Former Boston Bruins general manager Harry Sindin, who’s now a senior advisor to Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, recently weighed in with his opinion of the Bruins-Montreal Canadiens playoff series, and had some interesting comments about team captain Zdeno Chara and the team’s regular season scoring leader Marc Savard.
Sinden told the Boston Globe that he didn’t believe Chara was aggressive enough despite nursing a rib injury, while he’s not a fan of Savard.
"We've got a hell of a leader in Chara, but I think he's hurting right now. This rib injury. He's playing OK, but he's not as aggressive."
"I'm not a fan of his (Savard). He's one of these guys who has batting average but no runs batted in, you know what I mean? He gets a lot of points. He's a good player, I'm just not a fan."
Sinden obviously didn’t get the memo that teams don’t reveal injuries to their key players during playoff time. Folks have mused about Chara’s performance in this series against the Habs, noting that he hasn’t quite seemed himself and suspecting a possible shoulder injury.
Sinden's comments now gives the opposition something to zero in on, if not to try to hurt Chara further, then to take advantage of the limitations such an injury has on his play.
Thankfully for the Bruins, it wasn’t a hindrance against the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five of the Bruins-Canadiens conference quarter-final, where Chara scored to ensure a big win to keep his team alive in that series.
Sinden’s comments about Chara’s condition could be forgiven as a bit of an oversight, but those about Savard were ridiculous.
Yes, Sinden’s entitled to his opinion, but he didn’t have to say it now, when his team is battling for its playoff life and counting on Savard, one of the few legitimate scorers on the offensively deficient Bruins, to carry them in this post-season.
Savard has not only been the Bruins leading scorer in this year’s playoffs but also their leading scorer in the last two seasons. He’s been one of the Bruins stars in this series against the Habs, playing well at both ends of the rink, and he’s done it whilst coming off a back injury which may not be completely healed.
Even former Bruins coach Don Cherry has given Savard rave reviews for his performance, and “Grapes” is as old school as his former boss Sinden.
All I can say is that I really hope that current Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli doesn’t take advice on managing his roster from Sinden the way his predecessor Mike O’Connell did. Otherwise, Savard could likely be hitting the UFA market in two year’s time, signing with a team that would appreciate his talent.
I hope Aquilini hires Sinden, and Milbury! they can be co-GM's. They can discuss what poor players Savard and Ovechkin are whilst trading away promising prospects and pushing prime free agents out the door.
I kind of agree with GCG. It seems to me that Aquilini has indicated that he doesn't know much about hockey-he sees the Canucks as a cash machine and wants to be too hands-on. Sounds a bit like the Leafs and that isn't a good model to follow. Sinden is another one. He took a fine franchise and ran it into the ground so far they're just now starting to break out of it-and then he goes and does this! Sheesh! Why is there so little class in the hockey world?
What a dope, rip your two best players in the playoffs. Why does Boston hold on to this guy? From what I've seen, he has done nothing much to help the Bruins franchise, and sounds like an egomaniac. That is just blows my mind why he would say those things at this time of the year. To quote Red Forman, "What a dum arse."
Marc Savard is the Bruins' best overall player. I'm not sure Bergeron would be their top guy had he not been injured. What a ridiculous comment. He deserves to be fired, tied to a wrecker by the ankle and dragged through the big dig. Some Super Troopers advice to J. J. and Harry Sinden: The next time you find yourselves in this situation, just stop, take a deep breath, and pull your heads out of each others' ####.
Man looks like we've found a new text book definition for ####.
Now if I were a player on the Canadians I'd do everything possible to break the hell out of Chara's ribs.
As for Savard... who had a rap for being a bit of a #### a few years back.... how can you really knock the guy? Correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't he have more assists than any other player since moving to Boston?
Just goes to show how hockey needs more educated executives. Never talk about player's injuries no matter what time of the year it is if people don't know about it and the last thing you want to do is talk badly about your team's best player in the playoffs of all times.
Tell me if you heard this one before. A coach wins a couple of championships, them becomes GM of the team and..........NOTHING! If Sinden was such a great coach, with guys like Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr, he'd have won more than just 2 Cups. Getting outcoached by Al MacNeil and the Habs in '71? C'mon!!
So Bruins ownership makes this clown GM then he trades away Espo and Orr, WOW! So they make the finals like what, 4 or 5 more times in the next 28 years losing every time. He gets lucky by discovering before any other GM in the league that then Canucks GM Harry Neale is totally inept and makes the steal of the century (Neely and 1st rounder for Barry Pederson), beats the Habs a bunch of times in the playoffs, yet NO CUP! WOW!
Sinden is an old dinosaur living in the past! If his Bruins beat my Habs tomorrow, I'm sure he'll try to take credit! It's what he's done for 35 years, 35 cupless years!!
Cup Junkie,
As a Bruins fan dating back to the late 1960's, I could not agree with your comments more. Harry Sinden was the junkyard dog for Jeremy Jacobs' wallet, nothing more. He has never been the talent evaluator required to assemble a champion, as has been painfully proven for the better part of the three decades under his stewardship. His comments were galling to me and every true hockey fan regardless of team allegiance. Give Harry a job with the Leafs...no, I wouldn't wish that on them.
1) Chara and Savard should ask ole harry to say those things to his face. LOL
2) Seriously though, the Bruins have to be saying: Geez, to reveal an injury AND to debase one of our star players DURING the playoffs??
3) Perhaps Sinden is losing/lost it?
THE BRUINS NEVER TRADED BOBBY ORR!!!!!! He was offered part ownership with the team!!!! Milt Schmidt begged him to sign the offer....He was screwed over by his agent...Imagine what the past thirty years would have been with Bobby in charge?
