No, not on the ice you silly goose – on my TV. That’s right boys, Goonblog is watching in style. As of 8:30 EST there is a 42" HD Plasma in Goonblog HQ. Currently, MOL is enjoying a bit of the OC in HD, but I am gearing up for a take over soon. The first thing I watched was my DVR Recording of Colton Orr and Eric Godard from earlier this year. Almost brought tears to my eyes.
Speaking of Orrsie, did anyone catch his two fights last night? I was watching the Bruins suck in Buffalo, so I missed them both. From what I heard Orr Killed Godard in his first tilt, and got jumped by Erksine in the second fight, and really couldn’t do anything with him. I have zero on tap for the weekend, so there should be surfing aplenty at the Goonblog HQ all weekend long. Come on by for a brew….don’t cost nothing.
Orr dropped Godard with a nice shot. Godard popped right up, but he definitely took a good one.
Orr took a loss in a good bout with McGrattan tonight. No destruction, but pretty easy to call. Good to see both back in action.
Thanks David. Missed the games last night setting up the plasma. I will be glued to NHL Center Ice all weekend.
I’ve still got all the Orr vids up if you want to check them out.
Damn nice-looking logo you’ve got now, by the way.
I really liked your old header, with the different fight photos, but the new one looks great enough.
By the way, stop by the site (Sidearm Delivery) if you want– I just put up a video of a Russian bench-clearing brawl from a year ago that you might like…
Jagr fight video from Russia
Andrei Nazarov is in the video, also.
Nice work by both David, and Brushback!
I played with leaving the rotating fight images on the left side, but it looked way too ‘busy’. Thanks for the thoughts.
How much shittier does Hal Gill look in HD?
5x, 10x?
Edju, that made me laugh out loud. And the correct answer is 10x.
See below for the real story on Sinden/O’Connell.What kind of scotch does Harry drink? and what time does he start pourin’?
Web
barstoolsports.com
from the April 5, 2006 issue
Sinden Begins Search for Crappy New GM
by Jerry Thornton ( jerry@barstoolsports.com)
“If you could fully understand the situation-and I don’t expect you to because it’s a complex situation and it has been a complex situation in planning and managing these teams for the past two or three years prior to the lockout-but if you were able to, and I don’t say that as if you couldn’t if you had access to all the facts, I just say that I can’t quite understand it totally myself so probably you can’t either.*”–Harry Sinden brilliantly clarifying his decision to fire crappy Bruins’ GM Mike O’Connell
The dust has barely settled in the Bruins front office after the surprise dismissal of General Manager Mike O’Connell, but crappy team president Harry Sinden has already begun his search for O’Connell’s replacement. “We’re now in the process of putting together a list of crappy candidates who we feel can do the same consistently crappy job that Mike has done for the last twelve years” Sinden said.
Sinden took a moment to reflect on the time that O’Connell spent running the Bruins into the ground. He praised the outgoing GM for his consistently crappy job. “Mike’s done a terrifically crappy job, there’s no doubt about it” he said. “He’s run the team exactly as I would have, and I’m proud of him for it.
“Keep in mind the kind of crappy GM I was; and the kind of crappy team president I continue to be on a daily basis. Hell, I’ve been calling the shots here since before most of you were born. Anyone with half a brain could have won a Cup or two in that time, just by accident, but not me. Mike has carried on in my crappy tradition and year in and year out managed to put a crappy product on the ice.”
Sinden pointed to O’Connell’s crappy personnel decisions in praising him. “Paticularly with regards to his free agent moves, Mike did a monumentally crappy job” he said, citing the Alexi Zhamnov and Glen Murray signings as the crappiest. “Mike gave those two washed up has beens $8 million between them. Then he nickles-and-dimes it with Mike Knuble and Brian Rolston, guys who can actually play this game, and lets them walk away. There’s not another GM in the league capable of making decisions any crappier than that.”
Sinden also pointed out with some pride to O’Connell’s record of crappy drafts, with one exception. “The Joe Thornton/Sergei Samsonov draft obviously was not crappy. But who could have messed that up? Thornton was that draft’s Tim Duncan. As for Samsonov, he was expected to go anywhere from 2nd to 5th in that draft, and it was just one of those things where he fell right into Mike’s lap.” Eventually, though it took until this season, O’Connell managed to make up for that draft with two remarkably crappy trades. That he was so slow to pull the trigger on those deals fed into Sinden’s decision to fire him. “Mike had been trying to move those two for years, he just felt that he wasn’t being offered crappy enough players in return. But myself and our crappy ownership were impatient to get a crappy deal done.”
