Boston Bruins Penalties Spike as Scoring Vanishes: Thanksgiving Warning Signs | Ep. 118

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me please? I need something to do.

0:13 Speaker 2: I'll jack send it out and talk about to say.

0:19 Speaker 1: To day. Here's a chance potfor right down the goalie scars oh my one a move by the rookie to on one plaster not moving in shat to his own oil dances in podcast home right away corner pastor Chester.

0:40 Speaker 1: What's that for? Boston? Welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruin's Tape to Tape. I'm your host today, Caroline with a K. It is the week of Thanksgiving, and it's an important week in the National Hockey League world, and we're going to talk about that. But first I'm gonna introduce my fantastic co host, Maria from Watertown.

1:11 Speaker 2: Hey Maria, Hey Caroline, how's the week been? Hockey Heaven? I guess, for lack of a.

1:15 Speaker 1: Better word, my days are spent at a rink. Which rink I don't know, but I am at some kind of a rink probably five days a week at this point. So and it's only gonna keep going every weekend. So here we go. This is really just the start, Let's be honest, because it's only November.

1:34 Speaker 2: Been there, done that, so I know what you're dealing with these days. In addition to the fact that you know, we had games that didn't start until ten ten thirty.

1:48 Speaker 1: Est.

1:49 Speaker 2: Last night's game was a bit of a treat in being able to watch the entirety of it live.

1:55 Speaker 1: But was it a treat. I wouldn't have called it a treat, well, for sure, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

2:00 Speaker 2: Well we're gonna get to all of that, folks, because some of us is starting to get a tad bit annoyed with our Boston Bruins.

2:08 Speaker 1: Be that as it may, I am very much so looking forward to this entire week because, like I said, it's a big week. It's kind of the first milestone for the season where all of the teams are kind of inching closer to about game twenty to twenty two. That's usually a big marker for the first predictions around playoffs to begin. And as you recall, last year, I ran a little model to kind of make a guess as to where the Bruins were going to land, and I think it did a pretty decent job. And so keep an eye out on the sub stack to see how the Bruins are fair in the model this year.

2:52 Speaker 1: I'm optimistic but we will discuss shortly some of the hesitation. But you may have more optimism than I do at this point in time. But that's my job. That's clear, that's my that's my role on this podcast. If I'm not optimistic, that's that's a huge bell weather for folks to know that something is wrong. But I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, Maria, what are you guys doing for Thanksgiving? You stay in local? Do you travel? We stay Yep, we stay local.

3:23 Speaker 2: For the first first time in a very, very long time, I'll have both of my kids at the Thanksgiving table. Usually they head to Maine for this particular holiday, but schedules aren't aligning, so selfishly, I get to have them with me for Thanksgiving and probably do a little bit of Black Friday shopping, but let you know, likely from the comfort of my laptop, because I will be in attendance at the Black Friday Rowan's Rangers.

3:54 Speaker 1: Game, of course, one of my favorite holiday traditions, not just the Black Friday game, but doing a little bit of shopping. I try to get all of my holiday shopping done this coming weekend. And you know, definitely some good news for our listeners because the Black Friday at the NHL Shop is here. Their sales have already started and it's actually looking really good this year, so I am probably going to be doing a lot of shopping on that website. So you know, if you're thinking about grabbing a jersey, a hoodie, or finally upgrading that really discussing Bruins tea that you've had since twenty eleven, now is the time.

4:34 Speaker 1: They've also just dropped the Cat's Rangers outdoor game merch, so you know that the Bruins Lightning stuff is going to be coming out very very soon, and they've got a huge sales site wide running all week. And if you use the link in our show notes, the NHL Shop kicks us a little bit back, so it costs you nothing extra, but it helps us support the show, keeps the mics on, and honestly, it makes us feel a little less guilty about buying more of the merch for ourselves. Yeah, so if you're already planning on heading over to the NHL Shop, do it through the link in our bio and thank you because it really helps more than you may think it does.

5:18 Speaker 2: Every little bit helps, and we appreciate we appreciate it.

5:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's set the table because this is the situation in terms of Bruins news. Obviously, with injuries every team except for I think, like maybe Detroit is suffering injuries left and right.

5:40 Speaker 2: I'm already starting to lose track. Yeah, the list is getting long for each team. I've got the ESPN injury list, NHL injury list, and you're right, it looks like the actually the Detroit Red Wings and the LA Kings right now, probably the teams that don't have a laundry list of injuries right now piling up.

6:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, And there's been a lot of speculation and conversation that I've seen personally just across the different socials. Is it this compressed schedule? And certainly I think it's not helping. Perhaps some of our older guys across the league are going to be feeling it as they're playing much more frequently each week.

6:24 Speaker 2: Dance to reason, this has been a problem in the NFL to start seasons, because you know, they're there, there's only so many days they're practicing. Sometimes they're not practicing in pads, you know, right, Bruins haven't had a lot of practice time because of this chaotic schedule. They're not alone, so it makes sense they're not getting that practice time, they're not being able to access maybe the facility to get things treated that may be nagging at them because they're constantly, you know, back and forth, back and forth with all of these games.

7:00 Speaker 2: So yeah, I think, yeah, I don't think that this has been the benefit to have this kind of a chaotic schedule because of this Olympic break that's coming, which then lends me even more concern about what may happen to players once they go to Milan.

7:19 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, never underestimate the critical importance of just rest and recovery in part of the entire package of conditioning and being in top shape. I think folks tend to forget about the importance of that that resting is doing something, and that element isn't quite as robust this season as it has been in the past. And so it very likely that your hunch, dear listener, of all these injuries piling up a lot faster than usual because of this schedule, very legitimate interpretation of events.

8:00 Speaker 2: And the Bruins. The Bruins aren't alone, I mean, there have been other teams that are suffering some significant injuries two key players. We'll get we'll get to one of them in our around the rink of report. But yeah, it is. It is concerning. But as a lot of coaches are saying, because they get too tired of answering the question of do you have an update?

8:22 Speaker 1: Do you know when? But in the great they don't.

8:25 Speaker 2: So they've got to make two and they've got to figure it out with the guys that they have available to them.

8:31 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And because of the increased number of games that can happen in the span of seven days, players are going to be missing more games because if an injury takes two weeks to recover, it takes two weeks to recover. Last season, two weeks may have been five games, six games. This season that could be almost ten games, right, you know, it's the impact is greater too. Yeah.

9:02 Speaker 2: So, and is it ideal? No, because you want your stars, you want your key players. You need your key players if you're going to exact, and you need your key players to stay in the lineup consistently. So you know, it's not an ideal scenario for teams, and it's not likely an ideal scenario for the league either.

9:22 Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, Well, and then speaking of key players, e Lias Linnholm was back on Sunday night in San Jose, certainly easing him in a little bit, but still also throwing him in quite a bit as well. He admitted after the first period that you know, he didn't actually say the words that he was gassed, but he referenced needing to get his breathing back under control, which means he was huffing and puffing a little bit, right right then, I think we saw that with hampuslind Holme.

9:55 Speaker 2: Yeah, when he first got back into the lineup, you know, the first first period of the first game he played, he looked a bit slow and out of sorts, and right, there's something to be said for building up your stamina.

10:09 Speaker 1: Thanks again.

10:11 Speaker 2: Skating around the rink on your own is one thing, but then to get into the actual nitty gritty of a game is a very different thing altogether, exactly.

10:22 Speaker 1: And as I believe someone in our Discord group mentioned in the in the game day chat last night, which if you're not part of the Discord group, you should absolutely join us, especially for game days. And welcome to our two new members. Yes, we've got two new members and someone had commented that Linnholm was also the type of player who was a little bit slower to ramp up anyway, So his turnaround time to getting back to where we saw him really moving at the start of the season could also be a couple of games as well.

10:55 Speaker 1: But that's fine. It is what it is. He's out there. We want him to get better, we want to see him continue that upper trajectory.

11:01 Speaker 2: Getting guys back is a positive sign, and we'll get to yes, the necessity of why we need to get these regulars back in the lineup, because I am becoming concerned about two very specific areas of the Bruins game of late Yeah, and.

11:19 Speaker 1: On the flip side, Charlie McAvoy. Obviously we have not had any new news. However, his wife did post a picture of him and their son and it was in black and white, and my dad even made the comment it's a good thing that it was done in black and white, and I was like, that's a fair point. I know it was artistic. I know she does a lot of pictures like that, but he's probably all sorts of colors too, because he's now got the face of an NHL defenceman and.

11:47 Speaker 2: Just quickly on her post, and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but her post, and I can't remember the exact words, but she made reference to the last couple of weeks have been a little bit challenging in their household, and both of her boys are very tough. So now I'm starting to wonder if the day that Charlie McAvoy was away from the team for personal reasons and Mike Sullivan was also away for personal reasons, I wonder if you know, there was some ailment or something to their young son that necessitated him being away, or both of them being away, and her making that reference to to both both of her boys being being tough.

12:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, that was my assumption when Charlie wasn't there, because I mean, that would make the most sense. And then that kind of reaffirmed that general assumption and reaffirmed right.

12:36 Speaker 2: So glad, glad, everything is okay. Named macavoy household. He does look like from that photograph that he basically swallowed a bag of acorns. It does not look comfortable in any way, shape or form.

12:50 Speaker 1: Hopefully he has quick healing powers. Yeah, and I would have to imagine he his jaw like probably a wired shut and as you alluded, his normal chipmunk cheeks are on steroids at this point, right. But in other news, you know, the Bruins also said goodbye to a player last week. Johnny Beecher was placed on waivers. When we actually spoke a week ago, Bye Johnny. Yep, we when we last spoke he was we were in the middle of that time period and he did get claimed by Calgary. He was placed on waivers, presumably because of cap compliance issues, as we had discussed.

13:31 Speaker 1: And you know, when you get put on waivers, the GM is going in fully.

13:36 Speaker 2: Aware of the fact that is the potential.

13:38 Speaker 1: Someone may claim him. And it was definitely going in that direction, whether it was because he wasn't going to be getting the playing time that he probably needs as a young player or whatnot. But Johnny Beacher, we hardly knew you golf clap to Marco Sturm, who was very, very on point and very honest and open when you said about Johnny b Tea that he had been given numerous opportunities, numerous opportunities at the start of the season, including training camp, and if I'm remembering correctly, he was one of the few guys I think who played pretty much every preseason game with the hope that, you know, something would pop for this kid.

14:19 Speaker 1: But how many opportunities do you afford someone if they are not going to take whole and complete advantage of those opportunities. So, yes, maybe we can criticize John Sweeney or you know, another potential high draft pick that didn't pan out, for whatever the case may be. But in this instance, it isn't as if the opportunities weren't provided to John Beecher to make a case to stay as a regular member of the big Boy roster, for sure. And I also wonder if earlier in the season we were hearing from Marco Sturm saying people have to buy in, people have to buy in, and we stopped hearing that when we stopped seeing the likes of Mason Laurie and Jod Beecher.

