(Photo by Jared Wilkerman/Getty Images)
by Dakota Antelman
The Bruins sit outside the playoff picture. Their season has been marred with miscues and the alarm has long since been sounded. After a tumultuous sequence of days, following their most recent OT loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, though, the Bruins have begun taking shots at themselves.
The statement is both literal and in part a sports metaphor. The two days between Sunday’s 2-1 loss in Carolina and Tuesday’s meeting with the Penguins featured some pointed comments by GM Peter Chiarelli and CEO Charlie Jacobs as well as a literal fight between teammates Torey Krug and Brad Marchand.
Ticket sales are stalling, fans have begun raining “boos” down not upon the opponent but the lackadaisical Bruin struggling in the neutral zone. Calls of “Tuuuuukk” uttered for Tuukka Rask have at times been drowned out by satirical cheers while the media has begun to intermix their highlight reels with statements like “this was the best spin we could put on this.”
Frustration is commonplace within the Bruins system today as it has been for much of the season. As the team continues to stumble, even at the halfway mark of the season, the frustration within the team has permeated into the stands.
Fans who are still watching this team are doing so not for goals or playoff victories but for trades, firings and gritty overhauls that will help revert the organization to the state that delivered such things.
As they do so though, the byproducts of this systematic frustration are scrutinized and elevated to a platform of media focus as talk of division titles was in years past.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, January fifth, sixth and seventh, were days on which that scrutiny was revealed.
Tuesday morning in Boston, Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli addressed the Boston Globe saying that players should “absolutely be uncomfortable about their job security.”
“It impacts the rest of the game,” Chiarelli said specifically of the Bruins flat first period vs Carolina. “We’ve seen a few those of periods in this three-game stretch. It’s disappointing. We’re still treading water, and that’s not acceptable. That’s the common denominator in those three games.”
He went on to say “It’s never fun to be in this situation — to try and improve your roster when you’re not in a real position of strength, there’s not a lot of activity going around. But you try and peck away and try to improve your team. At the same time, you hope these guys can string a couple games together. We have to watch this closely.”
Chiarelli certainly had faith in his team when he spoke. But saying that his players should absolutely be uncomfortable does not bode well for team confidence and or trust in one another. It blatantly tells players they could be on the move soon. “So don’t get to comfortable!”
Though some may argue it is a motivational tactic, the statement seemed more like an honest assessment that need not be vocalized.
Mere hours later, newly appointed Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs came out with much stronger words.
Describing a scenario in which the Bruins miss the playoffs as an “utter failure”, Jacobs said “I’d say without question this has been a very disappointing year. It’s unacceptable the way that this team has performed given the amount of time, money and effort that’s been spent on this team,” said Jacobs.
“To see it delivered the way it has is unacceptable. I can tell you that at the moment it’s a very fluid situation that’s being monitored closely. I don’t have any answers for why we’re underperforming because if I did I would have tried them long ago.”
It is as if the Bruins are a distracted private school student whose parents are frustrated with his or her plummeting grades.
Needless to say, when your supreme boss says he is disgusted with your performance the result is a DIRECT shot to your confidence.
But the Bruins are professionals right? They would not be shaken by a little tough love. More so, they surely have their priorities straight.
They made it harder to believe those statements in turn mere hours after Jacobs’ chastisement.
During “battle drills” at Bruins practice, a fight broke out between teammates Torey Krug and Brad Marchand. The scuffle apparently arose after Marchand made a joke about Krug’s height to a friend.
Krug gave a behind the scenes look minutes later at media availability time.
“He told one of my buddies that he was taller than me, and it pissed me off,” he said. “It’s just competing in practice, you don’t like something and tempers flare a little bit. It’s nothing crazy, and you saw afterwards that we’re fine with each other. Who knows? Maybe that is what this team needed a little bit.”
He then soured.
“I think it’s no secret that guys aren’t happy with where we’re at. It’s got to start somewhere, so why not in practice. I thought after that you noticed the guys were a little more intense, and having some fun. We’ll see. Maybe we can use that.”
Intensity is a good thing but a rare fight in practice does not seem so positive. There is a line between the good teams and the bad teams in the NHL and in recent years these types of practice fights have always occurred within teams on the wrong side of that line.
While it would be unfair to judge the entire roster on the occurrence of a hot tempered shoving match during a rough patch in the season, the trend is there and it definitely adds to this general perception that the Bruins are taking shots at themselves.
They face the Penguins Wednesday night Pittsburgh eager for a win against one of the NHL’s best teams. They do so motivated and positive; but perhaps they are not quite motivated enough.
The team has the players to win. The team has the coaches to win; yet they fail to.
Is it motivation? Possibly. But more, so these recent losses could be the product of incorrect priorities. The specter beseeching these priorities stands as the Bruins taking shots at one another.
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