Wheeler
Saturday one of the least appreciated Bruins of the last several seasons and one the fans seemingly loved to hate will be on TD Garden ice for the first time as members of the Atlanta Thrashers.
Both Mark Stuart and Blake Wheeler, dealt in February to the Thrashers for Rich Peverley and Boris Valalbik, practiced at their old home rink today in preparation for tomorrow’s Thrashers-Bruins showdown.
Stuart was “Mr. Reliable” on the back end until injuries sidetracked his career last season and this. As a former first-round pick, he barely met expectations in black and gold.
After practice today, Stuart reflected on what it’ll be like to be on the opposite side of the Garden tomorrow, via the AJC.com Thrashers blog:
“It’s going to be different. I’ve only known the other bench for five or six years. It will be a little different. I will be excited but when it comes down to it, it’s just another game that we have to win.”
Wheeler was never booed the way Dennis Wideman was before the defenseman was dealt to Florida. But Wheeler’s inability to put his size to good use or just score at a better clip made him fodder for the message-board dwellers and talk-radio callers who want all their large forwards to be Cam Neely. Wheeler, however, was a finesse player who was an effective penalty-killer for Boston in his first two seasons in the NHL.
Again, via the AJC.com Thrashers blog, Wheeler had this to say:
“There are mixed feelings. You walk around the city and you feel like you haven’t left at all. … I’m excited more than anything. I don’t think it will be that weird. The weirdest thing will be playing against those guys, the guys I’ve played with the last few years, and actually competing against them. After the first shift, things will fall into place.”
There’s really no reason for a Wideman- or Phil Kessel-like reaction to either player by the crowd when they take the ice against the Bruins tomorrow. Neither left under any negative circumstances, and perhaps someday they’ll be the answer to a trivia question if Rich Peverley turns out to be the final piece of the Bruins’ championship puzzle.
Neither should get the boo birds, but I do have a slight feeling a few tools in the stands will boo Wheeler. Stuart will definitely have louder cheers in a few minutes.
Current players see first hand how former players are treated. Being classy and respectful never hurt anyone. I hope the garden faithful respond accordingly.
I also agree that Wheels and Stewie both deserve cheers. They never did anything to actually hurt the team. Neither of them were ever seen as liabilities.
Having said that, I do believe that they WILL be booed today because that’s just what fans, who paid money and are there to see the Bruins win, do. It’s an opportunity for them to get involved with the game, and cheering for alright players (franchise icons) is not nearly as fun as booing them.
I wouldn’t boo if I was there, but I will understand why they are booed, if they are. No disrespect, it’s just the way hockey goes sometimes. I didn’t think Wideman deserved a booing either and look how that turned out.
P.S. Dustin Byfuglien taken round 8, #245 in 2003
I don’t think Wheeler or Stuart deserve to be booed. I am not even sure Wideman deserves it even though I feel like we got the better end of that trade and it was a good one. Horton is producing and Campbell in some ways I think has been just as valuable but for different reasons.
Ryder still doesn’t impress me. I don’t think he is why we lose games, when we lose them, but for his salary he doesn’t contribute much.
I hope wheeler doesn’t get booed, even though he drove me crazy offensively he still worked as hard as anyone else and played gooed defense. He became the scapegoat after Wideman and now it’s Ryder. Stuart’s 2003 draft class might turn out to be the best 1st round in NHL history.
I would take Kesler over Stuart any day-although I still like and miss Stuart. I do understand why they had to trade him and what made him the most likely to be traded. I am still going to miss him though and I hope he does well in Atlanta-just not today.
Stewie is definitely a stand-up guy. But I still marvel at how the B’s picked him over Ryan Kesler, Mike Richards (as big of a blow-hard as he is), and Corey Perry.
Stuart will get loud cheers, Wheels will get a mixed reaction.
Wheeler is younger than Peverly so it can’t really be decided who is better yet, but Peverly is established, consistant and experienced, that is what made him a better fit for our team and for the playoffs.
Trading Stuart had to do both with McQuaid’s strong play and the strong play of Boychuk the year before. We can only have so many hard working hard hitting Bruins on the back end.
^ I agree with Hungus
pev > wheeler & darth quaider > stewie.
Yeah I think Peverly is an improvement over Wheeler. I liked Stuart and miss him on the team-he is a stand up kind of guy and a real team player.
Hopefully they both receive classy ovations from the garden. I was pretty bummed to see Stuart go, I was never a huge Wheeler fan but never really jumped on the hate-wagon either.