David Pastrnak Gets the C as the Bruins Roster Takes Shape | Ep. 162

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me, please? I need something to do. Ostrac, send it out in front of the book in the same place, guys! Here's a chance, Patra right in on goal, he scores. Oh my, what a move by the rookie. Two on one, Pasternak moving in with Marjan, get into it, scores! On the zone, Coyle dances in, backhand, scores! Went home right wing corner, Pasternak is there, he scores! David Pasternak wins it for Boston!

0:48 Speaker 1: I'm allowed to for this time. I see. I got to freaking see.

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 I'm joined by my fabulous co-host, Maria from Watertown.

1:01 Speaker 1: Hey, Maria. Hello, Caroline. Happy Christmas Eve. It's Christmas Eve.

1:06 Speaker 2: We are recording the day before opening day for the entire season across the league.

1:12 Speaker 1: It's on, well, today as you're listening to it, September 29th, and we are.

1:18 Speaker 2: Particularly joyful today because for the first time in a long time, Maria and I can say with confidence that the Boston Bruins organization and management actually do know what they're doing by naming David Pasternak as the Bruins' 28th captain.

1:39 Speaker 1: I'm so excited.

1:40 Speaker 2: I am relieved.

1:41 Speaker 1: I'm excited for Pasta. I think it's a well-deserved honor. I don't care what anybody says, but with our experience with having watched the Bruins, watched hockey, having had you now have a kiddo that plays, I have had two children that have played, and I can tell you that it is a significant and a huge honor when your coaches and your teammates give you a jersey with the C on it. For that, I say to the Bruins, well done. Now, you know how I have felt about this topic of conversation for quite some time.

2:18 Speaker 1: I truly believe if there was a way that Don Sweeney and Cam Neely could have found to sow that seed on Charlie McAvoy's jersey, I do believe they would have done it. But the fact that he is out of the lineup, for the first six games of the season due to his own stupidity. And there's no other way to put it. You were stupid. You were undisciplined. You lost your opportunity. But I do like what Pasta said in setting the tone about how they intend to continue leading the team as a tandem, as a trio.

2:52 Speaker 1: He's not the only leader on the team. And Marco Sturm even alluded to that in his comments after the announcement was made, which was made at, you know, nine o'clock on Sunday morning here in Boston. So unfortunately, there likely weren't a ton of media members in attendance because they're covering the Patriots game and the announcement likely didn't get the fanfare that it rightfully deserve. But to Marco's credit, he said to the media that we all remember that clip that went viral when pasta lost his shit in the locker room after that embarrassing performance on home ice in the Buffalo Sabres game.

3:33 Speaker 1: Then Marco said, you know, you see that now because we have the behind the B. But I can tell you that wasn't the first time. So that really wasn't the first time that David Pasternak exhibited his leadership skills. What I found interesting about the group that Marco kind of still views as maybe core leaders on this team is that he did specifically mention Charlie McAvoy, and he also mentioned Nikita Zadora, which I thought was very telling. I think he has exhibited leadership skills, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if, if he's rocking an A in Charlie McAvoy's absence for the first six games of the season.

4:14 Speaker 2: Yeah, to your point about Nikita Zdorov, it was literally a year ago we were having a conversation about who right now in this moment would be the most appropriate captain based on what we think would be the most ideal leadership qualities. And he was the one we were talking about, obviously knowing and understanding that he really was probably not in the running, knowing how it all kind of works, but still. And we have not been the only ones to make those kinds of comments about Nikita Zdorov. But what I'm really excited about is to see what kind of team that he creates.

4:52 Speaker 2: You can look at any team and every captain sets the tone in a certain way. It's almost like, what's this captain's theme going to be for their time wearing that seat?

5:04 Speaker 1: And we saw the.

5:06 Speaker 2: Zdeno Chara and the no quit, that drive, that was the theme of his captaincy. Patrice Bergeron was creating that atmosphere of respect and connection and relationships with every single person. And with Brad, I would say his theme of his leadership was the tenacity and you don't quit and you keep going no matter what. Because the last four captains have all come out of this same era of the Bruins, what I like to call, and I think you agree, the last golden age of Boston, I think he's going to be the most interesting because he's learned so much from some really tremendous leaders.

