Boston Bruins: An Accidental Goalie Controversy?

Jan 2, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins goalie

(72) in front of the net during the second period against the Nashville Predators at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

The last thing any self respecting fan of the Boston Bruins wants is to be compared to the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks (and a healthy part of their fan base) are still ashamed for losing against the Black and Gold back in 2011. (Certain hockey writers for Yahoo still lament over that loss and use it as fuel to accuse other teams (mostly Boston) of everything from racism to the destruction of the sport.) They’re not too proud over the post-defeat riots either.

The problem for the Bruins is that they may have inadvertently followed in their footsteps. The Black and Gold may have something of a goalie controversy on their hands. Vancouver’s goaltending problems were over trying to figure out if they wanted to keep Cory Schneider or Roberto Luongo. (Naturally, the organization chose to scrap both of them and bring on Eddie Lack in their twisted desire to become a team in perpetual rebuild.) While the Bruins impending controversy isn’t even close to becoming a team-scrapping disaster, it should be given a little attention.

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The Bruins chose to part waves with a very successful back-up goaltender for the second year in a row (Last year was Anton Khudobin, and this year it was Chad Johnson.). The organization signed Niklas Svedberg to a one year, six hundred thousand dollar contract. It was safe to assume that Svedberg was getting the bump up to be the new number two in Boston.  (For those nights when Tuukka Rask wasn’t going to defend his Vezina title.) A one year contract meant Svedberg would be playing for his job, and both sides seemed happy with the deal. Things seemed to be locked up in net for the B’s.

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The Bruins seemed to be fine, but then all of a sudden the front office changed tack on us. The Bruins hired Jeremy Green for a one year deal. With the Boston and Providence Bruins already having two reliable goaltenders in net, it seemed very confusing. There was talk that Green was brought on only to instill a stronger spirit of competition among the potential competitors for the back up job we all thought was going to Svedberg. I don’t know about you, but it has this writer scratching his head.

It’s safe to say that Peter Chiarelli won’t pull a Vancouver on us and self destruct his team. I don’t think any extra controversy was needed before opening night though.