There’s not much left to say about Tyler Seguin’s exodus out of Boston.
The 21-year-old made mistakes, poor associations, and developed some habits that the Boston Bruins felt were irreversible and/or too risky to attempt to manage during what’s undoubtedly the club’s ‘Stanley Cup window’. So, when the opportunity to move Seguin, a talent set to make $5.75 million in 2013-14 and one that sleepwalked through the Bruins’ 22-game playoff run (one goal and eight points) presented itself, Peter Chiarelli and the B’s brass jumped.
Seguin’s move to the Dallas Stars has come with considerable success for the Brampton, Ont. native, recording 21 goals and 42 points in 44 games. It’s also prompted talk of the Black-and-Gold making a major mistake when it came to moving him out of the Hub after just three seasons. Or at least when it came to their handling of the entire situation. Before it all went to [you know what].
“I haven’t seen a single thing that warrants any of the stuff that was written about him when he was in Boston,… Shawn Horcoff, also traded to Dallas (from Edmonton) this summer, said of Seguin in an interview with the Edmonton Sun. “I don’t know, maybe he did want to come here and want to change a little bit, but the kid was 20 years old, he had a Stanley Cup, he signed a big deal.…
Horcoff’s not wrong in his analysis of what may have gone wrong for Seguin’s mindset in Boston.
“In a lot of ways I blame the organization for not helping squash that,… added Horcoff. And that’s where he loses me. But I guess that shouldn’t come as a shock when a player that previously spent his entire career as an Oiler offers up some leadership/organizational advice...
In Boston, Seguin had the chance to become the face of the franchise. You could even make the case that he was. The kid, and the potential surrounding his game, put bottoms in the seats. They rewarded him (and handsomely) for that by way of their six-year, $34.5 million extension after just his second season in the NHL, and first as a top sixer in the Boston lineup. But when Seguin posted just 16 goals and 32 points in 48 games last season, and the concern grew, the word on the street became loud enough for the B’s front office to hear. That’s, uh, not a good thing.
Chiarelli told me at the NHL Draft -- with Seguin’s name hot-as-fire on the trade block -- that they were hoping that the former second overall pick would use his involvement in trade rumors as a ‘wake up call’ and that Seguin needed to learn how to be more of a professional off the ice.
In fewer words, Chiarelli and the Bruins were done babysitting. It wasn’t the B’s job to police Seguin’s personal life, especially after investing that kind of money in his talents, and expecting somebody like a Shawn Thornton or Patrice Bergeron to keep constant tabs on a player known for shutting down bars with his Boston University cronies ‘til the sun came up.
The Bruins are a professional hockey team, not a nannying service. Seguin screwed up.
That much is simply indisputable.
But that’s over. And thankfully, we’ll be done talking about him for the rest of this season after tonight’s game, as the Bruins head to Dallas tonight to wrap up their season series with the Stars.
Falling via the shootout in their last matchup against the Stars back on Nov. 5, with the Stars’ shootout goals ironically coming from Seguin and Rich Peverley, the Black-and-Gold head into tonight’s game in dire need of a solid 60-minute effort featuring some sort of positive impact from their absolutely ailing special teams groupings.
If the Bruins played like they did in final 10 minutes of Tuesday night’s 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a game that ended with the B’s throwing 41 shots Jonathan Bernier’s way, for 20 or maybe even 30 minutes, they simply blow the Leafs out of the water. It’s not even close.
That wasn’t the case though, as yet another second period meltdown led to a zero-point night.
For the Bruins, a team with just two wins in their last six games, much of their struggles come back to the top line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci, and Jarome Iginla’s recent cold stretch. Combining for just three points and 33 shots in their past six games, the no-shows from the ‘David and the Goliaths’ type line has put more pressure on the Bergeron and Spooner line.
That’s led to more misses than hits as of late.
But even more important than the play of the Bruins’ top six (or top nine in this case) will be the play of their goaltending tonight. While no confirmation has come out of Dallas as to who gets the nod in the crease tonight, a statement game from either Boston goaltender is a must.
If it’s the 26-year-old Tuukka Rask, he’ll almost certainly want to snap out of his current funk that’s led to a .898 save percentage in the month of January. Or if it’s backup goaltender Chad Johnson, a start would present Johnson with a chance to redeem his putrid showing in his last start back on Dec. 19, stopping just 19-of-23 shots faced by the league-worst Buffalo Sabres. Though it's worth noting that Johnson has looked comfortable in two relief appearance since, stopping 33-of-35, a .943 save percentage.
They’ll likely be opposed by Kari Lehtonen, a goaltender that stopped 31-of-33 on Tuesday night against the Oilers, putting an end to a four-game losing streak.