Harry is not gone!

[CoachMitch]

Anyone who thinks that Harry Sinden's role with the Bruins has significantly changed is simply not paying attention to the "madness in the method" that the Bruins operate under.

As I understand it, after having their first season of not selling out, the Bruins brought in a marketing consulting team. Their research found that the number one problem that Bruin's fan had with the team was "Harry Sinden"!

Fans believe that Harry is Jeremy Jacobs' lackey, who does what he is told. It is also apparent that Jacobs is not as interested in winning a Stanley cup as he is with putting fannies in seats and making money. In short, Jacobs is not a hockey guy, he is a businessman! Year after year he refuses to spend the money that is necessary to put a true Stanley Cup contender on the ice. So, to give the fans what they wanted, while still keeping Harry in the same power position, the Bruins simply announced that Harry was stepping down as the Bruin's president and was no longer in charge and that he would serve in a "consulting role". Translation: We will give the fans the impression that Harry is gone, but Harry is still the power in the Bruin's organization.

It is believed that Harry became the Bruin's GM after he stabbed the legendary Milt Schmidt in the back. It was Schmidt who first brought Sinden into the NHL, when Schmidt became the Bruin's GM and named Sinden as the new head coach. You can readily understand why the Bruins chose Sinden over Schmidt. Schmidt had made the greatest "blockbuster" trade of all time when he traded for Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield from the Chicago Black Hawks in exchange for journeymen Pit Martin, Gilles Marotte and Jack Norris.

Harry's moves have been less stellar. He traded Reggie Leach, Rick Smith and Bob Stewart to California for Carol Vadnais and Don O'Donoghue. O'Donoghue never played a game for the Bruins and Leach went on to have a stellar career, mainly with the Philadelphia Flyers. In the 75-76 season Leach scored 61 goals and in the Stanley Cup Playoffs scored 19. Philadelphia eliminated Boston in the quarter finals that year and in the final game Leach scored five goals in Philadelphia's 6-3 victory. In the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft, Sinden left goalie Bernie Parent unprotected and he was chosen by the Philadelphia Flyers. I don't think that anyone need elaborate on Bernie's career, he's in the Hockey Hall of Fame!

In the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, the Boston Bruins had the 1st overall pick. Sinden took Gord Kluzak, even though he had missed the last half of the 1982 season with Medicine Hat with torn ligaments in his knee. Sinden passed up on Kitchener Rangers star Brian Bellows, who was the popular choice amongst Bruin fans, and Gary Nylund of the Portland Winter Hawks, who many, including The Hockey News, felt was the better defenceman. Sinden made a deal with the Minnesota North Stars, who had the second pick that year, where he agreed to let them have Bellows with the No. 2 pick in exchange for two players: Brad Palmer and Dave Donnelly.

Minnesota did end up picking Bellows, who went on to become a star in the NHL and finished his career with 485 goals and 537 assists for 1,022 points. Nylund was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs and ended his career with 608 games under his belt. Other notable NHL players drafted after Kluzak include Scott Stevens, Phil Housley, Dave Andreychuk, Tomas Sandstrom, Pat Verbeek, and Doug Gilmour. Kluzak, on the other hand, was out of hockey at the age of 27 - felled by knee injuries. Way to go Harry! You sure know how to pick'em!

Oh yeah, both Palmer and Donnelly played one lackluster season with the Bruins and then never played in the NHL again.

In 1995 Sinden traded with the Pittsburgh Penguins for left winger Kevin Stevens and Shawn McEachern, shipping off to the Peguins; Glen Murray and Bryan Smolinski. After "disappointing" in Boston with 23 points in 41 games, Stevens was traded to the Los Angeles Kings.

McEachern played the 1995-96 season with the Bruins and in 82 games notched a respectable 24 goals and 29 assists for 53 points. However, at the end of the season Sinden traded him to Ottawa for the "great" Trent McCleary who, in the 1996-97 season for the Bruins, notched a prolific 3 goals and 5 assists in 59 games. The following year McCleary was with the Detroit Vipers in the IHL.

You might ask, "Why did the Bruins go after Stevens and McEachern?" The answer is simple. Money! Both players were local boys, McEachern from Waltham, MA and Stevens from Brockton, MA; and both had played for local colleges, Stevens for Boston College and McEachern for Northeastern University, my alma mater. Go Huskies! The thinking seems to have been, two local stars, more fannies in them seats!

There is another side to the Bruins' way of doing business

After his "disappointing season with the Bruins, Sinden shippped a bitter Stevens out to L.A.; despite an alleged no-trade promise.

"They're a bunch of liars," Stevens said in The Boston Globe. "Assistant GM Mike O'Connell swore on his kid's head that he wouldn't do it. I wouldn't have come here if I'd known this was going to happen. I gave up a lot of money and a lot of bonuses to come here. It's sick! A lot of people told me that I shouldn't believe anything they tell me. But when someone looks you in the eye and tells you something like O'Connell did, well, I believed him. I asked him what was going to happen if things went bad and he said they wouldn't trade me. He told me not to worry. Pittsburgh didn't even really want to trade me, either, that's the sick thing. That's the hardest thing for me to swallow. If they hadn't promised they wouldn't trade me . . . but they did. That's the thing that stuck in my head. It sucks!"

In 2000, Harry Sinden "stepped up" from GM to become president of the Bruins.
He handpicked his replacement Mike O'Connell, however Harry was still making the decisions, per the instructions of Jeremy Jacobs. Now that he was protected by having a front man, Harry's acquistions and trades became even more bizarre. They are far too numerous to list, however two of the more unbelievable moves were:

In 1997 the Bruins traded high-scoring center Adam Oates, to the Washington Capitals along with Bill Ranford and Rick Tocchet for Jim Carey, Anson Carter, Jason Allison and Washington's 3rd round choice (Lee Goren) in the 1997 Entry Draft. Boston fans went ballistic, especially when the following year, Oates helped lead the Capitals to the Stanley Cup Finals. To add insult to injury, on their way to the finals that year, Washington eliminated Boston 4-2 in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals!

Then, in 2005, the Bruins traded away top center Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks in what many consider to be one of the worst deals in professional sports history: the Bruins received players Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau. Thornton went on with the San Jose Sharks to win the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player and the Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion.

Of course, Sinden wasn't going to take the blame for this fiasco. No, it was time for O'Connell to fall on his sword to protect "Harry the Coniver".

So now we come full circle, again. Last year the Bruins again did not make the playoffs, so now it was time to behead the coach, Dave Lewis and replace him with Claude Julien. The Bruins have had seven head coaches in the last nine years, so it isn't a case of "if" Julien will go to the block, only "when" he will go to the block!

Harry is still in charge!

[ken_valyi]

Great post. You should write for a paper and I'm not kidding.

Yeah Sinden is a one man wrecking crew, similiar in my eyes to the late, but not great, Harold Ballard, former owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I think it's the concensus of most of the posters on this board that sports franchices do their best when they are run like a wealthman's (or woman's) extravagant toy, rather than a business.

When an owner is more worried about the fiscal bottom-line rather than things like team chemistry or top of the line talent, then championships go by the wayside.

Conversely, when an owner treats the franchise like an exotic car or trophy spouse, then all the players' needs are met and the championship rings and trophies make up for any red ink at the end of the year.