Will The Bruins Deliver Payback For Marc Savard?

As soon as the Bruins and Penguins stepped off the ice back on March 7, the first question was, of course, when do these teams play again? The answer: 7 PM ET, tonight at TD Garden in Boston.

The next logical question then is, will the Bruins deliver any form of payback for the season-ending hit Penguins forward Matt Cooke laid on Bruins leading scorer Marc Savard? That night in March, the Bruins did nothing to support their teammate. If you take a look back in the books of recent history, you'll realize that the chances of retribution tonight are slim as well.

The Savard hit has been likened to the hit Philadelphia's Mike Richards laid on Florida's David Booth earlier this season. Booth missed 40-plus games following that devastating incident, but like with Savard, his Panther teammates did not do anything to Richards during that game. In the next meeting between the Flyers and Panthers, Florida called up several thugs from the minor leagues in a show of force, but during the game, nothing major happened.

No head hunting, no vigilante justice. Panthers captain Bryan McCabe did make Richards answer the bell in a fight, but the game didn't turn into the blood bath that many in the media had likely hoped it would become. Media like Boston Herald columnist Ron Borges, who say that simply forcing Cooke to answer the bell by fighting would be silly.

Here's an excerpt from a column Borges published early Thursday morning:

To fight Cooke would be, in a word, stupid - unless Pacquiao is handling the fisticuffs. With Nickie, there would be no fighting involved. More a case of “Anybody seen Matt?”

To take the traditional hockey fight route would be silly because:

a) He probably won’t fight back, that not being his modus operandi.

b) Why get your own guys in hot water with Campbell sitting upstairs taking notes?

c) It’s been 11 days since the original incident, which should have been taken care of at the time by Savard’s teammates and wasn’t - so it’s a bit late for Machismo on Ice.

Yes, League disciplinarian Colin Campbell will be in attendance, but at last check, fighting is a completely legal form of retribution in the sport of hockey. In fact, it's the sole reason it's in the game, right? Campbell will address both teams before the game, but he's not going to outlaw part of the game because there's bad blood between the teams.

From TSN:

It's expected that the league executives will meet personally [Thursday] with both general managers -- Boston's Peter Chiarelli and Pittsburgh's Ray Shero - as well as both head coaches - Boston's Claude Julien and Pittsburgh's Dan Bylsma - to ensure that whatever happens in terms of retribution, it falls within reasonable limits.

Reasonable limits. Making Cooke drop the gloves with Zdeno Chara or Shawn Thornton is certainly within reasonable limits. There's something to be said for Cooke just not fighting back, but with the entire hockey world watching this game intently each time Cooke steps on the ice, he would be naive to think he can get out of this game without a fight. And if he's challenged and turns down a fight, he'll be made fun of for the rest of his career like the kid at lunch in second grade who slipped and fell on the spilled apple sauce.

Will we see any of the wild, out of control retribution, though? Campbell will try to intimidate the players into not taking part in that stuff, but hockey is an emotional game and you know those Bruins players can't stand the sight of Matt Cooke.

And when the NHL comes down and says that hits like Cooke's are illegal -- but, you know, not just yet -- we're gonna wait til next season for that, meaning Cooke gets off without punishment. Well, you know that makes the Bruins mad. In the midst of a game, it's completely plausible to think one Bruins player could take a run at Cooke the same way Cooke hit Savard.

After all, it's still legal.