Everybody Loves Raymond

(Exactly)

Look, I realize that I am not a terribly patient person. Probably less so when it comes to my local sports teams and their apparent desire to do well. However, I think I've been MORE than fair with the Bruins this season. In fact, I've been more than fair to the Bruins over the last few seasons. You know, back when they bowed out in an excrutiating seven game series to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs, and then last year when there was no season to be had. But they came back this year, and so did I. But I'll tell you what, I. Have. Had. Enough.

6-0 to the Kings last night. 6-0. That's not a hockey score, that's a slaughter. Raycroft can't stop a shot to save his life (second verse, same as the first), there's evidently some kind of repellant force field around the opposing team's net and coach Mike Sullivan stands behind the bench with his arms crossed and his lips pursed as though he's waiting to be handed a pink slip.

And you know what? I think it's time. Give him that pink slip. And while you're at it, give one to GM Mike O'Connell as well. When the Bruins traded captain Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks I wrote that it reeked of a desperation move. And while it wasn't quite the sturm und drang I'd predicted, it wasn't the apparent shake-up they were hoping for either. The more things change...

So now it's time to really make a change. Do something drastic (but not unwarranted). Fire the coach. Fire the GM. Get someone new in there. Or, as The Rick said when I called last night to inquire as to whether anyone has tested Raycroft lately for peripheral vision failure, somebody old. "Everybody loves Raymond," he said.

"That's true," I replied, "Everbody does."

"Well come on," my dad said, "he can't make it any worse. And they need someone to get the fans back into the seats and caring about the game."

"But do you really think Bourque could do it?" I said, "I mean, has he ever coached?"

On the television, Raycroft made an easy save and the sarcastic applause from the crowd was audible.

"You know what?" I said, "Good idea. Can't make it any worse."

So it's time. It's time to make some changes. Don't trade Samsonov or Bergeron as some outlets have been predicting. It's way too late in the season for a rebuilding year and trading away your youthful stars for grizzled veterans is not a step in the right direction. Keep those guys around to lead the team two, three, four years down the road. But clean house. Start with the front office. I'm sure Sullivan and O'Connell are nice men. But they don't know how to run a hockey team. And they haven't for quite some time. It's time to let them go. Try something new. Try someone new. Or, as my dad says, someone old.

But it's time.