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What does it say about Bruins coach Mike Sullivan that, six games into the 2003-04 season, general manager Mike O’Connell didn’t hold back from blasting his lethargic forwards in the papers?

Perhaps something positive — Pat Burns would have chased O’Connell out of his office while Mike Keenan would have gone crying to Harry Sinden — and perhaps something negative, too, as in it’s pretty early in the season for this public a reaction.

O’Connell stayed out of Robbie Ftorek’s business until it was too late, so this time he’s pledged to cultivating a close, hands-on relationship with the coaching staff.

That O’Connell has put that relationship to the test so early in Sullivan’s tenure can be chalked up to the pressure coming from the top. Team owner Jeremy Jacobs is suddenly asking the press why he’s not getting the same bang for his buck as the New Jersey Devils, to whom the Bruins compare closely in annual payroll.

But Sullivan and O’Connell should emerge from this early crisis intact, first of all, because winning cures many ailments and the Bruins did return from out west with the NHL’s best record at 4-1-2.

There is, however, a lingering souvenir coincidental with O’Connell’s critique: the reunion of Mike Knuble with Joe Thornton and Glen Murray on the first line. Sullivan denies that O’Connell trumped him in this or any other on-ice matter thus far.

“That was a decision made by the coaching staff. But the management has been around this team for a long time and can help the coaching staff,” said Sullivan. “We certainly welcome input and, from their standpoint, Mike has been very supportive of us and the decisions that we make. Ultimately, the decisions are in the coaching staff’s hands.”

Sullivan tried Sergei Samsonov and Martin Lapointe on left wing with the Thornton-Murray combination before resorting to Knuble.

He was questioned in the preseason about the top-line breakup, not from the standpoint that it ain’t broke so don’t fix it, but from the standpoint that Knuble had not been an effective, regular-shifter in any other context throughout his career. Sullivan disagreed and set off to reinvent the wheel.

As expected, Knuble did all the right things and tried hard on his other lines but could not get scoring chances, much less goals. He wouldn’t score his first until his reunion with Thornton and Murray, which produced three goals in his first two games, including a game-winner against the Kings.

“My goal was to show I belonged there,” said Knuble. “All three of us work well together. We kind of jumped right in and, personally, it felt like we didn’t miss a step. It was fun.”

This is a shorter version of an article that appears in this month's
New England Hockey Journal.
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