5:48 Speaker 1: In the last 10, 15 years.

5:51 Speaker 2: And I think he's going to be an amalgamation of that because one of the criticisms I think that prior to all of this, even two years ago, when we had the horrible season that we don't talk about much, is that he's probably going to get the C because he's the best player, but he doesn't, he's probably not the best leader. And I would have agreed at the time, but seeing him evolve, even just on the ice, especially after the departure of Brad Marchand. For me, what I want to see in a captain, I want to see him doing something on the ice too, not just the off the ice stuff.

6:26 Speaker 2: Yes, that's very important for the team, but I want to know as a fan... How committed and invested you are in the success of this organization. And I can see that when a captain has the ability, the team is down or they're.

6:42 Speaker 1: Tied and they need to dig deep.

6:43 Speaker 2: A really good captain is going to be able to get that team to go to the next level.

6:49 Speaker 1: A good captain, in my view. Put them on his back. Correct. And motivate them to also take the weight. Leading by example, which means I want you to work. as hard as I'm working. And when your captain says, follow me and do as I do, I'm putting this group on my back, but I need your help.

7:09 Speaker 2: Yep. And we saw that after Marshan was traded. And I agree with you. Those are the two main qualities that I want to see. And we have seen that with Patrice. We certainly saw that with Z. We absolutely saw that with Brad. I mean, how many times did he put that really sucky team on his back to try and get them? Yeah.

7:28 Speaker 1: To do something.

7:29 Speaker 2: The first time I ever saw pasta do that was in that kind of lame book. And that's when I realized this guy, this is the guy, this is going to be the guy who takes them forward. And so I think He's going to do all of those things, but in his own way.

7:44 Speaker 1: Yeah. Marco did say that Charlie McAvoy has had those instances as well as Pasta has, right? And that we just, maybe we didn't see clips of it in any of the behind the bees situations, right?

7:58 Speaker 2: But I want to see it in game because that's when it really matters. You want to see it in game.

8:02 Speaker 1: Oh, I agree with you.

8:03 Speaker 2: I've seen Pasta influence the outcome of a game by his own presence on the ice, certainly more often than Charlie, but his, leadership time period, I think is just also going to be one that is full of joy because that's the kind of player he is. He loves the game so much. He brings a lot of joy out onto the ice. I think that people would recognize that. And I think he's going to bring that to his leadership. And I do think it's really important, especially in a period where it is a rebuilding period, you know, maybe not rebuilding in the sense of bodies, but rebuilding the culture, rebuilding what it means to be successful and looking forward.

8:43 Speaker 2: I think that approach to the game is really important when you have such a young core of players because they're going to be still full of the youth and the joy and the.

8:53 Speaker 1: Love of playing the game. And what you would never want to do for those young players is to stifle that.

9:00 Speaker 2: And I think he's going to kind of bring that element of play into to what they do. And that's going to really benefit the young kids playing out there. There's a reason why he loves to play with them because they have the same energy and vibe.

9:14 Speaker 1: That he has. I think this kind of sets the, pushes the reset button for this next core group going into what is the future of the Boston Bruins, right? So, you know, I think having guys like Pasta, and I'm going to put Charlie McAvoy in there too, right? He's clearly part of the core. Swayman.

9:35 Speaker 2: He's going to have a permanent A as a sidebar. I would like to see the return of the rotational third A. I want to see that because I think that inspires guys to step up and then be recognized publicly.

9:47 Speaker 1: But go on. Yeah, I agree with you. The jury's still out on Hampus Lindholm, right? In terms of... Well, I'm more concerned about his his level of play and seeing him play with the same vigor and tenacity when he first came to the Bruins. Right. All of these questions. But at least it's kind of like I don't want to say it's a fresh start, but it's the it's we're pushing the reset button. We have a captain. You know, we've got some positions relatively solidified.

10:19 Speaker 2: Yeah.

10:19 Speaker 1: This roster moving forward. You know, we know we have some future players. pieces. We're going to see some of those future pieces, hopefully in the lineup on opening night. We'll get to that as well. But it kind of is hope springs eternal, for lack of a better word. Exactly.

10:36 Speaker 2: We're all filled with hope right now, not just because it is the day before the start of a brand new fresh season, but because we.

10:43 Speaker 1: Have a brand new captain. who is Joy personified. And let's face facts. You want to keep your best player relatively happy. Yeah. Okay. You want to keep your best player relatively happy. Yeah.

10:57 Speaker 2: Yep. Yep.

10:58 Speaker 1: And I'm not saying don't put words in my mouth, listeners or anybody else. I'm not saying that David Pasternak made any demands or anything like that. I'm just saying that if you're an organization and he has been in this organization from day one, he is clearly an elite talent on your team as well as the league in general, you want to keep them happy.

11:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, that was my implication when I reacted to the new Chicago captain because he has complained about being on a team that's bad.

11:30 Speaker 1: Yeah. I could never see Pasta doing something like that. You know, this kind of newer generation, younger generation has a different approach to things perhaps. But even still, I still think it was the right thing to do. Even without the McAvoy suspension, I would have preferred to see on Pasta's shirt than McAvoy's shirt. So job well done, Neely, Sweeney, and whoever else had a hand in making that decision on assuming Marco Sturm had the opportunity to weigh in as well as other members of the Bruins organization.

12:04 Speaker 2: A couple of other things that we're going to be talking about in a few minutes.

12:07 Speaker 1: Patra injury.

12:09 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Opening night, there are five games, so you can watch all kinds of activities across the league. And ESPN and the NHL have blessed us with an early first start so we can watch as many as we would want to watch. With Florida and the reigning cup champions, the Carolina Hurricanes playing at 5 o'clock.

12:51 Speaker 1: So here's what sucks for ESPN, though.

12:54 Speaker 3: Eh.

12:54 Speaker 1: Major League Baseball's playoffs start Tuesday as well. And the Red Sox are playing the New York Yankees at the same time as the Boston Bruins will be hosting the New York Rangers.

13:08 Speaker 2: That's so funny because the hockey schedule was obviously set back in July or whenever it is that they announce it.

13:16 Speaker 1: Nobody knew who the Red Sox were going to be playing. So it's pretty hilarious. Yeah.

13:21 Speaker 2: Montreal and Toronto play their opener in Toronto, which is probably a very exciting game to watch.

13:26 Speaker 1: I'm a little bummed that game isn't going to be on some local viewing channel, because I would certainly tune into that, because there's a lot of hype surrounding both of those teams, and our Boston Bruins are going to have to do battle with both of those teams, right? So it's a little bit of a bummer from a scheduling or TV viewing situation. Yep.

13:49 Speaker 2: And then followed by an 8 p.m. start time for Bruins vs. Rangers in Boston.

13:55 Speaker 1: If you can't see me, 8 o'clock starts. Gag me with the ESPN. It's not going to be 8 o'clock. It's probably going to be 8.30. Yep.

14:02 Speaker 2: Then out on the West Coast, you've got Vancouver and Edmonton and Chicago at Vegas at 10.30 p.m.

14:09 Speaker 1: Eastern Time.

14:10 Speaker 2: So a good little kickoff. Everyone else is going to get going shortly thereafter. The players were recently asked to pick a cup winner just from off-season activity alone.

14:24 Speaker 1: And I don't know if.

14:25 Speaker 2: I was surprised or not, but I think everybody has basically shown their hand and saying, we're all a little afraid of Florida right now.

14:32 Speaker 1: Yes. The projected winner of the players who were asked... Yeah, the majority of them are leaning towards the Florida Panthers, which now there could be some... I'm going to look at it from the other psychological standpoint, right? Maybe this is a way of putting a little bit of pressure on the Florida Panthers to say, you're the darling pick. Although a lot of them said Carolina may be poised for a back-to-back. But based on what was done in the offseason, we've said it ourselves. I said it. I've said it more than once.

15:03 Speaker 1: And I think... The Panthers, if they stay healthy, if they stay healthy, they're going to be effing miserable to play against.

15:11 Speaker 2: Yeah. This is another good example of how much was the success of this team based on the goaltender.

15:19 Speaker 1: And then it's the inverse for Toronto, right?

15:23 Speaker 2: Yes.

15:23 Speaker 1: Where they ended up beating Bobrovsky. Right, right. And how much of their.

15:27 Speaker 2: failures were the result of not having any kind of consistent goaltending. Now, I understand that Bobrovsky in the last few years has not always been the Bobrovsky we've known, and he certainly has lost the starting goalie job before. But quite frankly, compared to anything that the Leafs have had in recent memory, he's still and shoulders better than anything they've had. So it'll be interesting to see what influence the goaltender has or has had because Markstrom is not, he's not been his best.

16:02 Speaker 1: Yes, but it could be salvageable. Things are not going to change for the Maple Leaf if they don't change the way that they play. And I don't know what expert I heard this from, but it's a great point and it's absolutely correct and absolutely valid. They have offensive firepower. They always have, they always will. But there are instances where that very same offensive firepower refuses to play both ends of the ice. And the Maple Leafs have fired two coaches in recent times as a result of that. You can have Bobrovsky back there, right?

16:35 Speaker 1: And you can try to solidify your back end, stabilize it as much as possible. But if... your key players and your star players aren't going to play defensively responsible hockey when you need them to, you could likely find yourself in the same boat once again. That'll be a team that'll be interesting to keep an eye on in general.

16:57 Speaker 2: Yes. One other poll that actually I didn't drop into our little agenda, but I think you've seen this. Jay Fresh posted a number of Fun fan-related surveys. And my favorite one was most delusional NHL fan base fan survey.

17:18 Speaker 1: And well above any other team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yes. You would think that this fan base with all of the freaking heartache And the knives that they have had to endure would have a little bit more tempered outlook on their team. They are nuts. They're nuts.

17:38 Speaker 2: They are.

17:39 Speaker 1: They truly are. But you know what? Let them be nuts because it gives us fodder and fun. Sure does. Because we do have a lot of fun poking fun at them. It brings me great joy.

17:48 Speaker 2: And as we have said time and time again, a leap's loss is as good as a Bruin's win. Yeah.

17:53 Speaker 1: And it will always be for a good long time.

17:56 Speaker 2: Although I have to tell you, one of the other survey questions that he had, one of them was also most hated team survey by the fan base. And of course, no surprise, Boston most hates, and then in first, second, and third, the Leafs, the Habs, and the Panthers. But I'm a little offended that the Leafs most hate the Panthers and The Habs over the Bruins.

18:20 Speaker 1: That just shows, maybe it's just a question of like, we just can't beat these guys, so we're just not even going to deal with them. I don't even know. I'm like, you can't even be in a rivalry, correct me. I know, I know. They can't even get that right.

18:33 Speaker 2: The Leafs aren't even on the Panthers' radar in terms of who they.

18:37 Speaker 1: Hate, so. Whatever, whatever. It's hilarious to me.

18:41 Speaker 3: But anyways, speaking of a little fun, continuing on where the Philadelphia Flyers had a little bit of fun at the expense of what we all deem to be a kind of silly, ridiculous rule that we know they're going to stop calling at some point in time.

18:56 Speaker 1: But that is the untuck your jersey rule. I don't even know what the official name of this rule is. But for those of you who don't know, all players have been told that their jerseys cannot be tucked in because the officials need to be able to read the numbers on the back of the jersey. And I don't know, are they suffering from eye issues where these numbers on their jerseys are quite big? I don't know if it's causing issues with when they're sending players to the penalty box or whatever the case may be.

19:25 Speaker 1: So they've been issuing penalties for that. And- Trevor Zegris got one, right? Trevor Zegris got one during the Bruins preseason game on, I think it was the Thursday night preseason game. Apparently he had been warned by the officials to untuck and he didn't. So they sent him to the box. The Flyers had a game on Saturday and during the warmups, every single Philadelphia Flyer came out to take warmups with their jerseys tucked in, which I thought was funny. I think it's fun, right? It was funny.

