Satan aboard, Julien unhappy, Bergeron injured...happy times in Bruin land

In case the sarcasm didn't come through in the title, these are hardly happy times in the life of the common Bruins fan. Just days removed from an exhilarating 2-1 OT win over the Flyers in the Winter Classic, doom and gloom rule the day.

However, before I go on to the aforementioned doom and gloom, a bit of regular B's news: the signing of Miroslav Satan.

Satan, who was out of hockey completely before signing on with the B's, comes cheap: his cap hit will be around $300,000 for the remainder of the season (the contract was one-year, $700,000, but will be pro-rated since the season is already half over). He's being brought here really for one reason: to try to bring some offensive firepower to a team that is sorely lacking in the goal scoring department.

Satan is really an enigma, a player who seems to have immense skill but doesn't exactly play his hardest at all times. He's not exactly known for his defensive prowess either, which makes his addition to a Claude Julien "defense-first" club somewhat strange, but the team doesn't seem too concerned about it:

"Generally speaking, you're not going to get a perfect player on the free-agent market at this time of year," he said. "He's been more of a one-dimensional player over the course of his career. But, as I said, we watched all his playoff games and he was above-average on the defensive side of the puck. And those playoff games, they're high-tempo, high-intensity."
-Matt Kalman, ESPNBoston.com

Satan will be re-united with his friend and Team Slovakia teammate Zdeno Chara, so it will be interesting to see if the captain can light a bit of a fire under his countryman. If Satan can re-discover his touch and knock in 10-15 goals in the team's final 40 or so games, then Chiarelli will look like a genius. If he washes out and is a bust, it's only $300,000 in cap space (hey, this is Jeremy Jacobs' money, not mine).

However, Satan's signing may serve a bigger purpose as well, one that Julien illustrated in his post-game comments following the team's horrible showing on Broadway last night.

"There were times in the past that they had their dressing room under control," Julien said. "Right now, you have to coach, you have to be a cheerleader, you've got to wake them up. You've got to do too many things that a coach shouldn't have to do at this level. These are professionals and they've got to take ownership of their dressing room at some point.

-From above ESPN link

Julien was clearly unhappy with his team's effort, and one can't help but wonder if complacency is a factor. There are a number of players who have been under performing all year, and the addition of Satan coupled with the return of Milan Lucic in the coming days will make playing time a luxury, not a right.

Among those who may be destined for the press box are Blake Wheeler, Vladimir Sobotka and Michael Ryder. Wheeler and Ryder have had very disappointing seasons, while Sobotka may just end up being the odd-man out in the battle for playing time, mainly because he won't have to clear waivers to be sent down to Providence.

The above comments are pretty strong coming from Julien, especially given that his team has played pretty well as of late. However, he made it quite clear that mediocrity or poor play will not be tolerated, and it's now up to the team to respond. They have a chance to show their coach what kind of team they are right away with a game in Ottawa tonight. It's the opinion of this writer that if the B's come out flat again, especially following a chewing-out by their coach, then it may be time for concern for B's fans.

Of more pressing concern, however, is the health of forward Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron took a Dennis Wideman shot off of the hand in the second period of last night's game, skated two more shifts and then didn't return. Bergeron didn't travel with the team to Ottawa, and is (as of 1 p.m.) still being evaluated by doctors at MGH. A broken hand would likely see Bergeron miss upwards of a month (and would thereby sink his chances at playing for Team Canada in Vancouver), whereas a broken finger may sideline him for less time. Chances are, however, that it's some kind of fracture; the hand isn't exactly an area where sprains or strains are common.

If Bergeron misses significant time, the Bruins are in a bit of trouble. He has been the team's best overall player all season, and would be a huge loss. One can't help but feel for the kid as well: just days after being told he'll represent his country in the Olympics, he's felled by an injury. Here's to hoping it's not that serious, for both his sake and the team as a whole's.

UPDATE: According to Boston.com, Satan will make his Bruin debut tonight in Ottawa. Still no update on Bergeron's status.