Tuesday 5 March 2013

Embellishment City: Boston Bruins’ hypocrisy on diving goes viral (VIDEO)

When Boston Bruins Coach Claude Julien called out the Montreal Canadiens for embellishment and claimed their behavior “embarrasses” the NHL, the reaction from fans ranged from “kudos for the honesty, good sir” to “uh, two words: Brad Marchand, hypocrite.”

It was only a matter of time before someone took Julien’s critical words about the Habs and applied them to his own team’s foibles. Which is what Vancouver Canucks fan and YouTube artist “M A K A V E L I” did on Monday, creating a viral sensation. Here are the many embellishments of the Boston Bruins, narrated by Claude Julien.

(Kudos for the extra bit of subversive fun with audio, taking Jack Edwards “AS IF HE’S BEEN SHOT!” classic line about Roman Hamrlik and applying it to Shawn Thornton.)

The video is nearing 30,000 views as of Tuesday morning.

This isn’t the first time “M A K A V E L I” has taken a run at the Bruins’ diving, as the YouTuber appears to be the official ombudsman of Bostonian embellishment complaints.

There was the Art of Nose Diving, starring Marchand:

There was “The Daily Show” indictment of the Bruins’ allegedly dirty play:

And, as a companion piece, “The Colbert Report” on the Bruins’ behavior and calling out of other teams.

None of this is to say that the Boston Bruins are the Goblin Kings of Embellishment in the NHL … if anything, it’s to say that only Marchand has earned his wings in the Mike Ribeiro/Vancouver Canucks pantheon of go-to examples of embellishment.

But it's also to say that in professional hockey, every team in every division in every conference in every country in every season is going … to … embellish.

It’s as time-honored a tactic as an opponent crying about it in postgame press conferences, in the hopes the officials will ease up on a penalty call or hit the other team with a diving minor the next time they meet.

Which is essentially what Julien was doing. Unfortunately, he’s also a guy that likes to pretend his players never pull a triple lindy during the game.

Claude Julien, last spring:

“We’re not a team that will go down, and, I’ve said that many times, and start rolling on the ice for no reason.”

Sorry, Bill Burr and Denis Leary, but Claude Julien may in fact be the Boston area’s greatest comedian.



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