Jarome Iginla

The NHL trade deadline is coming. It’s time for the annual, “Wouldn’t Jarome Iginla look good in a Bruins uniform?” discussions. Whenever Calgary starts slipping the conversation inevitably begins. He should ask for a trade for the good of the team. The team needs to trade their best player ever for the good of the franchise. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Eventually the topic always turns to how Boston should go out and get him.

A few years ago I was fully in the do-whatever-it-takes-to-get-this-guy camp. Now… he’s getting old. He’s 35, which is very old for most hockey players. He’s not going to come into Boston and light the lamp 50 times in the final month of the season. He’s not going to show up and solve all of our offensive problems. He’s probably not even going to be one of our top scorers. Should we still pay the unquestionably high price to get him?

HELL YES!

When the Bruins traded for Marc Recchi a few years ago, I was insulted. Recchi was ancient by hockey standards, and his best years were so far behind him it was sick. Then he got here and became “The Veteran”. He set himself up as the elder statesman. All of the young players looked up to him. All of them saw him as a role model. All of them saw his Stanley Cup rings and bought in. What happened? Well, just a Stanley Cup a couple of years later. That’s all.

Iginla is better now than Recchi was then. He’s never won a championship, but most of the current roster has, so we don’t need that sort of leadership like we did when Recchi got here. What we do have is a bunch of forwards who go through streaks where they struggle to score goals. Iginla can assume the role of “The Veteran” and smoothe out all of those scary times when Lucic and Horton and Marchant and Seguin all suddenly forget how to score. Look at me, he can say, I’m Jarome Iginla and I have twice hit the 50 goals in a season mark. Learn from me as I demonstrate the wonders of hard work and consistency.

On top of that, throughout his career Iginla has been an A list power forward. He is what Milan Lucic needs to be. Wants to be. Must be. Trading for Iginla would be worth it just so he could teach Looch what he needs to learn.

People are already complaining about the possibility of the Bruins giving up Malcolm Subban. Subban is 19, playing in juniors, and a very late first round pick. In other words, he hasn’t done anything real yet (no offense) and he won’t be ready to contribute at the NHL level for a while. I hear people saying three years but that seems super optimistic to me. I say deal him to Calgary and then work your black and gold asses off to sign Iginla for a few more years.

I ask you, wouldn’t Jarome Iginla look good in a Boston Bruins uniform?

I answer you. Yes, yes he would.

Go get him!

Goal!

Martin Brodeur is the greatest goalie in the history of professional hockey. Last night, he was also a goal scoring machine.

It wasn’t a case of “he shoots he scores”, it was more like “he makes a save during a delayed penalty and some Whaler makes a crappy pass that banks off the boards in the New Jersey end and deflects all the way down to the Whaler’s end and goes right smack into the middle of the net”.

It was the third goal of his career. 100 years from now, some kid walking through the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto is going to see the Martin Brodeur display and it is going to list his career stats:
9 billion wins.
2 billion shutouts.
3 goals.

Note, I have watched this video but I have not listened to it. I do not know if any hockey announcers say anything stupid or not. You’ve been warned.

Staying with the hockey theme, as I posted yesterday, I got home from picking up the kids and put the game on the radio. By radio, I mean the CBS radio iPhone app that streams 98.5 WBZ FM. As soon as the stream reached my ear pods Ottawa scored. I listened for a while feeling completely underwhelmed by the Bruins performance. Before the second period ended I put the game on the TV. With less than two minutes left in the second the Bruins tied the game. Intermission started, I went to say good night to the first step child. I then watched some of the third period and the Bruins were not the snooze inducing hockey boredom machines they had been in the second. They had a little more life. I had to go downstairs and do some laundry business, then say good night to the second step child, then turn out all the lights and lock the doors, then get into bed. I had planned to listen to the end of the game while reading a little, but I was a little late. I checked the score. Bruins win 2-1.

This season’s shortened schedule really is an insult to hockey lovers everywhere. The Bruins have played 29 games and we’re already nearly 75% of the way through the season. That’s garbage. The reason you play a long season is so that everyone can get the crap kicked out of them by life itself, and the really good teams separate themselves from the not so good teams. That’s not going to happen this year. I mean, the Leafs are in sixth in the East. That’s all the proof you need!

Having said that, I don’t really see the Bruins contending for the Cup the way many in the press seem to. They just don’t have the fire yet. They don’t have the killer instinct. They have lost four games in which they had the lead in the third period. When they are good they are outstanding. When they aren’t good they are maddeningly boring and mediocre.

The third period last night was a nice change from the recent snooze. Let’s hope the momentum continues Saturday night in Toronto.

