BOSTON - The Boston Bruins were ticked off this morning.
It wasn’t directed toward Pittsburgh Penguin forward Matt Cooke, who knocked B’s star Marc Savard out for likely the remainder of the season with a hit to the head in their last meeting March 7, but towards the media which hammered away at what the Bruins would do to get revenge in the rematch tonight at TD Garden.
“There isn’t going to be any. You can’t,” said Boston enforcer Shawn Thornton. “You guys keep talking about it and I’m sure it’s a good story and you guys are getting a lot of viewers for it, but at the end of the day it’s a hockey game and we’re a couple of points up in a playoff race we need to get into. The team is more important right now.”
The front page of the Boston Herald ran a wanted poster with Cooke’s smirking face and the words: “WANTED...at least one Bruin willing to teach this bum a lesson.”
NHL vice-president of hockey operations Colin Campbell is in town and expected to tell both teams to be “civil,” and veteran referees Bill McCreary and Stephen Walkom have been airlifted in to handle the game.
Both teams will be reminded about the aftermath of the Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incident. In 2004, Bertuzzi attacked Moore as retribution for a Moore hit on Vancouver Canucks star Markus Naslund. Civil litigation is still before the courts.
In another ironic twist, it was Cooke, then with the Canucks, who had challenged Moore to fight earlier in the game. Cooke understands he will likely be called upon to fight tonight.
Long-time Bruins fans, who recall the days of the Big, Bad Bruins (ironically, the 1970 Stanley Cup team is being honoured before tonight’s game) were disappointed the team didn’t extract its pound of flesh immediately following Cooke's blindside hit on Savard, which caused a Grade 2 concussion and led to him being taken off the ice on a stretcher.
“You guys keep building it up, building it up, building it up, so we’re probably going to have to walk on eggshells or we’re going to be in trouble, for sure. It’s magnified immensely,” said Thornton.
“I know what the expectations are, but it’s not like it was last year where we had a 20-point cushion going into the last few games. We need the two points. We’re scraping for a playoff spot.
“As upset as (the fans) might be if they don’t see blood, I’m sure they’ll be even more upset if we don’t make the playoffs. I think at the end of the day, that’s the bigger problem.”
When asked if there was an “honourable way of answering the bell,” for Cooke, Thornton replied: “I think you know the answer to that question. There’s definitely an honourable way, but whether that happens, I don’t know.”
Bruins forward Steve Begin defended the Bruins choice to not go after Cooke in the game March 7.
“You still want to win the game. You still had a chance to win. If you go and do some stupid things and get in trouble, your team has less chance to score a goal,” said Begin. “We got the message. We know what we have to do. We know what we’re facing. The main thing tonight is the game and the win.”
Begin kept some good humour in the face of the redundant questioning.
“You guys are talking about a lot of things. It’s the first time I’ve seen this many people in here since the Winter Classic,” said Begin. “You guys are waiting for this game, eh? God.”
When told the old-school Bruins used to have a reputation for taking care of players like Cooke, Begin faced the questioner and said: “You know hockey a little bit? There’s five minutes left, 2-1, still got a chance to win. What do you want to do? Jump on the ice, jump the guy, get two minutes and go in the box? At the end it’s easy to say, ‘We lost 2-1, we should have done something.’ What if we score a goal and win the game? We thought as a team we’re going to play them again. We thought as a team we still had a chance to win the game.
“You guys are asking if we’re going to jump him? There’s nothing to be said about that,” said Begin.
In other words, the Bruins are well aware the NHL has tried to leave the '70's mentality behind and will be punished heavily by the league if they take a trip back in time tonight.
“Unfortunately the rules aren’t the same as in 1970. In those days, it was a lot different,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien. “There was bench-clearing brawls, which you don’t see anymore. There’s lots of other things going on. That’s what everybody has to understand. There’s a lawsuit going on right now with that Vancouver incident. People have a tendency to forget about that. It’s a very fine line, very touchy, for individuals and organizations. That’s what we have to keep in mind here.
“There’s ways of dealing with these kinds of things. Our number one priority is to win the game. We can stand here all day and speculate. A lot of times those things don’t happen. You just sit back and watch and whatever happens, happens.”
When asked if the honourable thing for Cooke to do would be to make himself accountable, Julien said: “I think that’s a question you should ask Matt Cooke and not the coach of the other team. I think he’s the one who has to answer that question.”
chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca
