Five years ago to the day, in the waning moments of a Game 2 victory for the Bruins, Milan Lucic delivered a crosscheck to the head of Montreal forward Maxim Lapierre.
The crosscheck was in response to Lapierre coming at Lucic to prevent the then-sophomore from bashing veteran defensemen Mathieu Schneider all around the ice. Deemed a ‘forceful blow to the head’, Lucic was sentenced to a one-game ban by Colin Campbell, forcing No. 17 to miss Game 3 of what’d end up as a Bruins sweep of the archrival Canadiens. Times were different then -- and as inconsistent as anything can be -- but the message to Lucic was clear. He crossed a line.
If that blow to Lapierre was a forceful blow to the head, what do we consider that? (Actually, don’t answer that, this is a family website.) Lucic once again crossed the line, and more damaging to his reputation moving forward, (allegedly) did so for the second time in a month. Lest we forget that it was just a month ago when Montreal defenseman Alexei Emelin accused Lucic of doing the same to him. Lucic denied Emelin’s claim, but not before calling him a ‘chicken’.
To address Lucic’s actions, it’s simple -- it was an undeniably gutless, unnecessary move.
As his seven-year resume in this league should tell you by now, he doesn’t need to resort to that nonsense to be an effective player for the Black-and-Gold. When Lucic is going, he’s one of the top power forwards in the National Hockey League (and maybe even the best). When he’s not focused on the game and preoccupied with this kind of stuff, he’s more than detrimental to his team’s success.
And in a game where the Bruins had just four shots from the line of Lucic, David Krejci, and Jarome Iginla, Lucic should focus more on what he can do to help his team score a goal.
I mean, the dude had as many cup-checks as he did shots on goal in the game. If the Bruins are going anywhere this spring, it’s going to be on the back of Lucic’s line, and that’s something he’s gotta realize before he puts himself into another situation where he very well could be suspended.
If you’re in Lucic’s court, though, I’ll answer some FAQS before you start: Yes, I understand that it’s the postseason. Yes, I know that you need to make your presence felt out there. Yes, I’m sure dirtier things will happen elsewhere at some point over the next four rounds. But that doesn’t make it right. Can you even imagine the outcry if the shoe was on the other foot and this was Justin Abdelkader giving a how’s-your-father to Johnny Boychuk, too? Fans would demand blood. A failure to recognize this would be hypocrisy at the highest level, to say the least.
The spear unfortunately took a lot of warm feelings out of looking at Lucic’s overall body of work tonight. Despite his line’s trouble against the Wings’ second line (they spent most of the nice chasing the puck around), Lucic’s forechecking game was in classic form tonight, with the 25-year-old battering everything in sight. More often than not, that sort of effort will produce some results -- or shots on goal at the very least -- and could be the key to wearing down the Wings’ defense.
“We have to play a little bit more with the puck. We just have to hold on to the puck and make some confident plays out there and that’s pretty much it,… Krejci, Lucic’s center, said after the club’s Game 1 loss. “I don’t think that we had that many offensive chances out there today.…
In fact, Lucic probably had the Bruins’ best scoring chance, coming less than a minute before Pavel Datsyuk’s game-winning goal with three minutes left in the third period.
More of that, less of the attempted circumcisions.
Now, the big question here is obvious: Will the league suspend Lucic?
I really have no damn clue at this point, especially with Brendan Shanahan out of the picture. What I do know, though, is that Lucic’s last suspension came in Dec. 2011, and playoff suspensions for top tier talents are rare. I mean, my goodness, remember when Nashville’s Shea Weber bashed Henrik Zetterberg’s head off the glass during their first round series in 2012 like it was a Hell in a Cell match and received literally nothing besides a $2,500 fine?
Suspensions and stars just don’t seem to mix from now through June. This wouldn’t be like suspending a Jordan Caron or a Drew Miller. It’d affect the B’s in a major way. But that’s something that end of the day would come back to, y’know, Lucic keeping his head on straight.
Plus, with the Bruins in an 0-1 hole, taking their top line left winger out of the equation (especially with the Bruins already short two left wingers), a situation where the league would make the call to sit Lucic for a game or two would take a lot of bal-- never mind.
Update: The league has not suspended Lucic, instead fining the winger $5,000.
With all this testicle talk this postseason, I really can’t wait for NHL15’s Be-A-Testicle mode. You’ll get to grab them in defiance of the referees, spear somebody in them, or be Raffi Torres.