15:08 Speaker 1: And I'm just again, I don't know anything in particular, but I'm just making an assumption, And so yeah, the message might have gotten through Mason's head. These younger players either can't or won't learn this new system, and that these older players who are maybe a little bit more veteran or have more experience, or just simply right up right, like simply buy in because you see Marqueest like he's a pretty young guy. Although in my mind I keep I keep equating him to Nick Felino for some reason, and so I think he's older than he is, But he's actually quite young.

15:49 Speaker 1: He's he's bought into the system. He's flourishing under Storm's system. So I don't know, that's just me kind of making a general assumption based on the fact that Stam said these comments.

16:02 Speaker 2: Those people don't play. We don't hear these comments anymore. And we've also heard a great deal about accountability, and there was an issue in the past with this team and referring again to last season, lack of accountability. And so for me, I like the fact that players are being held accountable and being held to a standard of this is what we need from you. If we don't get it from you, there's a potential that someone else is going to step into that role. No, there's no time to joke about that anymore.

16:40 Speaker 1: No, no, no, especially this season, especially this season, there's no time switching gears to players who are really taking off and taking advantage of every minute they have out on the ice. One year ago, if you told me that a Boston Bruin player would be leading the NHL and goals scored right, whose name is not David Pasternak, My guess would not have been Morgan.

17:08 Speaker 2: Geeky because this it's it's amazing, it's I know, I know, and you know we talked about him during our preview shows and the fact that we all we both agree that in order for this team to be successful, we needed to get more out of certain players and that included Morgan Geek and Pavel Zaka and Elias Lindholm to date, to date, in my view, Morgan Geek has been the only one of those three that has far exceeded thus far what we thought he could bring to the table. Now Elias has been injured, so I'll take that, and you know, we take that into consideration.

17:48 Speaker 2: I'm not sure what is going on with Pavlaka, but do we need more from you? Like we absolutely need more from you, certainly in terms of boring.

18:00 Speaker 1: He's been doing a good job in terms of the playmaking silent aspect of what it means to be a center. So I'm not dissatisfied with him on that front. Because from a general job description, I think he's doing that job well, but you're one hundred percent right in that right now. In addition to doing that basic job, we also do need him to be scoring right now because that's become a little bit of an issue. It's getting difficult to find the back of the net and we just need some of these other guys to be able to get it in on that front.

18:42 Speaker 1: I agree we just need him a little bit more from him in that regard.

18:46 Speaker 2: But I think Geeky is pretty He is stunning the hockey world, in the hockey league.

18:52 Speaker 1: He is. He is my favorite step from this weekend. It kind of made me laugh. It's not a very puzzive stat, but it is positive for him. On this road trip, the Bruins scored a grand total of six goals.

19:07 Speaker 2: Yes, five of them were by handiki yep. And so while that is wonderful for Morgan Geeky, it lends itself to a further conversation that we're going to have where the hell is everybody else? Because going back to the player we were just talking about avel Zaka. In that same period of time, Zaka has one assist and he's a minus three. Now, I do know, folks that does spend time on the penalty kill as well, and that has been another mounting thorn in my side.

19:42 Speaker 1: Yep, well, why don't you take us down that path then, Maria? What's bugging you about the Bruins this week? Okay?

19:49 Speaker 2: So I have been giving them their flowers, right, and we are trying to preach patients because we understand what this roster is and we understand that we're trying to play both sides of defence with this team. However, you cannot continue, You cannot continue to take as many goddamn penalties as you do in the course of a game and expect to come out ahead in those games. Because while your penalty kill has been tremendous this season, you're now raging five on three, five to three penalty minutes and last night's game against San Jose that cost you the game.

20:31 Speaker 2: They scored two power play goals because you are all undisciplined with your sticks and you're letting the speed of opposing teams get the better of you. The Bruins currently are second in the league in the number of penalty minutes they accute. They have accumulated, only behind the Calgary Flames. The Bruins are the number one team in the league in affording or providing play opportunities to the opposing team. Second behind them is the Calgary Flames. Now, I don't know how you'd think that you're going to stay in a potential playoff scenario when you're constantly going in and out of the box and you're not allowing your skilled players to stay on the ice consistently.

21:22 Speaker 2: It's starting to tick me off, and I'm sure it's starting to tick off the coaching staff as well.

21:29 Speaker 1: Get your shit together, Yeah, you can't have what happened last night in the San Jose game happen every single game in that every game. Now we're killing off five on threes, right, but not even just the constant penalties. But what ends up happening is in the final six minutes of a game, you finally finally get David Poster knock out there, and they finally are a to make a big push, and a good push, a very concerted effort, I would say, of sixty minutes of hockey, the final eight minutes of the game were the only exciting interesting minutes of this game because they finally had their best players out there making the push.

22:21 Speaker 1: I mean, there were some beautiful plays that happened in those eight minutes, but you cannot rely on the pressure of the clock running out to win your game. You cannot do that. But they had to in this case, not because of game mismanagement in that you know, they were even strength and just didn't do anything until the end, but they had to do it because they didn't have the guys who can score the goals on the ice until literally the end. They need to get their act together.

22:54 Speaker 2: It's no surprise but these last four games penalty of building up, building up both. I mean it started in the Montreal game and they came out ahead in that, right, okay, but the building up, building up. It's no surprise that David Pasternach in this four goal this four game stretch that we have referred to, he has no goals, he only and he has one Assistabaka's got no goals, and he's a minus three player because again he's he's killing penalties as well, and so for him if he's killing a penalty, but he's aligned with David Pasternach.

