Boston Bruins Blow Game 1 vs Buffalo | Ep. 139

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0:40 Speaker 1: What is that for? Bston? Welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruin's Tape to Tape. I'm your host today, Caroline with a K, and our Boston Bruins road woes continue into the playoffs, where they've lost Game one to the Buffalo Saber after only playing fifty five minutes of a sixty minute game. But before I continue my rant, let's welcome in our guest co host this week, Mary Beth. Welcome in.

1:15 Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me. I was thinking that before the game last night, I was looking forward to it. Now I'm not so sure I know.

1:22 Speaker 1: So the funny part is, as you said before we started recording today, because today is the last day of Maria's fantastic vacation, that I get to play the role of Maria today and you get to be the optimistic, nice one. So this would be a fun change of pace for both of us. Certainly, somebody's got to.

1:40 Speaker 2: Play the role of Maria. She is well missed this morning.

1:43 Speaker 1: Yes, and I'm going to do my best. But before we get even further into that nonsense, let's a little quick tour around the rink. Playoffs have started, obviously, since we last chatted, we've already had almost every single series kickoff. We have just one more series that has yet to have a game won. So today we are recording on Monday, April twentieth, and the Boilers and the Ducks are the last ones to actually start the playoffs this evening at ten pm Eastern. But everybody else has already gotten their feet wet.

2:17 Speaker 1: The excitement of the first day of the high Holidays has happened. We've also had our first overtime for those new hockey fans. That is their baptism, so to speak. So what a wonderful experience for all those new folks joining us and joining the hockey community. And of course it's no surprise that first overtime happened in the East, So Marybeth, any surprises thus far. I'm checking my chart. The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Habs played. That was our overtime game. That game.

2:52 Speaker 2: Actually, that was a little bit of a surprise, I'll tell you. And this pains me to say it. I am a Boston fan, or let's be clear, but I'm also a huge hockey fan, and there is a part of me that's just routin for Montreal, that younger Habs team. They haven't had success, their tails off this year, and quite frankly, because of recency bias, I hate the Lightning a little more than the Canadians. Ring from my soul. We don't love the Canadians here in Bossy.

3:22 Speaker 1: We had a great conversation in our discord yesterday because we've been watching all of the gates, A great hockey conversation if you want to join us, But we had this whole conversation, where is there ever a time when a Boston Bruins fan, or vice versa, if you're a Habs fan. Because I had this conversation on threads with some folks too, is it ever acceptable to root for the Habs? And we've decided that there is one circumstance and one circumstance only, and that is when there is the possibility that the two teams could meet in a playoff round.

3:58 Speaker 1: So here's this is it's the one exception. And we've said this on our podcast many times. We are also hockey fans, and it's just good for business when the Bruins' traditional rivals do really well. The Leafs have been that villain for probably the last what twenty five years, and it's now Montreal's turn. And to your point, this is a young team. They've been working towards this for a number of seasons. Last year, I believe it was the first time they've made it into the playoffs with this new core, with this retooling, rebuild, whatever it is that they're calling it.

4:38 Speaker 1: They squeaked in last year. This year they came in with a much firmer hold on the situation and I think that they are going to be a harder out. But also they're playing a team from Florida, and screw Tampa. That's what it boils down to.

4:54 Speaker 2: We do not want a team from Florida to continue to advance. That's where we love. Florida is the achilles of the Bruins. Both teams, both Tampa and Florida Panthers, just have our number. And so if we can get them knocked out, then I can happily root for Montreal because I'd like to knock out Tampa Yeah.

5:12 Speaker 3: Yeah.

5:12 Speaker 1: Look, Also, as a hockey fan, my fear is that this season playoffs result in a Stanley Cup Final that is again a copy paste of twenty twenty two. Now, I know you would not be too mad about that because Colorado's your West Coast team. However, considering the last five years, there hasn't been that much diversity in who is making it to that final. And I am tired. I am bored of a Florida team in the Stanley Cup final because you had Florida Panthers for the last three years, and then prior to that you had Tampa Bay for three years.

5:53 Speaker 1: So little bit over it and I don't want to see the same matchups anymore. I don't. I'm sorry, Edmonton, I want to see you in the Cup final. I can't. I don't want to see Colorado versus Tampa Bay. If Colorado makes it, fine, but please God, then don't let it be Tampa.

6:09 Speaker 2: Now I have to agree with you. Now, I still am okay with seeing Edmonton in the finals. As we know, they're my third team, but I would prefer Colorado over that. I do also think just from a business perspective, it's better for the sport if we're spreading out the wealth, if we've got more fan base auged, if we've got more teams doing great things. I think a lot of people get bored seeing the same teams over and over making it to the finals. It is interesting, in this world of the salary cap, with so much parody around the league, that the same teams keep making it.

6:42 Speaker 2: I find that fascinating on a whole bunch of levels, just again as a hockey observer, as somebody who is a fan of the sport in general. Yeah, I just find that really interesting.

6:52 Speaker 1: And I will say the one thing I will give Tampa they're fans over Florida Panthers, is and I've been to a gain in Tampa. They are better hockey fans. It's I don't know if it's just because it's more well established, I don't know what it is, but at least they've got a better fan base. They actually go to the games. But that being said, that's just the first game. We also had a Carolina Ottawa kickoff for the series. I think that there was no surprise in regard to the outcome of that. I was a little surprised that it was a shutout Carolina one to nothing.

7:25 Speaker 1: They completely obliterated Ottawa with shots, because that's their mow. The Ottawa also is a team that this is their second year getting in after attempting to come back actually build on anything. That's the interesting thing actually about this particular playoff season. When looking at both sides of the bracket, you have obviously Buffalo, first time in a long time, so they're new this year to the bracket. Pittsburgh is new this year to the bracket, first time in three years. I don't think Philadelphia was in left last year, so they're new this year.

8:02 Speaker 1: But then you also have Boston is new this year, Montreal and Ottawa are this is only their second time, so you really only have Tampa and Carolina as repeats from last year, which I think, again great for business and it's a similar thing out west Pittsburgh Philly game. Did you catch this game?

8:22 Speaker 2: Oh? I sure did, Yeah you did. I pretty much watch as much as I can every playoff game, absolutely coasting time of year. I actually, for those of you who followed my socials you've seen my posts. I think NHL put it out, but it was a picture of the Stanley Cup. Do you have plans this weekend? I have plans until June.

8:40 Speaker 1: I'm busy every night till the Cup final because they're every night.

8:46 Speaker 2: Now. For people who followed me my origin story, it started with the Flyers. It started in the seventies when the Flyers were winning the Stanley Cup. That's my hockey origin story. So there's a part of me that really roots for the Flyers, low key under around there, but I think there's this other part of me that always roots for Sid. So do you not now? Again, my Philly people, I get it, they're not rooting for Sid, but I just the guy deserves another cup. I wouldn't be sad if he got another Cup.

9:14 Speaker 2: I would because it would be at our peril. But also I root for Sid. I think that he has carried that team on his back. I think the fact that they made the playoffs is amazing. But you watch that game and geez, Louise, how could you not root for the Flyers In that game? They came out with so much energy and so much enthusiasm and they were just amazing to watch. You know that. Now. That is the kind of a game that you can just watch as a hockey fan and enjoy the game. Because I don't really have a dog in the fight.

9:45 Speaker 2: I will always find something to like on almost every team.

9:50 Speaker 1: It's great to watch a game like that. Again, we were joking I think last night where really, oh, I forgot this is how it feels to be stressed out during this time of year, because last year was the first time in a long time that all of us are just watching all the hockey and enjoying it and like, huh, this is not stressful at all, but watching That's one of the wonderful parts about what I like to call the high Holy Days of hockey, because you can consume so much hockey, and if your team is in it, you're not going to be stressed by every single game that you watch.

10:19 Speaker 1: Because for me, if I had more free time during this regular season, I would watch more other games. I have a pretty busy life schedule. I am just barely able to watch the eighty two games that the Bruins play, so I can't take on more. But this is like the time of year where I get to watch all the hockey and you get to really appreciate just how fun the sport is, especially when you've got rivals playing like the Pennsylvania teams. I will say my one observation because I try to stay generally informed, but again without actually watching these games, sometimes you just don't know how a team plays in real life outside of when they play Ruins.

11:00 Speaker 1: But I think this Pittsburgh team, they're obviously very elite. They've got some young blood in there, but they're really being driven by their core. Unfortunately, their core is older, and compared to Philadelphia, they are a lot younger and just have that special something that you see with these really young, quote unquote kid teams like you see with San Jose or you see with Anaheim. You see it in Philadelphia. So I don't like you. I don't have a dog in the fight. I don't know who I'm rooting for.

11:32 Speaker 1: I love SID, but I think Philadelphia is really fun to watch. They've got Porter Martone. He literally has played nine regular season games, b had ten points already, which blew my mind. When I saw that stat and to watch him play, I literally said out loud as I'm watching, Oh my god, what did I just see as a star?

11:54 Speaker 2: What not even a star in the making. That kid is a star. And that was the debate with this particular was is it going to be this experience of the Penguins against this inexperience of the Flyers, And how's that going to win out? For the first game. Anyway, it's always going to be goaltending. It's the Stanley Cup. The Stanley Cup is all based on goaltending. Without a good goaltender, you're out goltly Do Skinner.

12:19 Speaker 1: If Pittsburgh had a good goalie, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a deep run. I could not imagine them going super far with Skinner, But then again, I don't know.

12:27 Speaker 2: He did it within but in the finals last Cup, but they couldn't ever win with him. No, I agree, And I do think from watching that first game we could see that, Yeah, the Flyers have inexperienced players, but their play is aggressive, they follow through on stuff, and I think as you're watching that they were organized and thoughtful in the way they were playing. And I think that's what people thought. We weren't going to see. We're going to see a little more scattered, and we didn't see that.

12:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a fun game to watch out West again. I missed the Vegas and Utah game, although I believe I saw a fantastic little clip that they scored on their own goal of the day, you deserve her to her. And then the Dallas in Minnesota game I did watch that. That was shocking and a little embarrassing, I have to say, very surprising.

13:20 Speaker 2: That was one of the games I thought was going to be one of the series that I thought was going to be fairly well matched. I saw we were going to be seeing a little bit more back and forth there, a little bit more of either team could take this, and that is not at all what we saw.

13:35 Speaker 1: No, they do seem to struggle with stopping the rush in the neutral zone, and I was reminded of that fact when the Bruins played Dallas not too long ago. Boston did a fantastic job of taking over that game. But the time, I think we all thought that's just because Dallas was already in the playoffs. How hard were they really trying? But then I was listening to someone talking about the preview and they talked about how Boston has this ability to really control the neutral zone and then have these good zone entries and that's exactly how they beat Dallas, because Dallas clearly struggles with that, and I didn't realize at the time when Boston beat them, that was apparently their achilles heel, and holy cow, is their achilles heel because six to one is a crazy first of all six goals in a playoff game, that's a really high numbering team.

14:30 Speaker 2: That's yeah, that's beyond embarrassing. By the time you get to the play.

14:34 Speaker 1: And then the goal differential being a five goal spread, you're going to be seeing a lot more one goal two goal games, and that's exactly what we've been seeing. Carolina was a two goal game. I think was Pittsburgh. No, Pittsburgh was a one goal game, right, that game was a one goal game. The Tampa game one goal game, Boston one goal game, Colorado, La was a one goal game. I think it was a two goal game for Vegas, Like this is what is normal. And I will be very curious to watch that game because I want to see how they respond, because I think that there was a lot of criticism over the fact that he didn't pull Outter and it brought up this whole conversation online about this is what happened last year, and I kind of jokingly said online, of course the new coach, he's not gonna pull Ottinger because Dubor did it and he got fired for like I said it a little tongue in cheek.

15:22 Speaker 1: But now you're nerve right now, you're watching this and you're like, wait a minute, is that really a thing where people aren't gonna pull otter because he should have been.

15:33 Speaker 2: Pull should have been pulled. He is a little inconsistent, quite frankly, and he's on. He is on man. I was at the Colorado Stars game a couple of weeks ago, and my gosh, it was like poetry on ice. He was so good that game. That was not what we saw the other night. And the thing was it not only should it have been closer just in general, but like the Stars were pretty significantly ahead of the wildman standings. It was only there were two and three, but one hundred and twelve points compared to four points.

16:00 Speaker 2: That's a pretty big difference. Is so the fact that they basically got creamed yet pull the goalie, and.

16:07 Speaker 1: This is again an outsider's perspective, they did not come prepared to play in the playoffs. I think that is an excellent example for new folks, especially when we say, after eighty two games, you throw away all of your knowledge of how that season went. To Sea playoffs day one game, one whole new ball game, it'd be a completely different situation. They play it differently, they approach it differently. A lot of players prepare differently. So to see a team that both teams Minnesota and Dallas have a good balance of veteran players who have been in the situation before in the very recent past, and to watch a team like the Dallas Stars, they didn't choke, They just were completely unprepared.

16:57 Speaker 2: They show up.

16:59 Speaker 1: They didn't.

17:01 Speaker 2: We'll get home later from last night, but they just really no. I think they weren't prepared. They didn't show up to play the playoffs. And this is why though the playoffs are so much fun. Yes, people say it all the time. Anything can happen in Stanley Cup playoffs. This is an example of it.

17:18 Speaker 3: Now.

17:18 Speaker 2: I will be interested to see how they come back. I can't even imagine their practice the next few days, but I think that how they respond is going to tell us a whole lot about how this series is going to go.

17:30 Speaker 1: Agree both the players and the coaching staff, because while we don't tend to think about the coaching staff all that much during the season, we don't really necessarily think about their decision making as part of the play on the ice, at least I don't. They're kind of background. They become part of the competition that you see out on the ice when it comes to the playoffs because their decisions have a pretty direct impact act on what's happening, and when you are playing best of seven, there is very little room for error.

18:06 Speaker 1: You can't just say, all right, that's something we'll work on for the next game. You can't approach it that way. And so let's just dive into the circus that was the game one of.

18:18 Speaker 2: We have to.

18:20 Speaker 1: I gotta get it off my chest because I have no one else to yell at about this. But let's first talk about the coaching And I've had a few hours now to digest the game, to bring my anger levels down and think about what I watched last night, And I gotta say, and who knows is this Storm's style? Is this his inexperience being the head coach of an NHL team in the playoffs? I don't know what it is? But there was a moment last night where as we like to say, it was a level one wheels falling off. Okay, it was the jiff of the wheels are just wobbly on that wag.

18:59 Speaker 1: Yes, so the level one situation where I believe it was either either Buffalo had scored their first goal or they had scored their second. They were pretty close together, because again, like I said, the Bruins played fifty five minutes of decent hockey and then by our favorite final five, they just were like what is hockey? They should have called a timeout, if not to regroup in the moment, at least to use it as a strategy to bring the stress levels down of the situation. You can use it strategically.

