I had a pretty crazy dream last night, let me tell you, on Hockey Trade Deadline Eve.
So I’m sitting at a game, right. It’s Hockey Night in Boston, probably a Tuesday. I’m sitting comfortably in my seat down in the 100s, right on the blue line (somehow, my seats are always good in my dreams; I’ve never had a seat below the balcony, in all the games I’ve ever been to), beer in one hand, Game Notes card in the other. It’s shaping up to be a good night; The Bruins are playing the Canadiens, and that’s always good. Oh, one other thing: This game is post-trade deadline.
Somehow I miss the starting lineup and suddenly the players are just on the ice, skating furiously after the puck. I catch a flash of missing tooth and a wild-eyed expression; a little more squinting and I realize Holy Hannah, Ovechkin.
Ovechkin’s on my team.
He skates by, thundering, as I marvel at the prospect of a team with both Zdeno Chara AND Alexander Ovechkin. It shouldn’t happen; the immovable object and the unstoppable force shouldn’t be on a team together. But what the hey, it’s a dream, I can let this one slide.
I can’t let the next one slide. Before I can say “Let’s Go B’s!”, a slippery Canadien forward grabs the puck and bee-lines it into the net, past Fernandez (Why are we starting Fernandez against the Habs? I wonder), and the announcer records the goal.
“GOAL SCORED BY MONTREAL NUMBER 37, PATRICE BERGERON!”
Here’s where my dream becomes a nightmare. Bergy’s a Hab, NO, THIS CAN’T BE. I know he’s Quebecois, but a Quebecois wearing le bleu, blanc et rouge? My heart plummets as I look around, anxious to try to sort out why and how this blasphemy happened, but again, before I can pray to Bobby Orr and ask WHY, GOD, WHY, another player wearing the spoked B dashes by, following Mike Komisarek up the ice, screaming obscenities about what he’d like to do to Komie’s girlfriend. Komie wheels to deck the guy and my heart, already down by me feet, sinks practically through the Garden onto the MBTA Green Line train platform beneath the building.
Sean Avery. Sean Avery is a Boston Bruin.
Noooooo…..
I woke up in a cold sweat, thanking God that was a dream, and then it hits me – oh hey. Today is the trade deadline.
It’s possible to be as excited as a little kid on Christmas and yet so scared that your team’s GM will make a huge mistake and trade away a key part of your team’s core at the SAME EXACT TIME. I know; all of you in Hockey Nation know. It’s simultaneously the most awesome and most woeful feeling ever. I woke up with those same feelings of anticipation, two hours after I’d fallen asleep.
Trade Deadline = Hockey Christmas. It’s the best analogy I’ve heard all day. What did I do all day? Laid around in my PJs, waiting for presents from…well, basically from Hockey Santa, hoping that he wouldn’t take too much away in return.
My worries came in the form of one specific rumor that I’d been hearing all week.
Kessel for Pronger. Kessel for Pronger.
I honestly did not want to believe Bruins’ GM Peter Chiarelli would actually trade Kessel. Kessel is part of the young nucleus of this team. He’s 21. Lucic is 20. Third-string goalie Tuukka Rask is…what, 22? And improving by the day down in Providence. Krejci, another up-and-coming young star, is 22, Bergy’s only 23, Vladimir Sobotka is 21. We’ve finally got a core of young players that the Bruins have developed themselves, with more waiting in the ranks right down in Providence, ready to pounce into the Big Leagues once the old guys like PJ Axelsson and Aaron Ward move on. The team’s been rebuilding for the past two years, building this strong core from scratch – biding their time instead of springing for expensive mid-career superstars. Peter Chiarelli isn’t just looking for THE Stanley Cup; he’s looking for CUPS, plural, and has been for the past few years.
So is the future now? Chiarelli didn’t trade Kessel, didn’t trade…well…ANYTHING, really, and yet he acquired two older players and a draft pick for 2010.
Here’s the breakdown.
- Petteri Nokelainen to the Ducks for Steve Montador
- Matt Lashoff and Martin Karsums to the Bolts for Mark Recchi and a 2nd round draft pick in 2010
In case you’re wondering who the heck Karsums and Lashoff and even maybe Nokie are, you’re not alone – as of last week, Lashoff was in Providence, Karsums was the spare forward for a few games, and Nokie’s been on injured reserve since getting a stick in the eye from San Jose’s Dan Boyle during that BRUTAL Sharks game a few weeks back.
So essentially, we traded away a tiny slice of future pie and received a big old Present-day cake.
Chiarelli talked about adding depth to the line; depth is what we got. Recchi is an aging forward whose specialty is the power play; our power play has been especially terrible as of late (leading several other fans and I to even dub it the ‘failerplay’.) At one point, we were 2-for-19 on power play goals. Chia also spoke of adding to our defense; for that aspect, he grabbed one-time Calgary Flame Steve Montador. I’ll admit, I’d only heard of Montador in passing, but after a little homework today, one key element of Montador’s career stood out:
He’s played with our guys before.
The 2005-2006 Calgary Flames roster includes one Stephane Yelle, one Chucky Kobasew, and another Andrew Ference – Ference and Montador even went to Africa together to work with their charity, Right to Play. Today on NESN, Montador called in to sing the praises of his new team, to give shout outs to Chucky, Yelle, and Andy, to mention that he’s played golf with Marc Savard and Milan Lucic. Savvy even came on afterwards to sing Montador’s praises right back at him.
The chemistry’s there, and Montador hasn’t even stepped on the ice yet. True, Chiarelli’s been teased for creating a “Boston Flames” team, but who cares?
The team needed a few patches at the tail-end of a great season, a league-topping season, and Recchi and Montador seem like just the guys to do it. The Bruins got their quick fix for peanuts, and I dare anyone to try and say they got a better present on Hockey Christmas than the Bruins did today.
Except maybe Calgary.