19:57 Speaker 2: It was. And then they had the backup goalie every time someone was getting off the ice, fixing all of their jerseys.

20:03 Speaker 1: But And I think a lot of people thought that it was fun. Even people who are entrenched in the league. But then you have those, you know, one or two people who are like, Do you have any joy in your life that you have to crack down on this team? I saw one tweet that said, oh, I would expect that the Flyers will be getting a call from the NHL for either a fine or a reprimand for poking fun at the officials and their rules. It's like, get the frig over yourself. They're just having a little fun for Christ's sake.

20:37 Speaker 1: It doesn't warrant making it a public event. slogging. Jesus.

20:43 Speaker 2: What's so confusing to me is, okay, this is going to sound ridiculous. Like the tucking, that is weird to me. That's what they're citing because I'm trying to find the rule number, but forever it's been actually a rule in the NHL rule book about a player's fight strap always has to be attached because you can get a penalty if you don't have that attached and you can get actually a match penalty in a fight if you lose your jersey and it turns out that it wasn't attached. So if you don't know, NHL jerseys and actually if you buy like an authentic one, they come with it.

21:20 Speaker 2: There's an elastic strap attached to the inside at the bottom of a jersey and it snaps onto the pants. And so, like, I'm confused why people think this is something that's new. I don't know why the refs were also referencing it as being because it's tucked in.

21:37 Speaker 1: And then also, how did it get tucked in if the strap was on? I don't understand. I'm more confused about the logistics of this. I don't know. It's just confusing.

21:47 Speaker 1: Silly to me. I'm sure there's some kind of plausible rationale that we are missing as to why this is going to be a point of emphasis here for a little bit. But I can't imagine that this is. And again, maybe it's just they're going to call it. Players will say, you know what? I can't keep fighting this. I'm just going to untuck my jersey type of thing. Because it's really not worth a two minute penalty for something this inconsequential in my view. But the fact that the Flyers were wanting to have a little fun with it, and now we've got people saying, oh, the organization's going to get a call from the league and a fine.

22:20 Speaker 1: It's just like, just get over yourselves. Just being fun. Just let these boys have a little bit of goddamn fun before the season starts. Oh my God, right? So, yeah, I found the rule. Player's jersey.

22:33 Speaker 2: Obviously, no alteration of the neck opening is permitted. Sleeves must extend into the cuff of the glove, which we all know Brad Marchand famously does not like to do.

22:42 Speaker 1: He always pulls it up.

22:43 Speaker 2: And jerseys must be tied down. That's in quotes properly at all times.

22:48 Speaker 1: So it's all weird.

22:49 Speaker 2: We saw in a Bruins game, actually, somebody got nailed for improper equipment because of the visor, because some guys like.

22:56 Speaker 1: To push the visor up, which, why would you do that? You are a crazy person. You're a crazy person. Do you want to lose your eye? That's the whole purpose of that. So that I can understand. And if they're not accustomed to it, it bothers them or whatever. Get over yourself. You got to protect your face, okay? You got to protect your face. Yeah, that's stupid. But, so I agree.

23:14 Speaker 2: I bet you we're not going to be seeing any more of that because... People are pointing out just how ridiculous it is. Yeah, it's just more important things out there, guys.

23:23 Speaker 1: There's more important things. Yeah, I agree with you. Come on. So we are hours away from opening night. Yes, ma'am. That means final.

23:32 Speaker 2: Rosters have to be submitted and set by 5 p.m. Now, some interesting things that I am observing. Granted, we are recording this on Monday, so we will start.

23:43 Speaker 1: In the morning. Yeah, we're doing a morning recording.

23:46 Speaker 2: But as of this morning, there are four teams that seemingly have not done any cuts whatsoever at this point, at least per cap wages.

23:56 Speaker 1: So I'm referencing.

