Boston Bruins Road Trip Breakdown: Testing the Depth | Ep. 121

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me? Please? I need something to do all Jack, send it out and talk about this, says today. Here's a chance pop fa right down the goalie scars, Oh my one a.

0:23 Speaker 2: Move by the rookie.

0:24 Speaker 1: Too on one faster not moving? Set it on his own Oil dances in podcast at home right corner pastor Chester.

0:40 Speaker 1: What is that for? Most?

0:50 Speaker 2: Hello, everyone, welcome into another episode of Ruin's Tape to Tape. I will be your host for today's episode, Maria from Watertown, where recording on Monday morning, December fifteenth, only ten shopping days actually left folks ten or nine. Technically, I hope you're not going to be shopping on December twenty five, so get crack and folks get brapkin. I want to welcome in my co host Caroline with a kay, and I'm sure that she's got everything wrapped and ready to go.

1:24 Speaker 1: Do you have my print? Absolutely not? Absolutely not. I'm flying. I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. But also a happy Hanukah to our friends who celebrate because yesterday was the first one. So lucky you guys, you get to be done sooner than us.

1:40 Speaker 2: Happy Honakah to all of our listeners and viewers, So we've were We've got a lot to talk about, none the least of which is kind of a somewhat ugly game in Minnesota on Sunday night. The Bruins had a rare six pm game coupled with a lost by our beloved New England Patriots. So not a great sports day on Sunday in Boston. But we'll get to that game and the two prior games, which were much better results for the Boston Bruins. But we'll do our usual Bruins news update, including injuries. I have a little food for thought, and your dad has a hot take for us, which we always find welcoming and entertaining.

2:28 Speaker 2: We'll do our quick spin, spin around the rink, stick tabs for our Bruins and penalty box for this week. So let's start with yep, the good news for the Bruins with regard to injuries. Both Pasta and McAvoy returned to the lineup in the game against was It Winnipeg.

2:49 Speaker 1: They both played well. Pasta came back for against Saint Louis and then Chucky came back in Winnipeg.

2:56 Speaker 2: And then of course you get and you lose because and the Winnipeg game, we lost Victor Ardwitdson and Jonathan Asparo, and unfortunately both guys playing well. Ardvitdson only recently back from some kind of an injury, and Marco Sturm said that there was no really timetable yet for these guys. They were going to wait until they got back here to Boston to reassess to maybe get some better insight as to what the status of their injuries are, which is which is pretty unfortunate for both of them, but especially Jonathan Asboro because he's been playing really, really well and I think that leaves that leaves somewhat of a defensive gap, defensive hole.

3:39 Speaker 2: And I wasn't thoroughly impressed with Mason Lori's game against Winnipeg. Seems like he definitely got a little bit exposed and maybe was targeted a little bit on his side of the ice because he still still has struggles making strong plays on the puck, aggressive strong plays on the puck. And that's I mean, it costs let you a couple of goals in that game. But we'll get to that game. So your thoughts on the injuries.

4:08 Speaker 1: It's frustrating, and you know, every team in the NHL is dealing with this right now. It's absolutely crazy. I haven't taken the time to explore it. I'm sure there are other analysts out there who have, so I would love to hear the info on this, but it almost seems like it's I can't tell if it's anecdotal or not, but it certainly feels like it's just amplified this year. And I'm sure it has to do with this condensed schedule. We've talked about it at nauseum. I would just really like to hear for certain that, No, this is definitely a crazy year, and it's not an injury bug.

4:47 Speaker 1: It is like a plague, and every team is losing multiple players at once. It's not there's no one team that's either got no injured or they're only losing one person and they're losing significant players. This morning, I was just taking a look around the rink and reading on substacks some of the other hockey blogs that I follow, and reading about Tampa Bay. I mean, that's a team and we've discussed this that there's no team in the East really pulling away and running away with it, and I think the injuries are really what's holding all the teams in the East back?

