The Bruins will never be as tough as Wayne Cashman

Let’s not get carried away with heaping praise on the Bruins for rushing to defenseman Mark Stuart’s defense after the boarding call on New York Rangers forward Vaclav Prospal in the first period Sunday afternoon at TD Garden.

That moment was definitely a positive way for the Bruins’ eventual 2-1 win to start. But if you think that Boston’s response to the questionable hit suddenly turned the Bruins from girlie men into the new “Big, Bad Bruins” than you’re way too easily swayed.

Considering it took a major media blitz and a speech from general manager Peter Chiarelli to get the Bruins to do what almost every other team in the NHL would do naturally, you have to take Sunday’s reaction with a grain of salt. Just like their non-response didn’t brand them as the softest team in the league, their attack of Prospal doesn’t mean they’re the personification of grit.

First, you watch the video and you realize that, of Stuart’s three teammates on the ice killing the penalty, each rushed toward Prospal with varying levels of enthusiasm. Then you have to realize that the Bruins, because of the above-mentioned measures taken, are going to have a Pavlovian response any time a teammate is down on the ice now. It’s one thing to be known as a mediocre team that can’t score. It’s a whole other thing to have the team’s manhood challenged by outside and inside observers. So at least the Bruins will now be a somewhat tougher mediocre club.

The Bruins’ defense of Stuart felt a tad disingenuous when it happened and to crown them as some modern-day version of the Three Musketeers would be like declaring Bernie Madoff as generous if he suddenly gave back a million or two to those he bilked. The crime has been committed and there’s no way to make up for that. To me, this Bruins team — as presently constituted — will always be the team that saw no reason to pummel Matt Cooke for one of the ugliest hits the NHL has seen in years on Boston’s star player. Until a major personnel shake up changes the Bruins’ look, they don’t get credit for doing what should have been done in the first place.