23:57 Speaker 2: them as the site of Florida, Montreal, New Jersey, and Ottawa. So they're going to have a very busy few hours for sure, especially today because they have to do it today. And there are still more than half still have cuts that need to happen, including Boston.

24:15 Speaker 1: They are still two over.

24:16 Speaker 2: We're going to talk about their roster in a minute. What's interesting also is, now this number has changed since I last checked yesterday, but Boston is under the cap by $ 3. 6 million. I believe it was closer to four yesterday. I don't know what's going on there, which leads me to believe that is quite a chunk of change that they are still holding on to at this point in time.

24:40 Speaker 1: Do you make anything of that?

24:42 Speaker 2: Do you have thoughts on the fact that there's, I mean, that's a person, that's an amount you could fairly pay maybe some people.

24:50 Speaker 1: I don't know. So I think they're holding that money aside, right? We don't know what's going on with the Papazaka situation.

24:58 Speaker 2: Now, True, but that wouldn't go into effect until next year because he's in his final year of his contract.

25:02 Speaker 1: But if they wanted to trade him, right? If they wanted to trade him and or work some kind of deal, I always think it's better to have that money sitting aside for a rainy day, right? Because God forbid you have a, and I know it doesn't count to the cap, but you get some significant injuries and you're going to be left scrambling around trying to piece together an NHL roster of some sort. This is not a year where they fully need to spend to the cap since it's going up significantly next year. Now, if they have plans to have that money to something big for next year when that cap goes up, and then if you end up having to move on from Zaka for whatever reason, I'm good with that.

25:46 Speaker 1: It doesn't bother me that it's sitting there. I'd rather that than what we've done in the past where we virtually have no cap space to do anything. Anyways.

25:56 Speaker 2: Since the 21st, we've slowly been seeing players fall by the wayside, even being assigned directly to Providence because they can just be sent down. And then we've got our waivers and those guys have so far all cleared. We are specifically talking about some guys that were like, yeah, We knew that was coming.

26:19 Speaker 1: But we had some guys on the bubble. We had bubble guys where... Jordan Harris. Yeah, Jordan Harris. And honestly, I don't think he did enough in the games that he played. And it's not like he stunk. It's not like he stunk.

26:33 Speaker 2: But he didn't play at all last year. But he didn't play at all last year because of that injury. I think this is going to be a good developmental year for him. He's still pretty young. I don't think that Him getting sent down really means a whole heck of a lot. His window's not closed. There's going to be space for him. Obviously, the Bruins like him. They kept him around with the main team while he was injured.

26:56 Speaker 1: They didn't have to do that.

26:57 Speaker 2: And they gave him a chance when he was finally cleared to play because they thought he did a great job in training camp that previous year. But Lucas Reichel cleared waivers. Not surprising. He kind of didn't really do a heck of a lot.

27:11 Speaker 1: Alex Steeves.

27:12 Speaker 2: I'm not surprised that they did choose to send him based on his performance, but I guess I'm a little bit surprised at him that we didn't see more of him because he did play with the big club. Like, he does know what it takes, and I'm not saying that he didn't do his best.

27:31 Speaker 1: But he was an adventure, you must admit.

27:33 Speaker 2: Yeah. He was good when we needed him to be good, and now we are... resetting the season and.

27:40 Speaker 1: The landscape is different.

27:42 Speaker 2: The one that actually kind of surprised me because I didn't think that management had the gall, the guts to do it, but the fact that they waived Henry Yokiharu. I was like, okay, that's a lot of money. And I can't imagine that he's pleased because.

27:59 Speaker 1: Again, but maybe it will, it will put, it will drive him because again, he's one of these guys that he would make the occasional good play. And then you would be like, where are you? Or what are you doing? here. And when you bring a guy like Connor Clifton in, it stands to reason something had to give at the expense of Connor Clifton. There's no way on God's green earth that the Bruins go out and make a deal to bring Connor Clifton back and then not ensure that he's part of the roster, which I'm not sure I'm like a great fan of doing that.

