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Bruins should make Pens pay - legally

Dennis Seidenberg, Evgeni Malkin

Boston Bruins’ Dennis Seidenberg, left, checks Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin, of Russia, into the boards in the second period of an NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, March 7, 2010. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

AP

Let’s face it: the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins have too much to gain from a win to allow tonight’s game to devolve into a shameless slug fest (or worse). The Bruins have a slight lead on the New York Rangers for eight place in the East, but if they lose tonight’s game and our Game of the Week they’ll be in trouble. Once again, the Penguins lost to the Devils last night and therefore were booted out of first in the Atlantic division.

With Colin Campbell planning to be in attendance, you can bet that refs are going to be trigger happy with their whistles. So, instead of going over the line for the sake of enacting Hammurabi’s Code, the Bruins should instead gain revenge by taking a high road unfamiliar to Matt Cooke.

The Boston Herald’s Ron Borges makes this point by saying that the Bruins should make things miserable for the Penguins stars (not Matt Cooke) - but should do so legally. (H/T to Kukla’s Korner.)

Hit the Penguins legally every chance you get. Make a point of putting the wood to their best players, Crosby and Malkin. Forget the fighting unless they want to do it in the parking lot where everyone can get a little leverage because their skates will be on the locker room floor and not on their feet.

Now, this is the kind of “punishment” I can get behind. In fact, this - rather than James Wisnewski’s shameful hit to on Brent Seabrook last night - is the way that hockey justice should be reached.
As Brandon pointed out, the league has had its problems with people putting a “bounty” on a player’s head (see: Bertuzzi-Moore).

No doubt about it, the spotlight is on this game tonight. Let’s hope that the only black eyes will be on the players’ faces, rather than the game as a whole.