Boston Bruins Offseason Pressure Builds: Lindholm, Lohrei & Roster Questions | Ep. 143

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me?

0:02 Speaker 2: Please?

0:03 Speaker 1: I need something to do.

0:13 Speaker 2: I'll stack sit it out.

0:14 Speaker 1: A top o Bock of this says today, here's a chance PoTA right down with goalie Scars. Oh my one a move by the rookie to.

0:24 Speaker 2: On one plaster not moving into.

0:29 Speaker 1: Oil dances in podcast.

0:32 Speaker 2: Wait at home right away corner Paster.

0:34 Speaker 1: Chista, what is that for?

0:41 Speaker 2: Most?

0:51 Speaker 1: Welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruin's Tape to Tape. I'm your host today Caroline with a K, and I am joined by my phantasmic co host Maria from Watertown. How are you, Maria?

1:03 Speaker 2: I'm great. I think I'm great. I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I'm not sure if it's all the fallen I swallowed on the golf course yesterday because we finally had a beautiful weekend in New England. Saturday and Sunday was absolutely awesome. But feeling a bit a little bit droopy today, but enjoying the nice summer weather.

1:21 Speaker 1: How about you? How was your weekend? It was pretty good, The weather was fantastic. It definitely feels like summer now. And you're one hundred percent correct. Everything has fully exploded since this past weekend, and I am also feeling it with the allergies.

1:36 Speaker 2: I'm like, God, I feel like I feel like a truck hit me, But no one wants to hear my sad tales of Well, we're here to talk about some hockey exactly as a brief table setting today's episode, we're going to be talking about a.

1:50 Speaker 1: Couple of players that I'm not sure that we've fallen out of love with all of them, but we know that there have been a lot of critics and question marks at various points during the season around four players, in particular a Hampus Lindholm, Elias Lindholm, Mason Lauri and Andrew Peak. And two of those, the Lindholmes, are long term contracts.

2:15 Speaker 2: I wish we had videos so they could see me gagging with regard to those two contracts.

2:20 Speaker 1: So those are not going anywhere anytime soon. The odds of anything happening with either of these players in the near future slim to none, but it doesn't mean that we can't talk about them and what happened and what we're satisfied with or dissatisfied with. And then the other two being Andrew Peak and Mason Laurai Mason Laurai is finishing his first year of his contract and he only has one more year left. And then Andrew Peak has come to the end of his three year contract, two of which were in Boston after trade.

2:54 Speaker 1: So we'll talk a little bit about him. Before we do that, we're gonna talk a little bit about NHI news and things that are going on. First and foremost, because it is still the playoffs. Look, I know you can't predict how many teams are gonna play only four games and how many teams are gonna play seven games. But I feel like having one of those teams start the second round before the first round was over may have been a bad idea. Because the Carolina Hurricanes actually have set a modern record for longest wait between playoff series.

3:35 Speaker 1: It's pretty insane that we're recording today on the eighteenth. As of yesterday, Carolina has eleven days rest between Game four of the second round and Game one of the Eastern Conference Final.

3:45 Speaker 2: That can't be appealing to the coaching staff, just can't.

3:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, again, We've talked about this many times. There are pros and cons when you've already been playing a tough season, and all seasons are tough, but then this year was particular demanding on every player being so concentrated. Is it going to be difficult for Carolina to get back on the horse and play an intense every other day schedule, or is the winner of the Buffalo Abs series going to still be standing after for one team a six and seven first and second round or the other team seven and seven games second round.

4:25 Speaker 1: I don't know what to expect this is it's like the two opposites coming together.

4:30 Speaker 2: But that's been interesting that Carolina looks like they are a well oiled machine this season. They may come out a little bit slow to start in that first period of whoever their opponent is going to be, but they seem to be a team on a mission and I would venture to guess and would put a bet on the fact that they would They'll be ready to roll because this means a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. It means getting a huge monkey off your back, which maybe they already feel like they have at this point in time because they've moved on to the Eastern Conference finals, which has been a knock on Rob Brindamore teams in the past.

5:14 Speaker 2: And I think it's more difficult for the team that's coming in because this series between Buffalo and Montreal has been pretty physical, so whatever little nagging things that players on both teams have had could likely have gotten a bit worse because there is no downtime in between these games. Yeah, to get yourself right, and the amount of preparation time. Granted, Carolina doesn't know necessarily who they're going to play, but they have the time to evaluate. They've had plenty of time because they only have to look at two teams right now.

5:48 Speaker 1: They've probably been watching the series, they understand, they see what happens, they can exploit some of that from Montreal and for Buffalo. It doesn't serve either team to look at anyone else other than the team that they're currently playing. To do so would be foolish, a waste of time, and if you want to talk about superstitions, it's certainly a very efficient way to piss off the hockey gods, I'm sure. And on the flip side, we have a Game seven because I don't know what the hell happened with Montreal.

6:24 Speaker 2: I mean, Montreal looked to be in control of that game to the point that I was like, you know what, I'm feeling a little worn out and tired here, I'm just gonna call it a night, and then I wake up the next morning, I'm like, what the hell happened?

6:36 Speaker 1: Oh? Holy shit.