28:34 Speaker 1: It sounds like One of the criticisms that Connor Clifton had about where he'd come from previously, which is, I believe, from the Penguins, he felt that he should have gotten more playing time. So the concern has been, did you bring this guy here with the promise that he's going to get more regular playing time? And at whose expense? That's something we should probably keep an eye on throughout the course of the season.

28:58 Speaker 2: Yeah.

28:59 Speaker 1: Yeah.

28:59 Speaker 2: I think a lot of people were also impressed with the most recent three that were sent down. Jake Schmaltz, he had a good camp. Lo Schmelis and Duran, I think those are guys that we are going to see in the future in some way, shape, or form. But that means there are still a couple of players left. who are in limbo right now in terms of our new guys. So Freddie Brunais, he's still awaiting his fate. And Matt Patra. So these are two names that we said everyone's going to be watching because the general understanding is they're going to be given literally every single opportunity they possibly could have.

29:38 Speaker 1: That it is their story. to lose. And Spodger gets injured.

29:44 Speaker 2: And Brunet, he had a quiet first game, which was not a problem.

29:49 Speaker 1: Because he was- No, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

29:51 Speaker 2: Right. He did the job that he was supposed to do, which is when you're paired with someone like Charlie McAvoy, you have to be good enough to hold down the fort to allow someone like Chucky to go and play offensively. And he did his job beautifully. Second game, I believe that's when he scored a goal.

30:06 Speaker 1: Great.

30:06 Speaker 2: He only played three games. His last game that he played was less than spectacular. But to kind of lead into the closing remarks on training camp, I feel like Each game got a little bit worse.

30:18 Speaker 1: Oh, well, we'll get to that. That would be a good thing. Because anytime you have a great training camp, that's not good. That's not good. And we'll get to that. You want a messy camp. You want messy practice. So that way you have good games. But I have a couple of layers of concerns from what I saw during the preseason games, but we'll get to that. But for the purposes of this conversation right now, where we're talking about, you know, odd man in or out, it stands to reason, I think, just because right now, based on, and we're talking about the defensive pairings, courtesy of Scott McLaughlin from Bruins Sunday Practice.

30:51 Speaker 1: The defensive pairings during practice were Lindholm and Borgen, Todorov and Clifton, Aspero and Lorai, which kind of scares me a lot, and Brunet and McAvoy. Now, that was just practice. In theory, when you're getting ready for your first game, clearly, to me, you're going to go Lindholm-Borgen as your first pairing, I would think. Then you're going to have Zdorov and Clifton together. And what else do you do after that? Because you need four sets of Ds. And you're down McAvoy anyways for the first six games, right?

31:25 Speaker 1: You put Henry Yokiharu or Yoki on waivers. We haven't gotten any information that he's cleared yet or not, but you still need a fourth defensive pairing.

31:36 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you can't not have Jonathan Aspero because I think he's done everything.

31:42 Speaker 1: No, no, no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that I worry about Aspero and Lorai, right, playing together. I'm not saying this is what's going to happen on Tuesday night, but that is a combo that concerns me a bit.

31:54 Speaker 2: Explain.

31:55 Speaker 1: We've said this how many times about Lorai, right?

31:59 Speaker 3: He reminds.

31:59 Speaker 1: Well, yeah, the part is obvious. Right, right, right, right. And Jonathan Aspero, who's been a steady Eddie, right? He has been a steady Eddie, but he's been playing with the benefit of being next to Charlie McAvoy predominantly. That was a pairing that just took on the life of its own. Yeah. And Lorai can be a little bit of an adventure out there. So you wonder if.

32:24 Speaker 2: Aspero has enough experience to manage Loray and his own game.

32:30 Speaker 1: Correct. Correct.

32:31 Speaker 2: Correct. I mean, I think that's a fair concern for any player outside of Chucky and maybe Zdorov could also manage him.

32:42 Speaker 1: I don't think that Lindholm could.

32:44 Speaker 2: I don't think Lindholm can play two people's games because he can barely play his own game right now. Some of his positioning and his decision making, I was a little bit not impressed. during training camp, so.

