#bruina

[bjnurse]

A wonderful wonderful friend made these for me!!!! 🥺🥰😍 So thoughtful!!! I love them so much!!! 💕😭💕

[bradmac91]

On the Bruins’ much-needed culture change

General manager Don Sweeney didn’t wait around to make an impact on the Boston Bruins team he just inherited. In true black and blue, BRUINS HOCKEY™ style, he dug right in and just went for it in a matter of weeks. Impressive! 

After years of bad decisions, a culture change was in order for the Bruins. Back in 2009 when they traded noted “rotten apple” Phil Kessel, the Bruins likely thought they were in the clear as they had rid themselves of a “potential drifter” to the Maple Leafs for what turned out to be some really high draft picks. What a coup that was! Unfortunately, the powers that be within the honourable Boston Bruins franchise converted these picks into players that simply do not match the high character of other Bruins greats.

It seems, when they chose to select Tyler “Immature” Seguin and Dougie “He’s Not That Good” Hamilton with the picks surrendered by the rival Maple Leafs, that they overlooked some important character flaws. They may have ridded themselves of Kessel’s bad attitude, but just took on a party animal and a loner that his teammates would turn out to hate. It’s amazing the Bruins were a competitive team at all - let alone a Stanley Cup winner - with that kind of talent evaluation. 

Fortunately, Sweeney found some suckers in Dallas and Calgary and ditched those guys before they caused any more problems. Talent isn’t enough to be a Boston Bruin, you also have to be a good person and make good choices. 

As luck would have it, the Bruins fortunes improved even more on Monday as they acquired an exemplary member of the hockey community and the purest embodiment of BRUINS HOCKEY™, Zac Rinaldo via a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers. All it took was a third-round draft pick

I also can’t forget to mention they traded bar fight enthusiast, Milan Lucic, to the Los Angeles Kings while retaining about half of the salary they could no longer afford to pay him. 

News broke during the writing of this piece that the Bruins have now traded young goaltender Martin Jones - one of the returns in the Lucic trade - to the San Jose Sharks for a prospect and a first round pick. That’s very good value and potential redemption for Sweeney. It’s extra great because the Bruins totally aren’t rebuilding and another first rounder is just gravy! I just hope for the good name of this storied franchise that they don’t continue this cycle of drafting guys like Kessel, Seguin, and Hamilton. 

How could any good team afford to do that?