Jacobs needs to own up to mess

There was something about watching the Bruins lose Thursday night, something eerily empty and futile and shapeless and unentertaining. A finality, perhaps? Let's hope so.

Only some four hours after general manager Mike O'Connell proclaimed his club still in the playoff hunt -- part of his justification for dealing away Sergei Samsonov at the trading deadline -- the Bruins were all but officially declared dead and buried for the 2005-06 season. Nothing appears capable of saving them now from yet another postseason DNQ.

If true, it will be the third time in six seasons that the Bruins have turned the regular season into their only season. Never has the term ''regular guys" been so pejorative.

Clearly, the time has come for a complete overhaul on Causeway Street, and the responsibility for that now must fall to one man and one man only -- Jeremy Jacobs. If only it were that straightforward and simple.

In repeated interviews with the Globe in recent years, the senior Jacobs, now 31 seasons into his ownership of this once-proud franchise, has made it clear that he will never shoo Harry Sinden out of the president's office. Well, without Sinden gone, the complete changeover so desperately needed on Causeway Street will remain a work in progress that never truly progresses. That's not to view Sinden as a problem, but it is to say now, nearly a decade beyond the club finishing dead last in 1996-97, that he is not part of the solution. Things have grown worse, not better, since that rock-bottom finish.

Delaware North Companies Inc., a private corporation, is indeed a Jacobs family affair. The late Bill Hassett, briefly DNC's man on the job here as the head of the old Garden some 20 years ago, was quick to find out that DNC has only employees, not partners. Just before this past Christmas, Rich Krezwick, the club official who so efficiently ran the building on Causeway Street, also was turfed by Jacobs Co. Inc.

But through it all, Sinden, now 73, has remained in residence, essentially as DNC's hockey partner. Other than disappointment, acute these last 14 years, he has been the one constant in the Jacobs ownership era. He is the owner's firewall, that layer of protection between owning the club and never really having to answer for its failings.

Now it's clear, and painfully so, that no one has the answers. Not Sinden. Not O'Connell. Not Jacobs's son, Charlie, whose growing influence led, in part, to Krezwick's canning. If any of them did have the answers, somewhere, somehow, the Hub of Hockey would have seen them by now.

The senior Jacobs obviously doesn't have any adequate answers either, which explains his allegiance to Sinden over the decades. In times both good and bad, he has deferred to Sinden on all things hockey, and that has been a function of Jacobs relying on his fundamentally sound business instinct. To wit: He has been smart enough to know what he doesn't know, and his true understanding of the game -- hockey the sport vs. hockey the business -- is extremely limited. Whenever he's had a hockey question, he has allowed Sinden to fill in the blank, and until the early '90s, it was a pretty effective way of doing business.

Now, though, the time has come for Jacobs truly to become an owner, someone who, like the rest of us, sees his name -- not Sinden's -- written across the transom window on Causeway Street. He will have no trouble ordering O'Connell's dismissal in the coming weeks, if not sooner, and he'll no doubt leave that job entirely to Sinden.

Longtime Bruins fans, disgusted and more resigned today than they have been since the pre-Orr '60s, wish that Jacobs would go away, too. That exercise is not only folly, but unnecessary. In today's salary-capped NHL, one owner should be considered as good as the next, by a fan's perspective. Payroll funding isn't the same for every team, but it's close enough for fans to look beyond the owner and his wallet when things go bad.

When teams go bad now -- the way the Bruins have gone bad -- the issue is first and foremost about management. It's left for Sinden and O'Connell to answer for the current mess on Causeway. The fix cannot come from within. Remember, Sinden first chose Mike Milbury to be his successor, and that didn't work. Then came O'Connell, added to the front office in the summer of '94, and the results have been nothing short of agonizing.

The decision this time must rest solely with Jacobs, who can take a suggestion from Sinden, perhaps another from his son, and maybe another from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, his pal. But ultimately, only Jacobs can fix it. It's time that the owner finally acts like an owner, a true proprietor, and installs a management team that once and for all moves the franchise, and its loyal fan base, in the right direction.

They could be contenders

No telling how many NHL clubs in the next few weeks will be in search of new management teams. During the lockout, one league source speculated that a half-dozen or more GMs could be knocked off jobs in the first season following the league's return to action.

Officially, only the Islanders, with Mike Milbury prepared to step down, are working their way through résumés and interviews. Former Sharks GM Dean Lombardi, a favorite son of Massachusetts, likely will be on the short list in Uniondale, N.Y.

If Jeremy Jacobs were to solicit opinions around the league about prospective new Bruins GMs, then Lombardi no doubt would get endorsements from old pal Brian Burke, now the Ducks' GM, as well as Bob Pulford in Chicago. Pulford, long one of Harry Sinden's pals, is Lombardi's father-in-law.

A few names to keep in mind:

Jim Nill -- The former Bruin is now in his eighth season as assistant GM in Detroit.

Steve Tambellini -- The former NHL forward shares vice president and GM titles in Vancouver with Dave Nonis, but Nonis, ex- of the University of Maine, carries most of the Canucks' clout.

John Weisbrod -- Once the GM of the Orlando Magic, he's now a scout for the Dallas Stars. From Long Island originally, he played college hockey at Harvard.

Peter Chiarelli -- Onetime Harvard captain, he is now the assistant GM in Ottawa.

Their bloodlines can't be beat

Yan Stastny, reacquired by the Bruins Thursday in the deal that shipped Sergei Samsonov to Edmonton, is the son of Hall of Famer Peter Stastny, the former great Nordiques pivot.

The elder Stastny these days lives in Bratislava, and is a member of the European Union Parliament for Slovakia.

''Yan is a better athlete than I am," the proud father of the newest Boston forward said recently. ''He's a character, he's passionate, and he won't back off."

Yan's younger brother, Paul, is a Colorado draft pick (No. 44 overall in 2005) and is finishing his sophomore year at the University of Denver. According to their father, Paul projects as a natural center, while Yan could end up being better suited to the wing.

Peter and his two brothers, Anton and Marian, helped establish the Nordiques as one of the NHL's most exciting franchises at the start of the 1980s. But it was the slick and intelligent Peter, an Eastern European version of Jean Beliveau, who had by far the most talent of the brothers.

Rarely do the offspring of a Hall of Famer step easily into the old man's skating tracks. ''It's not easy," noted Peter. ''The odds are usually against it happening -- but I let both boys follow their own dreams."

Etc.

If the Olympics gave you the stone-and-broom bug, you'll probably be ecstatic to learn that ex-Bruin Paul Boutilier, a stocky backliner with a torrid slapper, these days is the executive director of the World Curling Tour.

The Oilers would have given up a first-round pick for Andrew Raycroft, had the Bruins been willing to part with the former Rookie of the Year. But with Hannu Toivonen's high-ankle sprain yet to heal completely, the Bruins were reluctant to deal, leading Oilers boss Kevin Lowe to hand the pick to the Wild for ex-UMass-Lowell star Dwayne Roloson. The odd man out: Medford's Mike Morrison, a former University of Maine standout, who was waived by the Oil and claimed by the Senators. ''You're never sure if anyone else in the league, other than your team, knows who you are," said Morrison, tickled to be with the Northeast Division-leading Senators. ''I thought someone might take me -- maybe Vancouver -- but to have it be Ottawa, hey, I'll take it!" Immediately noting that the Senators will be in Boston Thursday, Morrison said he'd like to convince John Muckler, the Senators GM, to give him a start in his hometown.

On Thursday, Bruins general manager Mike O'Connell said he would attempt to get new deals for forward P.J. Axelsson and defenseman Hal Gill, both on course to become unrestricted free agents July 1. Of the two, Axelsson would have had the higher deadline interest around the league, but O'Connell said that Axelsson's injury (knee) was a deterrent to bids. Come July 1, look for the Senators to give the tires a good kick on the hard-working Axelsson. He was a key to Sweden's gold-medal Olympic win at Turin, and often paired on a line with Senators sensation Daniel Alfredsson. His current injury won't help him at the ballot box, but Axelsson should be among the serious contenders for the Selke Award as the game's top defensive forward.

Tim Thomas, one of the very few positive stories for the Bruins this season, recently moved his wife and young children to a Boston suburb, a small but significant piece of stability for the worldwide-wandering Thomases. The journeyman goalie, who will be 32 next month, ended up being the club's most important unrestricted free agent signing of last summer -- all for the bargain price of a $450,000 one-way deal. His agent, Bill Zito, confirmed last week that the sides have had preliminary discussions aimed at extending the former University of Vermont star's stay with Boston. As of July 1, Thomas, who drew no interest around the league when on waivers in January, would be free to sign anywhere.

Rangers superstar Jaromir Jagr got grabbed -- not once, but twice -- for using an illegal stick last week in a game against the Thrashers. First, his extra bit of blade led to a minor penalty in overtime. Ouch. Then, under new rules in vogue post-Olympics, he was caught again prior to the start of the shootout. He was ordered to the bench, ruled out of the shootout, and the Thrashers went on to win the extra point -- with Rangers coach Tom Renney looking none too pleased on the bench. ''What do you think I am, stupid?" Jagr said later, when asked by reporters if he felt the sticks were legal. Indeed, added Jagr, he had measured the sticks himself.

Hurricanes winger Erik Cole, his neck broken when clobbered from behind by ex-Boston College defenseman Brooks Orpik, is allowed some hyperbole. To wit: Cole, upon learning that Orpik was suspended for only three games: ''That's like killing somebody and getting three years in jail." Well, uh, not really. The good news is that doctors expect a full recovery for the 27-year-old Cole, one of USA's bright lights at the Olympics. He fractured his C-7 vertebra, the same fracture that recently led young Islanders forward Kevin Colley to retire. Cole is expected to wear a halo, restricting his neck movement, for at least another 5-6 weeks.

Flyers GM Bob Clarke added some surliness to his back line with last week's acquisition of 6-foot-3-inch Denis Gauthier. ''He'll go after the better players, like [Darius] Kasparaitis does for the Rangers," said Clarke. In fact, Kasparaitis, an equal-opportunity clobberer, drilled the Flyers' Peter Forsberg, prompting Donald Brashear to chase Kasparaitis all over the ice. When the Rangers next meet the Flyers, March 22, Gauthier likely will see ample ice time when Jagr rolls over the boards.

The Canadiens, with Jose Theodore shipped to Denver, have the French-born Cristobal Huet and the Swiss-born David Aebischer protecting their net. It's the first time since 1996-97, when the job was shared by Tomas Vokoun (Czech Republic) and Pat Jablonski (US), that the Habs haven't had a Canadian-born netminder.

Kevin Paul Dupont's e-mail address is dupont@globe.com; material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.