Bruins Lose Focus at Home, Ottawa Makes Them Pay | Ep. 122

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me?

0:02 Speaker 2: Please?

0:03 Speaker 1: I need something to do. I Jack send it out of trouble, bocking to say, today.

0:20 Speaker 2: Here's a chance PoTA right down the goalie scars, Oh my one a move by the rookie too.

0:24 Speaker 1: On one faster not moving in shot? Is oil dances in podcast at home? Right away? Corner faster Chester? What is that? Forster?

0:51 Speaker 2: Welcome in everyone to another episode of Ruins Tape to Tape. I'm your host today, Caroline with a K, and I'm joined by my fantastic co host, Maria from Watertown.

1:02 Speaker 1: Hey Maria, Hey, Caroline, how's it going on this Monday morning, less than what forty eight hours or so away from Christmas? It's gonna be a busy two days for me. I don't know about you. Yeah, well, I think the Bruins already have visions of sugar plums dancing in their freaking heads based on the way that they have been playing since they arrived at home. But we'll get to all of that. We will, we will. I feel like a year ago, if I recall, you were on the pod and you were the Grinch.

1:38 Speaker 2: Of Christmas, and I feel like we're in the same spot as last year. Feeling a little grinchy about this team. We're a little pissed off because it's a lot of self inflicted wounds.

1:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know this team, and this is basically us setting the table and setting the tone for this particular episode. So everybody strap in because if you listen to the last snapshot, I was particularly spicy, and I think that has continued into this episode. This team has good bones. You've got good bones. It can it can be a good team. But then you.

2:16 Speaker 2: Have games like they've had since they've come home, and you want to strangle every single player on that.

2:25 Speaker 1: Team because they are they're their own worst enemy. There, their own worst they are enemy, and we have been giving them flowers for the most part. Yeah, but when they play in the manner in which they have been playing, and it's it started with the Vancouver game, yeah, even though there was a vallid there. I mean they dominated that game, yep, in every in every venue, but the score. Then you have Connor mcjesus come into town and you tell me, you tell me how nobody fucking pays attention to where Connor McDavid is on the ice.

3:05 Speaker 1: When you have a power play opportunity and he gets sprung for a shorthanded goal, and then the rotten cherry on top is that disgusting game against the Ottawa Senators that I did sit through and watch until the end as I'm streaming in New England Patriots game on my tablet and sitting there going are you kidding me? Right now? Do you know that you're playing a division opponent? Do you see that clearly this game has meaning to the Ottawa Senators. Where is your sense of urgency, Boston Bruins. You're supposed to be one of the best teams in the league on home ice, and you you let the Ottawa Senators walk all over you to the degree that Jonis Corpo Salo ended up being pulled.

4:08 Speaker 1: And I want to get your thoughts on the goalie rotation, because maybe Marco screwed up with the goalie rotation for this home stand. But be that as it may. Some of the worst hockey that I have seen this Bruins team play since the early part of the season until they got things figured out. And when they go off the rails, it's not pretty. It is fugly.

4:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I was thinking the exact same thing that I haven't seen Boston play this poorly since the last time they played the Ottawa Senators, and I don't know what it is. Ottawa has had the Bruins number for years at this point, even going back to the perfect season. It was like the one team that they struggled against. Yes, I don't know if it's just how Brady Kuchuk leads his team and gets them I don't know, motivated fast because I think it was Billy said during the first intermission yesterday.

5:17 Speaker 1: The auto or maybe it was Barry Ottawa Senators.

5:20 Speaker 2: It's not like they are particularly good at XYZ right their powerplay or their penalty killer, whatever, But their speed and their tenacity and just kind of the way that they approach the game is what is constantly sinking Boston. Were the officials terrible, Yeah, they've been terrible, but they're not the reason why they were not the difference in this game.

5:47 Speaker 1: It was Boston's self inflicted wounds.

5:50 Speaker 2: And in terms of the goalie rotation, I mean, I understand why the goalie rotation was the way that it was. So what we've seen has lately, at least this season, Jeremy Swayman seems to have a ceiling when it comes to performance, ability, consistency, reliability and the number of games played.

6:12 Speaker 1: His magic number seems to be three, which is fine. I don't have a problem with that.