6:38 Speaker 2: Then I saw some stuff on social media about questioning Marty Saint Louis and leaving dobish in the eight to three. It was my good on whole mice too that listens say what we will about the Canadians and because they're hated rivals here, but that building and those fans are unbelievable. At one point, the building was so loud that I could barely hear, which doesn't bother me what Ray Ferraro was saying in between benches, because I can't stand to listen to him, to be perfectly honest with you, but the crowd was absolutely insane.

7:16 Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know what else happened as well, because I actually had been out all day and again with the weather and everything, I just passed out. I knew it was tied at three when I went to sleep, and holy cow, but it is incredibly difficult to close out a series when you have the ability to do so.

7:35 Speaker 2: And it's funny because both teams have young players on them so you might be able to say, maybe that's the youngness and the inexperience of a team, you know, I'm speaking of referring to Montreal kind of the moment the lights are too bright for them. Yeah, but Buffalo also has. But I think Buffalo has a little bit more betteran leadership. Maybe Montreal does. Because I haven't seen Brendan Gallagher about one time in this series. It'll be interesting to see what the lineup is for tonight's game in Buffalo.

8:08 Speaker 2: But it's Game seven, bring it on.

8:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, It's just been a fascinating game to observe and track these teams in a way that I haven't really in particular all season. But what I found most interesting about that game was the fact that when it came to the shots on goal, once again, Montreal was really held to low shot volume compared to Buffalo, And that was I think the biggest deal.

8:37 Speaker 2: We're doing that in the Tampa series as well.

8:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, and I didn't to watch what was happening, necessarily defensively, because again I was asleep and I wasn't.

8:47 Speaker 2: Going to well.

8:48 Speaker 1: I meant, no, let's be honest, do we care about hockey?

8:51 Speaker 2: Ye? When our team isn't in it. Watch it with one eye open.

8:55 Speaker 1: I don't feel bad about going to bed if I'm I don't either. So what happened? Was it a defensive breakdown? Was Buffalo all of a sudden that much more energy to be offensive or the Montreal skaters to nervous. I would hesitate to place any blame on Dobby because not that type of person to just blanketly blame a goaltender, because it's not always the case.

9:22 Speaker 2: No, no, but there are those shots that on occasion you say, geez, that was a bad one to let it. If you're making honest assessments, those goals do happen. But I do agree with you it's really hard to dump on your goaltender when the said goaltender is under siege in some instances and the guys in front of you either can't or aren't doing their jobs.

9:45 Speaker 1: Agreed, And I think looking at the other end for Buffalo, it's also been very fascinating that they haven't had one single goalie that they have been able to just tap and say you're the guy, Like most teams have a true and dedicated starter and that guy has played almost the entire series for any of these teams except for Buffalo, and I guess I would appreciate, you know, on the two flip sides of not pulling Dobby in was it not Game six Game five? Because that was a smart thing to do, to trust in the goalie, to let them get settled, but also to not be afraid to pull the trigger when you need to.

10:25 Speaker 1: It panned out for Mario Saint Louis. It's a fun series to watch. I look forward to Game seven.

10:31 Speaker 2: It just validated for me too, watching these two teams that the Bruins better be looking over their shoulder in terms of teams that are going to be difficult out moving forward in the regular season. And I'm not saying, Donnie, I know you probably don't listen to our podcast, but I wish you would sometimes. I'm not saying build a team to chase these teams. Build the team, okay, build the team in the manner in which you want to play. Pick a lane and build the team in that direction.

11:03 Speaker 1: I agree. I think building a team around chasing a particular team is short sighted and foolish.

11:09 Speaker 2: It is cool then they had done that. Has it worked out for us yet?

11:13 Speaker 1: No? Not spectacularly. No, we Digress, We Digress, and the last two other pieces well a couple of other pieces of news outside of the playoffs, Although tangentially related, Vegas Golden Knights have actually faced some consequences related to their not following of the rules. Now granted, at first blush, one might think, wow, that's overkill, but then again, this is Vegas. The Vegas Golden Knights have forfeited a second round pick for this year, so they have effectively nothing to pick, nothing to pick, no pick for them this year.

11:51 Speaker 1: And it's all because Tortorella said no thank you to the media.

11:56 Speaker 2: And they won the game. They won the Shames, which makes and listen, I love my toorts, but you idiot. Every team is obligated to speak to the media, but I think it goes deeper than that. I think this punishment goes deeper than not making yourself available for media availability. So to set the whole punishment in full, Vegas has had their draft pick taken away from them the upcoming draft, and John Tworderella was fined one hundred thousand dollars.

12:29 Speaker 1: YEP.

12:30 Speaker 2: I think it goes deeper than that because I think this started with the suspension of Braden McNabb in the Anaheim Series for one game. Vegas was pissed about it. They were very vocal about it. Then Vegas denies Bruce Cassidy the opportunity to interview for an open coaching position. Then they do this, so at some point when you're running the league and you sit back and you say to yourself, who the hell do they think they are? To me, that was like institutional arrogance as far as I'm concerned, and I have no problem with the fact that the league came down on them as hard as they did.