19:36 Speaker 1: And he didn't, And I was a little bit surprised, And I can't tell you if it would have made a difference. But what else do you have? What else do you have to lose? If you're going to lose, you're going to lose. Call the time out, regroup, figure out what's happening. Because all of a sudden, Boston, they had zero control over the game. And this is a team that has been slowly irritating me more and more in the we know that the Boston Bruins have struggled offensively since the break, at least cannot rely on them to score goals when they need to score goals.

20:12 Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who, whether it's your top line or your depth lines, nobody seems to be able to take advantage of opportunities or just make things happen. Some of it is bad puck luck. Right last night, open net, broken stick.

20:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's puck luck.

20:29 Speaker 1: That's hockey gods, they hate us all. But you cannot. While we say that you have to have good goaltending, you have to have good goaltending who go deep into the playoffs, you also still have to score more goals.

20:41 Speaker 2: The whole point of the game, just in case anybody is listening, is to score more goals than the other team. That's how you win hockey. That is not what we saw last night. Consistently, this team has been inconsistent from day one at the beginning of the season. They've been streaky, and this is to a play We are consistently inconsistent. So I think that what we saw last night was really an embodiment of that inconsistency. We were really on it for fifty to fifty five minutes somewhere in there, and suddenly we were not.

21:14 Speaker 2: We had some good stuff from our big guys I received. We saw the goals from the people that we wanted to see goals from. Yes, but we also saw some big turnovers from those same kinds of players. That Macvoid turnover, My god, that changed the course of the game. And I to your point, having a time out, having a minute, having a break. I feel like this a lot at the end of a period that's not going well. Thank god, this period's over. We're going to go in the locker room. They're going to take a break, they'll come out, and sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't.

21:45 Speaker 2: But you take a beat, Yes, would it make a difference, Maybe not. But they didn't get a chance to catch their breath, to regroup and to put a stop to the momentum on the sabers. Either way, that's what that timeout is for, and we didn't get it. Yes.

22:00 Speaker 1: What I will say that the Bruins did really well was, first of all, they had a fantastic first period. They came in, they were cool, calm, collected, Geeky did his thing. Thank god he is back. Just for his own sake, if not our own. They clearly were the team dictating the pace of play. It was a good physical game. They had a good first period. Second period, as we expected, was the bumpy ride. They held on defensively. If it were not for Jeremy Swayman, they would have been probably more embarrassed than the Dallas Stars were in their skin.

22:37 Speaker 1: Their defense was okay, their goaltending was spectacular, and their offense was mediocre at best. They had barely any offensive z own time in that second period. They really struggled to get in and maintain, but they held on and for me, the game. The very first goal that Buffalo scored. I'm not saying this necessarily as an insult. They only scored that first goal on a broken play by sheer luck. Like you want to talk about puck luck. That was a puck luck goal because that situation, and for those of you who don't remember, this was a situation where for some unknown reason, our two defencemen were below the goal line, and it reminded me so much of the first time that the Bruins played the Ducks in the fall.

23:27 Speaker 1: You know what, let me actually go back and play this little clip from Maria from a snapshot back in October from that Anaheim game, Because I think you're all going to be a little bit shocked at just how applicable what she said in October applies to what we saw last night. Take a look.

23:45 Speaker 3: The Bruins lost against a team that they should be able to be. Stop me if you've heard that already. Thursday night's game was an embarrassment. Cam Neely needs to take this so called vaunted defensive structure where he thought that this team would be so difficult to play against, and light it on freaking fire, because at this point, what I see is I see defenceman and forwards who look lost in our own end. And when I tell you lost, they don't seem to have a clue who is supposed to be doing what, which might leave our goaltenders wondering what the hell is going on here?

24:27 Speaker 3: Is someone going to play the man? Is someone going to take care of the puck, make a play on the puck. It seems to me I'm not sure where this team goes from here. I'm sorry, that is excusable, in my view, excusable. And the so called leaders on this team, and I'm talking about Charlie McAvoy and David Pasternat and ever else in that locker room thinks that they're a leader, they had better start playing like leaders. There's lots of blame pie to go around.

25:00 Speaker 1: I see forwards who are unwilling to backcheck and to make a play in their own end. Both Chucky and Lori were below the goal line.

25:12 Speaker 2: Mm hmm, I remember that now.

25:14 Speaker 1: That should never happen. That should never happen. This is the second time, I'm sure. Look, I don't know if it was actually the second time, but this is a second time that I remember distinctly. That also involves Charlie McAvoy, So I don't know. Maybe that first time wasn't the Lowris problem. Maybe the issue was Charlie McAvoy, but it wasn't even just the Chucky, And in this case it was asked Broro, we're both below the goal line, which again big no no. What also pissed me off was that our forwards were then also not taking over in a defensive position.

25:50 Speaker 1: I'm assuming, based on the two wingers who were out there, that Zaka must have been the center that was out there, but maybe he wasn't because of ship change. But Arvidson was at the bottom of a circle. Middlestat was at the bottom of the other circle. Now again, when we're talking about hockey logistics and plays and where positions are supposed to be, obviously your wingers you want them a little higher up because if the puck squirts out, they continue to go fine. That is then the role of the center to play.

