Canucks cry to media, Bruins respond

Well isn't this new, Canucks crying to the media. No, not really. The Canucks won right? And they're still crying to the media? Yes and yes.

Even before reading the comments from the Canucks, make sure to check out this Days of Y'Orr post where they list a few times Canucks have done the exact same thing, Ballard on McGinn (who didn't have the puck) and last playoffs Raymond on Marchand. Where's the outrage! Only in Vancouver.

First Canucks GM Mike Gillis cried to the media saying that Brad Marchand's "check" was "a dirty hit by a dirty player."

Then it was Canucks coach Alain Vigneault crying to the media. In response to Claude Julien's comments that Marchand was protecting himself, Vigneault had this to say:

That's stupid. That's a stupid comment. You know, what Marchand did there, you can end a player's career doing that. I've never seen Sami Salo take a run at any player in the NHL. All I've seen Sami Salo do is play with integrity and play the right way. Marchand, this is just my feeling on this, some day he's going to get it. Someday, somebody's going to say enough is enough and they're going to hurt the kid, because he plays to hurt players. In my mind, if the league doesn't take care of it, somebody else will.
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Hmm Mike and Alain, seems you may have forgot who you have on your roster, specifically Alex Burrows and Maxim Lapierre.

Bruins Claude Julien and Peter Chiarelli heard the comments and responded. Both did not like the comments about Brad Marchand "going to get it."

"I think we've learned our lesson over time that that's a real inappropriate comment. That's a real inappropriate comment, and an unprofessional comment," said Chiarelli.

Said Julien: "We all know that that comment's been said before and it didn't turn out well, so we'll leave it at that."

Neither Julien nor Chiarelli mentioned a specific incident, but it's assumed they were referencing the Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore altercation in 2004 in which Moore suffered a broken neck after then-Canuck Brad May alluded to a bounty being on Moore's head.
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Here's Julien's response to Vigneault's comments:

"Sometimes you got to look in your backyard," Julien said. "We all know he's got the same type of players on his team. They've all done the same thing. You just have to look at [Alexandre] Burrows putting his blade in [Shawn] Thornton's throat."

"It's hypocritical and we're stupid and we're idiots and they're the smartest team in the league," Julien said. "I guess we need to listen to all the gab they have to say."
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That last quote is just awesome from Julien.

Chiarelli on Marchand and all of the Canucks comments:

"He's no dirtier than maybe two or three of their players," Chiarelli said after today's practice at TD Garden. "After a game like [Saturday's 4-3 loss to the Canucks], you see all the high-handed propaganda, you feel the need to respond. Whether it's from GMs, coaches or players, I don't like to hear that kind of stuff."

"Certainly, there's a lobbying element to it and I feel the league does a real good job in these hearings and I don't think, it's necessary to have that out there," Chiarelli said. "It's about protecting yourself. This is what this is all about."

"We generally try to take the high road when it comes to this stuff, but when it comes at us like that, we have to respond," Chiarelli said. "That's our position."

"Look, we're a physical team, and we're going to be under the microscopee for beingg that," Chiarelli said. "Our players are generally clean. Every team has players that do dirty things -- or illegal things. It just happens. That's why penalties are in place and that's why suplemental discipline is in place."

"He was protecting himself and we're going to tell our players to protect themselves."

"But the lobbying, I call it 'propaganda' that came out [Sunday] in advance of the hearing, I think it's distasteful," Chiarelli said. "And I'm friends with Mike [Gillis, Canucks GM] and I'm friends with Alain, but I don't like the way that it's come out and I have to respond."
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Dirty team, dirty player. The Bruins should trade for matt cooke... He's thier kind of player!!
Ed said…
Right... like Shanahan would've based his decision purely on what Canucks had to say.  It was a cheap hit no matter how you look at it.  You have to be crazy to think it was a clean hit.  It's in the rule book for a reason.  To claim Salo was going to hit his head is ridiculous.  Look at Salo's career.  That guy does NOT hit... let alone throw a dirty one.
Gary James Wagner said…
i’ve
been thinking they could take a page from soccer. anyone guilty of
excessive force is red-carded (the equivalent of a game misconduct )
AND automatically suspended for five games (of course in soccer it’s
only one game but as with football it’s a shorter season) and has
to appear before a board to explain why the suspension shouldn’t be
for a longer period of time. hockey, like soccer, could be a
beautiful game. right now there are too many ugly incidents to deem
it such.
AdamBruinsFan said…
Yes anyone guilty of excessive force or doing something that is just unacceptable should be punished and possibly thrown out of the league, like biting someone. But do you really want hockey to be officiated as in soccer? Do you see how much diving and faking goes on in soccer? The only ones that would benefit from that would be Montreal and Vancouver.