13:15 Speaker 2: I think it was deserved. I hope it teaches them a lesson. I hope what makes them somewhat. It won't. No, it likely won't. But I don't know if they think they can get away with this shit because the league set them up so beautifully when they came in as an expansion team and went to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season. That doesn't make you the golden child. That doesn't mean that you can do whatever the hell you want and you don't get in trouble at some point in time.

13:43 Speaker 1: I mean, Vegas is the petulant child, demanding everything of the league. There's arguably nothing likable about the Vegas Golden Knights. There's nothing culturally admirable. They picked Carter Hart, they picked up his contract. That alone is just abhorrent. But the fact that the way that they play the product on the ice, the attitude of the owners. I mean, I don't know for a fact, but quite frankly, I wouldn't be shocked if the owners then just paid the fine for Tortorella, because that's normally how they knew.

14:21 Speaker 2: They knew that about him, that he is a person who you knew what you were bringing into your house and bringing in the good, the badney ugly into your house. However, I think there's always a straw that breaks the camel's back. This like kind of middle finger to the league. And I think some of it does stem from the Braden mcnapp suspension for bad so sad he still won the freaking series. What is your beak? What is your beak? What point are you making by not making anybody available to the media post game.

14:49 Speaker 1: They didn't think that they could get away with it. They just didn't care.

14:52 Speaker 2: They didn't care. Now, I don't know if they're gonna appeal it or not. I don't know if there is any kind of an appeel, And honestly, I don't care enough to dig down deep to figure that out, to be honest with you, but I'm glad that the league finally took a stand against an organization who thinks they can just treat everybody however they freaking feel like.

15:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I think I speak for a lot of people in saying I hope that Colorado absolutely obliterates them in the Western Conference. I agree, I agree.

15:22 Speaker 2: If that series goes five games, I'll be surprised, But I don't know.

15:27 Speaker 1: I don't think if both teams are getting some rest, because again thanks to the scheduling and thanks to the Montreal KDMs those neighbors, everyone gets rest except for them.

15:38 Speaker 2: Cal mccarr needs as much rest as he can get because it sounds like his shoulder is hanging on by a thread.

15:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's been beaten up quite a bit. Speaking of punishments doled out by the league, Charlie McAvoy, we didn't get a chance to talk about this before, but six game suspension to start the season in the fall for his attempt did truba ing of a Buffalo player. And again we've said this before. This is something that we think the league should take seriously that we have been extremely vocal about ever since Jacob Truba used his stick as a bat to Trent Frederick's head and did not receive any kind.

16:21 Speaker 2: Of penalty, not even a friggin penalty, right, no fine, not even.

16:25 Speaker 1: Buntly on the ice. And since then we have seen the league start to take that seriously, vindicating to us that they realize, oh, we screwed that up.

16:33 Speaker 2: This was the error of our weight.

16:35 Speaker 1: And you do see this getting called more and more now, as we discussed in our discord, which everyone should join in and check us out. You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. Not surprise whatsoever that the League came down fairly harshly on Charlie McVoy. I was, however, at the sheer number of games. I was expecting three or four, especially considering it was more of.

16:59 Speaker 2: An a tempted What did I say when we discussed it, When you have an in person hearing, you're looking at a minimum of six games, that's the threshold when they call you into the principal's office. Yes, it's you're getting six games. Yeah, And he has been suspended twice before. He is now viewed as a repeat offender. Those records don't get expunged. It doesn't go away from one season to the next. You can say, oh, yeah, well this happened three years ago. It doesn't matter to the league anymore. It doesn't matter now if we're going to be calling out this stuff when it happens to players on our team.

17:40 Speaker 2: Right, that was stupid. I get your kissed off. There was a slewf wooten there. It either was ignored or wasn't seen. I understand all of that. Don't use your stick of the weapon, correct, correct. I have no sympathy for Charlie in this instant, none, none, none.

18:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was one of the dumbest reactions he could ever possibly have in that situation. And that's what you get. I would like to point out one other thing that I did not pop onto our little agenda. I did see, and I want to say we said it here first, but I saw just this past week I followed WI on Instagram and somebody on one of their shows was talking about Captain C in the future and flirting with the idea of bringing someone in from the outside. Alizadana Chara in two thousand and six, and when I saw that, I thought, ah, we said it here first, folks, we said it here first.

18:37 Speaker 2: If it happens, we have talked about it, and I love pasta, But I'm still not sure that the next captain of the Boston Ruins is on the current roster. I'm just not Yeah.

18:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't feel as much of a given as it had been in previous years, previous years.

18:55 Speaker 2: Oh and one more special thing, one more special thing. Yes, the list of Hall of Fame nominees has come out for twenty twenty six.

19:02 Speaker 1: And who is on that list was several several, but the one that we care the most about Patrice Bergeron. Tries Bergeron.

19:11 Speaker 2: If he is not a unanimous first ballot Hall of Famer, then this is something wrong with the people who get votes.

19:18 Speaker 1: Sorry.

19:18 Speaker 2: David Cracy is also on that list, hustle who. I was surprised when I looked down at the list with some impressive stats. Yeah, I almost chuckled when I saw Louis Erickson's name on there. I mean, he's got some pretty good stats, but I'm like Julie Erickson, I don't know.

