Boston Bruins Season Preview: Are They Actually Better? | Ep. 160

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. Pottra right in on goal.

0:21 Speaker 2: He scores. Oh, my.

0:23 Speaker 1: What a move by the rookie. Two-on-one. Pasternak moving in with Marzahn. Get into it. Scores! On the zone.

0:29 Speaker 3: Coiled.

0:30 Speaker 1: Dances in. Backhand. Scores! Went home. Right wing corner. Pasternak is there.

0:38 Speaker 2: He scores!

0:38 Speaker 1: David Pasternak wins it for Boston!

0:51 Speaker 2: Welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruins Tape to Tape. I'm your host today, Caroline with a K, and we have a special episode for you all.

1:01 Speaker 3: We are doing our little season.

1:03 Speaker 2: Preview just ahead of training camp that's going to be happening this week. And I'm joined first and foremost by my fantastic co-host Maria from Watertown.

1:13 Speaker 3: Hello, Maria. Hello, Caroline. I'm excited that camp is getting ready to kick off and we're going to maybe have some answers to some questions.

1:23 Speaker 1: Here's hoping.

1:24 Speaker 2: And to help us celebrate Christmas Eve, so to speak, Andrew from the Short Shift podcast stopping by to give us his thoughts and opinions because we have a lot of thoughts and opinions and we like to discuss those with other folks who also know their Bruins hockey. So welcome in, Andrew.

1:44 Speaker 1: Thank you for having me, guys. Thank you very much for thinking about me. We've been calibrating this all summer. Like, guys, we've been talking about this for weeks. It's really fun. We've been talking about this since Dev Camp, so it's really cool to record with you guys and see if we can come up with any different resolutions and we'll call Don Sweeney and say, hey, look, you should do this.

2:02 Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll figure it out for him, right?

2:05 Speaker 2: Maybe you'll be a little bit nicer than Maria in the delivery to Don.

2:09 Speaker 1: So I've been, I just started actually a new show. I'm still recording short shift, but I just started a new show called Blackhawk and Gold, where it's me and a friend, Emily Pinson, a diehard up and coming content creator for the Chicago Blackhawks. It's just two original six fans trying to understand the other fan bases. And we've been ripping Don Sweeney, but in a really subtle way. It's like, Don, you're so handsome and talented and smart and Harvard educated. Please trade somebody. Sometimes it's like, what are you doing, dude?

2:37 Speaker 1: Exactly. I have.

2:39 Speaker 2: Less beef with him in recent years, but my distaste and disdain for the president has only grown in the last couple of years.

2:48 Speaker 3: Cam Neely, not a fan.

2:50 Speaker 1: I have thoughts about that, man.

2:52 Speaker 3: Caroline has brought me over to her side of the aisle as it pertains to Cam Neely. I think How do I put this? Sometimes they talk out of both sides of their mouths, both of them. And I think that they forget that they have a fan base who is, and I'm not speaking just of us. I'm speaking about longtime diehard Bruins fans, of which there are many, who have lived through a lot of the bullshit that has been spewed by both ownership and management. And I think their potential downfall, I'm not sure when it will happen or at this point if it's even going to be happening because Charlie Jacobs is so in love with Cam Neely that I don't think he'd ever part ways with him.

3:38 Speaker 3: But at some point, you've got to pick a side of the fence with this organization.

3:42 Speaker 1: Has anybody... And I'm talking four major sports. Has anybody squandered as much goodwill with a fan base? Any legend has squandered as much goodwill with the fan base when keeping strictly related to the sport? You talk about Roger Clemens and the steroid stuff and his falling out with Dan Duquette many years ago, stuff like that. That's up there. But Cam Neely has gone from legend to he's a franchise legend, but he's so polarizing now because of what how he's acted, what he's he's he's a dinosaur and he refuses to adjust to the evolving league.

4:18 Speaker 1: And I think. Their huge downfall, and I'll put a bow in this because I don't want to spend too much time on it. I think their huge downfall as a franchise is that they value collaboration. And that's not a great thing because you have Sweeney, who's still old school. I'm sorry, you have Neely, who's still old school. And then you have Sweeney, who I think has a better handle on the modern NHL than we give him credit for. But he gets swallowed by Neely.

4:41 Speaker 2: I think the only person who has done that more is Steve Iserman.

4:48 Speaker 1: Oh, no, I was just talking about Bruins, Austin.

4:51 Speaker 3: Across all the four sports, I'd say. No, no, no. But we are going through a little bit of an evolution here in Boston where the fan bases are starting to turn a little bit on owners and management who were beloved. There's been a lot of criticism of late.

5:09 Speaker 1: John Henry.

5:09 Speaker 3: Like no one gets it more than John Henry, right? And Craig Breslow.

5:13 Speaker 1: And they're in the playoffs right now.

5:15 Speaker 3: And now Mr. Kraft is falling into that, that kind of like, we're looking at you with a different lens now, Mr. Kraft, because for years you made us believe that it was Bill Belichick who was keeping players on the cheap and discarding players. I can just get another guy to do that job. But now Bill Belichick is gone and we're still seeing the kind of mentality that is rubbing a fan base the wrong way.

5:41 Speaker 1: And what's funny is that you have the two that you mentioned, playoffs, Red Sox, coming off a Super Bowl, Patriots. And then you have the Bruins, who had a major improvement last year. But where are they, really? And that's what we're going to try to discuss.

5:54 Speaker 3: And that's a good segue into what we're going to talk about. So here's my question. Are the Bruins any better going into the upcoming season than they were when they finished the prior season?

6:07 Speaker 1: Yes. And I have a couple of reasons why. Andrew Peake is my least favorite player in the NHL and he's gone.

6:13 Speaker 3: That's like a milk toast.

6:15 Speaker 1: Yes. But here's the thing, Caroline. Milk toast is disgusting. That's true.

