Boston Bruins Playoff Postmortem: Bruins Playoff News | Ep. 141

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me? Please? I need something to do. I'll rock sending out a trough of bocking.

0:14 Speaker 2: This says, here's a chance, pop right down with goalie scars.

0:22 Speaker 1: Oh my one a.

0:23 Speaker 2: Move by the rookie too.

0:24 Speaker 1: On one plaster not moving in Marsha, get its oil dances.

0:30 Speaker 3: Ain't podcast at home right away?

0:33 Speaker 2: In Corners pastor Chester?

0:40 Speaker 1: What's that for?

0:41 Speaker 2: Boston?

0:50 Speaker 4: Welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruins Tape to Tape. I'm your host today, Caroline with a K. It's May and the Boston Bruins are no longer playing playoff hockey. But before I continue on with talking about the sadness that is being a Boston Bruins fan, let's welcome in my fantastic.

1:10 Speaker 2: Co host, Maria. Hey, Maria, how's it going. Oh it's okay. I'm probably going to talk about the sadness that is being a Boston sports fan this weekend. We're here, we woke up, we got out of bed, we're breathing.

1:24 Speaker 4: Somebody's got a sage TD garden or hire some ecti, which is most of all.

1:30 Speaker 2: They need to put the yellow steats back in. Number one melts the ice entirely, burn the parquet floor and start all over again.

1:39 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a bad luck spot right now in Boston. If you like those haunted history tours. I'm sure that's the scariest place in the entire city right now for anyone who's not aware of what we're alluding to. On Friday night, the Bruins playoff chances ended abruptly with yet another lost on home ice. And then we had our Boston Celtics who were up three games to one on Philadelphia seventy six ers and proceeded to lose Game seven on the TD Garden parque floor. So who is more miserable than we are here in Boston right now.

2:19 Speaker 4: Oh, and then we have the head coach of our football team.

2:23 Speaker 2: Who is dealing with a myriad of cheating allegations, and a Boston Red Sox team who absolutely sucks. And now you have young players arguing with veteran players or trying to show each other up on the field. For those who have been waiting to enjoy our misery across the sports world, here you have it. I am giving it to you on a platter, and we deserve all that we have coming our way of this form.

2:53 Speaker 4: They should enjoy it now because if anything has taught me in sports, the city of Boston will not be down for long. It's the city of champions for a reason. But besides being sad that the Boston Bruins season is over, we can be happy to some extent that there is still hockey to watch that will be significantly less stressful for us because it doesn't matter what happens here on out, and you don't have a dog in the fight. It's funny how enjoyable the sport and the games can be to watch. Indeed, and of the three teams facing elimination on Friday night, the Montreal Canadians and the Tampa Bay Lightning were the only team game that actually resulted in a Game seven, and that happened just the other night, and it was a history in the making kind of game.

3:48 Speaker 2: When a professional hockey team who was in a game seven can only put what was the final shots on back, maybe nine shots on goal, and you win the free game. If you're the Tampa Bay Lightning, you're sitting there going how the hell did this happen?

4:06 Speaker 4: I hope that the Bruins coaching staff and Bruins players paid very close attention to how the Habs were able to accomplish something like that, because this season, Boston, at least at the very end, was quite good at getting very few shots on goal, but they couldn't win.

4:25 Speaker 2: And the Sabers will be playing the Habs in the second round.

4:30 Speaker 4: We've already seen Carolina and Philadelphia get started, and by the time this episode airs, they'll already have had their second game. But that one is going to be an interesting series to see how Philadelphia responds, because holy cow, did they get steamrolled.

4:46 Speaker 2: Yeah they looked a little bit deer in the headlights. Yeah, same one against Carolina. Rip Tockett is a very good, seasoned coach. I'm sure that he'll have his guys a little bit more or alert to what's going on. And Ladar didn't have a great game either, and to some degree he was left a bit high and dry in some instances. So that'll be interesting to see how that plays out. I'm hoping Philly gives the Kynes a little bit more of a run for their money, but we'll see. Carolina's been there, done that on more than one occasion, and this is new territory for the Philadelphia Flyers.

5:24 Speaker 4: It sure is, and Carolina their ability to just absolutely pepper the opposing team with shots. The only way I can see Carolina being stopped is besides their annual choke fest in the third round. Is a team that is exceptionally strong defensively with exceptional goaltending. That's really all that it's going to take. And there doesn't seem to be very many teams out there that have a defensive structure that is particularly built to play against a team like Caroline, which is fascinating because the way that Carolina plays isn't new.