19:33 Speaker 1: But it's June twenty seconds so we will be sure to have something out for that, because that is about sure that they vote and we find out not surprising.

19:46 Speaker 2: It shouldn't be surprising to anybody that Teres Bergeron is on that list as a first year, so congrats to him.

19:53 Speaker 1: And then the last thing I almost forgot. There's a little bit of a rumor already flying around about next year's roster, and there's an article out on NSSEN right now. Are the Bruins going to sign Darren Radish? He is a right shot D. And the question is, of course, can someone like Radish give Boston enough transition value to justify using a more stable, lower upside option, Meaning is he coming in potentially as a replacement for a defenceman or is he potentially coming in just as a supplement to a left D for example Meson Lorii.

20:32 Speaker 1: Those are the questions. Who knows what it's going to happen. Granted, this is coming from Fluto with some very specific term and money, so there has to be some legitimacy to the idea. But business might be starting to percolate amongst the other teams in the league.

20:52 Speaker 2: Well, you know how I feel, you can't have enough good defenseman. True, I don't think we have enough really good defenseman on the team right now. Agreed, well, and we're going to talk about three of them right now.

21:06 Speaker 1: So the idea to talk about these four players in particular came to us because these were names that have come up with some frequency, either here on this podcast or in general from our discord, our social media presence, just having eyes and ears, and so what we're going to do is, I'm going to do a super brief background on each of the players, kind of what their situation was this year. I'm going to talk stats, Maria's going to talk vibes, and then we'll see how we feel about them. Now again, the Linholmes, let's be honest, they're not going anywhere, so we can talk about them first and then we'll talk about the other two.

21:47 Speaker 1: So let's talk about Elias Okay. This year, he finished his second season off of a seven year long contract seven point seventy five AAV. He's thirty one years old. He has basically no trade for the entire length of the contract. He played sixty nine out of eighty two games. He was expected to score eighteen and a half goals. He scored seventeen goals and he had thirty one assists. So this is the guy who came in. I think the general idea when he was brought in as part of his signing was the number one center Steady Eddie quote unquote replace Bergeron and Krachi, although obviously not to their caliber, but having somebody who could come in and be a consistent center.

22:34 Speaker 1: He effectively played exactly the same this year as last year. So on the plus side, performing in a consistent way, the problem is it's not the job that he's supposed to be playing. Now. In his defense, this is not the first time the Boston Bruins have placed an expectation on a player or taken a player and put him in a position role quote unquote role that maybe is not who he is as a player. We've seen this before. Okay, we've seen this. Yes, this is not me saying that, and I'm sure for you Maria as well, this is not you saying he's a bad hockey player or not a good player.

23:19 Speaker 1: But the fact of the matter is, this is a guy who was signed to be the number one center.

23:25 Speaker 2: He couldn't even be a number two center. In some instances this season, he got pushed down to the third line center.

23:31 Speaker 1: And in reality, a lot of his performance and his abilities more closely align with what you would expect from a solid third line center like a Charlie Coyle. Boston saw him as someone who could be a good matchup, deployment utility player. He was absorbing difficult defensive situations relatively responsibly. You know, he wasn't being particularly sheltered, but ultimately his impact was more reflective of a useful middle six as opposed to the elite two way anchor that you need to have as a good one seat.

24:09 Speaker 1: He was responsible, but his impact not particularly spectacular. Now, obviously, the other significant issue is while he is totally fine, good middle of the road player, he is thirty one with five more years left on a contract, and he is making seven point seventy five dollars and he's.

24:32 Speaker 2: Been put in a role that he is not particularly suited. This is such a bad situation for the Bruins to have put themselves in. Look the back issue to me now, I view it as a chronic back issue. This back issue started when he came to us in August of twenty twenty four, right he came into training camp with this back issue hurt right and something that apparently bothered him throughout the seat. We now have just finished another season and we've heard about this back injury. Yet again you're paying him like he's say, in between the number one number two center.

25:12 Speaker 2: You yourselves have had to push him down to a third line center. And there were instances that even when he was healthy and playing, I didn't notice him on the ice. And so I am of the mindset that if there's a way to remove yourself from this player and this contract, that I think it's time to seriously consider doing so. Now, maybe you can say the organizations set him up to fail. This is not new to the Boston Bruins. But then why would you hand him the boatload of money that you did and the term that you did.

25:46 Speaker 2: You had to have known there was something going on with this guy's back even before he came to you.

25:52 Speaker 1: I don't know.

25:52 Speaker 2: I just this is a player that I would work over time this season to try and cut my losses with. You need that money, even if it's only a portion of it. You need that money in other areas.

26:06 Speaker 1: Most realistic scenario is obviously he stays in Boston, But I think for me what I would like to see next season.

26:15 Speaker 2: It's so bad, though, But are you gonna put him at second or third line? That's a shit ton of money.

26:19 Speaker 1: I know that's the thing. He is overpaid for what he's producing in the role that he was hired to play. I think, considering the economics of it, I would rather even though I don't think it's the right financial move, I think it's the right move for the team that he plays third line, plays a middle six position. I understand that he is then going to be overpaid for playing a middle six. That's a lot of money to bury in the third line.

