THE SPORTS HAYES
NSCC PENNON PAGE 7
BUILDING A CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM BY KEVIN HAYES,
SPORTS COLUMN WRITER
Building a championship team in any sport is like putting together a very large machine. You need your major parts, your engine, and your spare parts. When everything is running smoothly, your machine can take on anything. In the world of hockey, it's the most complicated machine to be built. In baseball, if you have three, twenty game winning pitchers, you have a great chance to win the World Series. In basketball, if you have three of the best players in the game on the same team, such as the Miami Heat, chances are you'll get to the Finals even if you have someone like Justin Bieber as your backup point guard. Hockey, on the other hand, requires a more complex machine to be built. It requires leadership, toughness, resilience, defense, offense, coaching, offense-on-defense, and even defense-on-offense. The 2011 Boston Bruins were able to build the championship team that, after a hundred and seven games, took home the Stanley Cup. How did they get there? First, you start with leadership. In 2007, the Boston Bruins head coach was the overmatched Dave Lewis. Under Lewis, the Bruins finished thirteenth out of sixteen teams and gave up a conference secondworst two hundred and eighty nine goal. Enter Claude Julien; former defensemen for the Quebec Nordiques, now known as the Colorado Avalanche, who brought his defense-savvy strategy to the Bruins. The Bruins managed to go thirty-nine years without a Stanley Cup primarily due to bad ownership and front office decisions. General manager, Mike O'Connell, ruined one Cup run after another by letting top tier talent like Bill Guerin and Michael Nylander walk, while keeping the likes of Petr Tenkrat, no offense to Petr. Finally, the new GM Peter Chiarelli entered the picture and owner Jeremy Jacobs finally opened his wallet to bring in front-line talent...and keep them for once! Above Peter was team President and Hall-of-Fame forward Cam Neely. Now, both Julien and Chiarelli had someone to answer to when they screwed up. With the front office and coaching all set, it was time to build the team. It began with the 2003 Entry Draft. Even though the Bruins first round pick was defensemen Mark Stuart, the 4th round pick was Byron Bitz, the steal of the draft came in the second round when The Bruins
chose seventeen-year-old Canadian forward Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron made his debut during the ill fated 200304 season which ended by The Bruins blowing a 3 games to 1 series lead to Montreal in the first round. Patrice eventually became the team's star while battling through a severe concussion that nearly ended his career in 2008. Also on the
The third line always separates pretenders from contenders, and The Bruins scored big on this one. Montreal Canadians forward Michael Ryder scored only fourteen goals during the 2008 season, so they mistakenly dumped him. The Bruins picked him up and he potted twenty-seven in his first year in Boston and eighteen in 2011. On February 15, 2011
cussions ruined his career. He was finished after twenty five games in 2011, although his name is deservingly on the Cup. Also on hand was their fourth round pick in '06, Jamie Arniel, first round pick in '07, Zach Hamill, and first round pick in the 2009 draft, Jordan Caron. The other "extra" was one of the great heists in history. Phil Kessel had grown tired with
same line as Bergeron was the steal of the 2006 Entry Draft. Their first round pick in '06 netted superstar in the making Phil Kessel and their second round pick, who will be mentioned later. Their third round pick would be then seventeen-yearold Brad Marchand. Their third line mate would be found in a trade. After forward Marco Sturm blew his knee out, The Bruins sent promising defensemen Matt Lashoff and Martin Karsums to the Tampa Bay Lightning for forty-year-old veteran forward Mark Recchi in March of '09. The first line would be their true firepower. Phil Kessel was the club's 1st overall pick in 2006, but a trade made during the season sending superstar Sergei Samsonov to Edmonton got the Bruins Edmonton's second round pick. They used the pick on eighteen-year-old Milan Lucic. Lucic would draw comparisons to Neely himself as he could score, fight, and battle for the puck. Looch’s line mate would be their second round pick of the 2004 Entry Draft, the then eighteen-year-old David Krecji. David had similar skills to Bergeron and was second to Tim Thomas as the team's most valuable post-season player in 2011. Krecji's winger would be found in a trade in June of 2010 when the Bruins shipped overmatched Dennis Wideman to the Florida Panthers for Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell.
