The post Iginla, inaccurately played trials of 2014 Milan Lucic

October 18th, 2014
by Dakota Antelman

One year ago Milan Lucic played 80 games, scoring 24 goals and assisting on 35 others. He was a hitting machine, fore-checking teams into oblivion and mashing pucks loose in unthinkable ways. One year ago, Lucic was an all-star hockey player.

Now, 6 games into his 2014 season, Lucic is yet to score a goal. He has -2 rating and has mustered just 10 shots on goal. Now, Lucic is lost, more reminiscent of a 2012 season in which he would go weeks without a goal and less reminiscent of last year’s wonderful anomaly.  

What changed? The answer is simple; Jarome Iginla left Boston.

Iginla’s time in Boston was short but wonderful. He netted 30 goals, elevating his line mates (Lucic and Krejci) to a higher level of scoring consistency. Despite his success, due to painful cap issues, the Bruins were unable to keep him.

“I had one of the best [years] of my career, one of the most exciting years last year, one of favorite years, the whole experience coming to this,” Iginla said. “I made some good friends that are on their side playing with the team, and we had a very good team. So it was a little different, for sure. It hasn’t been too long, it feels almost like you’ve just been gone for a long vacation, but it’s part of the game.”

The loss of Iginla was painful for the Bruins who definitely recognized the consistency that Iginla played with.

"It was tough from the perspective of losing a player like that who can shoot, a right shot, and is obviously very experienced, a very good player, a Hall of Fame player,” said GM Peter Chiarelli.

At the same time though, Chiarelli felt that his team could fill the void left by Iginla.

“The year before we had a Hall of Fame player in [Jaromir] Jagr, a few years before we had a Hall of Fame player in [Mark] Recchi, so my point is we usually manage to rebound,” he said.

But so far, that has not happened.

The absence of Iginla on the Krejci/Lucic line is glaring and the Bruins are paying the price for not paying the price Iginla demanded in last summer’s market. David Krejci is the only member of the 1^stline who has scored this season as wingers, Milan Lucic and Seth Griffith has been nearly non factors.

What was worse was due to an injury to Krejci in the preseason, the line was missing its center for the first week of the year.

When they played the Avalanche, Iginla discussed how he still had faith in his former line and supported them specially when Krejci returned.

“Oh, I think it’s early,” Iginla said. “I think everything is so magnified at the beginning of the season. I do follow, looking at the scores at night. I’ve got a lot of friends over on the other side, so I follow how they’re doing and stuff, and they’re close games. To get Krech back will be a big boost. He’s a big part of the offense, big part of the team over there. And they’ve had some guys out, so I don’€™t doubt that they’ll be just fine and hard to play against as ever.”

But they are not! The Bruins first line is not fine. Milan Lucic is no longer consistent, Milan Lucic has simply been playing unintelligently this season, making bad decisions and inaccurate plays with the puck.

However the low point came Thursday in Montreal. After a minor penalty for tripping, Milan Lucic flashed an obscene gesture at Canadians fans while skating to the penalty box. He was swiftly fined $5,000 by the league garnering some bad publicity about his professionalism and discipline.

In a scathing column published on ESPN Friday afternoon, reporter, Joe McDonald wrote “…when it comes to pro athletes gesturing toward the fans in the manner in which Lucic did Thursday night? That’s not acceptable.”

AP writer Stephan Harris said in his article in the Boston Herald , “And as much as passion and emotion are key elements in his play, he should be long past the point where he is in need of an anger management course.”

Hockey players are professionals but so far this season, Lucic’s play has begged otherwise. Being so dependent on the presence of another player, as Lucic is with Iginla, is something that is far from appealing. Furthermore, his continually offending fans through lewd gestured and arrant postgame comments has shown that Milan Lucic is no first line rock.