26:52 Speaker 2: But what are you gonna do.

26:53 Speaker 1: You're gonna then force him to be in a position that he's not really excelling at and then costing games or plus.

27:01 Speaker 2: If Sweeney found a way to unload the David Bacchus contract, he needs to find a way to unload this contract too.

27:09 Speaker 1: If you look just at his stats, he's not even necessarily making a positive impact on goals above replacement, or wins above replacement, or even standings points. Granted, most of the guys that we're going to talk about today all did worse this year than last year, So is this a transition issue? Not everyone did worse. I want to make that clear. Not every Boston Bruin was worse this season compared to last, but a lot of them were. And pretty much all of the guys we're going to talk about are worse.

27:40 Speaker 1: I get the financial piece, and if there's nobody else, then there's nobody else. But that's kind of where we're at two years in with two years worth of data. Then he played all the games last year in spite of being injured. He just then played through it, and then this year he didn't play game, which is admirable. But if you're taking the eye and I'm not noticing you for periods of time and you're not able to contribute in some manner, then what are we doing here? I asked you for seven point seventy five million freaking dollars.

28:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, and you want to talk about another person who has a very hefty contract. Let's switch gears. Then over to Hampuslin Holmes. Well, this is the guy who was on your radar this season mostly because he was pissing you off, and rightly so. Although fun fact this might shock you, this was not his highest number of penalty minutes season in his career. It was actually only his second worst, but he's been increasing in his penalty minutes almost every season, year over year since the beginning of his career.

28:48 Speaker 1: But some background. He came to Boston via a trade and then signed an immediate extension, so he had an eight year contract with an average gnenual value of six point five million. He's halfway through this contract already, and he's thirty two years old, and this season this was his first season back after breaking his kneecap at the very start of the season last year, and he still was in and out with some injury. I don't know that we really heard about his health situation and what was going on with him.

29:23 Speaker 1: He played sixty seven games, but he was pretty much right on the money in terms of his expected goals. Was a four point six and he scored five goals. He had twenty one assists and a pretty respectable defensive points share. He had a two point eight, which is decent for a defenseman and okay, goals above replacement and zero point five wins above replacement. So useful, but definitely not what we all remember hampus as, which was from three seasons ago where he was just an absolute machine. Based on some of my research into his numbers and everything, I think, and I'm gonna speak for myself.

30:04 Speaker 1: You can tell me if this is kind of also your thought pattern with him, But for me, I have felt that he's not been himself for a while. However, I think I have been using that perfect season and his unreal performance that season as the standard baseline of the kind of hockey that Hampus than Holme plays, and in looking a little bit further back into his past, into his time with Anaheim, Unfortunately, I think the way that we saw him play this season is closer to his baseline skills and his performance not what we saw.

30:48 Speaker 1: He's a transition oriented, two ways stabilizing defenceman and what we saw that offensive significance assists. Granted that perfect season, he only scored ten goals, but he had some ridiculous number of assists. The Hampus that we have seen this season is the Hampus that broke in. And I don't know how that makes you feel or it doesn't make me feel good.

31:12 Speaker 2: It doesn't make me feel good because again, you feel like your soul the billa goods, right, because what we saw from the early part of campus coming to Boston, the expectation was.

31:27 Speaker 1: And he showed us that almost immediately with.

31:30 Speaker 2: His fluid movement. His ability to carry the puck in to the offensive zone was strong defensively, but these injuries that have mounted up now have either hindered his ability or had an impact on his ability to skate explosively in the manner in which we saw him. Let's call a space a space. Charlie mckilboy lost the quarterback position on the unit one of the power play because Hampus Lindholm was a better option and his first shift Q being the power play is when he got hurt. So that experiment went down the toilet in a hurry.

32:08 Speaker 2: But how many of us had been saying, get Charlie mack off that unit one qbat, get campus out there. So my expectations, and maybe it's unfair of the player, but I'm basing it on what I saw your first year here with us, where I'm like, you're a joy to watch. I enjoyed watching you play. Where this year it was like, dude, I'm going to take your stick and I'm going to put it where the sun doesn't shine if you get one more stick infraction penalty all season long, all season long.

32:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's I'm a little bit. I am now a little bit worried about him, knowing now that the season that we saw from him this year is likely what we are to expect and see moving forward into the future. I don't know what his remaining time in Boston has gone to look like. You know, he's probably going if he stays on this contract, if they don't move him, if they don't trade him, He's likely to finish his career in Boston. It's a lot of money, and the cap is, yes, the cap is going up, and his percent of the cap is going to start is always going to start to go down.

33:17 Speaker 1: I just I don't know if it's who he has as a partner, if something was still off, because again I don't believe we know what his issues were, but he's one that has been then ultimately a little disappointing unfortunately to say the least.

33:36 Speaker 2: But he has also a contract that is not easy to move, and I you know, I said it, I've said it in our discord group and said it on our pod as well. Those the the Lindholme contracts, and it put them both together because they're not appealing contracts and again, easier said than done, but if there's an opportunity to move those contracts.

