Why Everyone Hates the Boston Bruins

Photo Credit: AP

Ahem. Aside from the fact they're in Boston.

I think the issue here is that first & foremost, people are jealous. Their team didn't win the Cup. The Bruins did.

And of course there was the stanchion incident with Chara and Pacioretty (honestly, I wouldn't have blamed the league if he got a game or two suspension, though I don't think he deserved one--the rink and speed of the game were the ultimate cause of Pacioretty's injury). Montreal & it's media hyped it up so much, and then a huge conspiracy was on our hands. A few silly things happened, the Ference finger, the Horton squirting water at fans--those were things that if it was the regular season, they would have been fined or suspended. And since the Bruins didn't get suspensions for these minor things (sorry, but they were. I'd sooner see PK Subban or the Sedins punished & suspended for their pathetic diving, if you're going to hand out unsportsmanlike suspensions). If you want an example of things going against the Bruins, look no further than Alex Burrows' biting Patrice Bergeron. In the regular season, he'd be looking at a couple games suspension easily. But in the playoffs, everything is amped up. The league knows this, and the players get some leniency.

It also needs to be mentioned that somewhere along the line, some genius started saying that the Bruins were getting leniency due to Gregory Campbell, son of former disciplinarian Colin Campbell, being a member of the team.

Moving on, in the Stanley Cup Finals Horton was injured on a late, blindside hit, and Rome was suspended the rest of the series (you do the math on who lost more: the Bruins lost their first line winger and the Canucks lost their sixth d-man). So the Canucks fans began jumping on the bandwagon that the Bruins were receiving favoritism from the league. (Sorry guys, that was a dirty hit.) Also, they were upset that Mason Raymond was injured on a legal check from Johnny Boychuk, and wanted him to be suspended as well. Canucks GM even spoke out about the hit. Again, this added more fuel to the fire of fans hating the Bruins, and more conspiracy theories.

Lindy Ruff didn't help matters when he declared it was now, "open season on goaltenders," after the Milan Lucic hit on Miller. I think Milan took liberties there, but he was in close & didn't have time to get out the way without possibly hurting himself (kind of like that philosophical question--"If your brakes are out, and you have to drive off a cliff & die, or drive into 10 school children and you'll survive, but most likely kill/injure them all... what would you do?" Well, Lucic steamrolled the kids. So... it was just a very awkward play, and Miller was unfortunately unprepared. In my perspective--someone that played goalie in soccer--if I came out of my net, I knew I was taking risks. He's crazy for not bracing himself, and paid the price losing games to injury.


Photo Credit: Lisa Gansky

And now, some ass hat "reporter" in Pittsburgh started claiming it was Krejci's hit that Sidney Crosby was reinjured on. And low and behold, now Sid himself is agreeing with him! I mean give me a break. He's been playing with a full head of steam since he came back, pretty much bouncing off the boards--much more physical than before. Of course he's going to get checked. He did take a hit from Krejci, but if that's how he got reinjured, there's a big problem. That was far less than what Hunwick dealt Savard, and you don't see anyone blaming Hunwick. The Kunitz-Crosby collision seemed extremely jarring to me, and the look on Sid's face was like, "Oh shit, what just happened... am I okay?" Half these idiots didn't even see the game, and they're all crying that the league favors the Bruins.

My last note is that I am pretty frustrated with Brad Marchand, which I posted briefly about last night on Tumblr. He's the one Bruin who's definitely gotta clean up his game. He plays chippy and all that, but he makes some poor decisions. The slew foot thing was bad and in all honesty, I'd have given him a game since he's a repeat offender. That's a really dangerous play. I can defend anyone but him... and it's frustrating because I know he plays with heart, which I definitely love. He just needs to stop crossing the line, or he could end up hurting someone. I don't want to see him getting lumped in with players like Avery and Cooke. Frankly, he's too skilled and too valuable to the team to go that way. I hope the mentoring from Bergie pays off. Ultimately it's up to him. I love that the Bruins play physical, but I have no patience for dirtiness. That's not what the big, bad Bruins are about. And the more poor judgments Marchand makes, the more he's going to tarnish their image.