Boulerice calls Kesler, gets cut

On Monday, the Flyers placed former Hurricanes tough guy Jesse Boulerice on waivers. This comes just days after Boulerice was handed a record-tying 25 game suspension for his vicious crosscheck to the face of Canucks skater Ryan Kesler. No team will be expected to touch the waste of space with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

In his short and fruitless career, Boulerice, who once cited The Garfield Christmas Movie as his favorite, (see this video as proof) has caused trouble everywhere he has gone.

In April of 1998, while playing with the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League, Boulerice swung his stick a la Chris Simon at the head of Andrew Long, who played for Guelph Storm. After reviewing the video, OHL officials determined that Boulerice would be suspended for the entire 1998-99 season including the preseason and playoffs.

Boulerice was sent up to the AHL the next season, and the suspension didn't come with him.

He spent the next couple of years bouncing between the AHL and ECHL, putting up astonishing PIM numbers but not doing much of anything else. In 2000-01 with the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL, he put up 256 PIM in 60 games played. If you're scoring along at home, that's more than four and a quarter minutes per game played. That number is roughly equivalent to his average TOI in the NHL.

Unfortunately, Boulerice was dealt to the Hurricanes in February of 2002. He completed that season in Lowell, piling up 80 PIM in just 15 games. 5.33 PIM per game.

Boulerice was called up to the big team for the 2002-03 season, where he made a lasting impression on February 11, 2003 as "the guy who got knocked the eff out by Aaron Downey" in a one-punch fight.


He continued to serve the role of agitator/pugilist for the 03-04 season, but when we came back from the lockout, there was little room for him in the "new NHL". He started on the big club, but about a month into the season, the Canes opted to keep the skilled players on the ice and eliminated his roster spot. He was sent down to Lowell, and ultimately was used as part of a multi-player deal to get Doug Weight from the Blues.

Boulerice didn't make any fans in St. Louis. During one of his first practice sessions, he allegedly checked teammate Ryan Johnson WAY too hard, and the result was a broken foot for Johnson. There was also some talk of a locker room fight involving Jesse and, at some point, a chair. The Blues knew they had a cancer on their hands, and despite an injury-depleted roster, they released him after just a few days.

Somehow, Jesse ended up back in the Carolina organization during the 2006-07 campaign, but only played a handful of games with Lowell before being cut.

This season, despite having colossally deficient in any skill category, he managed to make the Flyers roster. On the big club. Presumably to protect their $10M investment Daniel Briere.

We all know what happened next.

Also on Monday, it was reported that Boulerice made a little bit of good by calling Ryan Kesler to offer his apology. Kesler was "taken aback", and appreciated the effort by Boulerice. At least there's that.

I think we can safely assume that "the Bull" won't be playing in the NHL any more.

Boulerice

Jesse, why are you such a jackass?

By now, we've all heard about and seen the vicious hit delivered by former Hurricane Jesse Boulerice of the Flyers to the head of the Canucks' Ryan Kesler.

Just in case, here it is:


Absolutely disgusting.

The game was well in hand. Flyers up 7-2, eight minutes left in the game. There is no need for that kind of aggression ever, and in this case you can't blame "heat of the competition".
Sure, the two players had been going at each other all night, but this kind of thing is completely outrageous.
The most disgusting thing about it is that Boulerice, who is completely useless outside of his "agitator" role, stood over Kesler and shook the gloves loose as if to suggest that he was going to give Kesler some more.

Steve Downie, who wouldn't have made the Flyers squad anyway, was suspended for 20 games for his violent head-high checking during the preseason. This was meant to send a message to the players that hits to the head will not be tolerated.
Apparently it didn't work.

I would expect a double digit games suspension. I seriously hope that "The Bull" gets tossed for the remainder of the year.

Was this as violent as McSorley/Brashear? No. As gruesome as Bertuzzi/Moore? No. Simon/Hollweg? No. But it deserves a suspension as long or longer than any of those.

Boulerice was once banned for an entire season from the OHL for a stick-swinging incident. He also faced assault charges in civil court for that incident. I think Colin "Clownshoes" Campbell would be remiss if he failed to take Jesse's history into account.

Unfortunately, the disciplinary office has been terribly fickle. They might decide that since Kesler was able to skate off on his own power, Boulerice should only get three games.

My hope is that he gets in excess of 25 games. I also hope that the league sends the Flyers a message. Surely at some point the coaches and front office have to have some accountability. A Flyer just pulled some jackass stunt two weeks ago, and now another Flyer with another jackass stunt. The league has got to send a message of some kind before things get even more out of control. I'm sure John Stevens didn't tell Boulerice to go out there and decapitate Kesler, but I don't know how else to send a message to both the players and the coaches.

What do you think? How many games does the Bull deserve?