34:00 Speaker 1: Yep, speaking of someone who we've all had very different expectations of, especially going into this season, Mason Laura, this is believe it or not. Even though I've crept all over this kid.

34:11 Speaker 2: This is a tough one because you don't want to wave the white flag on a young kid, especially a defenseman, because we all know it takes longer for defenseman to mature in the NHL than it does forwards.

34:26 Speaker 1: Yes, there's a lot more that a defenceman has to earn about their position, about reading and understanding everything that's going on on the ice. That's why goalies take even longer to develop, because they have to take in even more information and understand it and apply all of their skill set. When I started prepping for this episode, I said, and even before the end of the season, there's no way that this kid is staying on this roster. There's no way.

34:53 Speaker 2: Well, I don't even know if the Bruins wanted because on the roster, because we heard the rumored trade potential packages during the trade dead and his name was always in them.

35:02 Speaker 1: And his season didn't actually end up on paper, it did not end up actually worse than it looked this year significantly better in terms of your favorite stat, the plus minus, he was a plus seventeen.

35:16 Speaker 2: And I know that's not the be all, end all stat, but it still counts for something.

35:20 Speaker 1: And here's the thing. So the two defensemen that we're going to talk about, and we can even maybe talk a little bit of comparison Peak and Lori, they are certainly not first pair, second pair maybe for Peak, third for Peak, third for Lorai. Lorai had started in the first pairing because he is an offensive defenceman, right, So he's got a lot of offensive transition value. He's got a lot of good puck moving and his possession driving ability is good. Granted he's not as strong on the puck as I think we would like him to be, but again, he's like twenty five years old in a string people, I don't know what you want to expect from him.

35:57 Speaker 1: Whereas Andrew Peak, he is a defensive defenceman. Think what Brandon Carlow had been on this team is what Andrew Peak is now. For Mason Laura he signed a two year, three point two million av contract. Again, he is a high talent offensive puck mover. That's who he is. That's all he ever will be. He will always be a defenseman. You can't just switch to being a forward. There's a lot involved in having that happen. Contract was signed with someone who is a defenceman and offensive defenseman. Those are very high value positions in the NHL.

36:37 Speaker 1: Even if he's somewhat volatile on paper, if you have constructed a well rounded team, his mistakes can be relatively easily forgiven and smoothed over by the team that's out there with him. Ultimately, in terms of what he cost this team out on the ice, once they got him off of the top line, it really wasn't that damaging. You know, He's still had a three point four defensive points share that in spite of those five games over the course of seventy seven games played, five of them were completely disastrous.

37:13 Speaker 1: He wasn't the only one performing completely disastrously, and he still had a three point four defensive points share. Now, granted, his goals above replacement were and the wins above replacement were negative but not horrible, so he was performing as you would expect someone who is all of twenty five and is offensive at his best, he can carry the puck cleanly through transition, he can extend the offensive zone possession, He creates passing lanes, and he activates offensively without necessarily creating too much chaos.

37:47 Speaker 1: But again the issue is his decision making. He over handles, he has poor reads under pressure, risky pinches. But again we've made the points that he's young and it takes time. This is not the Boston Bruins, is not the developmental team. That's the Providence Bruins. Right, they brought the kid up. Maybe they brought him up too early, which is they want to do. But sometimes we wonder about this organization's ability to make those decisions and to make good judgments about when a young player is ready or not ready to play.

38:16 Speaker 1: But I will give Mason more credit for he had been healthy, scratched and missed. Forget how many games he had missed as.

38:26 Speaker 2: A helping scratch, four or five, and he came back and he played well after those scratches.

38:33 Speaker 1: He does have continued upside.

38:36 Speaker 2: He does have a very team friendly Although I think we said it when we first heard the deal that three point two was a little too much, but it's still in the terms of salary, it's still relatively friendly salary, and he has one more year left, so that player could be of interest to another team if you're looking to fill priority openings that you have currently on your own roster.

39:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a reasonable salary for the type of player that he is, maybe not him specifically, but for his type, his archetype, the offensive defenseman. Again, they have a higher value. That's just how it is. And while going into this off season I was one hundred percent convinced that they were going to move him, I'm not one hundred percent sure that that would happen, at least in the off season. It all depends on what they can get in exchange for him, because I do think he has a high value, and if they won't just trade him willy nilly, I think no, no, no, no.

39:38 Speaker 2: And nor should they, because he should be viewed as an asset and for another year. But if a team approaches you and says, hey, ABCD, you should be listening, right yeah, yeah, and not for picks, not for prospects. I think he's enough of a value that I would want bodies. You're not going to get one to one for Mason Lauri, right, You're going to have to You're gonna have to have something in addition to Mason Laurai to make a hockey trade. And let's let's Facebax very as much as I shit on Sweeney and Neely, I will give Sweeney credit for knowing how to make cocky trades.

40:20 Speaker 2: What he's not as good at is identifying talent and putting a dollar value to that talent, as we can see from some of the contracts that we have just discussed currently on this roster and even past contracts. Yeah.

