Trade Mike O'Connell! (redux)

I wrote an essay a few months ago calling for Mike O'Connell's resignation after the Boston hockey general manager traded away the Bruins' captain and best player Joe Thornton for three average players (forward Marco Sturm has proven to be a little above average). Now with San Jose, Thornton currently leads the league in assists and is second in points.

Two days ago, O'Connell did it again. He traded away the team's best remaining player, Sergei Samsonov, for a journeyman (Marty Reasoner), and a draft pick. In the same deal, they also reacquired a prospect (Yan Stasny) that they'd originally drafted but thought so little of they traded him away for another draft pick.

You have to hand it to the B's boss. Mike O'Connell is not the only GM to give up on a season, but he might be the first to give up twice on the same season. He is not the first GM to trade away his best player for a handful of fringe players, but he might be the first to do it twice in the same season.

This most recent trade as the club was making a playoff push, finally having recovered from the Thornton trade. The Bruins were only 7 points out of a playoff spot, a margin which would've been reduced to 5 if they'd won last night.

The Bruins might be the worst run franchise in the NHL. Some could reasonably argue that the Chicago Blackhawks or New York Islanders are more pathetic. However, Blackhawk and Islander GMs are usually fired after a few years of incompetence.

O'Connell and his mentor Harry Sinden have been allowed run the Bruins into the ground for the last 33 years, which coincides with the longest period in team history without a Stanley Cup. Sinden, for his faults, steered the Bruins to the playoffs in each of his 23 years in the GM's seat, even if they never won the Cup. This will mark the fourth time in nine seasons that the Bruins will miss the playoffs under O'Connell.

The Bruins are a directionless organization and O'Connell's in charge so it's long past time he should get the axe.

If I were Patrice Bergeron, the B's best remaining player, I wouldn't buy a house in Boston just yet.

Update: After the Bruins loss tonight, their fourth consecutive, coach Mike Sullivan said, "We've got to score goals. It's tough to win games when you only score one goal. Obviously, that's been our nemesis the last couple of games." It's hard to score goals when the team keeps trading away their leading scorers!