Chiarelli still disappointed in Campbell's decision, Bruins' lack of response

March 11, 12:36 PMBoston Bruins ExaminerMark Marino

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Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli is still feeling devastated and disappointed today.

Photo by John Wilcox

 

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The aftershocks of Colin Campbell's ruling yesterday on not suspending Pittsburgh Penguins' Matt Cooke is still trembling the streets of Boston. 

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli held a 33 minute conference call yesterday after the third-and-final day of the NHL's general managers' meetings in Boca Raton, Florida. The number one topic discussed amongst the teams' GMs was recommending a rule change on blindside hits to the head. 

This topic would grant the referees to call a minor, or major, penalty to the violator contacting another player where the primary point of impact is to the head. The rule recommendation, voted unanimously, will now be presented to the competition committee for their review over the NHL Finals. If all goes well throughout the chains of command, the rule could be enforced for the 2010-11 NHL season.

Day one of the meetings took place on Monday: the day after Cooke knocked-out Bruins' top center, Marc Savard, with an open-ice, blindside hit to to the head. Savard was diagnosed with a Grade 2 concussion, and is still "sensitive to light, sleeping, throbbing headaches.” Although the new rule could take place as early as next year, the damage has already been done in Boston.

“There's a chance that Marc may be out for the year. He's one of our best players. It's devastating to us." said Chiarelli this morning from Philadelphia's Wachovia Center. "The league made it clear, Colin made it clear that he knows this players [Cooke] is a multiple, repeat offender. 

"He knows how bad Marc is hurt” added Chiarelli “He couldn't make that connection to levy a suspension. You know, it's devastating to us."

The timing couldn't be any worse for the Bruins, as they lose their No. 1 center for the home-stretch of the season. Sitting in eighth-place in the log-jam of the Eastern Conference, the B's will have to rally together as a team to make that last-minute playoff push.

There has been some scrutiny -- to say the least -- surrounding Campbell and his somewhat biased decisions surrounding the Bruins, and the Penguins. 

Last season in Game 2 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings, Penguins' superstar Evgeni Malkin was called for an instigator penalty with 19 seconds remaining in the third period. And despite what the rules state -- "A player who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five minutes or at any time in overtime shall be suspended for one game, pending a review of the incident. The director of hockey operations will review every such incident and may rescind the suspension based on a number of criteria" -- Malkin did not receive a suspension for Game 3 of the Finals. That "criteria" is about as vague as vague can be, and as grey as the Boston skies today.

Contrary to his decisions in regards to the Bruins, this isn't the first time Campbell has ruled against the Black-and-Gold. 

"I can't believe that the league is targeting us, and I don't think they are. It's just an unfortunate set of circumstances that happened." added Chiarelli. “You look at the Bergeron. You look at Alberts, you look at Savvy and there's even some other ones in there that weren't suspended. I don't know. I don't have an answer for that.”

The Bruins, and even its coaching staff, have been ripped-apart nationwide for their lack of retaliation on Sunday following the incident. it could be in part due to the "last five minutes" instigator rule. And it could be because the Bruins were down 2-1 at the time -- playing for two-points -- fighting for their post-season hopes. Whatever the reason, Chiarelli wasn't too fond of their response, or lack-there-of. 

"I said yesterday that I was disappointed and I was disappointed. There are certain ways to react and I felt that we didn't. And I'll leave it at that.

"We've seen this before, in retribution games so to speak. We've responded in the past, we've responded with some hard games. And I can recall a couple against Philly after the Jones hit on Bergeron. I liked the way that we responded. So I would expect that type of response."