40:35 Speaker 1: Well, and I think it also depends on to your point earlier, what kind of team is the Boston Bruins team going to be? Because Laurai was brought up while Jim Montgomery was the head coach and his system, his approach was a very active and involved d well, a young player like Mason Laurai is going to fit into a system like that extremely well because he is very offensive mind. In fact, he's probably the most offensively minded defenseman on the team, and so he fit that system really well. But now we have a different coach who is trying to take the Bruins back to their defensive roots, and that is something that he does not fit into because he's too far on the offensive side.

41:23 Speaker 1: And I think what made Boston so successful for so long prior to the chaos of the last five years is the Boston Bruins had a very clear and very defined identity. The team is this, This is what it means to play Boston Bruins hockey. And it didn't matter who the coach was because that approach, the things that they valued in terms of how they played the game stayed consistent across multitude of coaches right now over the last five years, basically since the very end of Cassidy and through Montgomery through Storm.

42:05 Speaker 1: It almost seems like the coaching style is what is determining or other factors outside of the team are deciding how to play the hockey. And then so if that's the case, then you're making roster decisions based on how well can this player fit into this particular system, when the person who is deciding what that system is could be gone much faster, much easier than any player. Right. So I think that's the larger issue is that Boston has to either go back to the identity that they've always had, which is something that there are still plenty of players who fit into that identity who played under that identity.

42:46 Speaker 1: Or figure out who you are now and stick to it as part of a larger, longer term plan and pick players who can fit that because the players stick around longer than a coach, and he I think Mason and Laura is a casualty of that poor decision making. I think that's ultimately what it is. And as much as I've liked him, and I've enjoyed for the most part watching him play and seeing how he plays, because he's very different than the rest of the defenseman, I just don't think that he is the right fit anymore.

43:18 Speaker 1: And so the question is when does he get treated because his contract will end next season, okay, and you need to.

43:24 Speaker 2: Get something for him if you don't think he's a fit for your future bill because you've never heard his name brought up in that regard, right, I mean, you haven't heard it publicly. We hear about this new core and it seems like from what I'm reading, they want to make Pavo Zaka a long term ruin as well. Where do all these other guys fit in, and if they don't fit in, you can't just let them walk, right. You shouldn't for nothing.

43:50 Speaker 1: Andrew Peak, He's an interesting one to me because I've always enjoyed his game. Now we put him on this list because you brought to my attention that a number of Bruins fans within the population of the nation have beef with him, whether it was from specific incidences or general play. This is not necessarily my take, but I'm definitely going to be interested to hear because you listen to all of the local sports talk radio. So Pete's finishing off his three year contract for very little money two point seventy five AAV.

44:25 Speaker 1: He played two seasons of this three season contract with Boston after being traded from Columbus. He is a defensive defenseman. He's really like a unicorn in that regard when you think about the regulars of the defensive corps. Now, he's an interesting one because I also looked at some of my favorite stats in terms of clear usage, your favorite stat plus minus. He did not have a good season. He was a minus twelve, which was the worps which hey bet the last year. Okay, he had five goals. It was more than was expected Ninus sis.

45:03 Speaker 1: He had it all right, reasonably respectable defensive points share of a one point seventy five, but his goals above replacement not spectacular minus nine and his wins above replacement were minus one and a half. Now it seems like it's not good, but he had very high usage in difficult deployment situations, which really shows a lot of coaches trust and identifying his reliability when it comes to his defensive responsibilities. Even if you have a player like him and they're defending really, really hard at the end of the day, Because of this particular season, the puck was in our defensive zone way too frequently, so he had a lot of extra work that had to be done, but he survived it.

45:51 Speaker 1: He ate a lot of those minutes, and he ultimately ended up being a somewhat reliable I believe he was for a good stretch on the PK. Granted the PK wasn't particularly awesome at the very end, but again, it doesn't matter who the cast of characters is. That's kind of I would call that a wash. He's definitely a quieter type of defenseman, especially in today's NHL where you're getting more attention paid to those offensive defensemen or those two way players. He's defense first, that's his job, that's his home.

46:24 Speaker 1: So I'm curious to hear what are the people saying in terms of why they are displeased with him. Because a competent third line defenseman, he falls within the salary expectation, he is a right shot. Those are rarer. The defensive defenceman rare, those kinds of defencemen. They retain a lot of value with the coaching staff. So what we see in value with players like him very different in reality with what coaching staff sees in values. Tell me about his deal.

46:58 Speaker 2: Then I think the issue, and it's maybe through no faults of his own, is Andrew Peak should be viewed as a dep guy. You should not be viewed as someone who is part of your regular, recurring, login, lots of minutes type of defenseman. And I think there were instances that and you can say this just about anybody on the Bruins team, but he was exposed defensively on certain occasions. I look at a guy like Andrew Peak, and as much as I love myself stay at home defenseman on a team, I also term him as what I refer to as a Jag just another guy.

47:35 Speaker 2: And so when you're trying to retool rebuild, how many Jags are you going to maintain on your roster when you need your next full team?

47:46 Speaker 1: Okay?