The Bruins sent an upcoming second round draft pick to the Ottawa Senators for forward Chris Kelly. Motor mouth radio host Michael Felger proceeded to call him "garbage" before the playoffs only to see Kelly score 5 goals and dish out 8 assists. Here's mud in your eye, Felger! Three days after the Kelly acquisition The Bruins traded, disappointing Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart to the Atlanta Thrashers for Rich Peverley and Boris Valabik, who played for the Providence Bruins the rest of the season. The third line proved to be very important in the 2011 playoffs. The fourth line is considered the "checking" line, normally replacing talent with various cement heads, goons and toughs. Only The Bruins separated themselves by adding a different dynamic to the old formula. The Bruins signed Shawn Thornton for 2008 expecting him to be their cement head only to find out he could score too, including a whopping 10 goals in 2011. Joining Thornton on the fourth line would be Campbell and their penalty killer, Danny Paille, who was traded to the Bruins a few games into the 2010 season. Then, there were the "extras" if you will that were anything but. Chiarelli's first big signing on June 1st, 2006 was center Marc Savard, who went on to become the Bruins top playmaker until a series of con-
Claude Julien's neutral zone trap defense which limited Phil's offensive potential, so he wanted out. The Toronto Maple Leafs wanted him and, before the 2010 season, The Bruins traded him to Toronto for a 2010 first and second round pick, and a 2011 first round pick. The Leafs finished dead last in the Eastern Conference in 2010, allowing The Bruins the second overall pick in the entry draft. This allowed them to select eighteen-year-old Tyler Seguin. Seguin would score just eleven goals in 2011, but would be the B's leading scorer a year later. Having a good offense is very important, but you don't win the Stanley Cup without defense. Just ask the '02, '04, and 2009 Bruins. Peter Chiarelli's big splash in the 2006 free agent market saw him not only sign Savard, but also the monstrous 6 foot 9 defensemen Zdeno Chara. Chara would eventually win the Norris Trophy, Best Defensemen, in 2009, as well as becoming a finalist in 2010 and 2011. Entering the 2013 season, Chara is unquestionably the best free agent pickup in franchise history. He can't do it alone, but Chiarelli brought in the guys that could help him. The year before Chara was signed, The Bruins made a colossal trade that sent captain Joe Thornton to The San Jose Sharks for Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau, and defensemen Brad Stuart. A year
later on February 10, 2007 The Bruins traded Stuart and Primeau to The Calgary Flames for Boston College hero Chuck Kobasew and defensemen Andrew Ference. With Chara and Ference in place, the D still needed more troops. In June of '08 the Bruins sent Providence center Matt Hendricks to the Colorado Avalanche for Johnny Boychuk. Boychuk's "Johnny Rockets" would light the lamp thirteen times heading into the 2013 season. With Boychuk as their offensive defensemen, all they needed was their defensive specialist. Kobasew never found his niche for the Bruins, so he was traded to the Minnesota Wild for Craig Weller. On March 3rd, 2010, Weller and Byron Bitz were shipped out to Florida in exchange for Matt Bartkowski and their prize, Dennis Seidenberg. Seidenberg's injury may have been the primary reason the Bruins failed to defeat Philadelphia in the 2010 playoffs. Now the team needed some old fashion muscle. Enter "Sheriff" Shane Hnidy and Adam McQuaid. Completing the puzzle were extras Steve Kampfer and trade deadline acquisition Tomas Kaberle, who joined the list of Eric Gagne and Julio Lugo of players that their Boston teams won the world championship IN SPITE of. All that's left now is the goaltender. Tim Thomas spent a half dozen years overseas before signing with the Providence Bruins for the 2003 season. Up in the big club, inept management decided to keep washed up Jeff Hackett and backup Steve Shields, as The Bruins were being wiped out by The New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs. Thomas' big break would have to wait as rookie Andrew Raycroft surprisingly won The Calder Trophy, Rookie of the Year, and led The Bruins to a 2nd seed in the 2004 playoffs. Raycroft stayed tough in the '04 playoffs; despite being on the wrong end of a Game 7 loss, and looked to be the goalie of the future. The 2005 lockout wiped out any sort of progress for Raycroft and Thomas, but by 2006, Raycroft never fully progressed and the team went with twenty-one -year-old back up Hannu Toivonen to finish out the year. FINALLY, management got their collective heads out of their behinds when they allowed Thomas into the big club full-time in 2007. Toivonen was dumped after a 3-9 record and, by 2008, Thomas was the full time goalie. He won the Vezina Trophy, award for best
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