5:31 Speaker 1: Because I agree with you. You took the words right out of my mouth, right, I mean, Tampa Bay, by all other measures, should have pulled away from the rest of the East, and they've got the Vassie is down, Headman is down. Like how many? How many players there have been taken out? Look at the West. I think Colorado has just gotten a little bit lucky because none of their major players are out.

6:00 Speaker 2: I think that's why there's such a wagon right now. They're stayed healthy.

6:04 Speaker 1: Right, all their key players have been able to stay healthy, and it just they're good. I don't mean to diminish they're very very good. They're very very deep. But they've also had the benefit of good health thus far. Yeah, So it's tough. It's tough to watch. It's beyond frustrating because and as we will talk about in particular in the Minnesota game, Boston has struggled when push comes to shove against solid, solid teams, they've struggled to be able to finish. They will be on it like you know that it's close, you know they're about to score.

6:42 Speaker 1: They're doing all the right things, and they just simply can't. And I think this injury bug is the issue around that because in the past seasons it's been because they don't have the talent. This year, I think they have the right combination of guys working together to get the scoring done. But when you take out a single piece, it's like a Jenga tower for this team, you take out one piece and it all falls apart. You need to have all of these pieces together to have a really strong Bruins team this year.

7:19 Speaker 1: And that that's just how they're constructed. And it's let's let's let's turn this back, as you said, wait into the Bruins and then the two guys they got back this week and the impact that they've had now pasta in the first two games that he played coming back from his injury, what he had like seven freaking points, crazy two goals in two games.

7:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, and then Charlie macavoy, you're thinking he's gonna get limited minutes in his first game back.

7:49 Speaker 1: No, just a mere twenty four plus minutes in ice time.

7:52 Speaker 2: Like it's it's it's crazy, but in a good in a good way to have those two guys back in the line up. And you know, Marco didn't waste any time in being very decisive about the fact that Charlie's going back with Zadora and then adjusting the defensive pairings accordingly, and Pastuff is playing on a different line with younger guys, and as he put it, just three young kids having fun playing hockey.

8:21 Speaker 1: Yeah much, yep, Yeah, it was. It was fun to watch him play, and I'm sure he enjoyed. Not that it was like a break or that it was necessarily easier, but it allowed him a refreshing little change that sometimes in the slog fest that is the season, sometimes that can also be a little bit of a mental break, a little mental recovery as well, not having to place all of that responsibility of carrying the team. So you could tell he had a lot of fun. I mean, he was pasta was pasta. He was great. I'll tell you.

8:56 Speaker 1: The one person I was a little bit surprised who was quote unquote quiet, although only in the goal scoring department, was Morgan geeky, but he was still pretty darn active. He was pretty much everywhere he needed to be, So that was kind of funny to observe, like, oh, finally he's not the only one score.

9:15 Speaker 2: Well, you know, and again this has been a slog fest for them. I think they're likely they may not openly say that they're looking ahead, but they're probably looking ahead and looking forward to having a little.

9:26 Speaker 1: Bit of a breather here. Yes, they're going to be after this game that happened last night in Minnesota. They're coming home for a home stand. Yet I don't know if that's good or bad at this time of the year, with the hall that goes along with preparing for holidays and family coming in and the poland tug with family matters and your spouses and kids and whatnot. But be that as it may, I think coming home is probably something that they might have been looking ahead to a little bit. Yeah, and you know, I'll I'll forgive them in this case for a couple of reasons.

10:03 Speaker 1: First of all, that we knew Minnesota was going to be a tough game even before the insane trade that happened, So we knew it was going to be a tough one to begin with. That's why I said last week it was really important that Boston win the first two games on that road trip so they could they were those were insurance wins, those were must wins because Saint Louis being kind of not a great team, right Boston, the expectation was, indeed, that's a winnable game, you need to win it. You did your job, You did your job, you took the points.