6:03 Speaker 4: This is how they've been playing with Rod dbod for quite a while and I don't know, nobody seems to have created some kind of opposing defensive structure against that.

6:15 Speaker 2: And to your point of last week's episode, Freddie Anderson has been fantastic. So in the Last Out.

6:21 Speaker 4: In the last Colorado and Minnesota have kicked off their series as we suspected, It's probably going to be a well matched fight.

6:32 Speaker 2: Fifteen goals in the first game, where was the defense and the gold spent that game?

6:39 Speaker 4: That was an interesting tone setting game, especially with the fact that Colorado has been sitting and waiting and same thing with Carolina. They've been sitting and waiting and you never know how that's going to go.

6:49 Speaker 2: I know it didn't appear to be much rest in either one of those teams, but yeah, I was a little shocked by that nine to six score game one. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah.

7:00 Speaker 4: And then we've got the Vegas Golden Knights playing Anaheim and I'm sure that's going to be a snooze fest. And as a hockey fan, I can tell you that is not one of the games I will be staying up to make an effort to wow.

7:12 Speaker 2: I have very little interest in watching that game. I think I was more interested in hearing the postgame comments by Leon d Reisidel and Connor McDavid. I'm not sure how things are going to turn out in Edmonton at this point where you've got both of your superstar players, that your franchise has taken steps backwards.

7:33 Speaker 4: That's not something you want to hear. And it does make you wonder what kind of message they were sending, either on purpose or not, to ownership and management, because we're going to take it right back to the Boston Bruins, because our very own franchise player, David Posternach had some interesting things to say after the game on Friday, where he said, of course, it's disappointing turning thirty in a couple of weeks, had one sniff at the Cup. So far, it gets harder every single year. You don't want to waste any opportunity.

8:08 Speaker 4: What do you make of his comments?

8:12 Speaker 2: Is there anything to read into it? Should we be worried? What I read into it is a cleef for help to management. Get this guy some fucking help. We have been dealing with conversations around this team's lack of scoring for years now. I'm not talking one season, two season, four years. You can't keep shopping in Filean's basement and putting contracts that are like a noose around your neck against your cap space and thinking that the results are ever going to change. The reality is the Bruins lost to the Buffalo Sabers because they couldn't score more goals than the Buffalo Sabers did.

8:56 Speaker 2: That's the reality of it. You couldn't score because you don't have proven finishers on this team, and Morgan geeky, disappeared when you needed him most. Elias Lindholm disappeared when you needed him most. Pavel Zaka disappeared and David Pasternak is subject to criticism. I understand that he is your superstar, but he's also the one player on your team that every other team knows they can just target and try to shut him down and prevent him from doing what he is capable of doing. So to me, how I read that is a crime.

9:35 Speaker 2: For help.

9:35 Speaker 1: Now, at some point, Sweeney and Eely need to shult to get off the park, shit, or get off the park and address the gaping pole that this team has had for quite some time.

9:47 Speaker 2: Agreed.

9:48 Speaker 4: I think it's been particularly frustrating seeing David Pasternak this last season.

9:54 Speaker 2: But I'm not saying that he.

9:55 Speaker 5: Was relegated to a playmaker's role. I think that that's no, no, But he he knowledge to that he should have taken more shots. It's easy to say that now, and when you now, you want to say, well, why did you pass up?

10:08 Speaker 2: Right? Why did you pass up? You wonder why people are like fancy in the building and boeing, It's because you guys are passing up open looks. I don't know if it's a mindset, a philosophy, or what the hell the problem is?

10:22 Speaker 4: I mean, I wonder was he passing the puck all that frequently or making these plays all that frequently, and an effort to diversify the goal scoring to see can we develop can we get other people going? The problem that I've had over the last five years has been the fact that you will have flash in the pan players and we just with the exception of David Pasternak, we just have not had or seen in a very long time, another player outside of Pasta who is a reliable offense ive threat. We had the second line this season, they.

11:04 Speaker 2: Were they were one of the best lines in the league. Yes, but then Arvidson goes out with an injury, right right, But this came It feels like it came out of nowhere. So how can I then assume that is the real deal? Because we've seen Pavel Zaka be mediocre in the scoring department for a very long time and then all of a sudden he is great. We saw Charlie Coyle be really.

11:32 Speaker 4: Disappointing for a long time and then all of a sudden he was great for one or two seasons. Brandon Carlow mediocre for a really long time, and then one or two seasons he was great, and then they.

11:42 Speaker 2: Just drop off. Where are these players?

11:46 Speaker 4: And I hate to always go backwards because it doesn't do us any good. But we don't have a new David Krachi. We don't have a new Patrice Bergeron or a new Brad Marshan. We don't have those players who you look at them and they are great year after year. We just don't see that consistency on this roster. So there is no reliable depth and you're at the mercy of well, I hope this is a good season, and it's likely that if you have these flash in the pan guys, they will go hot and cold. And that's exactly what happened with that second line.

12:24 Speaker 4: I think management understand. Management should be well aware of the fact that it was malfeasance on their part not to plan for the day that Teres Bergeron and David Craigie were no longer Boston Ruins. And now you're trying to piece snail something together in the hope that lightning strikes and that you, oh, well, aw, look we found the guy, right, we just found the guy in a deal. And those guys don't fall off of trees easily, right, they don't. They don't now you've got James Higgins, who will see what he is able to bring to the table in his first full season.

13:04 Speaker 4: There was no reason to throw that kid into this scenario right now, Absolutely none, as far as I'm concerned. Look, I'm the one who at the start of the season, and I'll call myself out, my prediction was they wouldn't even make the playoffs with the roster that we were looking at in front of us. So for them to have played as decently as they did throughout the course of the regular season and to make the playoffs, they proved me wrong. What they didn't prove to themselves is that they had the mental fortitude to fight through the adversity and deal with whatever issue they have with fucking winning at home and be able to take advantage of the scoring opportunities when they presented themselves.

13:54 Speaker 2: But Alec Lyon for the Sabers played really well. Did he play better than Jeremy Swayman? Ok? Maybe statistically he did, but he wasn't challenged as well as Swayman was. If you had been able to get him moving from side to side, but you couldn't even manage that. So that is an inherent flaw on you an inherent criticism on you and the roster construction, and also credit to the Buffalo Savers for their defensive structure. Both things can be true, but what is more frustrating is that there was too much and we've said this a lot during the regular season, too much one and done offensively, too much of it.

14:41 Speaker 2: You're not going to have any sustained success with that kind of a recipe, yes, exactly.

14:48 Speaker 4: And I think even when we're talking about the fact that the Bruins' management has not been able to bring in anybody who is sustaining any kind of offensive prowess, it seems like the only players who they were able to get that out of were all players that they drafted themselves. Maybe that means James Hagen's is gonna eventually.

15:14 Speaker 2: Fill one of those roles.

15:15 Speaker 4: But I think one of the things that Ruins management scouting whoever they like, to try and find that diamond in the rough. And look, I think that we've gotten lucky, and we've certainly found some of those diamonds in the rough, but unfortunately, it still doesn't seem like any of them are actual diamonds. They've been I don't know, some kind of precious.

15:44 Speaker 2: Gem, ruby, an emerald, but not one of them is a diamond, right.

15:48 Speaker 4: I'm thinking of Morgan Geeky, and again I'm not in disagreement with the contract that he landed. I am not dissatisfied with Morgan Geeky. I just think he's not been tested long enough.

16:03 Speaker 2: He's not a big game player. No, he's not a big game player. I think this is an opportunity for us to be honest about what we saw. And I expected him to step up as he had done during the regular season, and he was virtually invisible. You want me to encourage the resigning of Pavosaka, I don't know. I don't know because I don't see enough from these players that instill the faith that I want these guys to be part of this continuous rebuild or retool or whatever the hell the Ruins organization wants to call it that they're doing right now.

16:44 Speaker 2: And I'll throw Charlie Macka going into that bucket too. You know, i'n't been shy about saying that he is, to me, one of the most overrated defensemen that I have seen in my long tenure of watching Bucky. To me, a franchise altering defenceman is Kale mcar Charlie. You want to know Kal mccar no, And maybe that's not what the Bruins need him to be or want him to be, But I don't view him as our franchise altering defenseman. I'm sorry.

17:13 Speaker 4: And one of the other things that again I hate living in the past here, but it's what's missing when I talk about David Krachie, What's what was his nickname? What did we say, Oh, here comes playoff stretch. Yeah, not a single player until quite literally the end in David Pasternach and Ermis Wayman, although I would argue he was at such a high level anyways, not a single other player on that roster elevated their game in this playoff series.

17:47 Speaker 2: Not a single one. In my opinion.

17:50 Speaker 4: Nobody brought it. Nobody showed me that step up, that playoff mentality, that leap in performance. Nobody was ex explosive, nobody looked like they were shot out of a cannon.

18:03 Speaker 2: But none of that existed. None of that existed for me. Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Again, We're going to have these conversations during the off season because clearly there's still a significant amount of work to do in an effort to try and build a potentially championship roster. Here for the Boston Bruins.

18:25 Speaker 4: Again, Yes, and I think that the laundry list of not just their needs from a personnel perspective, there's a clear list there. There's also a clear list of changes that need to happen on the ice behaviorally, the shot taking, the penalty issues, the stick infractions. I'm optimistic to some extent because I think the issues are both fixable and attainable dots.

18:56 Speaker 2: I think the fixable part is what is extremely challenging, because if you want to fix it quickly, then you need to make a big hockey trade. Right If you're telling me that we can fix it, but we're going to fix it through drafting and patience, Okay, but who is it who have you identified that you're going to fix this problem with? Because listen, based on what David said, he's going to be thirty years old. Hey this summer, how many more hockey years does he have? Realistically, how many more hockey years does he have?

19:31 Speaker 1: Do you?

19:32 Speaker 2: And I'm talking to you, Sweeney and Neely, do you want to run the risk of having this guy who clearly wants another opportunity at a Stanley Cup. How long do you think he's going to wait around for that? How long do the people in Edmonton think that Conor McDavid is going to wait around for that before they go to their agents and say, get me the hell out of here. We're looking at another four or five years yeah before and it's so hard to get there. It is so freaking hard to get there. How long do you think these guys are going to sit around waiting for that to occur?

20:09 Speaker 4: I think I wouldn't blame a single elite player for making that request. And quite frankly, even though there was significant pain involved around it with Brad marshand, he used that same privilege last year in his benefits. Right now, it's easy to talk about because it's not realistic. It's not something that's happening right now. Marshan, like it's where a year removed. We saw that it was ultimately worth it for him in the long run, for what he wanted and why he did it. But I think it's a very real possibility that hopefully those idiots in the front office don't allow to happen.

20:45 Speaker 2: I'm sure they're very well aware of where their deficiencies are on this roster. But the question is how to get them addrussed, and how long it's going to take to get them addrussed, And what risk do you write on that your veterans like David Pasternach. Maybe they aren't, I don't know, but I think of if it's me and I'm thirty years old and I'm looking at another four or five years of potentially trying to rebuild this team, peace out, get me out of here. Yes, agreed, So let's do a real quick stick taps for the series as a whole.

21:22 Speaker 2: Jeremy Swayman absolutely told us all to have a cup of you know what because we were all very critical of him. A lot was made of the contract that he signed, but there is no arguing in my mind that Jeremy Swayman was the best Boston Bruin player in this series versus the Sabers. Oh, hands down one in agreement. I think he's the only one that I would give a genuine stick tap to. As well.

21:54 Speaker 4: For David Pasternach, let's just say he's excused from the conversation entirely.

22:00 Speaker 2: Yes and no. In my view, the leaders on this team and I'm talking about Pasta and Charlie and hanpus lind Home. They needed to be difference makers and they were not. They absolutely were not difference makers in this series. And I know you've got a mixture of vets and young kids, but those are the guys that are wearing the letters on your jerseys. When you have captains in the past or leaders in the past, the likes of which were Zadano Chara and Patrise Berjon and Brat Marshand and you physically see them just by the performance on the ice, saying to their teammates and to the fans, watch me and do as I do.

22:43 Speaker 2: Did you see any of that in this series against Buffalo? Not until it was too late. And I don't think you need to have a sea on your jersey or a lettle on your jersey to do that, but that was definitely missing.

22:57 Speaker 4: Yes, yes, but also for play off purposes. That's what your game in the playoffs requires of every player. And even in the regular season, and next week we'll talk about will do a whole season review, post mortem evaluation, but even all during the regular season, we never saw anybody take the team on their back. We saw David Posternoch do that last year, right around the time that Brad Marsham was traded away. If you follow me on my socials, you'll know that I am coming to the opinion that when it is time to name the next captain of the Boston Bruins, I think it needs to come from the outside because as much as I love David Posternach and I think he's earned it, I almost wondered if him taking on that leadership role with the departure of Brad marshand, if that the pressure of the expectations, whatever you want to call it, if that was detrimental to his game, or maybe he felt like he had to be a different player, Maybe he felt he had to be that playmaker to be a leader.

