He was the last coach to lead the Boston Bruins to a Stanley Cup title. RIP.
BOSTON (Reuters) – Former Boston Bruins player and coach Tom Johnson has died at the age of 79, the team said on Thursday.
Johnson was an outstanding defenseman with the Montreal Canadiens and the Bruins, later becoming coach and executive with Boston for more than 30 years before he retired in 1998.
A native of Balfour, Manitoba, Johnson played 15 seasons in the NHL, helping Montreal win six Stanley Cups. He won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 1958-59.
He coached the Bruins to the Stanley Cup in 1972, their last championship, later serving as the team’s assistant general manager and vice president.
“The Bruins and all of hockey have lost a great person,” said Harry Sinden, the team’s former coach and general manager who is now an advisor.
Johnson was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1970.
He is the third Philadelphia Flyer to be suspended this year.
Flyers defenseman Randy Jones was suspended two games by the NHL on Monday for his violent hit on Boston’s Patrice Bergeron, making him the third Philadelphia player suspended for a dangerous play this season.
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The 22-year-old Bergeron was injured after he was hammered to the boards face-first by Jones in the first period of Philadelphia’s 2-1 victory over the Bruins.
Bergeron lost consciousness, was transported from the ice on a stretcher and was taken to the hospital where team physician, Dr. Bertram Zarins, diagnosed him with a concussion and a broken nose. No other serious injuries to Bergeron’s head or neck were revealed by tests and he was released Sunday.
The suspension was handed down by NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell.
HUNTSVILLE, Ont. – Now Anton Volchenkov can rest easy with the rest of his Ottawa Senators teammates.
The National Hockey League is not reviewing his check on Florida Panthers left-winger David Booth during Saturday’s game at Scotiabank Place, meaning Volchenkov will not be suspended for the hit.
That won’t come as a surprise to Senators coach John Paddock, who couldn’t understand why there was any suggestion of a suspension in the first place.
The NHL agreed with John Paddock’s assessment that Anton Volchenkov, above, did nothing wrong.
That’s about the dumbest thing I’ve heard in hockey this year, in terms of anybody even talking about him being suspended,” Paddock said during a conference call. “So, that’s my thought on that.”
To recap, in the second period of Saturday’s contest, Booth had the puck along the boards, in the Senators zone, when he turned towards Volchenkov with his head down. They collided and Booth went into the boards before falling to the ice. He was eventually taken off the ice on a stretcher.
Here’s the video of the hit on Booth.
I don’t see any difference between what Volchenkov and Jones did. Does the NHL have a double standard for suspending players?
He will be the NHL franchise’s third coach in just one year.
Claude Julien was hired as coach of the Bruins on Thursday, less than a week after Boston fired Dave Lewis and two months after Julien was dismissed by the New Jersey Devils in the season’s waning days.
Julien is the Bruins’ third coach in a year. He was let go by the first-place Devils in April with three games left in the regular season and the team preparing for the playoffs.
Lewis led to the Bruins to a 35-41-6 record in his only season. He was dismissed Friday — more than two months after they missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year — and will be given another job in the franchise. Boston hasn’t won a playoff series since 1999.
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In his only season with New Jersey, Julien was 47-24-8. He also coached the Montreal Canadiens for three years, leading the Canadiens to the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2004 — when they beat the Bruins in the conference quarterfinals — before he was fired midway through the 2005-06 season with a 19-16-6 record.
“He demands execution,” Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said. “He demands that his players do what he wants.”
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Julien is the 17th person to coach the Bruins in 30 years.
Julien has had some success with other teams. The Bruins on the other hand have been poor to mediocre since the cancelled 2004-05 season. Something tells me Julien will be looking for employment again in 2 to 3 years at most.
TORONTO – The Calgary Flames have hired Mike Keenan as their new head coach, The Canadian Press reported Wednesday night.
The Canadian Press, citing unidentified sources, reported an official announcement is expected Thursday or Friday.
Current Flames coach Jim Playfair will remain with the organization.
The Flames went 43-25-10, finishing eighth in the Western Conference last season under Playfair. They lost to the Detroit Red Wings in six games in the first round of the playoffs.
Keenan has 569 victories in 1,014 games as an NHL head coach.
He won the Jack Adams trophy awarded to the league’s top coach in 1985 after leading the Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup final. He also took the Chicago Blackhawks to the Cup finals in 1988, and won the Cup with the New York Rangers in 1994.
Calgary will be the eigth NHL team Keenan has been head coach of.
My take- Considering he traded the Florida Panthers’ star goaltender Roberto Luongo for garbage, and then bailed on the team two months later, forgive me if I don’t wish Keenan well in Calgary.