6:20 Speaker 3: It's not offensive, but it's not great.

6:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I think I got really tired of a big portion of the fan base telling me how important a guy like Andrew Peake is when I watched him flail around for 82 games. Will Borgen, his.

6:33 Speaker 3: Archetype is important.

6:34 Speaker 1: What he does is crazy.

6:37 Speaker 3: Could not execute it well within the system.

6:39 Speaker 1: You got it.

6:40 Speaker 3: And Caroline knows how I feel about Jags. I am at a point in Jags when I say Jags, okay? We are seemingly constantly putting together or pieceworking rosters with an abundance of what I refer to as Jags.

6:57 Speaker 1: I see that. I definitely see that. But to answer your original point, Maria, I think they're better. I think Paterka is a upgrade over Arvidsson in a couple of ways.

7:08 Speaker 2: Yeah.

7:08 Speaker 1: Caroline's crossing her fingers. He's 12 years younger, first of all. And second of all, he is more of a line driver than Arvidsson was. And Paterka's coming off a down season in Utah where he scored 25 goals. I would like a down season where I scored 20 goals.

7:22 Speaker 2: Yeah.

7:23 Speaker 1: That's an upgrade. Borgen over Peake is an upgrade. You could argue, I'm less sure about this, but you could argue that the lack of Jonas Corposalo is an upgrade where DiPietro is coming in, but that's going to be a huge X factor. Huge X factor.

7:39 Speaker 2: TBD.

7:40 Speaker 3: That's a big TBD, right?

7:42 Speaker 1: Exactly. Exactly. I think he's earned a shot. Absolutely.

7:45 Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely.

7:46 Speaker 1: I would agree.

7:46 Speaker 3: And at least they're putting their money where their mouth is when they're saying it's time to give our young players.

7:54 Speaker 1: Right.

7:54 Speaker 3: He's earned his opportunity to show what he potentially has at the next higher level. And I wouldn't be surprised, though, if.

8:02 Speaker 2: That was I'm sure it was already a thought something on the table but I wouldn't be surprised if that was precipitated by Brandon Bussey's success even pre playoffs in knowing and understanding kind of what that situation was like I don't think that the Bruins necessarily.

8:23 Speaker 3: Made the wrong choice.

8:25 Speaker 1: No, I don't think so either.

8:26 Speaker 3: How they handled Bussey, because it was just a timing thing.

8:29 Speaker 1: There just wasn't room for him.

8:31 Speaker 2: It didn't make sense. It was fine that he left. But knowing that, gee, we have an opportunity here. We maybe don't want to let this one in particular walk away. So maybe that precipitated making that more of a reality to get rid of Corpus Allo and give him the chance.

8:49 Speaker 1: Well, for Voodoo, too. Bussey catching fire in this way was absolutely just completely unexpected. But it wasn't just Bussey. You can go back to Dan Bladar, to some of these goalies that get developed by the goalie factory that is the Boston Bruins. And then the continued success of this franchise, Jeremy Swimmick going from one of the worst, from statistically one of the worst goaltenders in the league to a Vezina finalist is goalies for Voodoo. But I think you're right. And people forget DiPietro.

9:19 Speaker 1: was a very highly touted goaltending prospect out of world. He was a world junior star. He was a world juniors MVP. People forget about that with him. He's crazy athletic. He's a little short for the modern game, but he's crazy athletic. He needs to work on his puck tracking. I hope he's worked on that in the offseason because watching him in the pool was absolute agony last year.

9:39 Speaker 2: Yeah.

9:39 Speaker 1: He'll get there. Experience is the best teacher.

9:41 Speaker 2: I think any kind of potential question mark, and we had a whole player profile about him, so I don't want to go too long into it, but any kind of question mark, for me, he's not like missing an entire skill set at all, I don't think. It's just going to come down to, OK, the only way that you can get better as a goalie is exposure at whatever that next level is.

10:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they've made the right decision with that.

10:04 Speaker 3: The left finger. going into this.

10:06 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they made the right decision with that. And Corposalo was incredibly frustrating. He'd make some of the most amazing saves you've ever seen. And then a 65 mile an hour muffin from 50 feet out goes in. It's like, what are you doing?

10:17 Speaker 3: He was timely. That's what he had going for him.

10:19 Speaker 1: Corposalo, yeah.

10:22 Speaker 3: I'm going to have the contrarian opinion here because I think Any of us would have known that we had to move on from Jonas Corposalo for a variety of reasons, none the least of which you couldn't keep carrying that kind of money on a hard cap league for two goals.

10:38 Speaker 1: What was it, about $ 12 million? Yeah, $ 12 million. Yeah. So DPHO making league men, I believe. No, just over league men. He makes 850.

10:46 Speaker 3: So you think that we are a little bit better?

10:49 Speaker 1: I don't think we're actionably better, but I think we have made upgrades. And we could make better upgrades if we make the right decisions in training camp. There are a couple that I have in mind.

10:59 Speaker 3: We'll get into that in a second.

11:00 Speaker 2: I don't know that the Bruins actually did anything meaningful there.

11:05 Speaker 3: When it comes to the defense, I find.

11:09 Speaker 2: That more so than the forwards, although the forward group is similarly constructed, it feels like, and to our conversation about what the heck management is doing, it feels a little bit like they are just throwing spaghetti at the wall and saying, we've got a lot of these guys. Several of them are very similar in terms of how they play the game and what they can bring, but there are very few few standouts that are obvious or something that you could very confidently put money on as being, yep, this is that guy.

11:43 Speaker 2: He's got this job. He's always going to have this job and he's going to do it extremely well. I think from the defensive perspective, I think for the most part, and even then, I wouldn't say this is a 100% certainty.

11:57 Speaker 3: Charlie McAvoy is.

11:58 Speaker 2: Like really the one that we are putting a lot of faith in to lead and run that back in.

12:05 Speaker 1: And that's fine. It's like a top 15 defenseman in the NHL, but he's going to be missing the first six games.

12:11 Speaker 3: That.

12:11 Speaker 2: And then I think that we've seen enough inconsistency with him, not inconsistency in that he's bad when he's, but we've seen how good he can be, like how truly good he can be. And it's almost like he flirts with that for a little while. But we don't get that for a whole season. We've had questions about Lindholm. I think what we see from Lindholm is actually his actual baseline level. And I think that his first year or so he was with Boston was the outlier. Maria's got concerns about his overall physical health.

12:45 Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't know that he improved it.

12:48 Speaker 1: With Lindholm, I'll probably and Maria will probably agree with this. There's something that we've said a lot on short shift and it's referring to Elias Lindholm.

12:56 Speaker 2: And you can say this about this as well.

13:00 Speaker 1: You never used to have bad knees. For Elias Lindholm, it's you never used to have a bad back. That knee is like he's going to have to he's going to have to work. It's going to have to really see what that adjustment is, because those kind of knee injuries take multiple years to recover from.

13:15 Speaker 3: They're damaged goods. I keep referring to them as damaged goods.

13:19 Speaker 1: I think he was fine last year, but I don't think he was. Great.

13:22 Speaker 3: No. It was okay. It was okay, but you're not paying him to be okay.

13:27 Speaker 2: We need, when it comes to that back end, I think we're expecting it to be.

13:32 Speaker 3: Charlie and then Hampus. And I think Maria and I have both.

13:38 Speaker 2: started to change our opinions on Zdorov, especially after last season, where his game and his attitude and his presence on the ice, his leadership has dramatically improved.

13:50 Speaker 3: This was a guy who came to the Bruins.

13:53 Speaker 2: Who had a reputation of being really difficult to coach, and he just wouldn't do things the right way.

13:59 Speaker 1: Being on your sixth team before age 30 does speak to that, to be fair. Yeah.

14:03 Speaker 2: Maybe he just also finally found a place that he likes. We constantly, at least I do, use the metaphor for the Boston Bruins as this is a workplace.

14:13 Speaker 3: This is an environment that you go to work. This is a company.

14:16 Speaker 2: We've all had jobs where... We loved the people and we got that great fit and it's awesome. And other times, maybe you just don't have a super connection, but you still go to work. And other times you've got a horrible working environment and it's awful, right? I also think that it's entirely possible that maybe Boston is just a nicer fit for Zdorov.

14:37 Speaker 3: And we've just been lucky enough to benefit from that.

14:40 Speaker 1: I just want to stop taking stupid.

14:43 Speaker 3: No, I and I and that that is a very fair point. And I think I think he likely feels the same way. Right. And to some degree, I'm going to give him a little bit of the benefit of the doubt here because and it happened not consistently, but there were times where that I felt he just got penalized because he was a bigger guy laying a crushing hit on someone.

15:03 Speaker 1: He did have some too big penalties left.

15:05 Speaker 3: Right? There's no reason for that. There's no reason to make that call. Just because you see a guy down and a bigger guy is standing over him, you shouldn't make the assumption. If you didn't see him throw an illegal check, why are you sending him to the box? I want to give him a little bit of grace there.

15:22 Speaker 1: 100%. So, okay, so it's Charlie and Hampus, or that's the mindset here.

15:28 Speaker 3: It's supposed to be, yeah.

15:29 Speaker 1: And then there are a couple of other X-Factors. I think if you get Seattle Will Borgen and not Rangers Will Borgen, you're getting a huge upgrade. Rangers Will Borgen was a disaster.

15:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, in theory, but.

15:44 Speaker 1: Yeah.

15:45 Speaker 3: I think there were a lot of disasters on that Rangers team. Toxic work environment. Toxic work environment. Maybe he was a product of the environment there. Mike Sullivan just looked like he didn't. Just one massive ball of stress. He's never been Mr.

16:01 Speaker 2: Happy anyways behind the bench.

16:03 Speaker 1: He's always been Sidney Crosby and he did not have that. Who's their captain? JT Mills. Boss. Toxic boss.

16:09 Speaker 2: Yeah.

16:09 Speaker 1: But if you get Seattle Woborg and that's going to be a big upgrade. Another huge X factor. And this kind of ties into what Maria was saying. Where's Frederick Brunet play? Because there's no way they're putting him on waivers, right?

16:19 Speaker 3: They cannot risk losing. Listen, you had the Providence coach, Trent Whitfield, basically come out and say that this kid should have a shot. He should get a fair shot at making the team. And it sounds like Sweeney is open to that based on some of his commentary. You cannot put this kid on waivers and risk him being scooped up.

16:44 Speaker 2: Yep.

16:44 Speaker 1: I've watched a lot of him in Providence. He's got it. And he's not like a star, but he's got an NHL skill set.

16:50 Speaker 2: I think it's his to lose kind of situation.

16:53 Speaker 1: Sure. Yeah. Like he's in pencil right now. Right.

16:56 Speaker 3: Take advantage of his opportunity, unlike some of his prior colleagues who never really say what you will. Maybe there was some mismanagement of these kids career paths with myself. You're presented with an opportunity. You got to take advantage of it.

17:12 Speaker 1: With Lysel, it was it takes two. It takes two. 100%. I've heard some stories, and I can't corroborate them, but I've heard some stories that Lysel really did not ingratiate himself very well with the organization, especially when it came to when Providence made the playoffs. Two years ago. I don't know if you guys know this story.

17:31 Speaker 3: I don't think I do.

17:31 Speaker 1: But I know a couple people who are connected to the organization. And he checked himself out of an elimination playoff game. It was Providence versus Charlotte. It was an elimination game. And he said, I can't play. Like a midway through the second period. Yeah. But he wasn't injured. And that was a big reason why he was never called up last year. And a guy like Murkyaloff was. Yeah.

17:53 Speaker 3: That doesn't surprise me.

17:55 Speaker 2: I mean, as someone who's navigating right now, also the youth hockey world, for good or for bad.

18:01 Speaker 1: RIP to you. Yeah. Yeah.

18:04 Speaker 2: Thanks.

18:05 Speaker 1: We're in it.

18:06 Speaker 3: We're in it.

18:07 Speaker 1: We're in it. What am I talking about? We're struggling, man.

18:09 Speaker 3: There are.

18:09 Speaker 2: I have conflicted feelings about that kind of side of the hockey world and hockey culture in that you have to obviously always be aware of how you present yourself and have an appropriate degree of humility at all times, whether or not you necessarily believe that you should be humble in that moment.

18:28 Speaker 3: And there is a lot of lip service that exists.

18:32 Speaker 2: That is superficial and can dictate your pathway and I don't have a problem with it if it's all being done in good faith and is genuine right but to hold somebody back And I'm not saying that what happened was unfair or fair, but sometimes I think there's a little too much emphasis placed on that. Oh, you weren't paying as much attention as I want you to, even if you already knew what was happening in a drill or at a tryout or whatever. It's so individual and maybe one bad day could... totally derail everything.

19:13 Speaker 2: So I always feel conflicted because I 100% think that as long as nothing was wrong with him physically or mentally, then I would ask him, why would you do that?

19:23 Speaker 3: This is a team.

19:24 Speaker 2: You have to give everything. That's the culture. That's what being a hockey player is. You give everything you have. Granted, we have the greatest example of that in the Boston Bruins history with Patrice Bergeron playing with a punctured lung or whatever. But that's obviously an extreme. I find that fascinating.

19:42 Speaker 3: That's just an interesting thing that you said about probably why he didn't come up.

19:45 Speaker 1: Yeah. And it was a big opportunity for him to come up.

19:48 Speaker 3: But I would like to think that conversation was had, which is why the organization decided to part ways with this player. If there was an underlining issue that prevented him, either physical or mental health-related issue, then I would expect the organization to provide him with the resources and support that one would need to work through that. But if you just come to me and say, yeah, I don't feel like playing this game, guess what, dude? I think I'm all set with you. Okay.

20:17 Speaker 1: Play out your string. Have fun in Colorado.

20:20 Speaker 2: Right. Right.

20:21 Speaker 3: I have a question for you, Andrew. I just want to go back to the Frederick Brunet conversation because we vaguely touched upon, you know, not wanting to put a player like that on waivers. There are other players that are in that category right now. And we'll get to those players. But specific to Brunet, because you said that you have watched him play in Providence and Would you consider him a better defensive upside player than Mason Lorai? I'm sorry.

20:52 Speaker 1: First of all, I have to ask. I have a feeling that this question is pointed at someone. Yes, I do. Not to say that I think he's going to be better than Lorai. I think Lorai is overall going to be a better player in one aspect. I think Lorai's offensive acumen and defensively last year, once He was the one that switched himself to the right side. If you listen to Marco Sturm talk, which was a really interesting insight that Sturm gave last year, was like, I didn't make that decision. Lorai said, let me try the right side because I'm struggling.

21:24 Speaker 1: And Sturm really liked him.

21:26 Speaker 3: Is he right-handed?

21:26 Speaker 1: No, he's left-handed. Lorai's left-handed.

21:29 Speaker 3: You're right, because he would play with Charlie.

21:31 Speaker 1: And the pair with Charlie was a frigging disaster. I do think that Brunet, if you do want to try Brunet McAvoy and just say, screw it, that could work better than Lorai McAvoy. Because Brunet is not a wild buck. He's very offensively gifted. He has really good vision, really good outlet pass. He's a bigger guy than his style of play would dictate. He's not physical, but he's 6'3, 220 pounds. And he's very fluid. But I do... Not very heavy. Yeah, yeah. He's also only 23.

22:04 Speaker 2: Yeah.

22:04 Speaker 1: So he's still.

22:08 Speaker 1: Guess what he also does? He trains with Patrice Bergeron.

22:11 Speaker 3: He's learning from the master.

22:13 Speaker 1: He trains with Patrice Bergeron every offseason. He's done since he was in Victoriaville in the queue. To answer your question, Maria, I think that Brunet does skew more towards offense, but his defensive improvement from when he was drafted in the fifth round to when he played in the queue to him having two full seasons in the AHL, which I think he really benefited from. I watched probably about 75% of Providence's games last year. If you want to say that Brunei was the best on the ice for 60% of them, you'd probably be right.

22:50 Speaker 1: Like he Brunet was the one that they relied on to shepherd Ty Gallagher when he came up from college. They stapled Gallagher to his hip. And last year they took Gallagher away from Brunet and Gallagher floundered. They put Gallagher back with Brunet. Gallagher had an amazing 20 game stretch that got him an extension. So they relied on him a lot in Providence. Yeah.

23:14 Speaker 2: So, again, I have to imagine, unless he, like, completely shits the bed during camp, worst case, I would expect him to be getting tapped.

23:24 Speaker 3: As the seventh.

23:25 Speaker 1: We're going to be the third pair.

23:26 Speaker 3: You think he'd actually make?

23:28 Speaker 1: I think he'll be.

23:28 Speaker 2: I think it'll be between him and Harris as the extras. And they're going to keep them both. And they may or may not start. They certainly have a higher likelihood of starting in the first six games and they're going to get their chances in the wild, so to speak. And I think that's going to dictate more of where he actually finds himself by December.

23:49 Speaker 3: Um, I wanted to talk about this one.

23:52 Speaker 2: So in addition to Brunet, the other player that is being given his shot, like this is the last shot, is Matthew Patra. But the problem is, for as good as Brunet is on the back end, and I do think that there is some flexibility there in terms of what's available and how you can use them, I don't know who Patra could bump.

24:21 Speaker 1: I think this is an easy answer, actually. It's a no?

24:24 Speaker 2: No.

24:24 Speaker 3: I don't want it to be a no.

24:26 Speaker 1: I think he makes the team.

24:27 Speaker 3: You think he makes the team?

24:29 Speaker 1: There's a really easy answer to who he should bump. Now, this depends on a couple of factors. How hockey-pilled is Marco Sturm?

24:40 Speaker 2: Yeah, but here's the issue. I don't disagree. I think we had come to a very similar conclusion. There's also, if it were a true meritocracy where it doesn't matter how long you've been in the league, it doesn't matter how much you're getting paid or how long your contract is. I think that there are actually two people who probably would and could and should be bumped. But they will not because, again, of either their contract situation or the length of time that they have played in the league. And it's Elias Lindholm and Sean Corrales.

25:10 Speaker 3: But you can't. It's one of those situations where it's like.

25:13 Speaker 2: You can't not play your. How much was Lindholm making? Like six million dollars? Like you can't let that sit.

25:20 Speaker 1: Seven and five right now.

25:21 Speaker 3: It's like the same thing when they were sitting Mason Lorai.

25:25 Speaker 2: Okay, he's young, sit him, but you can't have him sitting for so long because he just earned a $ 3 million contract. Like you can't do that because that's then a waste of money. And I don't know that Sean Corrales would be facing a situation where he's like completely out of a job. Like he's the new, supposed to be like the new Uncle Nick, the youths to the NHL.

25:47 Speaker 3: How do you do that to him?

25:49 Speaker 1: You can do a couple things. He could be a 13th forward. You can send him down outright because if you really want him to be that shepherd, Providence would be perfect. But I have other reasons as to why I'm saying Potter should make the team.

26:01 Speaker 3: Please.

26:01 Speaker 1: He worked really well with Kostelik and Jeannot during the season. Yeah, Potter did. He came up. It was during that stretch during the Winter Classic Stadium Series.

26:12 Speaker 3: I don't remember this at all.

26:14 Speaker 1: No, it's small sample size alert, obviously. But he came through during that time and played really well, adjusted his game really well to their style and was able to use the space that Bulk Koselleck and Jeannot created for his puck moving acumen because he's never going to be a burner. He's not, he's not very athletic. His skating stride sucks. Like that's always been a huge thing.

26:39 Speaker 3: Oh my God. What I've been saying, what have I been saying about this kid? If he doesn't learn to have a better sense of awareness, Of what is coming at him. He is not going to be long for the NHL.

26:52 Speaker 1: But he's so good at finding space when it's creating. He's in big trouble. He's played, what, 67, 69 games in the NHL. He has some NHL experience and he's produced in that experience. And Sturm, to his credit, didn't, was like, okay, I don't want to put him in a top six position, even though that's probably where he's best. But to his credit, he played really well with Kostelik and Janot, because Kostelik and Janot are just friggin' boulders who will create room.

27:19 Speaker 3: They're herd elephants.

27:21 Speaker 1: And Patra is great at manipulating that room. He's very Krejci-like in his style. I'm not going to say he's friggin' 800 games on the Boston Bruins, David Krejci. Obviously. But in his style, he's very similar to how he plays... to David Krejci so if you give him that room he can really excel he can really do really well another thing though that I keep coming back to is last year in the preseason Sturm really wanted Patra I don't know if you guys remember this but in the there was six preseason games Patra played in four of them in all four he had over 20 minutes time on ice and Sturm was effusive in how he likes Patra and Sturm does not give compliments lightly you know what I mean he's very he's European No.

28:04 Speaker 1: He's very German. He's so very German. He wanted desperately to find a spot for him. But the one fatal flaw of Patra's game, other than the skating, he can't play wing. He can't play wing.

28:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, no, he's a center. But can I ask an honest, maybe it's a naive question on my part, do we honestly think the Bruins organization is going to have Sean Corrales take a seat for Matt Patra to center that line? Andrew, I don't know why they brought him back. to begin with, you can ask Caroline. I was scratching my head going, I don't understand this.

28:39 Speaker 1: No way.

28:40 Speaker 3: That's my point.

28:41 Speaker 1: Raleigh looked dead for half the year, man.

28:43 Speaker 3: But it's one of those things. It's like the unspoken. But here's where I don't have, I don't want to say trust, faith, right? Because if you're clearly, you need to move forward, right? And you need to see what you actually have. And in order to do that, Some of these players that we're talking about need to play in the NHL and they need to potentially play at the expense of someone else. Do these guys have the cojones to make those decisions?

29:16 Speaker 1: Do you have the cojones to start James Hagans in the NHL, for example?

29:20 Speaker 2: Yes. I don't even think that's a question of cojones. I think that's a, you have to do this.

29:25 Speaker 3: I think there's kind of a presumption across the league when you listen to all the redundancy that is happening now with some of the hockey-related content for NHL Network and whatever, that the underlying presumption is... Higgins is going to be on this roster, right? But in other places, you wonder if Frederick Brene is actually going to get a legit opportunity. Is Matt Patra actually going to get a legit opportunity? And, you know, again, they haven't extended him yet or signed him yet. So I don't know what the hell that is all about.

30:00 Speaker 1: In the offseason, that's all. Yeah, that's the other thing. He's still training in Boston. He's living with Laurie and Borgen for the summer. I don't think there's any risk of him not signing.

30:12 Speaker 3: He's looking pretty damn good, right? This is what people... I understand, you know, because we have a fan base here that it's polarizing when it comes to goaltending. Ever since Tim Thomas.

30:23 Speaker 1: We've had some very... Once every couple of years. I mean, I remember a few years ago, this happened with Tori Krug.

30:28 Speaker 3: We've lived through the Jeremy Swayman of it all. We know.

30:31 Speaker 1: Who's that?

30:31 Speaker 2: No.

30:33 Speaker 3: He's looking cheap these days. My God.

30:35 Speaker 1: So yeah, 64 million reasons we should know who that is.

30:38 Speaker 3: Swayman's contract... as it progresses is going to be so team friendly that if you do want to part ways for whatever reason, right? Say you do want to part ways. It's going to be so easy to move him.

30:51 Speaker 1: Who is the most popular player in Boston? The backup goaltender and the backup quarterback.

30:56 Speaker 3: So I want to get a general sense or idea of who we think is going to be likely an odd man out because there are names of players who are going to Yeah. They're not all going to be able to clear waivers. So who do you protect? Right. Who do you protect?

31:13 Speaker 1: Yeah. It becomes a tradable contract.

31:15 Speaker 3: You've got right now. If any of these guys to Providence, they have to clear waivers. We have Mason Lloyd, Henry Yoki Haru, Jordan Harris, Frederick Brunet and Jonathan Asparo.

31:30 Speaker 1: Asparo stays. I think he he did really he really held his own with McAvoy last year. He did kind of get exposed in the playoffs, to be fair.

31:40 Speaker 3: Yes, but I also think Charlie McAvoy needs his binky to be able to play the way that he wants to play.

31:46 Speaker 1: Do you think McAvoy does better with that? You think McAvoy does better with a defensive safety belt rather than being the shepherd for Frederick Brunet? I do.

31:57 Speaker 2: I do.

31:58 Speaker 3: And if that's what it takes, it pisses me off to say this, But if that's what it takes to get the consistent best out of your franchise defenseman, then it's a pill that the organization may need to swallow.

32:12 Speaker 1: It's a bane that that it doesn't seem like he can be like the one that can guide like a young player. The Lorai stuff from two years ago, him and Lorai worked really well together. Last year, I don't.

32:24 Speaker 3: Know what that was. An absolute disaster.

32:27 Speaker 2: I also always feel like I have to put a little asterisk when I talk about how I've seen them play because that was just so out of the ordinary that I can't explain why Mason Lorai all of a sudden has two left feet and doesn't know how to be a defenseman.

32:43 Speaker 1: Yeah. How does Mason Lorai go from looking off David Pasternak for a goal in the playoffs to minus 42?

32:51 Speaker 2: I mean, I swear to God, last fall, there were a couple of instances where I just distinctly remember this game against Anaheim and watching him and the 7-5 game.

33:04 Speaker 1: I know exactly which one you're talking about.

33:06 Speaker 2: They should have had Benny Hill music because both defensemen were down. In the same corner, I'm like, you guys look like you're playing squirts, not the NHL.

33:15 Speaker 1: What is this?

33:16 Speaker 3: How does this happen?

33:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, the mind boggles. Maria, to your point on that, Yogi Haru, Lorai, Harris is also not waiver exempt. Which one's the easiest to trade?

33:34 Speaker 3: I think the odd man out will be... He probably would clear, so you don't... I don't know anyone else who.

33:43 Speaker 1: Which one do you want to trade? Lorai.

33:48 Speaker 2: Because I do still think he is good at... Who do I want to trade?

33:52 Speaker 3: Who was the third one?

33:53 Speaker 1: Harris.

33:54 Speaker 3: Yokiharu.

33:55 Speaker 1: I don't think you trade Harris. Yokiharu is an interesting one because I think.

33:59 Speaker 3: He is.

34:00 Speaker 1: I think he was legitimately better than Peake last year for huge stretch. I don't think... But I think it's one of those instances where Sturm... does not like him. And it could be as something as simple as that.

34:11 Speaker 3: It could be.

34:12 Speaker 2: He's one that Maria and I have talked in the past about, man, we just need to sit down and figure this guy out. Because if you look at Yoki Haru, this is another player that makes no sense to me because his resume is unbelievable.

34:25 Speaker 3: He's got Olympic medals and world championship medals and.

34:34 Speaker 1: Made the Chicago Blackhawks at 18.

34:35 Speaker 2: I feel like what I see should see on the ice is something very different than it is.

34:41 Speaker 1: I don't know.

34:41 Speaker 3: Is this a Boston thing? I don't know what this is.

34:44 Speaker 1: I don't think Sturm likes him very much. I really do. I really think it really boils down to that. Sturm has made comments in the past about how he wants to see Yokiharu do something that he's not doing. And he doesn't say that about any other players. So I think there's a little bit of I don't like this. Not I don't like him as a person. We can't speculate on that. But I don't like what he brings to the eye.

35:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, we've heard we've certainly heard Sturm talk in the past about making sure that the players are buying into his system and making it pretty clear that if you don't, you're not going to get time.

35:23 Speaker 1: Remember the Johnny Beecher press conference?

35:25 Speaker 2: No.

35:26 Speaker 1: Right before he got claimed by Calgary, he talked about what it's like when a young player doesn't buy in or when a young player just can't really do what he's asking. And he was very... If you read between the lines, it was a takedown. And then an hour later, we found out that Beecher got claimed by Calgary. He'll let you know.

35:49 Speaker 3: I mean, that's fair. I think....

35:52 Speaker 2: Beecher is another one of those. He came in with Lorai and Patra. And I think it was the perfect season year where everybody exceeded expectations. And those were three really young guys who blew everybody away in camp and then seemed to not really fulfill whatever promise it was that we saw in them. Beecher also never really seemed to get better as he got older.

36:19 Speaker 1: Physical tool off the charts, absolutely no hockey IQ whatsoever.

36:23 Speaker 2: And he was pretty decent with his face-offs, I thought. I don't remember correctly, but.

36:28 Speaker 1: And that's fine, yeah.

36:29 Speaker 3: We do need more than that.

36:30 Speaker 1: Positioning and being able to use that speed. Like, I have never seen a guy that's, like, that is his size that can skate like him.

36:38 Speaker 2: Yeah.

36:39 Speaker 1: It's insane. He should be much better than he is. And not on his third team in 12 months.

36:44 Speaker 2: Yeah.

36:45 Speaker 3: But I'm the realist, okay?

36:46 Speaker 2: Yeah. Very little irritates me, at least on the podcast when we're talking about it, after I've had time to cool down. I'm feeling, I'm always feeling hopeful and optimistic because it's that time of year, right, where, okay, we've seen what everybody else has done.

37:01 Speaker 3: There's question marks about how well Boston is actually going to be able to compete against other teams.

37:09 Speaker 1: Florida got so much better. Toronto, I think, got better. Pretty good. Pretty better. I mean, I mean, I guess that depends on which Bobrovsky they get.

37:16 Speaker 3: I mean, crap Bobrovsky is going to be a good Bobrovsky.

37:20 Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, crap Bobrovsky last year was pretty good.

37:24 Speaker 3: I know.

37:24 Speaker 1: Well, that's true.

37:26 Speaker 2: This Atlantic division does concern me because there was less available room for Boston to grow and improve, right?

37:33 Speaker 3: Because there's only so much that they could do.

37:35 Speaker 2: Whereas you have some other teams that have the ability to drastically improve from where they were last year, because last year maybe they were significantly worse than Boston. And they also have a lot more cap space, like Florida, Leafs, even Ottawa, I think, got a lot better. Montreal, they're actually the ones that.

37:55 Speaker 1: Ottawa may have gotten a lot better by some chance. Maybe, yeah.

37:59 Speaker 3: Depending on. 100%.

38:01 Speaker 1: 100%.

38:01 Speaker 2: I'm actually, of the teams in the division, I think I'm the most nervous actually about Montreal because.

38:08 Speaker 1: What does that next snap look like? Does it look like a cup? Because they made the conference final last year.

38:13 Speaker 3: They've got the goaltending. They have the leadership. They have the talent.

38:18 Speaker 2: I think what makes them a little bit a step ahead compared to Florida and the firepower that they acquired or Toronto or even Buffalo is the fact that team... in Montreal has already played seasons together so they've all they're already marinated so that bond that chemistry they're all on the same page nobody's really new or not a large number of them are new that has the potential to be very.

38:49 Speaker 1: Deadly Montreal is very good. Very good. Tampa is still Tampa. Florida is not going to do what they did last year. They're starting the year with a Marshawn injury. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, but Brady Kachuk was addition by subtraction for Ottawa. Brady Kachuk for Florida is addition by addition.

39:09 Speaker 3: They are going to be brutal.

39:11 Speaker 1: Brutal.

39:11 Speaker 3: I believe. Brutal to play against.

39:14 Speaker 1: Just Absolutely.

39:15 Speaker 3: With or without Brad Marchand in the lineup, he adds an extra layer of brutality.

39:21 Speaker 1: Brutality.

39:25 Speaker 2: Every team is going to be spending the day at the game against Florida.

39:30 Speaker 1: What, guys? No practice today.

39:32 Speaker 3: I mean, my fear is that you've got to be on point for all 84 games. Not all 84 games, but every game that you play against your Atlantic opponent. The margin for error is going to be very thin, except maybe if you're playing the Detroit Red Wings.

39:54 Speaker 1: The only one.

39:55 Speaker 3: Oh, man.

39:59 Speaker 1: My God.

40:00 Speaker 2: And that's because they're just such a hot mess. Like they have no identity right now.

40:04 Speaker 1: No identity. They won't even have a gym. And Dylan Larkin reaffirmed his trade request. And Detroit, rightfully, I'll give Detroit credit here. If I 100% agree with them, I want to be traded. Okay. We still got four years left.

40:18 Speaker 3: And we're not trading you for a bag of pucks, young man. Honestly.

40:22 Speaker 1: I want to go here. That's nice.

40:24 Speaker 3: That's not how this works.

40:26 Speaker 2: I fully support players getting fair contracts in teams that they want to be in.

40:32 Speaker 3: If you're going to come to Boston.

40:33 Speaker 1: This feels a little different.

40:35 Speaker 2: If you want to come to Boston and you want to stay in Boston or you want to be in, great. Then you should figure out a way to make that happen. Being a professional athlete is filled with a lot of uncertainties for 99% of all professional athletes. You never know where you're going to end up. But there is also a way to do things, and this is not it. You do not request a trade after trade deadline and that season happens and then keep going after free agency. One.

41:04 Speaker 3: What are you doing to your team? Yeah.

41:06 Speaker 1: And then say one of the things that I'll rescind my trade request if you fire the GM. You fire the GM. Which, by the way, should have happened anyways. But I actually feel bad for Steve Azzerman in this respect. He came into this offseason thinking he had a job because he made signings like he had a job.

41:25 Speaker 3: They fired him after free agency. What? What are you doing?

41:29 Speaker 1: That tells me that there was a conversation in the organization where Larkin was like, I will rescind my trade request if you fire him. And they fired him. And then it's like, OK, OK, you good?

41:39 Speaker 2: We talk about how a hockey team, it doesn't have to be a family. It doesn't have to be a perfect work environment, but you have to be a cohesive unit. Right. Yes. And seeing like the behaviors of Connor Hellebuck and Dylan Larkin, that is actually like the antithesis of what it means to be a part of a hockey team. Don't don't make your dirty laundry public.

42:06 Speaker 3: I never want to hear that. And when you do, and when you do, don't put out statements that you want to try to massage your fan base. They're going to be pissed at you. It's just the nature of how things work. Okay.

42:18 Speaker 1: Like they're going to be mad.