26:18 Speaker 1: That's why it's important that a center can play to a two hundred foot game. It means he is both an offensive position and a defensive position. I remember watching that replay over and over again and the fact that I knew where the two defencemen were and the two wings were, and I cannot tell you I have no idea who the center was out there, where he even was. But if your two defencemen stupidly go below the goal line, your centerman then needs to take over the position of the defenceman and be in front, clear in traffic, watching the back door.

26:48 Speaker 1: Instead, all I saw was Victor Arvidson standing there, and then I saw Middlestack come into the frame. Why was Arbitson just standing there? Where was the center?

27:00 Speaker 2: And my problem with this team for the whole season is we do not seem to know what our positions are and where we should be on the ice. Based on that position, you're seeing one guy either end by himself, like no player unless they're on a breakaway, should ever be by themselves. There's five players, you're generally paired up with at least one other person. You want to spread out a little depending on what the other team is doing. But as a rule, you've got a place on the ice that you are supposed to be, and if you are in that place, then people can find you, people can pass you, you can make a play, you become that playmaker depending again on your position, or you are in the position to stop any other plays from happening.

27:47 Speaker 2: Again, we're not seeing that. We're seeing a lot of people floating around by themselves, or we're seeing people standing there waiting for something to happen. Now, if he was in the place that is going to allow him to be part of the play, great, But he wasn't, which Arvidson, when you're talking about Aran just staying there, he wasn't in position for something else to happen. You sometimes are in position right in front of the goal. Great, then you know what stay there because somebody will bring you and feed you the pup.

28:19 Speaker 2: That's not where he was, That's not the position he was in because the puck was not in a place to get to him.

28:26 Speaker 1: Look, obviously, there's a lot happening and in that kind of play, in that situation that led to Buffalo's first goal. That was we call it a broken play because it all of a sudden became a chaotic moment that there was no set play. There's no like you get into a formation and you do X, Y and Z no. In that moment, it is a mad scramble and there's a lot going on. But again, it just drives me bonkers that in a moment of chaos where the heck was the center. I'm gonna have to go watch that again because now it's going to bother me.

28:55 Speaker 1: But to just be standing there and waiting for what this is where I'm still learning and trying to understand exactly the system at Sturm is all about, because it is very different from what we have seen Boston Hockey b for the last decade. I don't know, was he doing what he was supposed to be doing and that was just a bad coaching decision. I don't know, but I can tell you that people not being where they needed to be obviously, is the reason why that goal went in. Not because Swayman was necessarily beat in the moment.

29:26 Speaker 1: He did not receive the support during that play he should have received. Now, I will say Buffalo's second goal one hundred percent got beat. But you know what, what particularly pissed me off about this game is the fact that it felt like the Bruins players forward skaters were just hanging on and hoping to what beat out the clock because Swayman was having such a good game.

29:57 Speaker 2: That's exactly what we did. We didn't play to win. We played not to lose once we had those two goals in the end, for those first two goals, we were playing to win. Yes, we came out with aggressiveness, We came out with some fira belly. They played well, yeah, and they were playing to win once we had those then they started playing not to lose, and that is not a winning formula.

30:19 Speaker 1: Quite frankly, no, especially if you consider the fact that Jeremy Swiman faced thirty eight shots. Thirty eight shots. Now, I didn't look at the breakdown of when these shots occurred. I believe majority of them happened in the second period, which was again the holding on for dear life period. Fine, if we're going to have one period of the three, that's got to be a hold on for dear life, and a defense can play their position correctly, that forwards can back check. That was another thing, the backcheck.

30:49 Speaker 1: It did not feel like they were backchecking until the final two minutes. Yeah, once Buffalo took the lead and got that third goal. Only then did I feel like Boston was hustling back to back check.

31:07 Speaker 2: Only then.

31:08 Speaker 1: Now, the start of the game was very fast. I thought the pace of play was very good. I think that was again just game one. Period one, everyone's high on life. Second period, both teams really settled in. It became more of an even keeled play. Third period again Boston fantastic start, did exactly what we want to see. To your point, you go, you have the break, you come out and hoh Linholm fantastic. Then they were just all right, we gotta hold on. We don't need to add. We just need to hold on because Swayman's got our back.

31:42 Speaker 1: But you didn't have Swayman's back because you only had twenty shots on goal. To thirty eight. You cannot expect a goaltender to carry a team to a win when he faces thirty eight shots because his physical mental state after three hours of that.

32:05 Speaker 2: Now, the difference would be if we were also peppering on the other end, correct, because now both goaltenders are equally worn out. But that's not what happened. UPL was down there by himself for a majority of the game. We didn't have a lot of ozone, and then when our defense collapsed, that was the end of us.

32:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the other thing that's really frustrating about watching UPL play is, Look, I'm not meaning to insult any of these I actually personally like that player. I think he's he entertains me. But I think he's benefited from a team in front of him that can be very aggressive. And again, the key for Boston to beating the Buffalo Sabers is to maintain their control of the neutral zone and shut things down. It's almost not a trap system. It's trap's cousin neutral zone control. I don't know what's called.

33:01 Speaker 1: But so if you are a goalie who has this team out front that's playing really aggressively, you're going to have a better season, and the goals save above expected for UPL was still ten ten and a half. He was still a decent goalie finishing what with save percentage and nine oh nine and goals against the average of two point five two. But if you've got a team in front of you that's super aggressive and they're able to go and score and stay at the other end like we saw in the second period in Boston, and he's not then seeing a lot of traffic, yeah, it's going to make him look like he's better than I think he actually is.

33:37 Speaker 2: When you look at these two teams side by side, advantage goalie goes to the Bruins, advantage team goes to the Sabers. That's just how it is, and we saw that last night quite frankly, So we can't put all of this weight on Swaymen. We just can't. He cannot carry us all the way to a Stanley Cup. We need him to at least carry us through this. And if they collapse with the defense like they did last night, Swayman can't carry that and he shouldn't quite frankly, that's too much for anyone to bear.

34:09 Speaker 1: No, Jeremy Swayman did not lose that game.

34:13 Speaker 2: The thing is, but you get peppered with thirty eight shots on goal, you can only stup so many of the law of average just says, I don't care who you are, those are good to goin. When upl is peppered with twenty throughout, then you know what. Guess what, he's gonna be able to stop more of them. He's got more juice in his tank. Still, That's what it boils down to exactly.

34:33 Speaker 1: The in game gut check is the shots on goal, and that can tell me pretty quickly what team is present. And since the beginning of April, the last time the Boston Bruins had a game where they were even remotely close to thirty shots on goal was April second against the Florida Panthers. Since then, it has been closer to twenty every game, and you're not going to win like that. You can only win with twenty shots on goal. If the other team is also only shooting and getting twenty shots on.

35:07 Speaker 2: Goal, right, you got to keep those closer. And I will tell you, I don't remember exactly how it played out, but they were ahead of us shots on goal basically the entire game. And it's surprising for a while that we were winning because they really were that far ahead of us shots on goals. So eventually that just catches up. That's what it is does.

35:25 Speaker 1: Okay, two questions. Then I got two more questions for you. I want to get your take on James Hagen's in his first game, because this is a kid who has played two games with Boston right too, He got two in and it seems like he is on this ramping up fast track. Granted, all the college kids who signed after their seasons had ended, they all had short turnaround times to sign and play and whatever, but he probably has the least amount of nh EX experience at this point of all the new kids. And then so he went from D one Hockey, then a couple days AHL, and then a couple days NHL, and then a couple of days and now he's now he's.

36:06 Speaker 2: In the puff.

36:06 Speaker 1: What did you think of him last night? I have a thought, but I want to hear from you because you are our doctor of devs, so I want to hear your take on him, and now he did so overall.

36:16 Speaker 2: I'm really impressed with how well he's doing since he came up. And again, is he set in the world on fire. Yet he is not. But here's the thing is, he took a couple of days down in Providence, a few games down there. He needed that transition. He's going, and Swingey said it, going from playing with boys to playing with men. He sees he's still a little nineteen year old. I joke about the baby sharks. They are still the baby sharks. They're great, but when you look at them, they are still young men.

36:42 Speaker 2: They were developing. So with Hagens, I was there for his first professional game and he's nineteen. But that kid is where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be there. And again, did he set the ahl on fire? No, not necessarily in his few games, but you could see his hockey sense. You could see him being where he was meant to be. He's got his head up. He's guys, I'm right here, I'm open. Why aren't you giving me the puck. He's going to be a playmaker and he is somebody who because he is in the right spot he can receive the puck, but he can also get the puck to where it needs to go.

37:16 Speaker 2: Is a natural center, but he's been playing the wing, so I think future casting, I'm guessing he's going to be our one see Fraser is going to be our two c that's my future cast. No, we're going to see when that happens, but I think that's where he's going to end up getting set up. Now, did we see a whole lot from him last night? That was impressive? Not necessarily that line didn't give us a whole lot last night. I don't know what we're going to call them, but they're basically the young Kid's line that twenty one is the oldest person on would be on that line, and I think that's amazing.

37:46 Speaker 2: So what I did see for him is he kept us cool. He was in his positions, He was not intimidated by his first playoff game, and that to me speaks volumes for what we're going to see from him, So that I'm really liking from him. He's fast and a big thing. We saw last night the Bruins not fast overall, and we've known this Sabers faster than we are, So now we're seeing Higgins can beat people to the park, he can get there. I think we're going to see some good things. I think he's got his first game under his belt.

38:14 Speaker 2: I'm feeling this about the whole team. We got that first game under our belt. They generally come back pretty strong after a big loss. So I'm feeling okay about our upcoming game. But I think particularly for him, he's okay, I did this, I can do this, and I think moving forward, we're going to see some good things from him in this series.