23:32 Speaker 2: It's not like you can keep Pabozaka out there because you got you want to throw pasta back out there as quickly as you can. It has this domino effect where you can't consistently generate the offense that we we we know can be generated by the stronger players on this team if they're spending most of their time sitting on the freaking bench because the p Q units have to be out there on a regular referrent basis. It's not a recipe. And again you know this is not rocket science, but it's not a recipe for sustained success.

24:08 Speaker 1: No, Hampus. Lindholm had twenty seven minutes of ice time last night. He played thirty shifts twenty seven minutes, twenty seven minutes. Riya Nikita Zadorov played the next most amount of minutes in the game and only had twenty two.

24:26 Speaker 3: But b Lindholm is one of the knuckleheads who well, yes, he was one of the knuckleheads and taking one of those penalties where okay, you cross check the guy, you have him down, the ref let.

24:38 Speaker 2: That go, and then you proceed to throw another crosscheck on him. Hampus, what did you think was going to happen? Because they let the first one go, You had him down on the ice. There was no reason for you to go at him a second time. That's what I'm talking about, undisciplined stuff like that. Stupid, that was that's stupid.

25:00 Speaker 1: Yes, I agree, but regardless, he's on the first penalty killed unit. So you can't have you just can't have a player, even a defenseman, playing that amount of time and expect him to just be fine and bounce back. At his age, you know he's a little bit older. He's not old, but he's not twenty two playing every other game and they're flying across the country today to play on Long Island. Like, what are you doing? You are not You're not taking care of your teammates.

25:36 Speaker 2: No, no, and tell me if this worries you, because in the last four games, the last four games, camphus Lindholme has been averaging over twenty three minutes of ice time. Nikita Zadora is not too far behind him. Now again, I know these guys and machines and they're fit, and you know they're they understand the grind of the season.

25:57 Speaker 1: The season is long, the season is long.

26:00 Speaker 2: But my god, how are you going to get through an eighty two game season like this?

26:04 Speaker 1: And you're right, Zadorov against the Kings. He had twenty six minutes, Like, that's kind of long. It's kind of long.

26:12 Speaker 2: It's a lot, it's a lot, it's a lot. And I know they relish the role and you know what, good on Nikita, but he was given the A during one of these games, and well, yeah, very much earned this season. And I want to just go out on the record and saying, and I know we probably don't have a lot of Boston Bruins beat writers that listen to our podcast, but if they do, please stop referring to Charlie mcavoyd as the Bruins' best defender because.

26:41 Speaker 1: He is not. I agree, he is not.

26:44 Speaker 2: Nikita's Adoroff has been by far the Bruins' best defenseman this season, So stop it now. Okay, with the exception last night, but okay, I'm going to give him a little bit of a short leash if that kind of clay. Yes, it didn't have a great game last night, but regardless, I agree on the whole. Because we've seen that Nikita before, we gonna want to see that Nikita again. No, we don't want to see that Nikita. No, we want the Nikita that we have been seeing up until last night. That's the Nikita's door of that this team needs to stabilize the back end of the house.

27:22 Speaker 1: Yes, I agree. So before we actually get a little bit deeper into some of these games, let's just take a quick tour around the rink. One thing that kind of a piece of conversation that we've been having, certainly amongst ourselves in our discord, our Doctor of Dev's Mary Beth as you met her over the summer for our listeners. If you haven't heard her episodes, certainly go back and check it out. She does a phenomenal job keeping us informed about our prospects in the system because finally, after a number of years, the Bruins actually have very, very exciting, very promise young players in the pipeline.

28:02 Speaker 1: She'll be back for a mid season update on the Pod in January. A couple of players to keep an eye on got Chris Pelosi. He was drafted in twenty twenty three. He's currently a sophomore at Quinnipiac and he's right now second in goals in the ECAC and thirty fifth overall in the entire nc DOUBLEA. So he's the highest of all the Bruins prospects, and he actually had a hat trick the other night. He's a guy definitely to keep an eye on. Again, ECAC is not as competitive, but they've had national champions in recent years.

28:40 Speaker 1: Cooper Simpson is another one that we've talked about. He was drafted in twenty twenty five. He's playing in the USHL, and he's actually committed to the University of North Dakota, so we won't likely see him for a little bit, at least probably a couple of years. He's currently he's third in points in the entire USA, and he is eighth in all time goals scored in Minnesota high school hockey history, with one hundred and thirty nine in four seasons, averaging a goal a game. So this is the guy who's got a lot of potential that we need to keep our eyes and ears open for.

29:14 Speaker 1: Of course, James Hagens, this is the guy that everybody is chomping at the bit waiting for him for his time to come. He's our twenty twenty five first round pick. He's seventh overall, he just turned nineteen. He's at BC still for his second season, and he's doing everything we want to see him doing. He's got his point per game this season, for the past two years. Right now, he's their top player. Just in the past week he's scored twice against last year's Hockey East Champs. Humane He's consistently a good player, shows incredible hockey sense, and he's taking the lead both as a goal leader and a playmaker.

29:52 Speaker 1: And last year he played on a line with Brian Leonard and Gay Pirot, who obviously both went on to sign with their respective NHL teams after two seasons. He's been playing at wing this season, although I guess officially technically he's a center, and he's projected to be chosen for the second year in a row for the US World Juniors. And what would be key is if you recall Maria, last year, Boston Bruins were the only NHL team that did not send a prospect to juniors that was officially tied to them.