6:17 Speaker 2: And we know with corpus Sollo he can't not play for a very long time because then he has rust he's got to shape. So knowing this, using him perhaps a little bit more is a good idea. And I think the reason why Jeremy was played against who is It on Saturday Vancouver was because this year Ottawa has completely obliterated Swayman and Corpi has done a better job on the whole.

6:53 Speaker 1: For the most part.

6:55 Speaker 2: Against Ottawa, He's given the players in front of him more chances to retake the game than Swayman has, so I understand why they chose.

7:07 Speaker 1: Who they chose for which game.

7:09 Speaker 2: However, both games ended up disappointing, at least on the goalie side, and I'm not saying that the goalies did a bad job. It was just disappointing because Vancouver was Swayman's fourth game and Corpusalo had no help and he hadn't played again, so it was we were already behind the eight ball going into this weekend because of the goalie situation. I don't know if there was really anything that the coaching staff could have done to prevent this particular situation.

7:44 Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. I just to your point about Ottawa having the Bruins' number. Now, they've played four times now and Ottawa has outscored us by a margin of twenty to ten. Jesus, I just did the quick map here. Now, folks, you can check me out because I did it very quickly. But we have a seven to two loss that started the season, then a three to two win by the Bruins, then a five to three loss, and now a six to two loss. So there is something about this Autowa style of play. I called them relentless, and there are some teams in this league that are absolutely relentless on both ends of the ice, both their back checking and their four checking.

8:34 Speaker 1: And then if you play the way that you did in the game last night, with your heads stuck up your asses and looking around waiting for someone else to make a move or make a play like there were no clean very few, if any clean entries by the Bruins last night, and then when they got a clean entry, they did nothing with it. I want to hear your take on what ray Bourg said last night. If I was in the booth, I would have kissed him for saying what he said. So he was asked a question about you, Charlie McAboy and his play and Bruin's alumni is always very deferential to the current players.

9:23 Speaker 1: Hey, no one wants to criticize You're a form of Bruin. But here's what I'll give him credit for. And how often have we been saying this? He wished and I'm paraphrasing, but this is in essence what he said that he wished that Charlie would shoot more because he has a good shot, because he has the ability. And myself me again, I have said on this pod more than once that I think this player is overrated by this organization. And I've heard over the course of this retool and even prior to this, we're asking Charlie to do too much.

10:06 Speaker 1: We're asking Charlie to do too much. We're asking Charlie to do too much. Well, now he has got a partner who is playing ten times better than we expected him to be playing in nikita 'sadora. So what's Charlie mcaboy's excuse now for not jumping in a bit more offensively. He's not even a power play quarterback anymore, so how much we asking him to do? Shortly after, Rayborg said that it might have been the second period, right, Charlie rips a shot and it goes in. It clearly hits something. I don't care.

10:45 Speaker 1: You took the shot when your team is on the struggle buns bus offensively. So I just thought that that was good insight. And the way that ray Bork said it, it wasn't in a condescending manner. It wasn't in a critical manner. It was more like, I just wish he would use the talents that we all know he has a little bit more. And this is coming from ray boor Hello, I know, I know, I know. Now here's when I'm gonna be really pissed off at macaboy. Okay, if he goes into the Olympics and he plays beast mode like he did tell it in the Four Nations and then comes back to Boston and I don't see that same beast mode.

11:36 Speaker 1: Dude, I'm gonna rip you from one side to the other. He's gonna be dead to you. Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. And again I'm not laying this all at anybody's feet. Last night was an abysmo performance. Yes, by the team as a whole, pretty much abysmo. Even when Mark Castell tried to get some energy inflected into the game with that fight that he had, and those guys they went for a long time. The refs let them go and we'll get We'll get to that fishing group too, because the NHL can kiss my ass when it comes to these reps, because three out of the four were the same reps from the game before that sucked.

12:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's take a real quick spin around the rink. It is almost Christmas time, and what happens every Christmas time. We've got World Juniors coming up. The preliminary rounds have actually already started. The actual tournament kicks off on December twenty sixth every year. If you recall last year, the Boston Bruins were the only team in the NHL without a single player represented in the entire World Juniors rosters, Team USA, Canada any of them. This year, they do have a pretty decent showing.

13:10 Speaker 2: For example, a Team USA has at least two Boston Bruins in attendance. We've got James Hagen's and Will Zeller's and on Team Canada we've got a few as well.

13:24 Speaker 1: So great to see that.

13:25 Speaker 2: Happy to see that finally, because that was just embarrassing that last year they didn't have anyone.

13:32 Speaker 1: And World Juniors is in the United States, so two years in a row in our hemisphere, so we actually can watch in live in real time, not in the middle of the night, which would be very nice to see some of these players playing. So while it'll be nice to take a look at these two significant prospects for the Bruins too. While the NHL has a little bit of a holiday, well here, yes, yep.

14:01 Speaker 2: Yeah, what else is happening around the rink these days? We've got Sidney Crosby continuing to cement his place in NHL history. He passed Mario Lemieux in points for Penguins point and I'm sure that Mario Lemieux will be the first to congratulate him. And just on a side note, the Pittsburgh Penguins, who at one point were owned by Fenway Sports Group John Henry, were sold recently for a significant sum of money.

14:34 Speaker 1: Mister Henry made guests back what he put in and then some yes, and so there's been some some speculation about maybe Mario Lemieux can get back into into the fold. Here with regard to the Penguins, good on Sydney Crosby. He has, I mean, he's He's clearly going to go down as one of the greatest NHL ers of all time.

15:00 Speaker 2: The other big piece of news around the league is the fact actually that the Buffalo Sabers have finally finally gotten rid of their GM Kevin Adams organization.

15:13 Speaker 1: They replaced him permanently with the armokeek Linen. And look, I'm not a Sabers fan. I'm indifferent at best. My god, I just I feel bad for any team.

15:29 Speaker 2: That is in a situation like that, much like with the Arizona team and their owner effectively killing that franchise.

15:39 Speaker 1: Kevin Adams was doing that too.

15:42 Speaker 2: The decisions, the number of players that have passed through Buffalo to go on and win Stanley Cups is embarrassing, I would say. And the Sabers have had quite the bump from the change. They have been on a wind street. I'm just looking they have. They're on a heater man.

16:07 Speaker 1: They have won one, two, three, four, five, Six games in a row, yes, six games in a row. Yes.

16:15 Speaker 2: You know, there's always a bump with any kind of change, whether it's the coaching change bump, a trade bump, like we've seen a little bit with Edmonton, although their new goalie is out now for some time. But there's always a tiny bump because change is refreshing to an organization. But the size, the sheer size of that change, that bump tells you everything you need to know about what players thought of Kevin Adams. And he was around for a long time, being terrible for a very long time. Kick Linen actually had been with a while ago.

16:54 Speaker 2: He was the GM of the Blue Jackets, and so he knows what he's doing when it comes to a team that is struggling and trying to make an effect change.

17:04 Speaker 1: So good on them, I felt, I've they just it feels I felt bad for them so well, and and their fans have been just it's been brutal for their fans so and again I'm not a Sabers fan either. You hate to see it though for an extended period of time for a franchise like right right, they've they've been a suffering fan base for so long that I mean that doesn't necessarily mean that they've turned it around fully and completely, but the way that things are playing out in the Eastern Conference where there seems to be really no team other than maybe the Carolina Hurricanes and the Washington Capitals, all the Red Wings too, But it's up and down, you know, the standings are so tight and and and the I don't even want to call it parody.

17:52 Speaker 1: Maybe I I'll call it mediocrity. The level of mediocrity is is to such a level which makes it even more freaky annoying when the Bruins lose a game to a division opponent who's crawling right up your keyster like they the Bruins played themselves last night out of a wild card spot. Yeah, and they're not trending in the right direction. And now we have the Canadians coming in on Tuesday night, right, Yes, the buckle down, Buckle up, folks, and buckle up well.

18:28 Speaker 2: And prior to the debacle, Bruins had finally entered the conversation when it comes to the Super sixteen and the power rankings for on the NHL's website by the NHL writers, that's.

18:42 Speaker 1: Probably going to be a flash in the pan after what happened this weekend. But well, it's it's kind of hysterical because these same writers, most of them didn't even have the Bruins on their radar when they did their preseason predictions about playoffs and contenders and whatnot. So it's a little ironic. But yes, they've played their way into the conversation when it comes to the Super Sixteen. Yes, and every team has pickups. But what is very troubling is this has been kind of a downhill slope that started with the Vancouver game and maybe the level of frustration because the Bruins were dominant in that game, like they they put over forty freaking shots on goal.

19:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's talk about let's talk about the games this past week. So we had the Utah Mammoth come into town. The last time the Bruins played them, obviously, it was out in Utah. This this is their second and final matchup against the team this season, and it.

19:53 Speaker 1: Was a completely different game. It was exactly the kind of game you wanted to see against a team like Utah. It's the game that they should have played the first time they were out there. Solid game, A plus, no notes, no notes.

20:06 Speaker 2: Then they host the Oilers and it's all of a sudden where the wheels started to come off for the remainder of the weekend.

20:19 Speaker 1: A little, a little bit. Yes, Now I don't think they played a bad game, no, but you can see it all looking at these three games kind of together, you can see the downward progression of of course, was going to ultimately happen in the Ottawa game. And you have a team in the Oilers that has Connor McDavid, Ryan Hopkins, right, I mean right, go the list goes on and on and on. You can ill afford to make any mistakes. Yep. And to me, I hate handed goals with a freaking passion. To me, there's virtually no excuse.

21:07 Speaker 1: But even worse, even worse, is how do you not know where Connor McDavid is on the ice at all freaking times? And he just makes everybody look like this standing still when he gets ahead of steam going there is nothing that you can do to stop him. And he's been on a heater himself since that game, because I think he's put up at least five goals since then.

21:40 Speaker 2: One of the things that I have been really frustrated with with this team this season has been the lack of cobridge of key players on opposing teams. We see this happen to Boston constantly. How many time have we seen David Pasternak actually be without somebody up his butt up along go in on a long right right. There's always somebody there. In fact, I believe it was during the Vancouver game where there was this move that Pasta did kind of behind the net. He had literally he was holding his stick with one hand because he had his other arm kind of out and back because he had a guy right there.

22:27 Speaker 2: And I remember commenting, like, my goodness, Pasta is so strong with the puck on his stick. He's so strong on the puck because he was handling this guy and maneuvering around and behind the net with one hand. I mean, why do we not see that with any sort of consistency from the Bruins. Because they have the system in their structure, and they fully believe that if they play consistently sixteen minutes within that system and structure, they don't need to do that, which is all well and good, but when you have breakdowns, it's it's almost as if they have to play a perfect game for the most part, especially against a team like the Oilers that has the superstars on that team that they do.

23:18 Speaker 2: Maybe a little tweaking might be, might be in order. I don't know, I don't know.

23:25 Speaker 1: I don't want to see it was. It was a relatively competitive game, but that was a costly error. Yeah, that was a costly error.

23:35 Speaker 2: Yes, And with Vancouver coming in again, we've mentioned the lack of finish really really killed this team.

23:45 Speaker 1: The fact that Boston finally became the last.

23:49 Speaker 2: Team in the league to earn a loser point in December, and it's and it wasn't because they clawed their way back and they earned.

23:59 Speaker 1: That loser point. This was a loser point.

24:03 Speaker 2: That was a slap in the face because there is absolutely no reason that that should have happened.

24:10 Speaker 1: It was beyond frustrating. It should have been a six to two game. Forty two shots on goal to their twenty two forty two shots on goal. You kicked their asses, Vancouver's in the face off dots by a percentage of sixty one to thirty nine percent. Hey, you were one for three on the power play. They were one for four on the powerplay. They had a few more a handful of more hits than you did. But fact that the Bruins weren't able to capitalize and credit you know, and I don't want to be dismissive of Vancouver's goalie because he did right, He did have to make some pretty damn print saves he did have to make, so credit to him for eking out the win.

24:59 Speaker 1: But my god, just and that's when you see that maybe it's frustration, like we get looks and nothing's going in. Who the hell knows what the mindset right is.

25:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, and that just then compounded into this Ottawa game that was just absolute trash.

25:19 Speaker 1: It was absolute trash from the get. I mean, the number of times that Boston has allowed a goal within the opening minute of a game is embarrassing. And then allowing power play goals almost when you've almost had it killed off, like you know that, I mean, it's in a bond. It's they have gone. They have gone from being at the top of the league when it comes to their PK to now being one of the teams that is like egregious in giving up our play goals, especially late late in the penalty.

25:55 Speaker 2: They are sinking faster than titanic when it comes to this penalty kill ability and their frequency of allowing.

26:08 Speaker 1: A goal either at the very start of a game, start of a period, end of a period, end of a power play or PK.

26:17 Speaker 2: It's again that lack of focus, like they take their eye off the prize for any stretch of time.

26:25 Speaker 1: And like you said, this team is very fragile.

26:31 Speaker 2: We compared last week and the week before this team to a Jenga tower. And not only is it that way because we need those key players to be there to do those specific jobs, but they also have to consistently keep doing these things over and over and over again. They cannot stop because if they stop, if they stop paying attention, if they stop playing to their identity for a minute, they're taking advantage of you had.

27:03 Speaker 1: The Bruins had five power play opportunities. One was a five on three I believe, yes, in the first period at David Pasta. That was their alone powerflay goal. One for five. Ottawa was to for four, yikes to for four, And yeah, the turnovers in that game, Jesus Christ like that.

27:27 Speaker 2: But that's where Ottawa's That's where Ottawa's speed, that's where their speed comes in. Because they can just zip right in. Because what does Boston do too much? They pass way too much.

27:44 Speaker 1: They pass so much that no wonder in most of these games, Boston is not blowing anybody out of the water. And when they do shoot, I don't know why it's not going in. I do I don't know why.

28:00 Speaker 2: I do not understand why, like Vancouver they finally were shooting, why wouldn't it go in?

28:07 Speaker 1: I don't understand. Well, they may be asking themselves this the same question, and maybe the frustration builds up, or maybe the oh whoe is me?

28:16 Speaker 2: Right?

28:17 Speaker 1: And that's up you know, that's up to the leaders in the locker room to ensure that that kind of you know, demoralizing mentality doesn't carry over for any length of time or into the next game. Because you've got the Montreal Canadians coming into town. Yes, and right now, you know they sit atop the Atlantic in the second spot. Forty three points for them, forty one for you. It's a big, big point swing for that game against the Canadians. Yes, tomorrow night, and I'll tell you something, if the Bruins come out and play in the same manner that they played that first period, that auto game.

29:00 Speaker 1: Good night, Irene, Good freaking night Irene. Yeah, it's well.

29:07 Speaker 2: The one the one positive I will say here is and we've talked about this because this is not the first time that this has happened. When the Bruins start to sink and they're just about to touch rock bottom, they realize it and they turn things around.

29:25 Speaker 1: They've done that about two or three times this season. I would like to think that the Autawa.

29:32 Speaker 2: Game was that moment, and they will come back and they will have a good showing against Montreal.

29:41 Speaker 1: I think it. That would be my expectation. If they don't, that's a big issue that that is. That's that's been the pattern. I expected. I expected that mentality to surface in the game against Autawa last night, simply because during your division barely it doesn't matter. You guys are chasing each other. It's because the Vancouver game. The Vancouver game wasn't a pathetic loss. What are we doing here? It's the pathetic loss that pushes them up the next wakes them up for the next game. And the loss to Ottawa that was a pathetic loss.

30:20 Speaker 1: That was an embarrassment. So when they get embarrassed and they turn around, I don't know. Gltons for finishmen. I don't know. I mean, you're right, we have seen it. We have seen it happen. Yeah, and again, you know, every team has its oh shit moments, Yes, but this has been a team that has been pretty sally all season long on ou mice and the fact that they have now lost three games in a row. But I mean that's their biggest slide in a little bit. Yes, So another reason why.

30:49 Speaker 2: I am expecting good things out of this Montreal game. But then they got into the mini break, so we'll see kind of what comes out of that because we don't see another game until the twenty seventh, so they're actually gonna have quite a little bit of time off and then they head out to Buffalo again another divisional game, especially with the new look Sabers out on the ice. So let's talk about your stick taps. Who's getting stick taps this week?

31:26 Speaker 1: Well, just because you know, it is the it is the holiday season, and I don't want to be a total mahumbug with regard to this team, but there are players that during the last four games have been producing. Maybe the results aren't what we want them to be, but you know, We've got Morgan geek, Pavel Zaka, Charlie mackaboy, all with at least four points in each of those games. David Pasternak, Elias Lindholm, and Mara Hustadinov yet all with points respectively each. You know what I like to see guys like Charlie McAvoy.

32:05 Speaker 1: I'm been a few more goals. I know our back end has been pretty quiet, and when you have the likes of David Pasternov, he's only had one goal in that stretch too. He's been a little a little quiet, a little too quiet. Elias Lindholm has not had a goal, He's had assists. But these are guys. It can't just be Morgan Geeky. It can't. You're not going to get very far if we're only relying on Morgan Geeky. So, but I do want to give these guys some credit for at least pulling some offensive weight during this stretch.

32:47 Speaker 1: Yah, I agree.

32:48 Speaker 2: I think I kind of started saying it jokingly but then seriously during the Vancouver game during important moments where the Bruins really needed to score or what have you. Whether it was towards the end of the game, during the overtime, and then even when we got to the shootout, like, where's peval Zaka? Get him out there on the ice, because clearly this man is having some very good luck right now, he is actually hitting the net.

33:15 Speaker 1: Get that man out there. So definitely stick taps to him for right now, for sure. And I want to give stick taps to Tanner, do you know? And Mark Castilik too, because I think they they have been they have been pulling their weight. And actually the goal that Tanner Janeau scored against Vancouver to put the Bruins ahead, they were like they were giddy. Those two guys were giddy because the passing between Fraser Minton and Castleick, I don't know, Castlick did a behind the back pass to Janeau and they were still giggling about it when they went back to the bench.

33:54 Speaker 1: So, I mean, you know, that's the type of secondary scoring I think you would like to see a little bit more of that. That line is that they are a tough bunch of sobs to play against. Yeah.

34:10 Speaker 2: I think the Brick aptly named them the identity line. They are what we want to see out of this entire team. Yes, he's right, Yeah, he's absolutely right.

34:21 Speaker 1: On the flip side the penalty box.

34:23 Speaker 2: I think there's at least one person who was in who got stick taps and Gosney box.

34:29 Speaker 1: Good Lord give it them the good Lord take it away. But campus Lindholme has been awful, very quiet, and and he's he's basically he's a minus three in these this four game stretch that we're we've been talking about now, and I know plus minus is not the be all and end all, and some of that is due to the fact that you're giving up power play goals and so and he's a key yeah, penalty killer. Yeh our buddy. David Astronach like, great, you've had full points, but you're a minus three. So it's not good.

35:05 Speaker 1: It's not cook, it's not good. And Andrew Peakman, he has been. He has been on the struggle bus. I'm not quite sure if he's hit a wall or if he's fighting something, but he's definitely been fighting the huck and at times he looks a little bit lost in coverage.

35:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's had his good moments and bad moments in just this past week because he had a key goal, a timely goals scored and then turns around and causes.

35:41 Speaker 1: Goals so well, or just even just you're standing there. And again, it's nothing I hate more than a hockey player who just stands around, but it pisses me off even doubly when it's a defenseman. Yeah. Yeah, you should never stop moving ever, ever, ever, ever. So that's the week that was.

36:05 Speaker 2: Like I said, we have one more game before the Christmas break, and then right after it, on the twenty seventh, the Bruins are out in Buffalo, and then we will be back to discuss what we always discuss, which is what the heck are the Boston Bruins up to.

36:24 Speaker 1: Any final thoughts, Maria, just a reminder that there will be the league shuts down in its entirety, which means that there's no trading or moving of players around during this period of time that the league is closed. They can get back to the business of hockey on twelve, twenty seven. Indeed. Yes, so short of that, I want to wish all of our viewers and listeners very very happy holidays indeed, as of course, and.

36:57 Speaker 2: As always 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 pod by joining our Patreon or following us on our socials at tape to tape mk and on substack at tape to tape mk dot substack dot com, and of course, go bees.

37:16 Speaker 1: Forbes