Scott Cordischi On Sports: Don’t Poke The Bear!
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
It may or may not be the match-up Boston fans were hoping for, but the Eastern Conference Finals showdown between the Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins should provide plenty of intrigue.
While the NHL continues to drag its feet on releasing the schedule for the series (although speculation is that game 1 will take place Saturday in Pittsburgh), hockey fans in Boston are eagerly awaiting its start along with officials at the NBC Sports Network.
Why? Because there are so many great story lines.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTWhile Pittsburgh is the top-seed and Boston the 4th-seed in the East, most believe that these are the best two teams the conference has to offer.
They have played each other three times this season with the Pens winning all three but only by 1 goal each time.
And while there may not be quite the history between these two teams as there is between Boston and Montreal, there is enough fuel to stoke a pretty impressive fire.
You can actually go back more than 20 years to the 1991 Stanley Cup Playoffs when well-known agitator Ulf Samuelsson hit then Bruins star Cam Neely with a knee on knee check that effectively ended the brilliant career of the right winger. Neely did play another five seasons but was never the same player. He is currently the president of the Boston Bruins and would, no doubt, take great pleasure in beating the Penguins.
More recently, Pittsburgh punk Matt Cooke delivered a blow to the head of Boston’s Marc Savard in March of 2010. The hit resulted in a grade 2 concussion which kept him sidelined for a couple of months. A year later he suffered another concussion effectively ending his career which included a pair of All-Star seasons with the Bruins.
On the flip side of things, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby alleges that an elbow from Boston’s David Krejci in December of 2011 that forced him to miss a few months of action due to the recurrence of a concussion.
There’s also the fact Jarome Iginla blocked a trade from his former team Calgary to Boston so that he could be traded to Pittsburgh instead. That did not sit well with Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli who thought that his team had consummated the deal with the Flames nor did it sit well with Bruins fans.
And, finally, let’s not forget that the man Boston acquired after they lost out on Iginla – Jaromir Jagr – had the best years of his illustrious career in a Pittsburgh uniform.
Yes, there are story lines galore for the media and fans to gobble up over the next two weeks when it comes to this Eastern Conference Finals match-up. And the only team that will be satisfied with having sought retribution will be the one that advances to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Let’s drop the puck!
-Speaking of Iginla and Jagr, it’s pretty safe to say that it is the Penguins who made out much better with their trading deadline acquisition. Iginla (9g, 14a) has 23 points in 24 games as a Penguin while Jagr (2g, 11a) has 13 points in 23 games as a Bruin.
-Memo to Boston tough guy Shawn Thornton: Matt Cooke wears the #24. Nuff said!
-Could the state university of New Jersey be any more of a joke than it is right now? Let’s take things in chronological order, shall we? First, Rutgers men’s basketball coach Mike Rice pushes, shoves, verbally abuses and throws basketballs at the heads of his players and the school only slaps him on the wrist. Then, a few months later, ESPN airs video of Rice’s antics prompting outrage which leads to his dismissal. That Rice wasn’t terminated immediately eventually lead’s to the AD’s resignation. After striking out with URI’s Danny Hurley, the school hires alumnus Eddie Jordan whom they trumpet as a Rutgers grad returning to restore pride in the program. The only problem is, Jordan never graduated from Rutgers, despite the school’s official press release which claimed that he did. And then they hire a new athletic director in Julie Hermann who has been accused of abusive behavior more than a decade ago when she was the women’s volleyball coach at Tennessee. We have also learned that she is the focus of another lawsuit from her time as an athletic administrator at Louisville in 2008 where she had a hand in firing an assistant track and field coach who alleged discrimination and sexist behavior on the part of the head coach at that school. My question would be, is there anyone at Rutgers in the human resources department that is involved with vetting prospective employees? What an absolute joke this has turned out to be!
-Speaking of Rutgers, can somebody tell me why Bill Belichick has such an infatuation with that school's football program? 8 of the team's 90-man roster played for the Scarlet Knights which is almost 10%! I could see if 10% of your roster were made up of players from a great football program like, say, Alabama. But Rutgers? I don't get it.
-Unemployment remains too high, our President claims ignorance when it comes to the IRS targeting certain people for investigation and yet ten members of our Congress are urging the Washington Redskins to change their nickname. Seriously?
-With all of our attention currently on the Bruins, we are missing a nice start to the season by the Boston Red Sox. Sunday’s 4-run rally in the 9th to beat Terry Francona’s Cleveland Indians may have been the highlight of the season thus far.
-For those of you who may not have heard Providence College Athletic Director Bob Driscoll on “The Go Local Sports Show” with yours truly and John Rooke last Saturday morning on WEEI 103.7 FM, the PC AD had some interesting things to say. First, he discussed the future plans for a men’s and women’s basketball practice facility to be built on campus. He also talked openly about LaDontae Henton being a big part of next season’s men’s basketball team and indicated that Henton may suffer very little, if any, consequences as a result of the domestic violence charges against him. Driscoll seemed confident that the facts of Henton’s story may vindicate Henton. You can hear that interview right here.
-Did somebody just tell Jacoby Ellsbury that this is a contract year because it sure looks that way?
-It seems as if the Miami Heat need to know that they can be challenged by a team before the finally bring their “A” game to the court.
-Ditto for the Boston Bruins. Hockey Night In Canada analyst and former Bruins bench boss Don “Grapes” Cherry said it’s a mistake to get physical with Boston and poke and prod the B’s. Cherry said this Bruins team will go to sleep on you every once in a while if you let them otherwise. I guess the old adage “don’t poke the Bear” rings true.