The list of crappy GM candidates has not been made public yet. But there is strong sentiment for interim GM Jeff Gorton. Gorton, 37 has spent 14 seasons with the Bruins, coordinating the clubs’ crappy scouting and crappy drafts. “He has been handed by Mike O’Connell almost all of the responsibilites of a GM in the last three or four years*,” Sinden said, “So he’s had a lot of hands-on experience when it comes to doing a crappy job, crappily running a crappy team.”
Crappy: It’s called Bruins.
[*Actual Sinden quotes, thrown in for authenticity.]
* email this to a friend
I guess this is as good a place as any…I hope this summarizes what we’ve lived through here in the past decade or so:
New England, unlike just about any other place in the USA (maybe Minnesota), loves hockey over anything during the winter. If your high school doesn’t have a team, then your high school is not only in the lowest of low minorities, but it sucks as well.
College hockey? We have a deep and proud tradition, including the Beanpot, one of the most cherished trophies in sports, period.
The Bruins?
Yes, let’s talk about the Bruins.
Back in the good old days, you could see guys like Bobby Orr, Derek Sanderson, Gerry Cheevers, Terry O’Reilly, etc. fuck up the opposition on the scoreboard and fuck them up physically as well. There was none of this pussy bullshit flopping around and playing like a cock on skates (yes, that’s you, Hal Gill).
In the 80’s even, we had Rick Middleton, Jay Miller, and we pulled off a trade for the man that not only was one of the best power forwards in the sport, but the man that virtually invented the position: Cam Neely.
But, the 80’s started to see the pussification of the sport. The Euros came in and started playing “skilled” hockey, which unfortunately was too often an euphemism for “pussy” hockey. Also around this time you could see the cheap-ass ways of Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs start to take hold.
Into the early 90’s the Bruins were still formidable, and still provided some memorable moments, including several Game 7 triumphs over the likes of Buffalo and Montreal (I will maintain that the Boston Garden was never louder than at the end of the national anthem at the beginning of Game 7 in 1991 against Montreal).
Three significant events happened that changed the course of pro hockey in Boston:
#1 Ulf Samuelsson’s cheap dirty cocksucking hit on Neely, giving him that bone/muscle condition that eventually ended his career.
#2 The 1st lockout
#3 The end of the Garden
That fucking pussy piece of shit Samuelsson’s hit on Neely robbed the Bruins of their best player, not only then but essentially ended his career. For an analogy, it would have been like Bill Fuckface Laimbeer throwing himself at the back of Larry Legend’s knees during the playoffs, breaking both legs.
The 1st lockout kind of stalled the momentum that the Bruins had in the early 90’s, and management was slow to adapt to the new CBA (more on management is coming, I promise).
As for the end of the Garden, that was the end of the decided home-ice advantage the B’s had, for as soon as they moved into the corporate bullshit confines of the Shawmut Center/FleeceCenter/TD Banknorth Garden they lost that edge they had, and teams that may have gotten that boost when they weren’t as talented were basically lost.
Now, let us return to the Sodom & Gomorrah of sports executives, Jeremy Jacobs and Harry Sinden.
Jeremy Jacobs stated publically that if he had to choose between winning the Cup or turning a profit, he’d choose the profit.
When your owner says that, you are fucked, and you may as well enjoy the ride.
When you continously trade quality players due to financial concerns, and get has-beens, never-will-bes, and who-the-fuck-is-thats in return, it’s not going to do too well for your on-ice product.
If you’re going to have a shithead owner, the least you could do is have a GM/President who, while not giving in to the players at every turn, is competent and graceful.
With Harry Sinden, you get a Brillo pad to the nuts.
He runs the Bruins front office with the compassion and sensibility of Joseph Goebbels (and you can eat shit if you try to tell me Mike O’Connell didn’t have Sinden’s hand up his ass like a fine puppet), and generally has been a Grade A Number One asshole for 30+ years now.
I mean, look at what they put on the ice these days. Hal Gill is the worst player in the NHL and is considered their top defenseman?
I’d rather have Bobby Orr and his ruined legs back there even today.
The bottom line is that management has taken a once-proud franchise and made it a shocking shell of it’s former self, and there’s no end in sight.
For the sake of common decency, Jacobs needs to sell and Sinden needs to retire.
Unfortunately, we’re more likely to see Hal Gill make the All-Star team, and it’s a damn shame.
Edju, A couple of weeks ago when my brother and the Ref went to the Buffalo game we were sitting in our seats watching the opening montage they play. It’s all about the glory days and how the fans are like a cult, and how we love the big bad Bruins, and how they were the best team around, and so tough. My brother laughed and said, “Hey boys, you notice the story ends 30 years ago?” He was right. It is a shame what has happened to the Boston Bruins over the last 30 years or so. They used to be a classy, proud organization, that put an exciting, rough and tumble team on the ice. Now? They are a laughing stock. Oh, and guess what? They ain’t getting better anytime soon.
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