10:41 Speaker 1: Winnipeg, while they are a good team, was down their goaltender, who is I would say, their best player, and they have a ton of good players. So for the Winnipeg game, it was a you need to take advantage of while they don't have their full compliment of players, you need to take advantage of opportunities. And those are the thing issues that plagued this team in October, not winning winnable games and not taking advantage of opportunities. And they did exactly that because we knew it was very possible, very likely that they would not win against Minnesota, just because of how great they've been, and they played twenty minutes of that game pretty well, maybe forty, and then they decided they were done understandably.

11:28 Speaker 1: Yeah maybe yeah, I'd say maybe forty. I'd say maybe forty from what little I was able to plan.

11:34 Speaker 2: I mean when you look at the at the game Center report, yeah, it wasn't as lopsided as the score shows.

11:40 Speaker 1: The problem. No, not the first period.

11:43 Speaker 2: That game is again, penalties are costing you game, right. You gave up two power play goals. You take away those power play goals and you're out a point where you're still in the game with the possibility of taking a point.

12:00 Speaker 1: Yeah.

12:00 Speaker 2: But I'll tell you, the Minnesota Wild pulled off a trade to get from you in a Minnesota Wild's uniform.

12:06 Speaker 1: Yeah.

12:07 Speaker 2: And he made his debut on Sunday against Boston Bruns and scored. And I'm looking at the injuries right now that the Minnesota Wild has and I can't imagine how good that team is likely going to be when they get all their injured players.

12:24 Speaker 1: Back the foal. Yeah that's good. Yeah. I mean they've got six guys out right now and they're not shop guys, even.

12:32 Speaker 2: Marcus, bill Hanson, Matt Zucarello, Marcus Folino. That's that's some good quality hockey talent right.

12:40 Speaker 1: There, exactly. But take us around the ring.

12:42 Speaker 2: Okay, So, speaking of trades and had the trade.

12:46 Speaker 1: Can I just throw out there one thing that's just been driving me absolutely bonkers everywhere. Of Course, everybody wants the storyline of the of the Hughes brothers together and for whatever reason that the algorithm is feeding me, people are saying that it's as if that dream is dead. I would like to remind folks that Quinn has the rest of this season and one more season to go in a year and a half. It's still a very high possibility, very plausible. That door is not closed. It's just not happening right now.

13:22 Speaker 1: And you know what, the Devil's may be the better for it because they won't necessarily have to give up somebody for him. I just got to throw that out there because I kept seeing that everywhere and I'm like, what are you talking about his contract? He didn't He can't sign an extension because he's not in the final year of his contract. Until you see either he has signed an extension or not, relax, but anyways, continue might rant for the day. No, no enough, and credit to Bill Garrant for what he's been building there in Minnesota.

13:53 Speaker 1: The other trade that was pulled off was between the Edmonton Oilers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, where they trade. The Penguins traded Kristin Jari or Stewart Skinner Bret Kulak, So I don't know, does Jari make the Oilers any better from a goaltending standpoint, better than Skinner? Can we say better than a Stewart Skinner? No. First of all, I think the Penguins won that trade because even though you're trading UH for the exact same player, I think both goalies they're they're they're average goalies.

14:27 Speaker 1: Okay, Remember, if you are a regular playing, starting goaltender in the NHL, clearly you have some degree of talent. So I am not saying that either of these players are talentless. Clearly that is the baseline, right, but I will say they seem to be equally average. The other thing is Skinner is probably the personal winner out of all of this because I can't imagine being in a in a Canadian market and then being in that market as well. Yes, it's not the same as Toronto or Vancouver markets. However, Edmonton has kind of turned itself, at least in recent years in the McDavid era, into the microscope.

15:12 Speaker 1: So personally, he's only gonnait leaving that environment. Maybe it'll make him better, who knows. The second thing, I've always believed that you have to be incredibly sure that the goaltender is the problem. If you're trading a goalie during the year, for me, it just feels like that you have to be certain that that's the problem. That leads into my third like, thank god, this is not my circus and not my monkeys, because I think that that particular trade, unless it was done specifically just for Skinner and his mental health and well being, it still makes me question what the heck is Edmonton's management doing because you traded your goalie who's been there, who's a part of the team, who's You're now going to disrupt the locker room for a guy who isn't particularly excellent.