It appears the Chicago Blackhawks have won the NHL Lottery thus making the first 14 picks of the NHL draft order look like this:
1 Chicago Blackhawks (moved up from 5th spot)
2 Philadelphia Flyers (moved down from 1st spot)
3 Phoenix Coyotes (moved down from 2nd spot)
4 Los Angeles Kings (moved down from 3rd spot)
5 Washington Capitals (moved down from 4th spot)
6 Edmonton Oilers
7 Columbus Blue Jackets
8 Boston Bruins
9 St. Louis Blues
10 Florida Panthers
11 Carolina Hurricanes
12 Montreal Canadiens
13 Toronto Maple Leafs
14 Colorado Avalanche
We can put them back together. We have the technology. Errr, maybe not. Despite the occasional worst to first tales in recent sports history, fixing a train wreck of a team is rarely an immediate process. Organizations with the attitude that we can fix this mess quick, like the Boston Bruins, get stuck in the good season bad season, no chance at winning it all rut.
Boston Bruins fans have gone from feast, 29 consecutive playoff appearances, to more of a hi-carb diet, lots of regular season sugar and not enough post-season steak. They grow understandably frustrated with the cotton candy. Like most hockey fans, denizens of the hub of hockey tend to be a passionate lot. Enough so that Boston’s (top rated) sports talker, WEEI, refers to blocks of call-in time in Bruin fans use to vocalize their anger over the team’s misfortunes as Hockey Talk. The pain was not helped by a recent 10-2 drubbing at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs. At least, they can console themselves that they have the Patriots in the AFC Conference Championship this Sunday. Take that Maple Leaf, fans, you don’t even have real football! The rejoinder? Bruins fans don’t have real hockey. Life is rough when it’s been more than thirty years since your last Cup and you have become a team named Sue.
Last year’s stumbles brought the mid-season firing of GM Mike O’Connell and the much delayed, agonizingly so, dismissal of head coach Mike Sullivan after the season ended. O’Connell sealed his fate by dealing the teams two biggest stars in a desperate attempt to shake up the team. When it didn’t work, he was out of work. Sullivan was dismissed more so new GM Peter Chiarelli could have his own guy behind the bench. But coaches are always getting axed in Boston. The Bruins track record of firing coaches in this decade, and even before, would make George Steinbrenner blush.
The constant turnover behind the bench is matched only by the turnover on the bench. The Bruins parsimoniousness once created numerous trade opportunities whenever a player wanted more money than Ray Bourque got paid. Now, with Bourque long retired and continual roster turnover, the Bruins try to catch lightning in a bottle year in and year out. It’s not stinginess, quite the contrary, it’s spending poorly. In fact, the tightfisted Bruins had more success in getting to the postseason than have the free spending version.
What was once a proud franchise has now become the Washington Redskins of hockey. They spend during the offseason and underachieve when the games are played. This offseason brought a new GM, new coach and new hope in the form of Defensemen Zdeno Chara and Paul Mara and forward Marc Savard. The results have been again underwhelming. Erratic goaltending has been a problem for the Bruins, who are currently relying on journeyman Tim Thomas between the pipes. The Bruins had a Calder Trophy (top rookie) winner in net after the 2004 season, in Andrew Raycroft, but Raycroft was ineffective in the first post lockout season and subsequently dealt to Toronto.
When a team with a bigger budget for player salaries underachieves, talent evaluation, as well as the team’s overall definition of how to compete and succeed in the “new NHL,” need to be called into question. Bruins management for years felt the team was one player away from winning the Stanley Cup. They never could find that guy. It wasn’t Kevin Stevens or Al Iafrate or Mariusz Czerkawski. Now, they need more than one guy, but they keep going after the one guy. Winning it all with this team will take more than a silver bullet solution. Until the Bruins, and other devotees of the One-Year Rebuilding Plan, recognize that the on again, off again seasons are the result of poor organizational planning, their fans will continue to suffer through uninspiring, Championship free seasons.
BOSTON – Bruins rookie forward Phil Kessel underwent cancer surgery and is “on the road to recovery,” his agent said Tuesday.
Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli confirmed that the 19-year-old Kessel, the fifth pick in this year’s NHL draft, had “cancer-related surgery” and that any further update on his treatment or the length of his absence would come from Kessel’s family.
“That’s something that the Kessels will disclose when they’re ready,” Chiarelli said before the Bruins played the Canadiens in Montreal on Tuesday night. “We”re just trying to honor their wishes.”
Kessel’s agent, Wade Arnott, said the center had surgery on Monday at Massachusetts General Hospital, according to The Boston Globe’s Web site.
“He got thrown a curveball,” Arnott told the Globe, without specifying the kind of cancer. “But he’s holding up pretty well.”
The condition was identified “very recently” after Kessel felt minor symptoms, Arnott said. “He’s resting in Boston and on the road to recovery.”
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The speedy Kessel has five goals and four assists in 27 games. He played one season at Minnesota before signing a multiyear contract with the Bruins in August. He led Minnesota and was sixth in the WCHA in scoring with 18 goals and 33 assists in 34 games. He also was the career leader in goals for USA Hockey’s national development team.
It’s a little odd which cancer Kessel has wasn’t disclosed but that is his decision. Without knowing more details, I’d only be guessing about his prognosis. I’m an almost thirteen year survivor of the deadliest skin cancer, malignant melanoma. I had four of those moles biopsied and surgically removed in 1993-1994 and am cancer free to today. Lets pray Phil Kessel is just as successful in fighting cancer.
Update- Here it is reported that Kessel has testicular cancer.
