Castration on Ice

When the Bruins traded Wade Brookbank earlier this week, they appeared to be capitulating to the reality of the new NHL...goonage is quickly becoming become an obsolete art.

One of the most telling statements is Marc Savard's post-game comment after taking a nice elbow to the heard courtesy of Patrick Eaves.

"It's late in the game, the game's out of hand, that's the kind of stuff we're trying to clean up," he said.

Wow. That's an outright admission that tough guys are persona non grata. No inflammatory comments or vague threats about what's going to happen next time they play, just a comment that they're trying to clean up their play. I wonder if he would have made that comment if Terry O'Reilly was still around.

What's even more impressive is that familiarity breeds contempt and with the new NHL "localized" schedule, there's plenty more breeding opportunities nowadays than there were just three years ago. To be able to prevent this kind of bad blood from developing after seeing opponents eight times a year is impressive.

To me, it's a shame. Fighting in hockey has always been a part of the game and one of the most exciting events. Sure, it should never return to the all out brawls of the pre-nineties, but seeing a couple of players go at it once or twice a game always generated excitement and brought fans to their feet. Losing that in hockey is like watching Steve Martin stop doing movies like The Jerk and Three Amigos to start taking roles in movies like Parenthood and Cheaper by the Dozen.

Just ain't the same.