16:07 Speaker 1: I mean the guy signed Yari, signed a five year contract in Pittsburgh and then almost immediately was sent down to the AHL because he wasn't doing the job. It just makes me question Edmonton's management and the choices that they're making the GM whoever in roster construction, because one of the beautiful things about the game of hockey is the fact that you cannot win a championship on the back of one player, and they've continued to invest in all the wrong players to support said superstar, plus Leon eight year contract for Trent Frederick Darnell Nurse, Like, what are you thinking you let someone like Perry go Miles Shadenfreuda over here, because Edmonton and the Edmonton fans, they're starting to irritate me, Like, all right, calm down.

16:57 Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think that sometimes it change of scenery for some players, and a reset is not a bad thing. Oh yeah, clearly, yeah, clearly Skinner was never going to be the guy in Edmonton. We knew that two years ago, Jesus, and they should have addressed it.

17:13 Speaker 2: I don't know why the hell it took them so long to get this addressed, other than their superstar Conor McDavid might be losing some semblance of his patients, right and who knows. Maybe Yari is the answer, maybe he's not. He's certainly a better answer than Skinner right now. And Yari was having his issues in Pittsburgh because again, maybe he was told he was going to be the guy. Maybe he thought he was going to be the guy. Then he gets some competition. Everyone responds a bit differently to that competition.

17:44 Speaker 2: We'll see what happens. You know, Edmonton, their first game that Yari played, they played the Washington Capitals, which is a good team, and Edmonton won that game by a score of six to two or six to three, and then proceeded to lose to the Montreal Canadians the next night. However, Yari start that.

18:01 Speaker 1: Game and the one last thing I'll say about this so we can move on, because enough of Edmonton, But in defense of all goaltenders, I would like to remind everyone that it's never, in my opinion, it's never fair to one hundred percent place the blame on a goaltender. The five guys in front of him also have to not have done their job, So you can't necessarily say, well, he didn't do his job when those other players also didn't do their job. Now, if they did, maybe that's a different conversation. But I think in this case the sentiment stands, yeah, well, the other teams in the leagues, yeah, well, we'll see how it all plays out.

18:46 Speaker 1: But we have three games to discuss. The Bruins played the Saint Louis Blues. They won that.

18:53 Speaker 2: Game five to two. Then they played two days later the Winnipeg Jets. Bruins won that game six to three. Took advantage of the fact that Connor Hellibuk was not a Net. I believe Connor Hellibuck came back after the Bruins played them ew and yeah, Winnipeg ended up winning that game. We saw some a little bit of line shuffling. We also alluded to that at the start of our pod. And we've got some balanced scoring to talk about, yeah too. So let's start with the win against Saint Louis. Now, that game started in not an ideal manner.

19:32 Speaker 2: First shot on goal.

19:33 Speaker 1: Yeah, the Saint Louis Blues score, and you think to yourself, please, are you kidding me right now?

19:39 Speaker 2: With this one shot one goal? But to the Bruins credit, they took advantage of some power play opportunities yeah, and pushed right back.

19:50 Speaker 1: Yeah. It should come as no surprise that the Bruins worst period of that game, which was the first period, had all the penalties. First of all, no surprise there. What I was pleased about was the fact that last week on this podcast, you and I had talked about how Boston on the whole has done a good job of not allowing Funk to bleed from one game to the next, a malaise as Jim Montgomery famously referred to it at one point in time, and we said it would be great if they could do that in game, and do it in fewer than three periods, do it midgame, do it in two periods, or whatever where they figure it out for they get it out.

20:41 Speaker 1: And they did it in one period in this game, which I loved to see. Similar thing ultimately then happened in Winnipeg. The first two periods were not ideal. Also not a surprise there all the period. All the penalties happened in the first and the second period, and then Boston came in third. They had done the adjustment like we wanted to see in game, no penalties in the third period and they dominated that period. I loved seeing that happen that play out in both of those games, because I found them to be kind of similar in theme, you know, starting out with that less than ideal start and then really pulling it together and taking control and just dominating in that Bionus played the game against Winnipeg and he basically he saved their asses in the second period of that game because Winnipeg, yeah was showing some hard, yeah hard push, hard push in that game, and the Bruins were also playing down one forward and down one defenseman because Ardvidson went down and Aspero went down, and it would have been really in the part.