38:31 Speaker 1: I was very curious to see how the Bruins would manage him because during the regular season, I'll use Matthew Schaeffer as an example, for the first half of the season, the Islanders really tried to protect him and make sure he was in a good place before they really started to let him go on his own and be a little more independent and not expose him, but let him then play like the big boys. There is obviously zero time for any kind of gradual entry into the true truth of what NHL play is, and so I was a little bit surprised that he drew in first of all, just because he is so green.

39:10 Speaker 1: He's so green, I thought I wouldn't have been surprised if they said watch the first game. Just be in the building for the first game, because Freezer Mitten. This is his first time Husnadinov. Those are Higgins peers, right, but they've also played a whole year. They know what to expect generally from the other team. They played this team before. And then I was also still expecting him to not really get a ton of playing time. And actually in our game day chat someone had said, hey, has anyone seen Higgins for a while or it was after the first goal that Buffalo had scored, and so because I hadn't really seen him or heard his name, I thought, oh, they're shortening the bench, We're not going to see him again.

39:51 Speaker 1: And then sure enough, literally two seconds later, not only did I see him on the screen, but he had one of the best chances of the night. He didn't actually to get a shot on goal, but he had a shot attempt. So I was like, oh, there he is. And then just looking at his time on ice, eleven minutes, so that's legit fourth line minutes, a little bit more somewhere in between third and fourth line minutes. And I'm a little bit surprised, only because I guess maybe again comes down to the coaching and I'm not saying that it was a bad coaching decision to put him out there.

40:26 Speaker 1: He didn't do anything that would have warranted a stapling of his butt to the bench. Oh, but looking at the spread of time on ice across all the players, it was pretty even and predictable based on their position, both literal position defense, forward and position in the lineup. And so I also wonder if why then didn't Stirm at some point shorten the bench. So I think there's a.

40:54 Speaker 2: Couple of reasons for that, particularly for Higgins. When we're looking at Higgins, his season is going to be short. We don't have eighty two games like with Schaeffer. If he hadn't played this season and he comes in next season fresh, I think there's more protection that goes on. We've got eighty two games, Let's bring him and gradually let's protect him a little more. They did that a little bit with Badard, So I think because the minute that they brought Hagens up from Providence, I figured that they have decided they are playing him.

41:23 Speaker 2: And so once they did that, if they really wanted to protect him, they would have kept him in Providence at this point because he had the opportunity of three games. He only played in two and then it was going to be playoffs.

41:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, and the other thing that I thought that was a bit of a surprise, besides Stirm not shortening the bench, which again I'm always of two minds when it comes to that particular strategy. You do it when you have your guys who you knew are going to get the job done. And maybe he didn't because maybe he saw the writing on the wall. Because David Pasternach, every chance he had he could not score, something was not right, whether it was a stretch pass that.

41:58 Speaker 2: He just ran out of sleep playoff Pasternach.

42:02 Speaker 1: I know, And yet somehow he's still got three points. Like, I don't understand how I can watch this game and be so disappointed in David Pasternach. But then I look at the stats and I'm like, oh, no, he actually did have a good It's just different pasta. I'm not used to this pasta. This is Tortellini, and I'm used to begin right right.

42:18 Speaker 2: Yeah.

42:19 Speaker 1: You so interesting to see if Sturm stays the course or if he does anything different. I just wonder if he's going to manage his bench a little bit differently in this next game, because I do think, and I'm assuming we're in agreement that Boston has to leave Buffalo with a split series. They have to because of just how bad they've been on the road. If they have any shot of getting out of this round, they have to. I can win a game on the road. I can't just rely on home gave.

42:49 Speaker 2: We need sixty minutes of play, We need a win. I think that obviously, just in general, you need to win. But I think also from a emotional standpoint, looking out with two losses, even coming back home with you're going to play better and do better. You just can't recover from that.

43:07 Speaker 1: No, and you can't go into the next game for any team. This isn't just for the Boston Bruins. You can't go into any game thinking you have the breathing room, the time and space, because you shouldn't be making the assumption that you have seven games. You should go into every game assuming that that is the last game. You have to assume that's the last game.

43:30 Speaker 2: Now you go in expecting a four game series. Now at this point expect five game series.

43:36 Speaker 1: And Boston, like you said, they just didn't treat that game like it was an elimination game. My last question then, is what do you want to see different in the next game? Besides the obvious win, four more goals i'd like to see. Finally thought of that I could work for you, and there's a couple of things i'd like to see. One of the things I'd like to see is I'd like to see more consistency in sixty minutes of play. But I think where that starts is with our defense. Our offense needed to be better, but we lost because of defensive collapse.

44:13 Speaker 1: I think that goes on both sides.

44:15 Speaker 2: I think we need our defense to be stronger, but I think we also need to have our offensive lines backing up our defense, and we didn't see that. So for me, that's the biggest thing that I want to see. I want to see more play from all four lines throughout the season. We've been seeing that different lines seem to get hot at different times, and again that's just hockey, but I would like to see a little bit more production from the other three lines and not just the top line. It's interesting, though, because we have not been able to count on our top line all the time in past years.