42:20 Speaker 3: They're going to be mad. And what are you doing to the team? And by the same token, now, I think the players all understand this stuff, right? Because they're just like, do what you got to do for the most part. But when these players make these requests, which are built-in components of their contract, so it's a two-way street, okay? You asked for it. The GM and the organization gave it to you. You can exercise it. I understand that. But you also have to understand that the organization is not in the business of just giving away players just because you came out and said, I don't want to play here anymore.

42:56 Speaker 3: They're going to do their due diligence as well. They should to get a viable return for what is their prerogative. So you can't go in there now and be all pissy and moany and moping.

43:09 Speaker 1: Yeah.

43:10 Speaker 3: Okay, we get it. You made the request. We respect that. But we're going to make a deal that's right for our organization.

43:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, Hellebuck's definitely another one where if I'm Kevin Chell payoff and he comes into my office and says, I want to trade, it's like, okay, no.

43:26 Speaker 2: He has every right to go whenever he wants and have that conversation. But he also has to understand, OK, unless there was a flat out no for whatever reason, like you said, Maria, they're going to then say, OK, we're going to keep that in mind as we move forward through this season.

43:42 Speaker 3: And as we start to look at the timing, is it right? And there's not a deal out there to be had.

43:48 Speaker 1: Really?

43:48 Speaker 3: Where is he going to go? He can't go to Florida. They just signed Markstrom. New Jersey, maybe. I can see both sides of the coin. But what I don't like is seeing what presuming is happening. And maybe it's a bad assumption on my part is players now trying to dictate when they're going to move. No, that's not. That's what the free agency is for.

44:09 Speaker 1: That right there, Maria, is why the NBA has dovetailed in quality in the last 10 to 15 years. Because it's player empowerment. I get your money.

44:20 Speaker 3: I agree.

44:21 Speaker 1: But it gets pushed too far. It goes too far.

44:24 Speaker 3: If you want to be a GM, LeBron, if you want to be a GM, go get a GM job. But you shouldn't have the ability to dictate or push or weigh in on personnel decisions or management decisions. I'm sorry. Or I want this guy on my team. I don't care what you have to do to get him, but I want this guy on my team.

44:44 Speaker 1: Or I want this guy coaching. It's like, okay, sure, we'll take it under advisement.

44:49 Speaker 2: This is the one significant difference from an actual workplace. You work at one place, you leave, you follow that.

44:55 Speaker 1: You get head-on.

44:56 Speaker 2: You can leave whenever you want, right? You can go and do and nobody's worse off, whatever. We saw what happened when there is not war.

45:05 Speaker 3: But not peace. I'm trying to think of the right word, but... Discontent.

45:08 Speaker 2: Yes, at the start of training camp. And to have your starting goaltender... be in such disagreement. How can you trust him to give it his all? His teammates know he doesn't want to be there. So why would they stand up for him? Your captain doesn't want to be there.

45:25 Speaker 3: Who's going to want to listen to him now?

45:27 Speaker 1: Nobody.

45:28 Speaker 3: So you have fun with that. If he was doing this in good.

45:33 Speaker 2: Faith, he should have resigned his position as captain if he was doing it in good faith.

45:37 Speaker 3: But they're not on it.

45:39 Speaker 1: No one's finishing fifth in the Atlantic. I think that was what you were trying to lead to.

45:43 Speaker 3: Hopefully not.

45:44 Speaker 1: Hopefully not.

45:45 Speaker 3: They may surprise us.

45:46 Speaker 1: That's been my opinion. They may surprise us.

45:48 Speaker 3: They surprised us last year. It's great when there are new young players.

45:54 Speaker 2: We know that Pasta feels really good about playing with the kids. He seems rejuvenated playing with a lot of new young kids. So I think we should hold judgment and just be optimistic.

46:08 Speaker 3: But we shall see. It's going to be a slog fest. It's going to be a slog fest. Things can change on a dime. Teams can suffer some injuries to key players where you may be able to take advantage of those opportunities. But I think it's going to be a slog fest in the Atlantic.

46:26 Speaker 1: It's going to be tough.

46:27 Speaker 2: Andrew, thank you so much for joining us. I'm so glad that we could finally make this happen. Can you tell our listeners how they can find you?

46:36 Speaker 1: So you can find me on two different podcasts. You can find me on, of course, the Short Shift podcast. We're entering our seventh season doing this. Holy crap. I know. It's very nuts. And also a new project that I just started with up and coming content creator Emily Pinson, Black Hawk and Gold. It's just the concept of it is basically two original six fan bases are trying to understand the other team. And we are really mean to each other and it's fun. We're not actually very mean to each other.

47:04 Speaker 3: There's a long storied history there between those two original six franchises.

47:08 Speaker 1: There sure is. And I'm mapping out an episode right now that talks about Bobby Orr's connection.

47:16 Speaker 2: We love to have original six guests on our show as well because there's just so much to talk about and it's a lot of fun for sure.

47:24 Speaker 1: And I like listening to you guys, too, because you guys are always really you guys are always really informed and really fun. And you guys you guys keep it on track. And Maria, you're a fire. And we love that about you.

47:36 Speaker 3: It's good.

47:36 Speaker 1: Yeah.

47:37 Speaker 3: Wait till the season gets started. You want to hear spiciness?

47:42 Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.

47:43 Speaker 1: Unsubscribe. Seriously, guys, though, thank you so much for having me. And thanks for doing this.

47:49 Speaker 3: Thank you for joining us. We appreciate your time and good luck with your new project.

47:53 Speaker 1: Yes. Thank you so much, guys. And continue to grow for both of you. Thanks.

47:58 Speaker 2: Make sure you like and subscribe for more content and be sure to leave a rating and review to help other Bruins fans find us. You can support the podcast by joining our Patreon or following us on our socials at tape2tapemk and on Substack at tape2tapemk.

48:10 Speaker 3: Substack. com. Final words, Maria. Go Bruins.

48:16 Speaker 1: Go Bruins. And thank you for having me.

48:18 Speaker 3: And as always, go Bees.