47:47 Speaker 2: And so you have decisions to make. And there's Andrew Peak is a right shock defenseman, as is Henry yokih are you, But as we alluded to earlier on in this podcast, there ruins or rumor to be interested in another bright shot defenseman who has a bit of a more proven brack record. So I think Andrew Peak will end up being somewhat of a casualty of this roster. I would be surprised if Andrew Peak is back in a Bruin's uniform in the upcoming season. And he's been a serviceable player. He is a serviceable player, but you need more than that when you're building your team from the back end moving forward.

48:30 Speaker 2: Is he part of that rebuild?

48:33 Speaker 1: I don't think so, But what do I know? It just is going to come down to what does this team want in terms of not just their whole team identity, but their defensive identity.

48:44 Speaker 2: And don't get me wrong, you need some of those guys on your poster. But if you're going to stand up there and tell me that you want to be back in the thick of things to contend to the Stanley Cup, then you've got to minimize the number of jags you have on.

49:00 Speaker 1: Because one potential saving grace is the fact that he is the stay at home defenceman and nobody else is. I don't know where how that fits into the plan to what the Bruins want in terms of what they want their defense to look like. Overall. I wouldn't be surprised if they let him walk in a month and a half, in six weeks, I wouldn't be surprised.

49:27 Speaker 2: They may just say to him, go out and see what's out there. If someone's making you an offera, come back and talk to us if we think we can match it, or if we think it's hey, you're better served to go there, right, because you know they don't have piles of cash, right, should just be throwing around this off season. Yeah, I think their status is somewhat up in the air. I think that's the best and the most accurate thing we can say on this podcast.

49:52 Speaker 1: On May eighteen, It's not a question of can the Bruins make it work with what they have. Absolutely they did this year, and if they had to do it again next year, I don't think I would be disappointed.

50:03 Speaker 2: But you can't be relying on your goalies to save your ass the game after game when you're giving up what were they at, six or seven team in the league, giving up the most high danger scoring opportunities. That's not a great stat And for Don Sweeney to sit there and say, if goalies made the saves, I.

50:24 Speaker 1: Shouldn't put him in that position.

50:26 Speaker 2: What the fuck?

50:27 Speaker 1: Don? I would hate to see someone like Andrew Peak go because I've been, Like I said, I've been satisfied for the most part. I have been too.

50:36 Speaker 2: But when you're in the process of doing what the Bruins are doing right now, there are casualties to your roster and sometimes you have to make difficult decisions. This might be a hard one for them to make. But if someone calls you up and blows you over for an offer that you know, hey, Mason Mora and one of your draft picks or whatever, for something else that you're like, oh, this could help us in the fat, then of course you're going to take that under advisement, if not jump on it exactly exactly.

51:05 Speaker 1: We have forty four days until free agency, so in the span of forty four days, we may start to see some trades, especially as we get closer and closer to the Stanley Cup Finals, and then we will see how much this Boston Bruins roster changes or doesn't change, and.

51:24 Speaker 2: If it doesn't if it doesn't change, boy oh boy going into next season, the amount of criticism that we'll be levied at Don Tweeney and Camp nearly could be monumental. Yes, but it's early. It's very very early in this whole process of rafting and free agency and potentially making making trades that you know will will wait on those conversations.

51:51 Speaker 1: Yes, and there are a number of players that we haven't even discussed yet and we will be discussing over the next month who are coming to the end of their contracts as well well, or are entering into a final year. So if they're in their final year, they can be extended, So we'll be talking about them coming up in the next few weeks. We'll be talking about Victor Arvidson. That's an interesting conversation to have. Well, we did a player profile on him last August and so we're going to take some time to review if our evaluations and our predictions about him were correct spoiler they were, and what we think could or should happen in regards to his contract because that is one of the ones that's expiring at the end of June.

52:35 Speaker 1: And then we'll also be talking about a young upcomer that we didn't really even have time to talk about last year, Freezer Minton. And then a review of the free agency signings that happened last year prior to this year's free agency signing to see was last year a good free agency year for Boston or not. So those are things that are coming up even though there's no Boston Bruins hockey happening. It doesn't mean we don't have something to talk about. But any final thoughts on what.

53:08 Speaker 2: We've talked about, Maria, No, I'm looking forward to Game seven, which is always exciting. It seems like Buffalo, even at this early morning eleven am hour Eastern conference time, is very pumped up. But for them, I think it's I mean, what does the love of game seven, whether or not you have a dog in the fight?

53:26 Speaker 1: Like Game seven's are just unbelievable.

53:28 Speaker 2: Here's what I will say, though, yes, I want the officials to swallow their whistles because they have made themselves way too much of a presence in these Stanley Cup finals. Let the game be decided five on five play unless there's something so freaking egregious that you simply cannot.

53:50 Speaker 1: Let it go.

53:51 Speaker 2: Okay, fine, a stick to the face that draws blood, I get it, But the rest of this bullshit. Let the game be decided by the five and stayed the hell out of the way.

54:03 Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Hockey God's willing. Make sure you like and subscribe for more content, and be sure to leave a rating and review to help other Bruvens fans find us. You can support the podcast by joining our Patreon or following us on our socials at Tape to Tape MK and on substack at Tape to Tape dot substack dot com. Any last words, go Be's, Go B's.