30:26 Speaker 1: Yes, that's right, that's right, and actually this year we might have four. In addition to Hagen's, will Zellers is another one. He was drafted in twenty twenty four actually by the Avalanche, and his rights were acquired by Boston in twenty twenty five as part of that coiled Parade, so he was originally committed to be U, but then he reopened his recruitment and then went to North Dakota. He's also almost a point per game player this season in his freshman year, second on the on the roster, and it's important to note that he's number one for North Dakota.

30:58 Speaker 1: Senior Ben s Dringd is having a record year since Zeller joined the team, and Stringden has already matched his stats from thirty eight games played last season. So it's not a coincidence that Zeller's is really lifting this other player up. Dean Laturno is a name that we've been hearing for the last couple of years. He was drafted in twenty twenty four. They moved him up to second line center at BC and right, and his first year was a little bit of a disappointment. I think things happened and it didn't quite work out in the way that we were all hoping.

31:27 Speaker 1: But this is finally his year. He's the third leading scorer, number one in shots, number three in faceoff wins, so massive improvement over last year, mostly because space opened up. As you know, Maria Hockey East, especially BUBC, those are stacked teams of guys who are really probably only there for one to two years before they make that leap up to the NHL. And so last year there just wasn't as much room for him, so he didn't have as much opportunity, so he didn't really produce as much. This year, with all that space, he's able to get things done.

32:05 Speaker 1: So like last year, he had planned on playing in the USHL, but a space had opened up at PC for him when Will Smith ended up signing with the Sharks. And how how fun of those two kids to watch, Celebrening and Will Smith? Like, you know, if if if Hagins fans out to be anything like either one of those kids, be fun fun to watch, I know. So another name possible World junior spot as Cole Chandler. He's in his second season with the Shewinigan.

32:38 Speaker 2: Oh my god, I can't even say this, but he's in the He's in the queue.

32:42 Speaker 1: French name Cataractus was probably completely butchered. Isn't he placed in the queue? This year he continues to develop offensively. He's always shown himself to be a playmaker, but this year he's improved his scoring as well, and he seems to have a pretty high season ceiling and he's only eighteens. You know. Another reason why we didn't really see him very very much in the fall was because of his age. And he's committed to Northeastern for the twenty six twenty seven seasons. Again, we won't see him for a little bit.

33:12 Speaker 1: He's got a little bit more cooking to do, but hopefully we'll see him at World Juniors. And then Elliot Groenwald, he's a defenseman, drafted in twenty twenty four. This is also his second year at Quinnipiac. Another one to keep an eye out as a possible for World Juniors, as he was part of Team USA's Summer showcase. A super quick rundown on some of our guys. There are more that Marybeth shared with me, so we're gonna put that out on the sub stack this week. The other piece of news around the rink.

33:43 Speaker 1: First of all, the Colorado Avalanche. I'm legit terrified this team. Listen, they I.

33:50 Speaker 2: Mean they are by far, by far, right now, the most elite team in the NHL. I don't know if they can be stopped at this point.

34:02 Speaker 1: Nobody's close, nobody's even close.

34:05 Speaker 2: They have won nine straight. Yeah, nine straight since they lost to the Bruins. Yeah, that's Saturday matinee game. They have fired off nine wins in a row. Yeah, it's pretty bonkers.

34:18 Speaker 1: It's it's I just don't see how they can be stopped. And what's crazy is in terms of their goaltending, Scott Wedgwood continues to carry this team almost entirely on his back a la goaltenders from the early two thousands, because this thirty three year old Maria, he's thirty three, not quite the spring Chicken, just a little bit, just a touch pass peak goalie age. He's played seventeen games already, he's got thirteen wins. Like you just don't see goalies played like this anymore. The curious to see if any of that slows down as Mackenzie Blackwood gets going again, because he was out for a while with some with an injury.

35:08 Speaker 1: So I mean, I'm not following the Abs close enough at this point to know what their plan is with him.

35:14 Speaker 2: Do you want to know what he's getting paid this season to do what he's doing for the Avalanche?

35:20 Speaker 1: Scott Wedgwood, what is he getting paid? One point stop.

35:24 Speaker 2: It live million dollars one point five for this season is what I'm seeing here.

35:32 Speaker 1: You know, they say that goaltending, that the goaltender, it's the most difficult and it is the most important position in hockey, and yet it is consistently the most I think, under paid, under valued position in the NHL. Because that's highway robbery. I think of him, I think Alex Lion.

36:01 Speaker 2: I know, it's highway robbery, right, And so this falls right into the lap of pundits who say, oh, you don't need to pay eight million dollars, eleven million dollars, twelve million dollars to a goalie. Wedgwood is hot right now. Why would you take him out of your lineup when your team is a wagon right now?

36:22 Speaker 1: I wouldn't do it. Well. And what's astonishing too, Scott Wedgwood is currently only making one point five. He had a contract extension, one year extension that only for next season, bumps him up to two point five. Meanwhile, meanwhile, and this is the guy they signed. Meanwhile, Mackenzie Blackwood is currently let's see one two. He's in the first year of his five year contract. They acquired him via trade, and he's making five point twenty five.

36:54 Speaker 2: So make it make sense? Any I mean, and again, that's not crazy money, right a starting goalie given what you know we have seen transpired here in Boston and New York with Chasterkin, with Chasterkin, but what what a freaking bargain? Now, yeah, you have the likes of Kill mccarr playing in front of you as well, you put a really good team in front of your goaltender. But even still talk about a freaking bargain.

37:26 Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I mean, if we want to even go so far as to look at goals save above expected. Now we've been talking, we've been talking about that in our last couple of snapshots, which is a really good way to determine just how good a goalie is independent of the guys in front of him. He has a plus nine goals saved above expected, which is just that's an insanely good number. That's an insanely, insanely good number. It means he's able to stop nine more goals than you would have expected an average goalie to be able to stop in any given game at this point.

38:05 Speaker 1: And he's played seventeen games, so it's a positive trend.

38:08 Speaker 2: I mean, again, you know we can talk about right, is this a sustainable pace.

38:14 Speaker 1: It's not a fluke at least right now. Is it sustainable? I don't know, because that's a lot of games already for a goalie.

38:20 Speaker 2: We've experienced firsthand seeing a team that's an absolute wagon in the league. We know how that story ended. But for the time being, when you're looking to find some separation in the league and pinpoint, okay, what are the teams that you want to aspire to have the same type of standard that the Avalanche? I mean, crazy good right now? Crazy good?

38:46 Speaker 1: Yeb now, speaking of goalies, also some around the rink news this kind of flu a little under my radar. I only kind of vaguely heard about this, but Connor Hellibuck is going to be out for a few weeks for quote unquote minor niecey four to six, right is that four to six to deal with something that was nagging him since training camp. They want to get him set up a squared away early. Totally get it. That's a bit of a surprise. It'll be interesting to see how the Jets kind of move on without him for pretty much almost almost all the way to the break, So he'll have just a little bit of time back for the Olympic break and he heads off to Italy.

39:28 Speaker 1: And then the other big piece of news, the NHL followed their own rule, because you know, we know that they don't always like to follow their.

39:36 Speaker 2: Own They like to get a little creative sometimes with their own rule interpretations.

39:41 Speaker 1: Yes, but Miko Rantonin was suspended one game because it's an automatic suspension if a player receives two misconduct penalties in the physical infractions category before playing in forty one consecutive regular season league games. He's got to sit out a game because of a boarding call against let's see the Flames forward Matt Coronado. And then also he got a game misconduct against the Islanders after boarding Alexander Romanov. So I don't know what this guy's doing. He's too talented to be making idiotic plays like that.

40:19 Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, not my team, not my problem. Not my team, not my problem. And I.

40:27 Speaker 2: Threw that in there because it just seems like we have we haven't had any suspensions to speak of, no, which is the less I hear from player safety, the more I like it, because they're talk out of both sides of their mouth, and in this instance, we didn't even need to hear from them because it was an automatic thing, so it wasn't as if they had anything to review and make a decision on. It's just part of the rule. And so he will. He will miss the Stars game against the Edmonton Oilers tomorrow night.

40:59 Speaker 2: And again you know, the Stars are the Stars are up in the standings as well too. They're they're off to a decent start. But be that as I may. As you said, not our player, not our team, not our problem.

41:12 Speaker 1: I like it. And then also the Boston Fleet kicked off their season and it was quite the game. They had a win two to nothing over Montreal on Sunday, and so here's hoping that they have a good season because they've got a lot of new people on the team and I liked what I saw, thank you.

41:33 Speaker 2: They've got Captain Newkoch trying to get get back in the saddle after you know, losing some key players to an expansion team.

41:42 Speaker 1: So we want, we want to give the team they're just they're just dues. During our podcast, so I know, we had a lot of news to talk about, especially with the Bruins. We've talked about our primary issues with this team. At this point, I think instead of going, you know, through each of the games, because a lot of these, with the exception of the Kings game, the San Jose game, the Anaheim game, it was frustrating.

42:08 Speaker 2: Frustrating that's the definition for those two games.

42:12 Speaker 1: Frustrating the lack of discipline, right, I mean, we said last week the expectation was you got to get three points, you can and should get six points, and the Bruins walk away from California.

42:27 Speaker 2: With two points.

42:29 Speaker 1: Not great, frustrating as hell because of all the reasons we've already discussed. I'm not going to beat a dead horse because again, this is a long season and no.

42:40 Speaker 2: But we we can focus on some takeaways and areas areas of concern, yep. Right, so we're going to push aside the injury part of it, yep, because it should be a next man up mentality. So we we we touched on the penalty statistics, yes, and I don't know how you think that you're going to come up with a recipe for success when you're creating in and out of the penalty box. Now, the other thing that I'm going to bring up, this is not the first time that we have had this conversation on this podcast. And it's not the first time that this has been a problem.

43:17 Speaker 2: Director Directly related to a Boston Bruins roster is lack of scoring because if it's not from Morgan Geeky right now, I don't know where you're getting your goals, folks. Now you're basically getting not much of anything now from the bottom part of your lineup. And now because Marco obviously it was a concern from Marco Sturm because during this West Coast trip he split up Morgan Geeky and David Pastronach with hopefully I think he thought a two front process. I'm trying to get avel Zaka going with David Pasternach, but also get some scoring out of Morgan Geeky.

43:58 Speaker 2: Well, Morgan Geeky hasn't skipped to be You don't mean now he's still scoring. Yeah, right, he's still scoring. But now you've got David Pasternach who hasn't had a goal in the last four games, You've got pavel Zaka has got one assist, and you're really not getting anything else. It's a random okay, yeah. Riley Toups scored the lone goal against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night before they left the West Coast on this trip.

44:26 Speaker 1: Not great.

44:27 Speaker 2: It's a problem. It is, it's a problem, and it's it's it's it's starting to mount. The nagging problem for me is starting to mount. And it's something that I know we all suspected would be an issue for this team. And I think early on we were all taking a bit of we were unclenching our guts a little bit because we were getting some scoring from other people. Right, Yeah, when you're scoring five goals in a game and you're still not taking away points from that game is but that's a different story.

45:04 Speaker 2: But we're getting four or five goals. Now we're dipped down to getting two one. Right, I'm worried. You've got these upcoming games that you have coming up against the Islanders Rangers and a home and home with the Red Whites. Now the Rangers can score apparently a boatload of games goals on the road, right, so you have them coming into your house the day after Thanksgiving. The Islanders are on a tear themselves right now. And for the love of God, can someone make sure that Kyle Paul Mary isn't left alone in front of our net because he has been a pain in the Bruins.

45:44 Speaker 1: Ass no matter what team he has played on.

45:48 Speaker 2: So I'm a little worried about this this stretch of games.

45:53 Speaker 1: And I think, you know, I'm trying to think of for little stretches of time, For stretches of games. The Bruins have been really good with one aspect of the game. Previously, they were able to score a lot of goals, but their defense was super leaky and that was a problem. Now their defense seems to have gotten a little bit tighter, but that scoring has dried up, and we know they have secondary scoring. Like you said, we've seen the secondary scoring. Why it's not producing, I can't tell you because I.

46:31 Speaker 2: Think I think Victor Person and Casey Middle being out of the lineup has had an impact on that because oh well, yeah, I forgot about him. They were developing, Yeah, some really really good chemistry. Arbudson was starting to heat up. Now, yes, can you can you keep the dam from breaking until you get those guys back. We don't know when those guys are coming back or what their status We don't know, And I don't know if you can continue know what the injury was to Casey Middle, We don't see it. Can you tread water or can right.

47:06 Speaker 2: You may be able to tread water, but you have got to friggin state out of the penalty box, and that's the key for them.

47:15 Speaker 1: I think that they, in spite of not having Arvidson in middle stat which I are, have shown at this point how critical they are to this team reaching its full potential. Like as much as the talking heads were complaining about Casey Middlestat being this you know, waste of space, now, clearly we're kind of a little worse off without him, but I think we're okay as long as we're not in the box. You just cannot be in the box because if we have to see this Bruins team rely on top guys to get them through this rough injury stretch, those top guys have to be on the ice right period, end of sentence.

47:57 Speaker 1: And you're not getting a lot of offensive contribution from the defenceman on this team no right now. And again it's because those key defensemen who could potentially contribute offensively are either injured or they having to play twenty six twenty seven minutes a night because you can't stay out of the freaking penalty box. And in some instances those key defencemen are the perpetrators of said penalties. So like it's just this vicious cycle, and I'm sure it's driving the coaching staff.

48:32 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, crazy. Then you can see the look on Maco Sturm's face when these penalties are being called against the Bruins, the look.

48:39 Speaker 1: Of if steam could be coming out of his ears, it would right right, right, right right. So aside from those things, I mean, I think one stat that you pointed out to me was that against the La Kings, the Bruins were also destroyed in the faceoff dot. I think they.

48:58 Speaker 2: On the whole, the Ruins do pretty well in the faceoff dot.

49:03 Speaker 1: They've they recovered relatively nicely in their post Bergeron era without him. But this is a team that is also very reliant on as long as the faceoff wins are good, then you will see positive results kind of come out of that. Otherwise they're going to be struggling for much of the game. And while I'm not saying that the King's game was was definitely not a slog fest, I mean, it was a very very good, like great matchup. It was.

49:34 Speaker 2: It was a very good game it was, But again, we're not for more the Morgan Geeky Show.

49:40 Speaker 1: Were it not for the Morgan Geeky Show.

49:41 Speaker 2: The rest of the team was not able to produce.

49:45 Speaker 1: And for me, a lot of times, if I'm watching a game and I'm thinking, why is this not clicking? Why is this not happening, I'll go and I'll look at the face off win percentage and if I see that it's in the toilet that that's usually like, Okay, that's what's going on.

50:01 Speaker 2: And that's why I was really aggravated about the Anaheim game. Yeah, because statistically the Bruins were the better team in every statistical category of that game. So, but they lost it in the first period because they fell behind two to nothing quickly. Yes, and again, is it more kink geeky She scores you know, two power play goals in that game. You're in really good shape in the third period of that game, where you're looking at Okay, you can come out of this game with a point at a minimum to start this road trip off, and then you end up losing in regulation.

50:42 Speaker 2: But so it's just and again, maybe this is the nature of the beast that we were supposed to expect with this team, I guess. But what I didn't expect is the number of freaking penalty minutes that this team is racking up. It just it just has to stop. I don't know how you do that. Above my pay grade. This coaching staff needs to get it figured out with these players because it can't keep happening. Speaking of penalties, then let's start with the penalty box. What's in the penalty box this week?

51:14 Speaker 1: Maria?

51:14 Speaker 2: What I just taught everything that? I just everything? Okay, all of the above, all of the above, the number of penalty minutes, and the fact that you've got to figure out a way to manufacture while scoring.

51:27 Speaker 1: It can't.

51:29 Speaker 2: We said this last year, David Pasternak can't do everything. This year, Morgan Yeeky can't do everything.

