Fighting Spirit: Kastelic Shines Amid Bruins’ Struggle

The Ref summarized our absence earlier, so I won’t belabor the point that we have gone missing as of late.

My only excuse is the Bruins terrible start has left me in a weird state of mind. They suck… so hockey sucks (in my world, currently). Thus, I haven’t been paying attention like I usually do.

Having accepted their fate this season, I am back with a few random thoughts.

Kudos for Kastelic

Mighty Mark Kastelic is my new favorite Bruin by far, and it isn’t even close. I thought he was a nice throw-in for a crappy deal that sent Linus Ullmark to Ottawa, but he’s been the crown jewel of the shitty deal so far. The non-shit end of the stick.

He’s produced offensively, and he plays in the classic, the prototypical Bruin style. He’s also been willing to drop the mitts on a consistent basis. His fight against current NHL Heavyweight Champion, Mathieu Olivier, Saturday night was typical of his play thus far. Boston got blown out Friday by the Bluejackets, and after Boston went up early 1-0 at home the following night, Olivier and Kastelic tangled.

The fight was decent, and I score it a draw. Maybe Kastelic with a slight advantage because he did seem to land a couple of more shots that Olivier. I will say, Mathieu missed with an uppercut that – had it connected – they’d still be trying to Mark Kastelic off the ice, and maybe out of the rafters.

I love to see guys fighting in these situations. After a blowout loss, and going up at home early, it was time for a fight, and Mark Kastelic was there to answer the bell.

Speaking of Mathieu Olivier, he is the NHL fight leader with 8 bouts thus far. In Jim Montgomery’s last game as coach of the Bruins before he was fired, they called up Jeffery Viel in an attempt to spark something. Viel did his job by fighting Olivier, and it did not give the team the spark they thought it would.

Jeffery got smoked, the Bruins got smoked, and Montgomery was out of a job. Good on Viel for trying to take Olivier down a peg or two. Fighting for a spot with grit and brass… bells.

Calgary’s Ryan Lomberg has been involved in a couple of entertaining bouts this season. He went absolutely apeshit against Nathan Bastain of the New Jersey Devils in November and fought, you guessed it, Mathieu Olivier a couple of weeks later, and didn’t fare too terribly.

The second half of the year is shaping up to be a hockey fight filled affair. We’re starting to get to a time of the year when games start to really matter, and with that comes an uptick in emotion and tempers.

I’m interested to see what happens with guys like Trent Frederic. I don’t believe he is in Boston’s plans moving forward. Does he want to showcase his talent for another team, or will he be more willing to drop his gloves in the second half to show he can play AND fight.

Also, as guys that are coming up on expiring contracts are going to want to show teams around the league what they can do in the fisticuffs department.

Irregardless (not a word), GoonBlog will be here for what is hopefully going to be a fight filled spring!