I started writing this post a few days back, then sat on it for a couple of days as I wanted to see what effect (if any) Sinden's comments made.
I have to agree with Sinden on Marc Savard. Now, before the hate mail starts, hear me out: Savard was a good player on a number of crummy NY Rangers teams that never made the post-season. He was a good player on a number of Calgary Flames clubs that never made the post-season. He was a good player on a number of Atlanta Thrashers clubs that never made the post-season. He came to Boston, last year and scored a lot of points on a team that never made the post-season. See a pattern?
Rarely can you credit/blame a single player for a team's performance, and I'm not faulting Savard for the lack of playoff appearances by his past clubs. But it DOES beg the question, now that Savard has made the playoffs for the first time in his career after a decade in the NHL: What type of player have you got in Savard? It's fair to wonder if this guy is a warrior or not.
As for Chara's ribs, how do we know a game of misdirection isn't being played, and Chara isn't really suffering from a shoulder injury? Harry's done this before, admitting to a non-existent injury to obscure the real one.
Why would Sinden make such comments in the middle of a playoff series? Was Harry musing thoughtlessly, or was he sending a message? Maybe trying to take some pressure off the team, perhaps?
*** continued ***
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on April 21st at 4:49 PM.
Since those comments, Boston has won two games and forced a Game 7 in Montreal. In those two games Savard scored three points (half his total of the playoffs thus far). In spite of Harry? Because of Harry? Nothing to do with Harry? You judge.
It's easy to rip Sinden apart as a GM and say the Bruins should have won more in the 1970s. It's like saying Calgary should have won more in the 1980s, Pittsburgh should have won more in the 1990s and Detroit should have won more in the 2000s. Maybe they should have, but they ran into some great teams along the way.
Sinden had some great teams in the 1970s but there was this roadblock called Montreal. Not many teams in the history of the game were better than those mid-1970s Canadiens. Sinden retooled and got to a pair of Cup Finals in the 1980s, where he had the misfortune to run into the Edmonton Oilers. Again, few teams in hockey history were better than those Edmonton clubs.
There is no dishonour when you're coming in second to legends.
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on April 21st at 4:46 PM.
Matt: Sinden made those comments on a phone interview from his home in Florida. Another Globe reporter, Kevin Paul Dupont, reported that Sinden rarely comes into his office at the Bruins arena anymore. Furthermore, Peter Chiarelli admitted to calling Sinden immediately after that story with Sinden's comments appeared in the media, and while Chiarelli didn't go into detail about the conversation, Sinden later called Savard and apologized.
Dupont also noted that Chiarelli may have been tight-lipped about his conversation with Sinden but there was no mistaking that the Bruins GM wasn't happy about those comments.
I don't believe this was a case of "misdirection" by Sinden, but rather a case of an elder statesman who isn't in touch with this team as much anymore and spoke when he shouldn't have.
Well we don't have to worry about Sinden's comments anymore! The Bruins are out HOORAY!!!!
I'd like to correct myself on my previous post regarding Bobby Orr, he was not traded after all. But the fact that he even considered leaving Boston can be a testament to how Sinden did things!
Spector, I was downtown after the Habs game last night and it was a disgrace, 5 police cars were torched by gangs of idiots who came downtown after the game ended simply to cause trouble. They looked like they stole those little Habs flags off of parked cars to blend in. I don't condone those kind of antics and I hope all who live in this great city and read this will do what they can to denounce these criminals. They are not real hockey fans!
(Of course, you could just say that proves your point of how out-of-touch Sinden is seeing that he couldn't even get the injury right!)
And just a slight correction to your post: the original article by Dan Shaughnessy reported that Sinden was in Boston for the hockey game (Boston lost 1-0) and that the reporter and Sinden sat down for a face-to-face conversation prior to the game.
Here's a link to the original article from the Boston Globe, with the juicy bits about Joe Thornton that to my knowledge nobody has mentioned thus far:
Was there some gamesmanship involved? Maybe. Was this a case of an old man chewing the fat with an old reporter friend and not realizing his comments would appear in the paper? Maybe.
I'll agree with you there are public thoughts and their are private thoughts, and you should do your best to ensure your private thoughts don't appear in newsprint.
Last edited by Matt_McCallum on April 22nd at 9:59 AM.
By the way, Lyle, I should have wrote this sooner: Congratulations on your Canadiens getting past the Bruins in the First Round. I thought they'd have an easier time of it against the bears, but that Boston team had a bit more scrap to them than I figured.
Another 10 hours or so and we find out if your club plays against the Rangers or the Flyers. Either way it should be an entertaining series, and Carey Price just seems to get better every game.
If the Habs do wind up playing New York, is there someone on the club who will take care of Avery? Would that fall under Komisarek's job description?
I'd rather they face the Flyers as the Rangers have had their number the last two years (despite the Habs memorable six-goal rally back in February). If it's Rangers-Habs, the nod goes to the former.
Sinden's comments were weird, but it has been no mystery about Chara being injured. The last few Habs-Bruins regular season games, the Habs radio team made that call - it was obvious to them that he had a shoulder/torso injury. He has shied away from taking the booming slapshot. But the B's needed him in the lineup to secure the playoff spot.
Savard has been a great set-up man. Would Sinden have made the same comments about Adam Oates? Savard does not have a Cam Neeley talent to set-up, but he seems to make everyone around him a scorer. I don't have a problem with that, maybe Harry wants him to be something he is not. To me, he's very good at his role, a playmaking forward.
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
