Like the kind he faced in the IPH Spring League, wait... he never came.) He will be an interesting player to follow for years to come, and hopefully not another bust like many of the Bruins Draft Picks as of late. As for the rest of the draft, the Bruins didnt select again till the fifth round taking Denis Reul from Germany and in the 6th round they took a pair of defencemen, Alain Goulet from the OPJHL and Radim Ostrcil from the Czech Republic.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Bruins First Pick - Zach Hamill

With the 8th pick in the NHL Draft the Boston Bruins select...Zach Hamill? Going into the draft most people expected the B's to take Denfenceman Keaton Ellerby (#10 to Florida) or Centre Angelo Esposito (#20 to Pittsburgh) but instead the Bruins took Hamill, a center from the Everett Silvertips of the WHL, where he was the regular season scoring champion. He played for a former NHL coach in Kevin Constantine, so he is comfortable in that style of system. Although he is small, 5'11 and 190lbs, but he is very quick and an accurate shooter. The Bruins have little top line potential, so Hamill should aid that issue. When he will join the Bruins, almost certainly the Providence Bruins, is unknown.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

New Logos


This morning, at the press conference, the Bruins showed off their "new" logo for the first time. The logo is similar to the one from the old days, with some small changes. I think it looks a little too cartoon-like, but its ok. The new jerseys should make the game better.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Just A Note...

The Bruins have called a 10:30 am press conference tomorrow to announce their new head coach, who will almost certainly be Claude Julien. More to come after the official announcement in the morning.

Jeremy Jacobs - Worst Owner in Sports?

Today, the NHL Board of Governers elected a new chairman. They could have picked anyone, except Harley Hotchkiss of the Flames, who was vacating the position. They selected the worst possible candidate, Jeremy Jacobs, Owner of the Boston Bruins. The same Jacobs who was voted worst owner in sports by an ESPN poll, and 5th worst in sports by the ESPN writers. He also ranked as the 4th greediest owner in sports by another ESPN poll. This isnt just NHL owners, this is all of sports. To put this in perspective, Jacobs is two spots behind George for the greediest owner. The man could'nt care less about the Bruins, and probably needs a GPS to find his way from Buffalo to Boston...wait, when does he ever come to Boston? With the exception of Bill Wirtz of the Blackhawks and Karmanos, there are no worse owners in hockey. The Bruins will be bad until he sells them, and the NHL is worse of for putting him in a position of power.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Bruins pick Julien

Another Tuesday, still no questions. Oh well...more big news. The Bruins have hired Claude Julien as their new head coach only a few days after firing Dave Lewis. Although the club has not yet made an official announcement, every hockey site from San Antonio to Saskatoon has reported the news. To the suprise of no one, the Fourth Period, Canada's premier rumor site was the first to break the news. Along with most others in Bruinsland, I'm not sure what to make of the hire. I've seen comments that ranged from "Julien will win the Jack Adams award this season" to "Chiarelli just wrote his own pink slip with this hire." We'll ust have to wait and see come training camp.

NOTE: Fairly big move yesterday when Nashville sent Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell to the Flyers and regained the first round pick they had traded for Peter Forsberg. Although first round picks are nice, Nashville is falling into a pattern that looks dangerously like that in Beantown. We may see another team north of the border sooner than you'd think.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Lewis is "reassigned"...

What a suprise, Dave Lewis and Marc Habscheid have been "reassigned"/fired. Apparently they will be given other jobs in the organization. Maybe Lewis can scrub the urinals and Habscheid can clean the gum off the Garden seats. I'm not sad to see Lewis go, only sad Chiarelli didnt go with him. Coming out of Detroit, Lewis was pegged as the next Scottie Bowman. Now one major difference is obvious, Bowman didn't SUCK. (Also, Scottie didn't look like a cross between Adolph Hitler, Drew Carey, and Bill Garrity.) As for Marc Habscheid, it's too bad he has to go too. With a more agressive coach, he could have been a good fit as an assistant. Alongside Lewis, they were about as intimidating as Hal Gill and Andrew Alberts are on the blueline. Heres my list of potential new coaches from best to worst. (These are just being thrown around, no one knows if these guys are even being considered.

-Pat Quinn- the frontrunner in public opinion, lots of experience, more "hard nose" than Lewis

- Ken Hitchcock- if the Bluejackets decide to go another way, the Bruins should be all over him

- Jim Playfair- after being demoted in Calgary, would he leave and come to Boston?

-Pat Burns- PAT BURNS? Well, you never know

-Bourque/Neely- just what the B's need, someone with no experience, wait is there a Burns connection here?

After reading about the moves, there is only one logical thing to think. The Bruins are just like the Big Dig. You can pour money into it, but that doesnt mean things are going to get better fast. Both are way behind schedule and cause more headaches than they have benefits.

2007 NHL Awards

The NHL awards were on last night. Youre thinking "What, when was that". Well, they were scheduled to be on OLN at 7:00, but at ten after seven, a banner came on saying they would be seen at 11PM. Good to see the awards were pushed back three hours in order to air a Chuck Norris Total Gym Infomercial.

On to the actual awards show, it was well hosted by Ron MacLean. He was at his best when he ripped NBC for cutting out of a playoff game for a horse race (better than the total gym commercial). The only award that seemed unfair was the Lester B. Pearson award that went to who else, Sydney Crosby. I know Crosby is the NHL golden boy, but how does he beat out Joe Sakic for person of the year? Not all the awards have to go to one guy. Touching moment when Phil Kessel won the Masterson Award. He's ready for a big year.

And again, how did Marty Brodeur beat out Tim "The Tank" Thomas for the Vezina Trophy?

Monday, June 11, 2007

What Was I Thinking?

Since Tuesday is tommorow, I cant imagine I'll have any questions by then, so I'll answer one alot of people had during the championship game. "What the hell happened to the game clock during the timeout." Well, after Josh Green was distracted by a tiny dog and abandoned his post as timekeeper, there was chaos in the booth. As I was trying to put the timeout up on the board, I accidentally deleted the time with no way to get it back. Luckily, one of the Bobcats knew the exact time and saved the day. This incident aside, the playoffs went well, especially with my excellent musical selections. Congratulations to the Bobcats on winning the IPH Tacocorral Cup.

The New Page

Welcome to the new Ask LaMalfa. With the IPH season over, I've decided to keep the page going on this site. While it isnt quite as glamorous, it works. Send any questions to asklamalfa@yahoo.com. I'll still answer every Tuesday, and they still have to be reasonably hockey or IPH related Questions