Sports | The Hawk

By Kali Heffernan

The Boston Bruins season is finally here! After losing in game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals to the Chicago Blackhawks last June, the Bruins are back and ready to go. Their goal every season is to make it to the Stanley Cup finals and eventually win it. After coming so close, but failing to do so, they had to make some changes. With free agency and the trade market open, the Boston Bruins organization had some tough decisions to make. First they had to find out which players would be leaving from free agency. With a small salary cap space limiting the amount of money they could spend on players, they would have to make some hard decisions. First they made sure they resign their most valuable players, Goalie Tuukka Rask and Center Patrice Bergeron. They were both signed to an 8-year deal.

One player they had to lose was defenseman and Alternate Captain Andrew Ference, whose contract had expired. Even though the Bruins would have loved to keep such an amazing player and person, they had to let him go because of the small cap space. He is now Captain of the Edmonton Oilers. They also lost their top line right wing Nathan Horton to free agency. Horton, unlike Ference, did not want to come back to Boston for a 4th year after making it to the Cup finals twice in 3 years and winning one.

After losing many players to free agency, Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli decided to make a trade. A big 7 player trade. He decided to trade Tyler Seguin, Rich Peverly, and Ryan Button to Dallas, for Loui Eriksson, Joe Morrow, Matt Fraser and Reilly Smith. The Bruins had many new players to welcome to Boston. Losing former players made room for new players, and prospects. During free agency, the Bruins acquired Jarome Iginla from Pittsburgh. Iginla was not loved by Boston fans at first after choosing to go to Pittsburgh over Boston at the trade deadline last season. He proved himself in the preseason as the team’s top scorer, skating top line with Milan Lucic and David Krejci in place of Nathan Horton. Loui Eriksson was great in place of Tyler Seguin on the second line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. The Bruins team has been 4 lines deep, and they wanted to keep it this way, but the third line was a problem. After losing Rich Peverly and Jaromir Jagr the 3rd line needed some work. With many prospects it was open to almost anyone. The preseason gave the prospects a chance to show what they can do. It ended up being a battle between Jordan Caron, Carl Soderberg, and new teammate Reilly Smith on who would play the wings with Chris Kelly on the 3rd line. Soderberg ended up having an injury so the line is Caron-Kelly-Smith as of now. Of course the 4th line, or Merlot Line as it was known for the players’ cranberry-colored practice jerseys, is Shawn Thornton, Gregory Campbell and Danny Paille as always.

There is a lot to look forward to with the Bruins this season. It will be exciting, and interesting to see how the new players will work in the team. It is bound to be a great season.

When most people hear about the Hanover girls hockey team, the usual response is something along the lines of: ‘we have a girl’s hockey team?’ Why yes, we do and believe it or not it’s pretty awesome. The team is combined with the town of Cohasset and coached by Deb Beal, a teacher in Cohasset. The season starts in December, and practices are held mostly at Pilgrim Rink in Hingham. Games are played all over the South Shore.

Wicked Local Photo by K.A. MacDonald, published in the Hanover Mariner Jan. 29, 2013

When asked about playing with girls from Cohasset, Hanover sophomore Sam Taylor said, “I love it. They are very nice.” Hanover and Cohasset are set to break into their own teams by the end of this season, much to the chagrin of players. The girls liked playing together so much they fought the separation each season.

The team started back in 2010 after much planning. It began as a JV team but the next year stepped up to varsity. Though the team hasn’t won many games (as you can see from the stats below) they always play hard and bring their A game every time.

2012-2013 Season Stats
Wed., Dec. 26	Whitman-Hanson	L, 6-2
Wed., Jan. 2	at Norwell	T, 1-1
Sat., Jan. 5	at Marshfield	L, 2-1
Wed., Jan. 9	Martha’s Vineyard	L, 3-2
Sat., Jan. 12	Bourne	W, 3-1
Wed., Jan. 16	North Quincy	W, 4-1
Sat., Jan. 19	at Dennis-Yarmouth	T, 2-2
Mon., Jan. 21	at Scituate	L, 4-2
Sat., Jan. 26	at Latin Academy	W, 4-2
Wed., Jan. 30	Norwell	W, 5-4
Sat., Feb. 2	at Martha’s Vineyard	L, 4-2
Wed., Feb. 6	Marshfield	L, 2-1
Tue., Feb. 19	at Bourne	L, 4-2

That isn’t to say beginners aren’t welcome. Beginners were what the team was originally based on. The Hanover/ Cohasset team operates based upon a philosophy where the more experienced players play the varsity games and the beginners on the JV team play scrimmages with other JV teams. If you are just starting out it is the perfect set up, because you get ice time each week at practice and games that are just for fun. Molly Cameron, a Hanover sophomore, says to beginners, “It’s the best thing you could ever do and you won’t regret doing it!”

Since most people don’t really know about the team it’s sometimes hard to find new players. Most of the current players found out about it from friends or from being on the town girls’ team (yes, that’s a thing too). What the players like most about playing hockey and being on the team is the challenge and the friends they make.

If you decide to join the team, it is a good experience. Even if you don’t, it would be good to follow the team’s games and see all the great achievements they make!

Kayla Garity is a member of the team.

The Hawk

Category Archives: Sports

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