44:49 Speaker 2: You've been able to say, yeah, we'll throw out the perfection line and something's going to happen. I really want to see some new dad strength. We have two new dads. I did not see any evidence of that. Normally, you have a baby, you score a goal, that's just the way it goes. We did not see that. We actually saw the.

45:07 Speaker 1: The opposite that second line, which has arguably been the best line for the Bruins, or very long stretch, to use Maria's go to statistic, they were a minus three, so they were on the ice for all of the goals. For me, here's a couple of things then, that I'm going to be looking for in areas of improvement that might give me some hope because this is maybe a little bit more nitty gritty, This is a little deeper dive. One thing that Boston did relatively well that I know they can be better in face off percentage.

45:40 Speaker 1: So in the last game Boston won face offs fifty point eight percent to Buffalo's forty nine point two. We've got some really excellent face off centers. They did a fine job. I want to see just a tiny bit more, so I'm going to be keeping track of that stat to see how the game is progressing. I thought one thing that I was worried about at a certain point point was the penalties situation because it was getting a little feisty. There were a couple of the stupid penalties that we have railed on all season, those stick infractions that are a result of lazy back checking.

46:15 Speaker 1: David Pasternach. I'm open with there being penalties in a game when they are game appropriate, right. Sean Corally loved his game last night, loved his response to what was happening on the fantastic worth It David Pasternach with the reach, dude, No, so I don't want to see any of those. Is that going to change? Probably not, because that's how they've been all season. The other thing that I want to see. The game started off really physical in an even way, but I was surprised. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised to see that.

46:45 Speaker 1: Ultimately, the Sabers just annihilated Boston. When it comes to the hits, it was fifty three Saber hits to thirty eight.

46:55 Speaker 2: But yeah, that was actually a really surprising stat I saw that too.

46:58 Speaker 1: But then you look at the time on ice and your guys who are basically designated tough guys whatever the modern equivalent is of that enforcer Tanner Janea. He played eight twenty one. Mark Castilik played ten to fifty one. Now, granted they both had a few moments during the game where they were very noticeable in that regard, but what are we doing here?

47:20 Speaker 3: Right?

47:21 Speaker 1: Nikita Zadorov was a much more effective hitter, and that's not surprising because of the man's but we need him to be focusing on the defensive aspect of the game, and like we have Castle in Janeau for a reason, So what's going on there? The blocked shots? I'm of the ilk that you only have a lot of block shots if you're not playing well defensively, and so having a lot of block shots isn't really a stat that you want to have a high number of.

47:51 Speaker 2: You're going to be stopping before we get that because and if you're throw in your body, then you're not on your feet to get it out of the zone.

47:59 Speaker 1: That's the idea. So I want to see maybe fewer of those, but not at the expense of then allowing more shots on goals. So I don't really know what the answer is there. So those are kind of my big things, and better zone entry and taking control of the pace of play right away. I want to see a little bit more balanced to play in that regard. But some of these things I think they more control over, and some of these things they don't. At the end of the.

48:24 Speaker 2: Day, we can beat UPL. They're going to keep him in. We can beat him and we should.

48:29 Speaker 1: Yes, I just got a pepper and more shots on goal. Buck somebodies to the net, as Brick likes to say, we need to fuck somebodies to the net.

48:35 Speaker 2: I want to end on a hopeful note, which is we weren't even supposed to be here at the beginning of the season.

48:41 Speaker 1: True.

48:41 Speaker 2: Now, I said we would just more records somewhere, you and me both, But as a rule, we weren't necessarily supposed to be here. Buffalo wasn't supposed to be this good. Lots of things have changed here. Buffalo is number one in the division. We're a wild card. So the fact is we're coming in behind the eight ball. Some might say we're playing with house money. I don't think so, because we had one hundred point season. I think we still deserve to be here. I think we've shown again and again that we deserve to be here, even though some people say, oh, we barely got in.

49:10 Speaker 2: Nope, we got in solidly as a wild card. Yes, I do think that the fact that we're here though, based on the beginning season, based on where we're supposed to be, Hey, that's pretty good. But now that we're here, it's going to make me very sad if we don't get it out of this round and all of those things I think are the place where we all are right now.

49:28 Speaker 1: Yes, if they can just organize their chaos a little bit better like they were engaged, this team has what it takes to have a respectable playoff presence.

49:42 Speaker 2: Yes, there we go.

49:42 Speaker 1: I'm that's all we asked for, That's all we're asking for. Yeah, thank you again, Mary Beth for joining me today. Maria will be back again next week. We might be doing a couple of updates throughout the playoff series as the games continue on. I'm optimistically hoping for a lengthy first round with Bruins on top as the outcome, but you never know. But as always, thank you everybody for listening. Make sure that you like and subscribe, leave us a rating and review to help us get found by other Bruins fans and hockey fans.

50:17 Speaker 1: You can find us on all of our socials at tape to tape MK and then find us on substack at tape to tape MK dot substack dot com. Any final thoughts, just

50:29 Speaker 2: Go bees, Go Bees,