51:39 Speaker 1: So facts facts, Yeah, I agree on all fronts. I mean, this just was beyond frustrating. Not as bad as the last Western road trip that the Bruins were on, so it was better.

51:55 Speaker 2: But it wasn't good.

51:57 Speaker 1: So I don't know. They have another far West trip they still have to take the season, so maybe the third one will be good. I don't know. But stick taps, I mean there's only one. There's only one. I mean, I don't know. Right, ah the way I mean. I guess if.

52:14 Speaker 2: We want to be fair, we well one provide stick taps to the penalty kill units because they, for the most part, the p K has been decent. When when you're able to kill off like five on threes and not get scored on, I think that's something to add a boy at a boy at a boy.

52:38 Speaker 1: Don't do it again, but good job well, And I would also throw in a stick tap to Jeremy Swayman. He's he's been everything that the Bruins need, but he can't fix what's happening in front of him.

52:52 Speaker 2: So no, corporate Salo and Swiman can't score goals for this team.

52:57 Speaker 1: No, they can't score goals. And Swayman's best game was in LA and I kind of predicted that in the snapshot because although I.

53:08 Speaker 2: Didn't like the angle, I didn't like his angle on that first goal last night in San Jose.

53:12 Speaker 1: I thought he should have had that. Yeah, well, he's forgiven though, because the idiots in front of him should have done their job. He's lucky on that one. I'll give him that one. But you know, the battle of the goaltenders with Kemper and uh Swayman and even Lucas Gostel. He's a fantastic up and coming goaltender. And the only one that I and my little bit of issue with is the fact that once again it feels like the Bruins made a relatively unknown goaltender look like it as in a trophy candidate.

53:41 Speaker 1: But he did.

53:42 Speaker 2: I mean, you know, the kid for San Jose, he made thirty four saves.

53:47 Speaker 1: You know you got to give him this too. He was I agree, it was better than your goalie because he led in less goals, so right, and there were so many chances where it was like, how the heck did that not go in?

53:58 Speaker 2: That was the hockey gods acting at us. Mister high and wide? Who who on this team is mister mister missed the net with a shot? Mister go wide with the shot? Ravels up?

54:09 Speaker 1: I just like two, can you hit the freaking net? No? No, no. We've got coming up between now and the next time we chat. We've got the final game of this road trip on Long Island. On the twenty sixth, twenty eighth, they play the Rangers at home, which again we will do the preview because especially that game, this is their first matchup this season. Yes, always love an Original Six, always love to see them play the Rangers, and the Rangers.

54:42 Speaker 2: Are dangerous on the road. And this should be a traditional game to the NHL. All right, just make this your traditional right Black Friday game. Okay, two Original six teams, let.

54:55 Speaker 1: Them go at it. Okay, just leave that alone. Don't touch it. The NFL has traditional games played on Thanksgiving. The NHL should have this game on Black Friday every year, and then on the twenty ninth and on December tewod They're playing the Red Wings both home and away, home and home. So this, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, is the last team in the division that they have yet to play correct everything they've played everybody else. I believe you are correct. I believe you are COREERCT.

55:34 Speaker 2: And Detroit has themselves a little team, so they do. This is going to be a big test, a big challenge for them because A it's divisional, and b the Red Wings are doing pretty well. Boston actually has a division of well, some very good teams and some very bad teams. And as I like to always say.

55:57 Speaker 1: A Toronto loss is as good as a Bruins win.

55:59 Speaker 2: And they are currently in dead last place and I love it. Oh some. Yeah, there's some stuff going on in Toronto. They are yep, they are reeling. They are reeling there and I think all of Canada was termed topsy turvy because they think them Canadians beat the bag out of them.

56:19 Speaker 1: Yep. And then, just as kind of a heads up, looking at injury report of the teams that Boston will be playing against. Some key players for the Islanders that are out. JG. Pajo he's out. No comments Romanov Obviously. Romanov is out with his shoulder issue. He's basically done five to six months. He's cooked the Rangers.

56:47 Speaker 2: But I believe the Islanders have won three out of the last four, so yes, but they are doing well.

56:53 Speaker 1: The Rangers. They've got Will Borgan. He's out. He's on IR. He went on IR, I believe on the twenty third. So they will not be seeing him. I don't think they can, right, it's.

57:05 Speaker 2: Got to be like a week.

57:07 Speaker 1: JT.

57:07 Speaker 2: Miller, that lazy bum. He's day to day whatever. And Matt Rempy he's expected to according to this, he's expected.

57:15 Speaker 1: To return today. Yeah, but he doesn't impress me much. Matt Rempy, he's out. He's on the IR, but his is dated the tenth. Oh, but he was placed on the LTIR. My my apologies. He's been placed on LTR, so good whatever. And then in Detroit it's again pretty minimal. They don't have any injuries of any just the players right and by the time Boston goes to see them. I mean, anything can change because the Red Wings game is in eternity away based on how this season is going. But any final thoughts, Maria, I mean, we've aired our grievances today, we have aired our grievances.

57:59 Speaker 2: I've got that off my chest. I am sick of seeing the penalty box parade. I wanted to stop. Yeah, I wanted to stop. I also would like to wish all of our listeners and followers a very happy Thanksgiving. Yes, very happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for you, Maria, and I'm thankful for our listeningful for you as well, our opportunity here to say what we say what we want to say about our beloved Boston Brewers.

58:31 Speaker 1: Absolutely make sure you like and subscribe for more content, and be sure to leave a rating and review to help other Bruins 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 MK dot substack dot com. As always, go Bees, Bees, you still still