Toucher & Rich: Peter Chiarelli On Paille's Hit, Savard
BOSTON (CBS) - Breaking News: The Bruins are being run by a Montreal Canadiens fan.
That is just one of the many tidbits revealed on Peter Chiarelli's call in to 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher and Rich Friday morning. The other news was much more important.
Listen To Peter Chiarelli's Call Into Toucher And Rich
For starters, Bruins forward Daniel Paille has a hearing scheduled Friday to review his blind side hit to the head on Dallas' Raymond Sawan in Thursday nights 6-3 win over the Dallas Stars. Paille was given a 10-minute game misconduct and ejected for the hit. After the game, defenseman Andrew Ference spoke out, saying the Bruins should not be hypocritical because the hit was made by one of their own.
"It's a bad hit right?" Ference said after the game. "That's what they're trying to get rid of and you can't be hypocritical about it when it happens to you and say it's fine when your teammate does it."
A multi-game suspension is expected for Paille, but Chiarelli insists the hit was not intentional.
"It looked shoulder-to-shoulder to me. I would have to say it was probably in that area we call a blind side," Chiarelli told T&R. "Certainly there was no intent to hit the head, and Dan told me he hit the shoulder first and often times the shoulder slides off the other shoulder and hits the head."
Even though the team may be losing Paille for some time, Chiarelli would not argue with a suspension.
"I wouldn't be upset, I mean Andrew is right, " he said. "You can't be hypocritical about it. I'm trying to argue there wasn't intent, and he got square to the player as opposed his blind side. It's a tough one."
Hits to the head are a sore subject for Boston, as the reality of losing Marc Savard for the rest of the season is sinking in more every day.
Savard returned to Boston, and will meet with doctors on Friday to further examine his latest concussion. No decision is expected on the injured center right away, but Chiarelli did not mince words about the subject.
"I've been talking about the strong possibility of closing down Marc the rest of the season, and he's aware of that," he said. "Timetable as to when we're going to do it, I don't know. It could be after the weekend."
Chiarelli will meet with Savard and his agent over the weekend.
As for who will take Savard's spot if and when he goes on the long-term injured reserve, Chiarelli did say in-house options will be considered but no decision has been made. The cap relief the team would get from the move could be dispersed to multiple positions, including a center and defenseman. Forward Zach Hamill was called up from Providence after the game, and could be one of those in-house options.
He did say Miroslav Satan, who provided a late season spark in 2010, was not an option
Chiarelli also admitted he was a bit of a fan during Thursday night's game. The Bruins and Stars threw down the gloves three times in the first four seconds, something the Bruins GM has not seen before.
"When I saw Shawn (Thornton) line up at Center (to start the game), I thought something's going on here," Chiarelli said. "Then I saw Soupy (Gregory Campbell) fight (Steve) Ott, and remember edwhat happened when Soupy was in Florida. I figured that one out quickly. The other ones were surprising. You enjoy the energy that you start the game with, and then you get the goal. I've never seen that number fights in that period of time at the start of a game. So I have to admit I was a bit of a fan last night."
The Bruins Campbell, McQuaid and Ference Talk Their Fights Against Dallas
In all, the Bruins and Stars fought four times during the first period. A total of 89 penalty minutes were handed out between the two teams for the game.