21:57 Speaker 2: Yeah, it would have been really easy for the brow ones to no potentially fold like a deck of cards, but to their credit, they did not. And I have to say that line of janeau Kerally and Castle Lick love it. What a bitch it must be to play against those guys. Those guys are a real problem to play against.

22:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, love that line. Love to see it very quickly becoming my favorite personality line. When they get out there, I think that's good. Things are gonna are gonna happen.

22:33 Speaker 2: Because and it's funny, you know Corall is referred to as the old man I know of that line, crazy can you You know, you imagine those guys get out on the ice and you don't know who's going to bash you first, Castle Lick or right credit to Marco Sturm. And you know, we'll we'll we'll talk about this because I want to go back to you know, the Food for Thought and your dad's hot tape. But in the game, you didn't have macavoy right and Pasta it was his first game back.

23:05 Speaker 1: But you know what, no problem, right, No prop mean, you had two goals from two goals each from Casta and Minton that was great, and Pavel Zaka, for crying out loud, got a goal Andazka added the empty net goal and the Bruins only had six minutes of penalties in that game. It's critical in past seasons I would find something that would be the bell weather of the game in so in previous seasons it was tracking their shots on goal because they for whatever reason were not shooting the puck. I think it was maybe even last year and the year before this year, it's it's the penalties.

23:49 Speaker 1: So track those penalties, see how it's going. As long as they can stay out of the box, and if they get on the power play, they can they score right right right, But that seems to be that's that's the key, that's the key. These two power play didn't look awesome against Minnesota last night. They did have a couple of opportunities and they gave up to power play goals. So you know, you can what if, do the what if, but we're going to do the what if.

24:22 Speaker 2: What if you met yourself a power play goal or two and you're able to kill up a couple of those penalties or even one of them, right, you could have been looking at a different game. Instead you end up with a six to two loss. And for me, it was simple. The Bruins, to me, simply did not have enough offensive by your power to counter what the Minnesota Wild have available to that.

24:47 Speaker 1: Because, first of all, their goaltender is phenomenal. Philip Gustafson is an incredible goaltend. He was good, and he was good.

24:56 Speaker 2: He had to make some hard saves he was Yeah, he's fantastic. But also Quinn Hughes.

25:04 Speaker 1: Yes, I know he missed some passes and whatever, but at the end of the day, he's like a generational defenceman. He put in twenty six minutes playing with these guys that he's really not played with before. Literally just met literally just met literally just who knows if he even on safe So you know, yes, I agree, maybe Hughes wasn't as dangerous as he has the potential to be, but my god, he still put in twenty six minutes and scored a goal. And then you have him and Gustavson. Forget it. Forget it the fact that Boston was only down by a goal after the first period, and they genuinely had so many good chances and a lot of the goals that came in the first two periods were weird goals, deflections, crazy bounces, like, yeah, this game was the hockey gods in full action up until that third period, and then Boston was like, you know what, we'll go home.

26:12 Speaker 1: We'll see ourselves out.

26:14 Speaker 2: If you look at the game stats, yeah, right, and you look at the score and you say, wow, how did that happen? Shots on goal were even, Bruins had the edge in face off percentage. The glaring issue in this game was Minnesota was two to three on the power play and the Bruins were ozerver two. But in terms of the Bruins out hit the Wild, they had a couple more block shots. Yeah, giveaways and takeaways were relatively even. This came down to it was as simple as their goaltender was better than our goaltender could be last night.

