Boston Bruins: Milan Lucic Gets What He Deserves

Nov 22, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Milan Lucic (17) screens Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price (31) during the first period at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

After having a few days to think it over, there is one thing crystal clear that continues to come to mind regarding the incident between Milan Lucic and Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Dalton Prout. That thought is this; Lucic got exactly what he deserved courtesy of Prout. Before I continue let me clarify something, I am not justifying the manner in which Prout conducted himself in the incident.

Not allowing Lucic to drop his gloves was a cheap tactic employed by Prout, however Lucic set himself up to be knocked down in this situation. The incident was precipitated by seemingly nothing but Lucic losing control of his emotions and making something out of nothing. Before the sucker punch occurred, Prout could be seen giving Lucic a good shove along with a legal poke check to force Lucic off of the puck.

What happened next was just another example of what’s becoming all too frequent of an occurrence for Lucic and that is making a foolish decision which left him the worse for wear at the end of it. In the last year we have seen Lucic break tradition by threatening players after being knocked out by the Montreal Canadiens. Next was his memorable hand gesture to the fans of the Canadiens earlier this year after once again losing his cool due to another defeat at the hands of Montreal.

Now I wouldn’t mind if Lucic were doing these things to add salt in the wound on the heels of victory, but in his case it seems to always be the opposite. His most recent loss of control is the most maddening though. There were only seconds left in overtime and although scoring would have been difficult, the tape shows Dennis Seidenberg rifling a shot with only seconds remaining from the blue line which ultimately was interrupted, however even if it had gotten through it wouldn’t have mattered. The shot could have possibly been tipped by Lucic, but he was too busy engaging in an unnecessary altercation with Prout.

The bottom line is Lucic seems to have lost his way to a certain extent which doesn’t bode well for a player with only one year remaining on his contract. Maybe if Lucic was producing offensively then there would not be such a glaring spotlight on these incidents, however 22 games into the season and Lucic only has 3 goals. Another scary though to ponder is the idea that Lucic needs a player like David Krejci to be successful due to being unable to carry the load and take over a game on his own.

But who knows, maybe a good shot to the jaw might knock some sense into Lucic because time is ticking away and at some point management will grow tired of these antics combined with his lack of productivity.