WILMINGTON, Mass.Talk about the perfect storm brewing between other Eastern Conference teams earlier this week in Montreal.
The Canadiens and the Sabres played their first game against each other right out of the All-Star break, and it was a typically nasty Northeast Division affair. There were bone-crushing hits doled out and plenty of words chirped in both French and English, but there was one little wrinkle that must have amused the Bruins.
Buffalo and Montreal basically descended into a war of words over which team acted the part of the bigger punk when it comes to playing victim to the Bruins. Buffalo center Paul Gaustad starting by nonsensically yelling Wheres Chara? to Max Pacioretty, who of course was on the receiving end of a turnbuckle smash at the Bell Centre last season that left him with a fractured vertebrae and severe concussion.
But that wasnt the end of it. P.K. Subban, of all people, was among a group of Canadiens players that verbally slammed Gaustad and the Sabres for failing to defend Ryan Miller when Milan Lucic rammed into him earlier this season. It was almost like a couple of weepy ex-girlfriends on a reality show arguing about which one got dumped worse by the eligible bachelor.
But thats essentially what the Bruins have done to a pair of their Northeast Division rivals with their smash-mouth and intimidating style of play. The Bruins dont even to be on the same frozen sheet with the Sabres and the Canadiens to play the role of the schoolyard bully when it comes to their scraps.
That is true intimidation. On to the links:
Mitch Melnick from TSN 990 lays out the reasons why Pierre McGuire would make an excellent GM of the Montreal Canadiens with the esteemed franchise badly in need of leadership.
FOH (Friend of Haggs) Nick Cotsonika gets in deep with the CBA and the two opposing sides in his Three Periods column for Yahoo! Sports.
The Hockey News Adam Proteau gets hockey apologies from all 30 NHL teams with the second-half of the regular season getting underway.
The Pro Hockey Talk boys have the scoop on Dallas Stars owner Tom Gagliardi talking about his Stars club getting active at the NHL trade deadline.
The CSNNE.com creative team has come up with a trailer for a movie we like to call Hashtag: Free Joe Haggerty and its a pretty damned hilarious segment on the Great American Hockey Show.
Boston homeboy Ryan Whitney has missed the majority of the season with ankle issues, but returned with a solid game last night for an Edmonton Oilers team thats really missed him.
For something completely different: the first three minutes of the next episode of the Walking Dead courtesy of Perez Hilton.