Go Bruins.

Bad Day for Boston Sports

It’s been a crummy day for Boston sports. First, the Bruins blew a 2-0 lead over the Penguins last night, all in the late minutes of the third period, and lost 3-2.

Today, the Patriots lose Wes Welker to the Denver Broncos.

And to top it off, I now learn that Terry Francona, ex Red Sox manager, has made a Harlem Shake video with the Cleveland Indians.

Will the pain never end?

Boston

I just had an epiphany.

I was sitting in the drive through at Dunkin Donuts and it was snowing…

I was also listening to Letters to Cleo…

It occurred to me that I would never have a more “Boston” moment than I had right then. In those few minutes I was more “Boston” than I ever had been, or ever would be again. The only way it could have been more of a Boston moment would have been if the Green Monster were in view.

It honestly was wicked cool.

Drop the Puck

I have such mixed feelings about the end of the NHL lockout. I love hockey so much. I bleed black and gold. I am a Boston Bruins fanatic. I hang on every shift, every play, every pass, every check, every shot, every save, every goal. Damn it, I love this friggin game!

But they hurt me again. The hurt me eight years ago when they cancelled a whole season, yet this time hurts me even more. I guess it’s knowing that I am partly to blame this time. I came back last time and this year I paid for my lack of vision.

I believe in my heart that three lockouts under the current commissioner proves that the league is fundamentally broken and must be allowed to fail. Then a new league, one that cares about its customers and does not take them for granted or use them as bargaining chips, can rise from the ashes of the old.

But damn it if I don’t love my Bruins and damn me for wanting to see them play this year.

My 2012 in Pictures – Part Deux

Yeah, I did a my-year-in-pictures thing the other day. It was fun. What the hell, thought I, why not do it again? This time I’ll run fast and loose with the whole one-pic-from-each-month thing. I’m crazy like that.

We have to get our pics of the Sands Bridge in Methuen before she collapses. Or maybe I should say before she finishes collapsing. It’s already started. Also, I don’t think I found a relative in the Grove Street Cemetery, but who knows?

In February I finally finished an RPM Challenge on time. It only took me five tries. We also got a new bed. Jen’s penguin approved.

In March, the kids and I became wilderness explorers. Hipstamatic came along for the ride. Actually, we just wandered around in the woods behind our house for a little while. It was fun.

April in San Diego. I want to go back RIGHT NOW!

May gave us baseball, Bar Harbor, and my first up close New England Lighthouse.

The picture pickin’s are slim in June, but we did get a new Rush album (and it is awesome) and we got another fantastic piano recital from the kids.

July offers more choices after a spontaneous trip to Boston, and a week long stay in Maine that included some time in the mountains of New Hampshire.

In August we went to the Top of the Hub for the first time in my life. The views of my city were spectacular. We also spent some twilight time on Hampton Beach.

September had mountain waterfalls, leaf peeping, my first ever attempt at photo-walking in Tewksbury, and more Rush.

October continues to belong to Washington, DC.

The camera didn’t come out much in November, but I did torture the cat, and my wife, with my camera phone, and we did celebrate Turkey Day.

December had more mountains, more mountain streams, and Christmas.

And there we have a second view of my 2012 in pictures. Forgive the gratuitousness.

Happy New Year (again).

My 2012 in Pictures

In January I took my swanky new lens out and about in Methuen to see what it could do. These trips usually focus on the Spicket River, but this time I went to the Merrimack.

As usual, February focused on the RPM Challenge. This year my saxophone came out of retirement.

In March I finally managed to get a few pictures of the night sky that only mostly sucked, as opposed to the normal total suck. This is the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter, all at once.

April brought us back to San Diego and I swear, each time we go there it gets harder and harder to come home.

In May we brought the kids to Fenway Park. Dustin Pedroia and the Red Sox won the game, but went on to their worst season in 100,000 years.

June was very quiet, photography wise, but we did get another piano recital in the wonderful Nevins Library in Methuen.

In July we spent a week on Long Lake in Maine. I managed to accidentally take a few pictures that didn’t suck.

In August we spent a day wandering around Portsmouth, NH including Strawbery Banke.

In September we took the kids to see Rush. Now they know what I’ve been talking about all this time.

In October we took the kids to Washington, DC and tried our best to see everything in the short time we were there.

In November I didn’t post a single picture taken with my D90. I did, however, learn that this existed and it made me feel a little better about the human race in general.

In December my wife and I ran off together to the mountains for a few days. It was wonderful to get away.

And there you have it. A brief synopsis of my 2012, in pictures. I could have posted hundreds of pictures. Maybe I will later on.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: