Boston Bruins Preseason: First Impressions & Roster Battles | Ep. 161

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me, please? I need something to do. Ostrac, send it out in front of Oak in this evening's game! Here's a chance potter right now and goalie scores. Oh my what a move by the rookie two-on-one Pasternak moving in with Marshawn Gannon to it SCORE! Out of the zone, Hoyle dances in backhand SCORE! Went home right wing corner Pasternak is there! He SCORES! David Pasternak wins it for Boston!

0:51 Speaker 2: Welcome in, everyone, to our first official episode to kick off the 2026 2027 hockey season. I am Maria from Watertown. I will be the host for our kickoff episode starting a whole new year of hockey. I am joined by my very excited co-host, Caroline with a K, who I know has been counting down the days until we start our fresh season here.

1:19 Speaker 1: Fresh start, fresh season for everyone. Welcome in. Thank you. It's like the first day of school. I was so excited to finally see Bruins hockey on TV, like real as close to real Bruins hockey as we've gotten so far, because I did watch some of the rookie prospects challenge game and that was fine.

1:39 Speaker 2: But this is now we're getting to the real stuff. This is the real deal. And as of the posting of this episode, we will be seven days away from the start of the season. Today is the 21st where we're recording. The Bruins officially kick off their season on September 29th with a matchup against another original six team, the New York Rangers. So kudos to the league for... kicking off the season with an original six matchup. The one negative is that it's going to be on ESPN. And so we're subject to that coverage and the game doesn't start until 8 p.m. But hey, listen, we can't have it all.

2:19 Speaker 1: But the one thing I'm looking forward to with the ESPN coverage is because of the time of year. I don't think that Sean McDonough will be calling the game because I believe at this time of year, he's still doing baseball.

2:32 Speaker 2: So Well, funny you should mention that because I do believe the MLB playoffs will be starting around the same time. And our local Boston Red Sox clinched a spot in the playoffs on Sunday by virtue of a loss by the Houston Astros. But Who cares how you get in? You get in, right? So, yeah, it's a busy time in New England. We've got the Patriots' first win of the season, the Red Sox clinched, and we've got the start of the NHL season looming in the shadows here. But, you know, we're back, folks, to our kind of regularly scheduled programming where we'll touch upon Bruins news.

3:09 Speaker 1: We'll set the table.

3:10 Speaker 2: We're going to touch on a couple of contract announcements that the Bruins have. We're going to talk about what we saw in preseason game number one against the Washington Capitals.

3:22 Speaker 1: We're going to do a quick review of rookie camp, and we'll also chat a little bit about training camp that is happening right now. But first... There's been a lot of news around the rink. Has there been news around the NHL? Some of it, very dramatic news. And, you know, we are not shy in sharing our opinion on some of these topics. And I know you are pretty fired up with regard to one particular situation.

3:50 Speaker 2: And I can't say that I blame you. So we'll start with Connor Hellebuck. What the hell is his agent and is this player thinking right now with the way that they're conducting themselves? So I'll let you go because I know you were fired up and I wholeheartedly agree with you on this. I know he's an American hero. He won a gold medal, but you're acting like a turd right now.

4:14 Speaker 1: Yeah, this... is infuriating on so many levels. I just went off in the discord when his suspension came down. So, I mean, if you've been living under a rock and you haven't heard the news, he had put in a trade request and that got out in, I believe, early August. And he said when it got out that He wasn't going to report to camp and he didn't report to camp. He had until the very end of the day on Wednesday to show up and he didn't. And so his team suspended him. Now, I've done a little bit of research in terms of what is the actual situation, what's going on.

4:57 Speaker 1: And I think the 32 Thoughts did a really great deep dive in explaining a little bit of the timeline and some of the contract and legality type things that are also happening and why did the Jets suspend him and things like that. From my understanding, the timeline was that his request for a trade didn't come until exit interviews at the end of the season. So If you're new to watching the NHL, this is going to be your first full season. What they do is kind of like when you're leaving a job at the end of whatever your season is, whether it's the end of the regular season and you're not going into playoffs or you get knocked out at a certain round in the playoffs.

5:36 Speaker 1: Part of every team is putting a little bow on the season and talking with every single player. player exit interview, what went well, what didn't go well, what do you want to see, etc. And allegedly in this exit interview with the team, Connor Hellebuck brought up trade. Now that in and of itself is standalone, not an issue, right? We have seen players, I think the best example, and there's a really great rundown of this example on what chaos, the best example is you can ask, sure. And that's going to be taken into account because you've signed a contract and that is your right to put something in.

6:15 Speaker 1: But the best example of, I would argue that being done really well, that is public that we know of, because of course we don't always know when a player is requesting a trade because it doesn't always come out. It's It doesn't have to come out. But the best example is Jake DeBrus. He put in multiple trade requests towards the end of his time in Boston, but he still came to work. He still came to work because, one, that was his obligation. That was his obligation. And you're on a contract. I'm sure part of his decision to go to work wasn't just the legal requirement kind of for the contract to go to work, but he probably had enough sense to recognize, if I just don't show up, what's this going to do to my team?

6:59 Speaker 1: What's this going to do to my teammates? How does this maybe impact others on the team, the fans? There's probably a degree of self-preservation as well because you don't want to not show up because then your life is probably going to be hell in the workplace. But also by not playing, you are devaluing yourself because your job is to be physically active. And we've seen, I'm going to give this example, but it's not exactly the same, but we saw what happened a couple of years ago when Jeremy Swayman missed training camp.

7:28 Speaker 1: And that is a completely different situation. It was his right to do that. And I stand by his right to hold out and not go. And that's very different. However... Yeah, it got resolved. But we saw what kind of season he had when it just didn't start on the right foot by going to training camp, by doing the, you know, the physical activity for goaltenders, especially the number one way to train is to play games. And you can try to replicate that at training facilities all you want. But at the end of the day, You have to play in the games.

8:01 Speaker 1: Now, there's, of course, a ton of speculation in terms of, well, why is he requesting a trade? All right. We're not going to know. And the Jets GM said, He's not going to say. However, the reason why Connor Hellebuck was suspended for not showing up to camp was basically the Jets following the letter of the law per the NHL. I guarantee you that there was consultation ahead of time going in with NHL's legal team because they review every single contract that is signed. I mean, you've probably heard when Fraser Minton's contract was sent to the league, it initially got rejected because likely of some kind of typo, right?

8:45 Speaker 1: It was some kind of administrative glitch. It was a typo of some kind. So they review every single one and had to be resubmitted. So that was in the proper format or what have you. So for protection, for the league's protection, for the team's protection, Suspending Connor Hellebuck was really all that they could do because if there was ever then they didn't do it that way, Hellebuck and his team could then say, you didn't do it right. So now I get to not do it right and things go crazy sideways.

9:13 Speaker 1: That's kind of the rundown. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things. He was well within his right to request trade. at the time that he requested it. Sure, fine. But there is a trade season and it typically runs. We have trades that happen at the beginning of the season, January to March. Why is it in January to March? Because they know how much the cap is likely to be. Because you're getting closer and closer to the end of the season. Teams are having a better sense of where they are in the playoff race.

9:41 Speaker 1: What do we need to do to get better? So there's going to be more player movement. How a player has been performing up until that point dictates their value in terms of trade. Connor Hellebuck is asking the league, all the other GMs, to pay $ 8 million for a number one goaltender during a time when they're just now trying to figure out what is our team even trying to accomplish? Right. We're going to talk about the preseason game that the Bruins played. Those games are always going to be messy because you've got new people who are trying to learn how to play with other people.

10:19 Speaker 1: And you're trying to figure out what's your team identity. So now is not a good time, Connor, to be asking to go places. And a lot of teams that are in the window, meaning they are in their prime for making a good push to go to the Stanley Cup, a lot of them have goaltending. And they have proven goaltending. So why would Montreal go after Connor Hellebuck right now? Why would the Carolina Hurricanes go after Connor Hellebuck right now? They could. Maybe they want to. But Now's not a good time, Connor.

10:55 Speaker 1: And you have effectively said that you don't respect the system, the way of doing these things, and you're not respecting the fans because you're not showing up. There is literally nothing to be done right now. There's nothing to be done. You can't go anywhere. And you are now only hurting yourself. You are hurting your value. And where are you going to go now? It's selfish. It's stupid. It's short-sighted. It's insulting to everybody, your teammates, your fans, everybody. What are you doing? Making yourself look like an idiot.

11:28 Speaker 2: And I'm usually, I'm very pro player when it comes to situations related to contracts, right? Because I think the owners have, and you know, maybe this is incorrect on my part or ignorant on my part, but To me, there are never ending pocketbooks. OK, so when you're nickel and diming your star players, I don't have any sympathy for you. However, when you already have an obligation or a contract and you haven't fulfilled your end of the bargain yet by finishing that contract.

11:58 Speaker 1: Right.

11:59 Speaker 2: And then whatever your beef is with management, I don't care when you asked for the trade or, you know, if management and perhaps management spit in his face.

12:08 Speaker 1: How do we know that? We don't know.

12:10 Speaker 2: But even still, you need to, to some degree, take the high road. You can't take your ball and go home and sit around with your thumb in your mouth and then think that you're going to get sympathy. I think it doesn't make you look good as a player and as an agent, because to me, this is something a little bit telling about a professional personality. So if you don't get your way with your next team, is that what you're going to do, Connor? You're going to take your ball and go home? And now you're trying to potentially hold your organization hostage by saying, if these reports are true, that he.

12:46 Speaker 1: Only wants to play in America. Yeah. Which, to some extent, that could be just also the teams that would even be available anyways, because most of the teams are... And maybe it is, but I'm just saying that's not a... Right, we don't know the truth.

12:58 Speaker 2: Because you made the request to your team, and then your team, with whatever your list of teams is, right?

13:04 Speaker 1: Okay, fine. You've got these teams on there, but management's job and ownership's job is to get as viable a return on the investment that they've made in you to help their team moving forward. You can't just walk in and say, dude, trade me. Right. And okay. What are they supposed to do for a bag of, for what? For what? And that's my point is there is no business to be had right now because Nobody has anything that they're necessarily willing to part with right before the season starts. And if you're going to make that request, you better damn well make sure you have an excellent leg to stand on.

13:44 Speaker 1: Because if you're sitting there and saying, I want to be on a team that wins, sir, you are a punchline for choking in the playoffs. Oh, but he won the gold medal in the Olympics. First of all, that was a superstar team. Yes, he had phenomenal saves. I'm not saying he had an easy job in the Olympics. However, he never had to worry about the guys in front of him. That's not what teams are in the NHL. And you have to get 16 wins to win a Stanley Cup. You do not need that many wins to win in the Olympics.

14:18 Speaker 1: And you're playing against other teams. And this is no disrespect to the other teams that have been working really hard internationally. Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland. Yes, they have excellent teams, but they're not as even necessarily as the teams that you're going to be playing against in the playoff. You're going to have a much more mix of talent in these other teams. So don't sit there and say you're a winner. Do not sit there and say that you're a winner because where have you been every playoff since you started playing professional hockey.

14:50 Speaker 1: Where have you been, sir? Where have you been? Now, he is an elite goalie. Let's not kid ourselves. He is an elite goalie, right?

14:57 Speaker 2: His issues in the playoffs, he's turned into a puddle on more than one occasion in the playoffs. And let's call a spade a spade. Some of us had those same concerns about him going into the Olympic tournament.

15:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, the Olympics were the outlier.

15:11 Speaker 2: And now you're throwing in another team and another player into this drama because it's been rumored that the Buffalo Sabres are interested in Hellebuck, but the Jets want to trade a goalie for a goalie. So you've got their kid out there looking in, thinking, like, what the hell is happening here right now?

15:28 Speaker 1: Yeah.

15:29 Speaker 2: And the other team that's in the mix, from what I'm reading online here, are the Panthers. Let me tell you something right now. If the Panthers, if they land Connor Hellebuck, just hand him the frickin' Stanley Cup.

15:40 Speaker 1: Because I just don't know. That doesn't, like, financially, that doesn't make sense to me. Because they just got rid of Bobrovsky because of money. Money. And then so they signed Markstrom, who is cheaper. And I just don't see financially, maybe they'll make it work. Like the things that I've heard that Barry Zito can accomplish is pretty impressive. But why would they be motivated to do that? I agree with you. I don't know where they have the money to do that. And Vegas probably would want him, but it's within management's right to say, yeah, we don't want our goalie going to divisional rival.

16:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, because that's what Vegas did with Bruce Cassidy and Edmonton.

16:24 Speaker 2: No disrespect to the Vegas Golden Knights because they were in the Stanley Cup final.

16:28 Speaker 1: No, full disrespect. Always disrespect. What goalie do they have that is close to.

16:33 Speaker 2: I don't want to say the equivalent of, because the Jets need a goalie back in return.

16:38 Speaker 1: And so, to pivot slightly, I also think that this is Slightly different to the Dylan Larkin situation, who Dylan Larkin is currently out with an injury. We're going to say, sounds.

16:49 Speaker 2: Like a little bit of a mysterious injury to me, but we'll get to that little tidbit too.

16:54 Speaker 1: That situation does make a little bit more sense to me in the sense that, look, Steve Iserman, not an easy GM, I think, to work for. I think there's been a lot of disagreement between the players and Iserman's plan. He's cutthroat. So I can understand that may have been a more personal beef, right? That's probably like what was with Jake DeBrusque, right? That was more of a personal, like, I don't like this working environment, you know, and it's been an ongoing situation in Detroit for a long time.

17:27 Speaker 1: What's kind of strange to me about that situation is, okay, I think a lot of the talking heads have drawn the conclusion that Larkin was like him or me. And then so they picked him. They got rid of Iserman, but he continued to request the trade. So I think that there's, I would believe if someone told me that there is more going on for Dylan Larkin in terms of the quality of the work environment than him being an asshole like Connor Hellebuck saying, well, I want to win. I don't know. I think there's a little bit of a mess situation happening in Detroit, not dissimilar to life for the New York Rangers or like for Boston just a couple of years ago.

18:08 Speaker 1: But That one's interesting. That one's a little bit weird. I don't really know what's going on there. I would assume that if and when Larkin is recovered, I think, He will go back on the ice. I think he's going to go. He's going to go back to work when he's recovered. If he's not traded yet, he will get back on the ice because I think he knows better. He's already lost and Connor Hellebuck's making it worse. So he's going to try and maybe mitigate that. He's going to probably have to go on the ice and get booed.

18:36 Speaker 1: But he's got to do it because it's only going to be worse if he chooses to not play. Because then he doesn't get paid, too. That's the other thing. During the preseason, players aren't getting a paycheck. They don't get paid for that. But if Carter Hellebuck continues to not play next week, the man's not getting a paycheck and it doesn't count towards the cap. So what's then the motivation for management to do anything?

18:55 Speaker 2: The big motivation is that it is a significant distraction to those players who are there and ready to go and working their asses off at training camps to either keep their jobs or earn new jobs. And it's not something that I think ownership or general managers want to have looming over their heads and then having players have to answer the same question every night. They're not going to be asked a lot of questions about the games. They're going to be asked about how do they feel about Connor Hellebuck and basically trying to figure out what side of the aisle are you on with respect to this.

19:32 Speaker 2: So I think there is, and same thing in Detroit too. I think there is some sense of urgency there. for these GMs to get this figured out before the seasons really start in earnest. And with regard to Dylan Larkin, look, we all knew that there was no choice for them but to take the captaincy away from him. There's no way that you could have a player showing up for training camp who had already basically admitted that he didn't want to be part of the organization anymore. That's in essence what you're saying when you request a trade.

20:04 Speaker 2: And then try to exemplify a leadership role when you know ultimately you're going to be moving on from this guy. And that's when the mystery illness propped up. It was the upper body injury apparently occurred during off his own training time. That to me is code for life. We're going to handle, but we don't want to see you around the facility here right now.

20:27 Speaker 1: Someone said that he tore his motivator cuff. That's a good one.

20:32 Speaker 2: So it's just, it's unusual to have situations like this in the NHL that are taking a little bit of the luster away from the start of the hockey season.

20:43 Speaker 1: One that's already going to be a pretty exciting start because of the changes to the CBA that kicked off officially on September 16th and runs through September 15th in 2030. I mean, it totally changes the preseason. So that was already going to be, I thought, pretty interesting to see. To see everybody kind of sort out. But, you know, that kind of segues us into this new way that the NHL is going to be functioning over the next four years. Four years, yeah. I'll just give a quick rundown on what this new CBA looks like.

21:18 Speaker 1: Some of them have already been implemented a little bit earlier on, so... the dress code situation, the playoff cap situation, those all were put into effect a little bit earlier.

21:29 Speaker 2: We've talked about the e-bug rule, which I think is excellent.

21:33 Speaker 1: Yep. Those have all kind of already been put into place. However, this is one that I literally learned today. No more paper transactions. So if previously teams, GMs for daily cap monitoring would submit the paperwork to send a player down to their AHL affiliate for a day or two or whatever. So that way their salary wasn't counting towards the cap. And then they would, quote unquote, call him back up. But the player never left. The player continued to practice. Those were the paper transactions.

22:04 Speaker 1: Those are no longer real. So if you do that, the player has to go and has to be at the minor league team, which is interesting because, yeah, I mean, doing the paper transactions while everybody was doing it is technically a cap circumvention practice. method. So I thought that was a little bit interesting to see. The contract term lengths, I think that's the big one that a lot of people have talked about. No more eight year deals. And we saw a flurry of new contracts that came in right before. So we went from an eight year contract with a seven year max extension down to a seven year contract six year extension structure.

22:46 Speaker 1: And of course, the 84 game season and the start of mandatory neck laceration protection for all new players. This is actually really fascinating timing to see this come in because with the retirement of Ryan Reeves, the NHL now has only Three players who do not wear visors. Three players across the entire league because they are the last ones who were grandfathered in the last equipment change. Interesting. Who are they?

23:18 Speaker 2: Do you know?

23:18 Speaker 1: Do you have notes on that? I know you're going to ask. I know these. Ryan O'Reilly, Jamie Benn, and Zach Bogosian. Okay.

23:27 Speaker 2: So last night during the preseason game, you're talking about the visors now. Apparently, and I don't know if this has been a rule or if this is a new rule, and I believe it was a penalty that was called on one of the Washington capitals, where if the official believed that the visor on the helmet is not secured properly. Meaning basically pushed up. They reserved the right to be able to call a penalty on you. Now, Razor commented about it because I just thought it was just ridiculous because just minutes before...

24:00 Speaker 2: forget who it was, who had been cross-checked by a Capitals player. We let the cross-check go. It was a clear cross-checking penalty, but we're going to whistle a Washington Capitals player because his visor isn't sitting properly on his helmet. And Razor happened to mention during the intermission that he thought that would be likely going to be one of those penalties that they'll call early in the season, but by midway through, you won't even hear of it. But it was just the irony of Really? You're going to call that but a cross check?

24:32 Speaker 2: We're going to let that go. Okay.

24:34 Speaker 1: Exactly. And you had mentioned the preseason specifically, the big changes there, reducing the number of games down to four.

24:43 Speaker 2: Four because the players agreed to two more additional regular season games. So they cut the preseason by two.

24:51 Speaker 1: And there's no more fitness evaluation, which I think the players have been talking about for years and rightly so. These fitness evaluations were part of preseason forever because many decades players were quite literally using training camp to get into shape, right? I mean, you think about back in the 70s, 80s, they were not But these guys are working. Oh, that's year round.

25:14 Speaker 2: I've listened to any number of players say, I do take this amount of time off, but this is when I get back to my regular workout routine. It's not like they're sitting around from the time their season ends until training camp starts boozing.

25:27 Speaker 1: And eating donuts. Right. And I think, having the fitness evaluation removes some degree of accountability on these players. And now taking it away puts that accountability back on the players because you have every right to do what you want to do in the summer. And I think Flyers player Mitch Koff is a great example. He had a horrible sophomore year because the dude gained 30 pounds in the offseason last year and he played terribly.

25:54 Speaker 2: We saw a similar thing happen with Jake DeBrus during the COVID year. Because as many of us did, we, because we sat around, we didn't have a lot of stimulation. We didn't have a lot of interaction. He was a single guy, unfortunately stuck in Boston.

26:09 Speaker 1: Although that one feels excusable because nobody knew what they were doing. But these guys also have a degree of pride and they don't want to look bad. And if you do poorly... your coach isn't going to play you. So I think it was redundant to have that. But the most surprising change that I also was not really aware of was the fact that there are actually limitations on who can play what games in those four preseason games. I couldn't. Yeah, I was a little dumbfounded by that. Yeah.

26:37 Speaker 2: So if Any player with 100 plus NHL games in their resume are limited to two preseason games.

26:46 Speaker 1: Yep. And the professional tryouts, those players are also limited to two. And so if you're a younger player, who is doing a PTO and you have fewer than 100 games, you're still only limited to two games that you can participate in. That's going to.

27:04 Speaker 2: Make it tough for some GMs with regard to making, and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I would think that it would make it difficult for GMs, you know, when you've got players on that little bit of a bubble, make your final roster decisions.

27:18 Speaker 1: Yeah. And this was something at the request of the Players Association. So this is something that the players were more so behind than the GMs and the management. So if you're wondering, gee, why don't I see so-and-so? That's probably why. Right.

27:32 Speaker 2: And don't expect to see your regulars. Maybe you'll see them in the third preseason game, but those guys who you know have solid roles, don't expect to be seeing them out there too much in the preseason.

27:45 Speaker 1: Yeah. Any other contracts or things you want to bring up?

27:48 Speaker 2: Just quickly, Chris Kreider. I know, I know, because it's the start of the season.

27:54 Speaker 1: Start of the year, we've got a lot to say.

27:55 Speaker 2: Chris Kreider was waived and picked up by the Montreal Canadiens. So I think that is a good pickup for them.

28:03 Speaker 1: He's got to be a pain in the ass. Yeah, as an NHL, as a hockey fan, I think that's fantastic. Just watching him in some practice where he was just doing tip-ins, like, holy cow, did the Habs make a steal out there? Because as a Bruins fan, I'm like, holy crap, this Atlantic division, which I'm going to argue continues to be the most competitive division because it's got the most depth. Holy crap. The Bruins have their work cut out for them to just stay.

28:34 Speaker 2: I think I said it on one of our previous episodes, but it is going to be a slog fest for.

28:39 Speaker 1: The Bruins in their own division. It is. Gonna need to bring their A-plus game. I mean, the Habs aren't playing around. They got a taste. They've overachieved the last two years. I think they are really going to make... a push to get to the final. It feels wrong to say this. This team, I love the players that are on this team because I'm jealous of what they have. Not just the sheer talent, but they're pretty young. What they've got going on there is something that I wish we had in Boston. You know, you're hearing from someone like Yerov Slavkovsky, who there were some criticisms, some comments about how he started to disappear later in the playoffs.

29:20 Speaker 1: And he came out and he's like, I'm prepping my body to play, I can't even remember now the number of games, but it's basically the 84 games plus the maximum number of games you can play to win a Stanley Cup. It was like 120 games. And like, that's insane. He's preparing his body for 120 some odd games. Wild! And just see that attitude and you haven't even, the puck hasn't even dropped. Right, right. Holy shit.

29:45 Speaker 2: I think he's going to be a big benefit to not only with his play on the ice, but in terms of his veteran presence for a team that's still a young, growing team. And the NHL recently released their Super 16 power rankings before the season started. And so each brighter gives their rating of each team in the league. And the Bruins did make the cut consistently as the 15th or 16th team. However, the Montreal Canadiens are ranked very much ahead of the Boston Bruins. in terms of the superpowers in the league.

30:20 Speaker 2: Now, again, just predictions. The season hasn't even started, but we have talked about the concern we have about how much better exponentially other teams in the division have gotten. We'll see where it all shakes out once the season gets going, but the Bruins are going to have their hands full night in and night out, I believe.

30:43 Speaker 1: Yep. It's going to be an internal and external battle for the Boston Bruins this season as they continue to figure out who are they as a team moving forward. We've seen glimpses. We know where they can go and what they can do, but are they there yet? No. That's pretty clear.

30:58 Speaker 2: They've started solidifying their future because they did provide Frasier Mitten with a contract extension.

31:06 Speaker 1: Yep. Seven years at $ 7. 2 million.

31:09 Speaker 2: I think that's clearly they have a belief and hope that he's going to be one of their centers of the future. So you might as well lock the kid up and let him know we got you. You're a part of our plan moving forward. And let's see his growth and development.

31:26 Speaker 1: Yeah. Like many teams across the league. GMs have been handing out pretty lucrative contracts to a lot of these young kids. And the mentality of, well, you got to work for a lot longer to get that bag. Some of it is still there, but I think that these GMs are just seeing the writing on the wall that they can see that potential and they're betting on these kids. And the contracts, like all contracts, may seem like, ooh, the first year, like, really? You're going to hand out that kind of money today?

31:56 Speaker 1: two, three years, those kids are going to look like a bargain in two or three years. Right.

32:01 Speaker 2: And they're projecting these players salaries. Lord knows how far out into the future.

32:07 Speaker 1: So yeah. Why would you want to risk it? Right.

32:10 Speaker 2: We've seen what he can do was, you know, a little bit of the deer in the headlights during the playoffs, but that's to be expected with young players. They need that growth and development and that seasoning, but there's a lot of upside to Frazier Mitten. And, and sometimes too, where, you know, you're, You're here, you're in one place, you're getting your salary. That alone should be a motivator to you, right? To say, okay, they're making an investment on me and I'm going to give them a good return on that investment.

32:40 Speaker 1: Or that should be the mindset. Exactly. And they also have a little bit of money behind Matt Patra. We've talked about this coming into this season. This is his shot. This is the final exam. Yeah. Dude, you got to shh. shit or get off the pot this season. So he was signed to a one-year $ 850, 000 two-way contract. So two-way meaning if he gets sent down to the minors, he makes a different amount of money. I couldn't find anywhere what, but So basically, league minimum, effectively, to show him what he's got.

33:17 Speaker 1: And we'll talk a little bit about him when we get to the game. But those were kind of the two last minute contracts that Boston put forward before really saying, all right, let's focus on getting started. Yeah. And you know how I feel about this.

33:30 Speaker 2: My assessment of this is like, we're giving you this year to show that you have made the changes that we need you to make in order to be a steady NHL ready player. So I think the rest is up to him now at this point in time.

33:47 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So we'll be keeping a close eye on him. Rookie camp.

33:51 Speaker 2: What did you think of rookie camp and the prospects showcasing games in Buffalo, the two games?

33:56 Speaker 1: I liked what I saw. And quite frankly, Mary Beth, we were talking with her during rookie camp and she thought she did a terrible job. But trust me, Mary Beth, you did a great job at taking some stabs in the dark of who was going to be in attendance because we did see a pretty good alignment in terms of what our guesses were and who actually got an invite because it really was kind of a question mark. And a good number of them actually also got a second invite to main camp, which was pretty impressive.

34:28 Speaker 1: So she hit the nail on the head with Biasca because that was a guy that I hadn't... out of left field for me. And that Weissman, he also was one that we were like, who is this guy? And he got invited. And both of those guys also got invited to full camp. So good on them coming out of nowhere for us and really making an impact. It was no surprise with James Higgins. I know he was a question mark. I asked if maybe he would be put through it just because of Fraser Bitton. And I think that was also a surprise even to the big talking heads out there.

35:01 Speaker 1: But I think there's a benefit to it, especially considering he deservedly took some time off in the summer. But I mean, not surprisingly, he blew everybody out of the water. So now his real test is that was his training camp. This is now him. All right, let's take it to the next level. Because soon he's going to have to play for real with the big boys in a way that's not quite the same as the couple of games that he played for Buffalo. Let's just throw those games out. We're not going to even consider those as part of his experience because that's just not really how it is.

35:32 Speaker 1: at all.

35:33 Speaker 2: So that's a good segue into the training camp because clearly there are competitions at training camp. Big competitions because when you look down at the Bruins roster, there's an abundance. There are more players than you need in both forwards and defensemen. I'm going to be really curious to see how the defenseman thing shakes out after McAvoy gets back from his six-game suspension.

35:59 Speaker 1: It's interesting to see how they are approaching these games in particular as well. So I don't know if you want to start talking about the game. Yeah, let's segue right into it.

36:12 Speaker 2: Let's dive right in. Because we had what was referred to as the kids line, right? So we had Higgins, Bustadinov, and Mitten.

36:21 Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah, if they don't get called the kid line permanently, I'm going to call them the joy line because they seem to be having a hell of a lot of fun. I'm filled with joy watching them. So they're also the joy line. But what I loved was, okay, were they a little messy? Yeah, they were a little messy.

36:37 Speaker 2: Okay, listen, they had a couple of little hiccups. Hagen's had a turnover. In our own end, it didn't cost us. But again, I'd rather do it during preseason, get it out of your system. And then when you get back to the bench, they're going to tell you why you can't do that in your own edge.

36:52 Speaker 1: These are guys Minton and Husnadinov played all last season together. So they do know each other and they have a general sense of where they're going to be. But Pagans is the new guy in here and this is a new dynamic.

37:03 Speaker 2: Boy, he's not afraid to shoot either when he gets the puck on the end of a stick, which I love. There's a shot to be taken.

37:09 Speaker 1: You know, there's a chemistry element that every player on this team is going to be going through because they have to get that chemistry and gel and kind of figure out, okay, how do we work together? When you look back on the perfection line, they were perfect because they had worked together for so long that they knew where each other was. That doesn't just happen, right? That has to build and develop. A little messy, but I loved what I saw. I am very excited.

37:34 Speaker 2: Unfortunately, they didn't, you know, they got a little bit shortchanged. because typical Bruins fashion that racked up penalties right off the bat, they had to kill off a full two minute five on three and they technically killed it off. But Washington ended up scoring at the end.

37:52 Speaker 1: Of it anyways.

37:53 Speaker 2: But I like the quickness of their movement with the puck. And you saw the opportunities that the Bruins had on the power play. The puck movement was pretty crisp and quick. And the Caps had a good number of their veterans playing in their game. The Caps goalie was fantastic. Logan Thompson, he was great. He was great last night. Absolutely great. And I was also impressed by Matt Patra. I thought he had a really good game and my beef with him has been that I felt he needed to get stronger, both physically and stronger on the puck.

38:32 Speaker 2: And he needed to have more an awareness of himself when he was carrying the puck, because quite often he'd be carrying the puck with his head down, which was subject to him getting knocked off the puck quite easily and getting clobbered. What I saw last night from him was much quicker decision and thought process with the puck, either in terms of what I'm doing with it or when I'm going to shoot it.

38:57 Speaker 1: And I thought he was pretty decent in the face-off circle, too. Yeah. Yeah. I really liked his energy. I thought he brought a high level of energy. He was noticeable on the ice when I'm just watching. He's older now, right? He's 22. And maybe that seems like, oh, well, he was 19 to 22. But I got to tell you... It's a big difference. It's a huge difference. I spent my first life working with college-age students from 18 to 22. And the amount of... Development, mental, emotional, physical development that a kid experiences in that time frame is absolutely fundamental.

39:30 Speaker 1: massive. I mean, your prefrontal cortex, your ability to make decisions is still developing until it's 25 years old. So the fact that you notice this, I mean, that tells me that it's not just that those things are happening for him, but he's actually using those things and he's doing what he needs to be doing. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I really like this kid. I hope he continues to have games like that. He does not have 100 NHL games. So he will have the opportunity to play all four games if the coaching staff wants to.

40:01 Speaker 1: I like how you would put it that after this game, nobody lost a job. But I got to tell you, there was somebody who said, was like, I will be taking this job. I will take a job. And that was Joey Abate. Oh my God. Holy crap.

40:18 Speaker 2: There was a sequence there. There was a scrum and Tom Wilson is doing Tom Wilson things, but he was doing it cleanly, letting these young guys know. OK, this is what you're going to expect when you play with the big boys.

40:31 Speaker 1: Right. When he hits you, he finishes his check and it's a hit. OK, but there was a scrum. I think it was late in the second period. It was late. Abade was not taking any of Tom Wilson's shit. Right.

40:44 Speaker 2: And I think for a guy like Tom Wilson, he's a top player in the league. And I think there's got to be a level of respect that comes with that, too, where here's this young kid and he's not taking my crap.

40:55 Speaker 1: Right. Right. Well, so I didn't I was like, I don't even know who this guy is. So this might not shock you then. He's 27 years old. He's been playing for the Providence Bruins for the last four seasons. Penalty minutes, 96, 71, 132, 62. During his time in college, 54, 63, 36. So this is a guy who he is not afraid to push back. And, you know, I was watching the game, but I was also doing some other things at the same time. And what made me then actually start to watch him more closely was the number of times I heard his name coming up.

41:32 Speaker 1: He was doing so much out there on the ice that he, I think, really made a tremendous case for himself. If anything, if he doesn't make the team, he's going to be one of the top call-ups when injuries occur. Yeah, I was impressed by what I saw from his game in terms of his energy, don't give up on a play, his temperament, his feistiness, for lack of a better word. I like it.

42:00 Speaker 2: Good on him for making himself stand out a little bit amongst a very crowded area for the Bruins.

42:07 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And I liked watching Mike DiPietro. He was good, man. He was good in that old baton. That old baton. He was really good. He was excellent. 30 saves compared to Logan Thompson at the other end or even just thinking about how Jeremy Swayman plays. He plays a little bit differently and maybe some of it is his inexperience with the NHL. He plays a little more... How do I put this? Not frantically, but he's a little less tight, but he still gets the job done. Not quite a Tim Thomas, but he was...

42:39 Speaker 1: And maybe it was just because he had to do more of those kinds of saves.

42:44 Speaker 2: I think he had to do those kinds of saves because he said in the postgame that he's still working on his movement, limiting his movement in the net. And those are things that he's looking to improve upon.

42:57 Speaker 1: So... Yeah. Yeah. A little bit more in the realm of the desperation save is how you would categorize those. But he still made them. So that's all that matters.

43:07 Speaker 2: I thought he had a solid game. Freddie Brunet, who we had heard quite a bit about.

43:11 Speaker 1: Right.

43:12 Speaker 2: And maybe I was looking for something to like really stand out with regard to his play.

43:18 Speaker 1: But I didn't see that. But I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I think that just comes with playing with Charlie McAvoy, though, if you're going to be Chucky's partner. and you're a good partner, that allows Chucky to go and be these other things. And you commented during the game how he was really driving the offense. And I think that Chucky could do that because he had a reliable partner.

43:39 Speaker 2: And then we typically, folks, we have our stick taps and our penalty box. And that kind of put Charlie, even though Charlie McAvoy had a great game and he was clearly driving the offense.

43:49 Speaker 1: For the team.

43:50 Speaker 2: It makes me even more pissed off at him that he did what he did at the end of the last season and got himself suspended for six games.

43:57 Speaker 1: Yeah. Dumbass. But as the, I think it was maybe Brick who had said it during the game, you know, he's working at top speed right now. Because this is he's going to get one more game. And I have to imagine, I mean, unless for some reason the coaching staff needs to see someone else, I would think that they're going to give him his second game. So that way he's got at least another game. Right. Before he's sitting around for six games. That makes sense. I would agree with you there. Yeah. So who is getting stick taps this week?

44:31 Speaker 2: So we're given, we talked about Joey Abate, DiPietro, he's in there, that kid line, Matt Patra. So these kids, these players, to me, these stick taps, it's not about, some of it is about what you're doing on the ice, but it's about the fact that you're taking the opportunity as it's given to you to showcase yourself. And make Don Sweeney's job really, really hard when it comes down to finalizing the roster before September 29th. And I think that Sweeney's job, even just after game one, preseason game one, is already hard.

45:07 Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Already hard. Pretty much. Very much.

45:09 Speaker 2: Hopefully these kids will get an opportunity Tuesday night again, because the Bruins will be playing the Flyers on Tuesday night in a preseason game at the TD Garden. Hopefully the Bruins can stay out of the penalty box so everyone can get regular shifts to get a real look at what we have or what we don't have, as the case may be.

45:29 Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah, I agree. The young kids, they look good, whether it's Dippy, the defense, the offense, they look good. They look like kids or inexperienced, but the.

45:41 Speaker 2: Bruins had their looks scoring, but I don't know when we're going to learn to finish, but.

45:46 Speaker 1: Hopefully that's it. Part of me, because I'm trying to remember who exactly was out there for that game. Part of me, when I'm watching this game, there was a degree of frustration there on my part because, well, you had Logan Thompson. He's their guy, right? He's their starting goal. Did you find that surprising? That he played the first game? Yeah. On the road. I thought maybe at home, but on the road, I thought that was surprising. But you've got this veteran goaltender who is a phenomenal goaltender, and then you've got the Bruins forwards who are mostly inexperienced new kids.

46:20 Speaker 1: So was it reasonable that they then were struggling to score against a fantastic NHL elite goalie. I don't know. Kind of was hoping for a little bit more. And yes, James Higgins saved the day winning in that shootout with a gorgeous backhander. But you're like, OK, well, next time do that in the game. I know you can do it when you're playing as prospects. I want to see you do that now against the best of the best. But in order to do that, you got to get through the traffic. He was able to do it last night because it was a shootout.

46:52 Speaker 1: There was nobody else there. It's not just beating the goalie. It's beating the forwards. It's beating the defense. No, but he had his looks. He'll get their looks. He did.

46:59 Speaker 2: He clearly knows where he wants to put the puck. And it didn't seem like the speed of the NHL is prohibiting him yet. We'll see what happens during the regular season. The other good pluses were we had some situational hockey where the Bruins pulled the goalie, got the extra attacker out there. And Charlie McAvoy was able to tie the game up with a blistering shot. And that's the kind of stuff we need from our defensemen. Not just Chucky, but the Hamptons, Lindholms, and even, I mean, Mason Lorai tried to get involved a bit offensively too.

47:32 Speaker 1: He was quietly okay in that game. He made a couple of mistakes. I know, but that's him in a nutshell. That's him in a nutshell. Yeah. Marco Sturm's comments before everything got started talking about wanting to engage the defense more offensively. I think that's the one thing that is keeping Mason Loray around because they know how good he can be. So he's probably got a job for as long as he didn't do utter damage otherwise. I agree with you.

48:02 Speaker 2: The Bruins did have a power play goal, so that's a plus, although they were 1 for 6, but still, they had a power play. And the Caps were 0 for 7.

48:10 Speaker 1: I know. And they had the veterans. Our power play goal was scored by a new kid.

48:15 Speaker 2: Casta and Corrali probably didn't think they were going to get as much ice time as.

48:19 Speaker 1: They did last year. I know. My God. It was fun to see, though. I missed watching those guys together. But we've got Three more games to go. Yeah, yeah. Play Philly two times, home and away.

48:30 Speaker 2: Philly on Tuesday night at home, then the Bruins head to the Flyers on Thursday night, and then a rare Friday night preseason game against the Capitals. We'll probably be seeing some roster, I would think, some roster movement during the course of these two games.

48:47 Speaker 1: Yeah.

48:48 Speaker 2: Unless they're really, these young players are giving them a lot of food for thought or God forbid there's some type of an injury that occurs.

48:56 Speaker 1: And the other big.

48:57 Speaker 2: News that we expect to hear before September 29th or on or about September 29th is that Both Don Sweeney and Marco Sturm have come out and said that the Bruins will name a captain before the season starts.

49:12 Speaker 1: Yep. So the next time we have an episode... We should know who the captain is. We will have a captain. We will have a captain.

49:19 Speaker 2: And we'll be able to break down our thoughts because I'm going to have some pretty strong thoughts.

49:25 Speaker 1: If it's who I think it's going to be. Yeah. I've got my fingers crossed. That they make the right choice. And I think we're on the same page. I think we're on the same page. Yeah.

49:35 Speaker 2: That won't be the first time and it won't be the last time that we're on the same page.

49:38 Speaker 1: But we'll both be dumbfounded. I'm honestly just shocked that they said, yeah, you're going to get an answer. I am too, because I thought they'd let it linger a little bit more. Frankly, I thought they'd let it linger a little bit more. But yeah. We'll see.

49:52 Speaker 2: So with that being said, folks, happy almost hockey season. We'll be back to recording on a weekly basis, breaking down Boston Bruins games, good, bad or ugly as the season goes along. Make sure you like and subscribe so that you can get that content in a timely manner. Please be sure to leave us a rating and review to help other Bruins fans find us. You can also support our podcast by joining our patreon or following us on our socials at tape to tape mk and on substack at tape to tape mk.substack.com anything in closing my friend go bees go bruins

50:51 Speaker 1: We'll be right back.