26:50 Speaker 1: It could be. I mean, you're absolutely right. If you look at the stats and looking at the Corsey measures, the game was Boston's theme, the game was Boston's and in this case, again I'm not mad about this particular loss, because what's different from this game and those winnable games that we saw them lose left and right at the start of the season. It's not that I think that they lost a winnable game. Certainly, I'm not happy about the fact that they just couldn't finish some of these phenomenal plays that they had out there, but it's not like it was a winnable game when you have a goalie like Gustavsen, you know, and it's you know, those winnable games that they had where they were in control, but then they would go and they would give up a goal.

27:43 Speaker 1: So it was like, you know, the six to five, seven to six, like that was just a circus and should definitely have been won by Boston. This one was incredibly still incredibly tight, in spite of all of those metrics that you mentioned that typically lead to a Boston win. But again we said at the top of the pod, this team is fragile. It's that Jenga tower, and even just losing one little piece, I think even if we had lost just Arvidson or just Asproom, I think the result probably would have been the same.

28:18 Speaker 2: I agree with you in this game, and you jokingly said in our discord because I made a comment about you know, I'm going to cut them some Christmas slack for that game, into which you responded, you are getting a little soft, right, which was a sterical I am getting a little.

28:35 Speaker 1: You are, Maria. I had to hold you to a high standard year. I'm a soft one.

28:39 Speaker 2: Come on, it's that time of the year. But you know, they went out on this three game road stand. They had a potential of six points and they're coming home with four. How pisstop? Can you get now? I would get really pissed off if they tucked their tail and said, oh, well right, no fight, no pushback, no nothing, which was what would happen in games last season.

29:07 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they would have rolled over in the first They're not.

29:10 Speaker 2: They're not doing that this season. They're still continuing to try to push back and fight their ways back into into games. And isn't isn't that something that we can and should give this team credit for us? And you know, I listened to a lot of Boston sports talk radio here. We all had the same assessment of the Bruins to start the season, like, oh my god, it's going to be who the hell knows what we're going to get this year, where some people were downright saying this is going to be an awful team.

29:45 Speaker 1: They're not an awful team. No, they are playing better than any of us who follow watch this team could have ever expected them to play. Yeah, at the end of the day, I want to watch my high key team play, play competitively and right. And the most painful part of last year was I had to force myself to watch them because they didn't want to be there, and that was obvious. So why would I want to be here? I want to have fun watching them play, right, even if they're not having a good night like last night.

30:25 Speaker 1: I mean, it wasn't ugly hockey. I mean I don't I don't believe it was ugly hockey. Yeah, I mean just at the end. Yeah, it's a Sunday night.

30:33 Speaker 2: You want to get home, you know, you know you're going to be home for what the next five six games are at home. That's okay, you got four out of six. You're staying the course, right, and that's all right now that we can ask for until you know, they give us any reason to look at them a little bit more harshly, and it could likely happen.

30:56 Speaker 1: We hope that it doesn't, but if it does, then we'll talk about it. But in the.

31:01 Speaker 2: Meantime, stick taps. Who do you give your stick taps to?

31:07 Speaker 1: So this week obviously the Catholic Correljano line. I mean, well done, fantastic, Love those guys. David Pasternach didn't skip a beat. Doesn't matter honestly what line you put him on. The man is going to create magic out there. Love love seeing him this week, in particular, especially with him moving up all time goal scoring for Boston.

31:37 Speaker 2: He has jumped to fifth overall in Bruin's history.

31:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, so he's coming right up next on his former teammates there, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marshans and then Chucky My god, for a guy who lost twenty pounds and was needing to bring up his stamina as well. Not only did he play twenty four game of twenty four games twenty four minutes in Winnipeg, he had the most time on ice. Also of all the Bruins outside of Jeremy Swayman against the Wild another twenty four fifties, he has not missed a beat. And I actually thought he had a couple of great chances.

32:19 Speaker 1: I thought he was actually gonna get his first goal a couple of times theirs, and.

32:23 Speaker 2: I think he was a plus two in the game that he came back. What a machine by in Winnipeg.