24:07 Speaker 4: I don't know, obviously, I think that it did something to his game and Boston. As much as we talk about the things that they need, the things that they were missing, he's that bird in hand, and we need to make sure that no matter what happens, he's still that reliable goal scorer. I mean, we only have the one, and we need to make sure that he's still performing in in that role. I mean, he had yes one hundred points this season, but nowhere's near the goals that we're used to and I don't know, I'm starting to feel like, whatever the decision is made, I don't think they're going to go looking outside.

24:48 Speaker 4: But I do think that it negatively impacted his performance on the ice. But penalty box is anyone not in the box?

24:56 Speaker 2: Otherwise? What about the kids? I mean, I mean the kids were the kids. I don't think they had Did they play well? Did they play poorly? I'm kind of middle of the road. They weren't very noticeable. They didn't have any type of an impact in the end results of games. So I'm not going to dump on them because I expected more from other But if we were putting our eggs all in the kid basket, then we were in bigger trouble than we thought we were in. Same thing with the fourth line. They performed well, but if you're putting all your eggs in that basket, you're in big trouble.

25:34 Speaker 2: They're in really big trouble. Yeah, I agree.

25:38 Speaker 4: I do think that Husnadinov started to become a little bit more noticeable in the final two games of the series.

25:44 Speaker 2: I liked his game.

25:46 Speaker 4: He was in a lot of places. I think he's got a lot of speed. He's also still very young, so this is not the top of his game. I think he has more to give. I think also with Freezerman, he's another one. He's young, and it's not that they are not fast enough or strong enough, but you could definitely see a lot of our more inexperienced and younger players just not as strong on the puck as someone like David Pasternach and so constantly than just being pickpocketed and pushed around because they just didn't have whatever it takes strength, physical, strength of mind, whatever it takes to be strong on the puck and maintain possession.

26:30 Speaker 2: But I'm not worried about them.

26:33 Speaker 4: I think as long as they continue to be developed properly, and I think under the guidance of Marco Sturm they will be that they'll become better.

26:41 Speaker 2: Hopefully the series was a learning experience for these younger guys. I will say, though, we do need to touch upon Charlie mclboy's actions at the end of the Guests.

26:51 Speaker 4: I want to I'm going to come out on record and say I don't care what the other guy did to you. I don't care if he boarded you to an inch of your life. I think it's unacceptable that he turned around and tried to do a truba. Yeah, it's disgusting, it's absolutely it's I'd rather have seen him try and throw a punch. No, it's shitty, it's just shitty action.

27:13 Speaker 2: It's dirty. And I understand what was done to you, what precipitated the action was dirty as well. But your stick is not a freaking weapon. And you're going to get suspended, Charlie. When you're offered an in person hearing, you are going to get a suspension. It's just a question of how many games that suspension is going to be. Yes.

27:36 Speaker 4: Ever since and I call it swinging a truba, ever since Truba walked away without any sort of repercussion for doing that to Trent Frederick a couple of years ago, it seems like any other time that it has happened since, player Safety has taken that very seriously.

27:52 Speaker 3: And because if they screwed that one up, totally screwed it up. They did, they did, and for a leader to do that again and stage just there's no excuse. There's no excuse, no not Yeah.

28:04 Speaker 2: I hope you enjoy your first three or four games watching from the eighth floor Charlie to start next season, because it's going to be I'm guessing it's going to be at least three games. I think that many we'll see. I mean, I don't know it's Charlie a first time offender. I don't know of that sort. Yes, it's not the first time he's been suspended. I don't think that factors in. I think it's just a matter of now you're going to be labeled as a quote unquote repeat offender. I'd be surprised if it isn't at least three games.

28:31 Speaker 4: But yeah, with that being said, we'll watch our Stanley Cup playoff hockey slightly sad, but at least relieved of the stress and anxiety that was watching the Boston Bruins play against the Buffalo Sabers.

28:44 Speaker 2: I'm making it known that my rooting interests moving forward are with the Buffalo Sabers. I'm not there yet. I'm still bitter. I'm not there yet.

28:52 Speaker 4: I want to see them earn, like really earn their spot, because I don't think that they were actually genuinely challenged in any meaningful way against Boston after the first two games, well, I don't.

29:04 Speaker 2: Know how much of a challenge they're going to get against a team that can only manage nine shots on goal in a game, but we shall see what the Montreal Canadians bring them.

29:14 Speaker 4: Make sure you like to 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. Any final thoughts, Maria.

29:33 Speaker 2: I know I can't. I can't even I can't even say what we normally say in closing the Bruins season is over. It ended as I expected it to end, with some bitter disappointment. That's all I have to say. I'll say it as always go bes

30:01 Speaker 4: The b