Freddy’s Not Dead: The New Nightmare

Last night, after returning from my 30^th High School reunion, I was eager to watch the Bruins. I don’t know if seeing all those old friends had me feeling nostalgic alone, or if I’m actually really onto something about the fighting I’ve seen this year having an old school flavor, or what is going on (“sniff”) – but Trent Frederic gave us another old timey tilt last night at the Crypto in LA. There’s a couple housecleaning items before we get to the fight. Stay with me on this.

I’m all about nicknames, as most hockey guys are. The Bruins are calling Trent Frederic “Freddy Fisticuffs” and I can get behind that. Nightmare on Causeway St was cute, but a bit long. How about this, Freddy Fisticuffs is giving guys Nightmares on Causeway St.? No? A Nightmare on Causeway Street 4: Freddy’s Not Dead? Er… we shall work on it.

The F*cking State of Jack Edwards

NESN has got to do something about Jack Edwards. Love him or hate him, what’s going on with him currently goes way beyond his usually polarizing antics. Something is off with the man, and I have been saying it for almost three seasons now. I think he had some classification of head injury, or a stroke or something. Whatever the shift, it can’t be disguised any more, and it’s bordering on cruel they keep trotting him out.

If you haven’t noticed what I am talking about, listen closely to what he says in the video below. After Morgan Geekie (whom he regularly calls “Creaky”) scores, they show former LA King (and once-again Bruin) again, Milan Lucic. Jack says very slowly and slightly slurred, as is his speech pattern these days, “Lucic, rotting on Pavel Zacha’s left”. He meant to say “riding” but said “rotting”. Doesn’t seem like much. A simple slip of the tongue. If you’ve been paying attention, however, it now happens all the time. I never was a huge Jack guy, and it may be time for him to go. Seriously, NESN. It’s not a good look.

Trent Frederic vs. Andreas Englund

Onto the fight itself. As you can see from the video above, there’s zero technique here. No grappling of any kind. Arm bar to get some separation and try and land one? No sir. This here is two guys standing in, and quickly throwing dueling haymakers. Trent Fredric gets an early advantage on Andreas Englund and doesn’t let up until he gets the jersey over Englund’s head and the stripes come in to stop the onslaught. Despite the dominant win for Freddy here, Englund did manage a couple punches, one of which cuts Frederic. Again, clear win for Freddy in what may be a resurgence in the old school fight style.

The Boston Bruins, like most major league teams have a good social media presence. They also have a weekly show called Behind the B. If you haven’t seen it, there’s cameras and mics everywhere following these guys around. It just so happens that Freddy Fisticuffs was mic’d up last night. It was new school technology meets old school rough and rugged at the Crypto!

On the Bruins broadcast, Andy Brickley remarks that he didn’t see what started the fight between Trent Frederic and Andreas Englund. Truthfully, I didn’t either. What Behind the B did, with their excellent camera work, and microphone on Freddy, was capture the whole thing at a transparent depth rarely seen any more. This is about as old school as it gets. Watch and listen here.

After the Bruins went up 2-1 on a Morgan Geekie goal, it appears LA’s Andreas Englund would like to try and swing the momentum back to his club. I didn’t hear him ask Frederic for the fight, but I am assuming since Freddy is emphatically saying “I’ll go ya” that before they line up for the draw, Englund must have asked for it.

Bettman’s Big Gulp

This is the kind of staged fight that makes Gary Bettman squirm like a guy that just took down a Big Gulp of Mtn Dew and is stuck riding middle on a 3-hour car ride. The NHL loathes these kinds of fights, and if they could figure out a way to get rid of them, they absolutely would. So, it’s an old school way of starting a fight, and then an old school fight.

I love these kinds of scraps. Englund recognizes the Kings need a momentum change, and Trent Frederic is more than happy to oblige. The time was right. The score was right. I even think there’s a song about Saturday night being alright for fighting. Where these types of things backfire, is when one asks for it, and then the aggressor loses. Badly. A for effort though, Englund.

Wait, we’re not talking about Robert Englund, right? I know I didn’t drink at the reunion. All this talk of nightmares and Freddy and streets and I’m starting to feel a bit like a dream warrior over here.

OK, phew. Trent Frederic then makes a point to skate by his bench on his way to the box to fire up the boys even further. Andreas Englund, and the rest of the team in black and white, must have thought, “We’re in trouble tonight now that Freddy has lowered the boom”. And they weren’t even asleep yet.

So – It seems the theme for 2023-2024 so far is Old Time Hockey is back! Keep being the “Nightmare on Causeway St”, Freddy Fisticuffs. And we’ll keep working on tightening up a rebranding.