32:28 Speaker 1: Credit to him. Yep, now we get to our penalty box. Oh my god. All right, well this I mean, okay, I'll save the worst for last. Obviously they can't score when they need it. That's been a frustrated, frustrating point for a couple of years now. I feel like that's just what it's been. It like, it's just beyond frustrating because it they deserve it. I'm not even just saying that as a fan, like objectively watching some of these plays and you're like, yes, yes, yes, amazing. That should be rewarded with ah did that go in?

33:01 Speaker 1: And then there are other times where they're just being bums and making any old m look like asn't a trophy winner?

33:07 Speaker 2: Now, well, sometimes they still have a propensity to overpass. Yes, it's a bad habit, it rehears its ugly head. Still it's maddening because you can see it when you're watching the game, going just take what the good board gives you. If the shot is there, god damn take it.

33:24 Speaker 1: Well. And I agree because I think that's also partly what had happened and what was part of the issue in the wild game. Yes, both teams finished with very similar, if not identical shots on goal. Boston was behind in their shots for a good chunk and it was when they had all these opportunities they got to still try and get it on net. Injuries, I mean, for crying out loud, that's just going to be a standing irritation. I know. I just wish we could get to a point where don't just get everybody back for an extended period healthy.

33:57 Speaker 1: We had like what five minutes five minutes of that in Winnipeg, Arvidson went down and Asparo went down so quickly it was basically like, here's five minutes of everybody together and you're done. Oh I did forget one other person to give stick tabs to. Yeah, Steve's he just keeps, he just keeps. My God, making his case peep in Marco's hands tied and not taking him out of the lineup. Good for him, Good for him. Yeah, yep, he's he's making a very good he's creating a very good problem. That's that's all I have to say.

34:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know what, I want to beat a dead horse. However, I want to hear from listeners if they agree with this hot take. Again not necessarily my hot take, although I'm not going to say I disagree, but Mason Laurai belongs in the AHL. That's the statement, that is the hot take. I would agree. I don't know if he can be sent down well.

34:58 Speaker 2: Logistics aside, Mason Lorii still frightens me. At one point, he had a bad night against the Winnipeg Jets. They clearly targeted his side of the ice because there are still weaknesses there with an ill inability to make a strong defensive play on the puck. And at one point I texted my son and I said, how fast can you pack a bag and get to Winnipeg, because I think you can play better defense than Mason Morii is playing right now. So I understand, and I asked this question when I called the Morning Bru Show on Saturday morning, and I asked them what they thought.

35:44 Speaker 2: And I understand that these are the pros and cons with a young player who is still developing and growing and maturing his game. But but what I see and what I saw in those defensive plays, like you're a defenseman and you have your goddamn back to the guy who's coming in.

36:08 Speaker 1: I just the the issue behind that. I mean, first of all, the Morning Brew guys, they're never gonna be critical in any sort of meaningful way. Well, Razor World, to some degree, usually doesn't. He's he's very diplomatic. He's diplomatic, diplomatic about it.

36:29 Speaker 2: Billy will go a little bit Billy Jeffy will go a little bit deeper. But I understand their points. But I'm specifically talking about certain plays and certain things that I think should be inherent and automatic in an NHL defenseman.

36:48 Speaker 1: The the problem is, this is a self inflicted issue by Boston Bruins management. If he hadn't been offered that insane kind tract insane contract. He's almost twenty five years old, He's got a birthday in January, he'll be twenty five years old. He'll be in the league. This is what his third I think, second full season, Yeah, second full season. If he'd been offered a more reasonable contract, and let's say, you know, I don't disagree that he's a young player, maybe he needs a little bit more development.

37:25 Speaker 1: The solution is typically sending them to the AHL for that development, and management's hands are tied. How do you justify sending a three million dollar player down to the AHL. They they've bungled some of his development progress, which is not uncommon with these this Cousta Bruins organization. Right, So this is not to say, you know, to forgive him or acquit him of his defensive crimes, but they, yeah, he needs he needs AHL work and unfortunately, unless the Bruins are willing to part with him permanently, it is it's just not an option, no, and it doesn't seem like the organization is ready or wanting to go that route.

38:21 Speaker 1: So you know, we'll like, you're going to have to put up with these pickumps. This will be a curious test. Would management allow Marco to bench him again for a stretch? Like? Okay? They maybe they let him, gave him the freedom to do that before, to send a message, but is management going to be okay with him doing that again for a three million dollar player? Not necessarily because they think that it's not warranted. I'm sure they think it would be warranted. They all have eyeballs. It's the but he's he's making this kind of money and if we're going to be paying him that, we need to have him playing.

38:59 Speaker 2: You know what, I saying, I just found it a little bit maddening and frustrating, like, dude, what what are you doing?

39:07 Speaker 1: What are you doing? Yes, yes, And they likely might have a tough decision to make when some of these defensemen who were hurt come back, So we'll see what happens with that. But you know, I thought it was a little he needed to go in my our penalty box. I think I think he needs another time out. Yeah, he might. It might be working towards towards that. I mean, he did have an assistan in that game, but still he's not a forewhirl. I know, I know, I know, food for thought, Just to give us something to think about and give our listeners something to think about, and we can expand on this at a later pod, maybe during the holiday break.

39:49 Speaker 1: I alluded to the fact that I believe that the Boston Bruins are surprising many people, including IT fans and other people across the league with the way that they have been playing thus far this season. And while I know it's early, I wonder if there will be any discussion about a potential vote or Macrossturm as a Coach of the Year candidate. If this team.

40:18 Speaker 2: Continues to progress in the manner in which they are progressing. And the reason this food but thought came into my head is because the New England Patriots here in Boston have had a dramatic turnaround and part of that is largely due in part to the hiring of Mike Ravel, who's a former player and a Super Bowl champion. I didn't know that more than one time. And so I look at how the players have been responding to Rabel as a coach and looking up to him, and him having that cachet that he comes in as a former champion, having played in the order organization for a great deal of time.

41:02 Speaker 2: And then compare and contrast also to Marco Stern who was a former player in the Bruins organization and the work ethic that he brought game after game as a member of the Boston Bruins and being a part of a very integral growth in the development of the culture of the Boston Bruins. And I think that says something about these the current.

41:26 Speaker 1: Roster in how they're playing and wanting to play for him and wanting to play for each other. So just my boot for thought.

41:35 Speaker 2: We'll see how the season continues.

41:38 Speaker 1: And plays out. I would think that that should be a consideration. Everybody loves the underdogs getting better story. Typically that's who wins the Jack Adams. I wouldn't be surprised if Marco ends up being a nominee and a finalist, but I think we all know who's probably going to win that. Yeah, I agree with you, So yeah, Coinvolle probably yeah, because again, everybody loves an underdog story where the bad team gets becomes good. And as bad as people thought Boston was gonna be, they've never been as bad as Anaheim has for the last couple of seasons, right right, right right, But I would like to think maybe you know, he gets a vote voter to or or at least gets consideration or is in a conversation at some point in time if things continue progressing in the way in which they've been so far this season.

42:30 Speaker 2: So we talked about a homestand coming up with the Bruins. Their schedule doesn't get any better because they've got an every other day game starting Tuesday against the Utah Mammoth was seeing them for the first time. Then we get the Edmonton Oilers coming into town, which is always musty TV anytime Connor McDavid takes the ice. We've got the Vancouver come Ucks, and then we've got Ottawa and Montreal coming in game. And again, these games are out at home, and I know that there can be distractions once you get home, but these are critical, crucial points that you want to take advantage of.

43:11 Speaker 2: Oh my's it's it's a must, it's a must. Must get some points. Boys get some points. So as always, folks, thank you for tuning in, Thank you for listening. You can like and sub subscribe for more contact content. Be sure to leave us a rating and review to help other Bruins fans find us. You can support our podcast by joining our Patreon or following us on any of our socials. You can find us at Tape to Tape MK and on Substack at Tape to Tape MK dot substack dot com. You can find me on x at Maria of H two O town.

43:55 Speaker 2: Any closing thoughts obs go bes.

44:12 Speaker 1: STI still b