32:55 Speaker 1: And again, this is early, again, this is, we're not even, we haven't even dropped the puck, but the projection has been that Lindholm and Borgen would play together, right? I think that's been an underlining assumption. Lindholm, Borgen together, Zdorov, Clifton together, right? You would have had McAvoy with, McAvoy with Aspero, but then where does your fourth pairing come from and how do you balance and keep that.

33:20 Speaker 2: Fourth pairing stable? Yeah, look, I'm not saying I disagree with anyone who's saying we just need to get rid of Florey.

33:28 Speaker 1: I got eyeballs too. But that doesn't solve your problem because who then are you going to put, right? Florey is on this team to at least start the season. Where he ends up by the time we hit the trade deadline is a very different story.

33:40 Speaker 2: And I think because Marco Sturm has said publicly that he wants a more offensively minded D, then how can you sit Mason Lorai? Because he is so offensively minded. If that's what he wants to accomplish, unless he shits the bed like he did last fall, he's going to be on this roster. And Boston's not going to just let him sit with his $ 3 million, although I'm quite frankly shocked that they did that with Yoki Haru.

34:08 Speaker 1: But I also see why they.

34:10 Speaker 2: Wanted to have Lorai over Yoki Haru, because if you put Lorai on waivers, he's going to get snapped up.

34:17 Speaker 1: No, and you can't give up on him yet. I know we've been very critical of this player for at least most of last season and some of the prior season, right? But he's still young and there's still upside to his game. It's just a question of his willingness or want or ability to to focus on the defensive aspect of things. He needs to balance that. What he brings to the table offensively, he needs to balance with his defensive skills as well.

34:48 Speaker 2: Right. And then for Boston, the other element is just playing strategy with waivers and such because Brunet he needs waivers to go back down and that's another guy that.

35:03 Speaker 1: Yeah you can't run that risk you can't do that yeah you can't run that risk so there's a lot of roster gymnastics going on and the Bruins trying to protect their assets so to speak.

35:14 Speaker 2: So probably everything that we've just talked about is going to get thrown out the window probably We know that there's a lot of strategy that's involved in this because this is exactly how the Carolina Hurricanes ended up with Brandon Bussey. Because they waited until the very final minutes when other teams.

35:31 Speaker 1: Were already locked in with their rosters.

35:34 Speaker 2: And the Hurricanes were like, bet, we're going to take him. And that was expected. I think Florida didn't expect that to happen.

35:42 Speaker 1: To happen. Also wasn't a game of chicken here. for forwards, I gotta tell you, Mikey Acemont, he's fighting for his job. Yes, he is. He's fighting hard for it, too.

35:53 Speaker 2: And he survived Alex Steeves because I would have put both of them in the same bucket.

35:58 Speaker 1: Oh, no. Acemont was played much better.

36:01 Speaker 3: Yeah.

36:01 Speaker 2: And he, that third line, that's where he had played with Steeves a bit, in and out, with Minton, with Husnadinov. Obviously, that line is, like, set. That's the kid line that Unless something crazy happens and they got to break him up. So he's going to be fighting for a spot probably on that fourth line. And he's probably going to be going after Sean Corrales' job.

36:26 Speaker 1: And I think Patra will be doing the same when he comes back from whatever this injury is. Matt Patra is starting the year on the injured reserve list. There was an injury that apparently was sustained during a practice. It didn't even happen during a game. And honestly, I think if you gave Don Sweeney and Marco Sturm a little bit of truth serum, they probably were a little bit relieved because I believe that they want to keep Sean Corrales as part of this group. Now, What he brings to the table, he's a veteran.

36:56 Speaker 1: He brings some leadership. He's a decent penalty killer. He does go out there most of the time. But is that any reason to maintain a roster spot when you've got Matt Patra, who in the games that he did play, looked improved. And the same thing for Mikey Isimard. That's going to be an interesting situation to look at. as well. Now, part of the argument is, look, Corrales is a relatively skilled penalty killer, although if you look at some of the stats from the penalty kill, even late in the season, it dropped off dramatically, but it wasn't as good as we had hoped and expected it to be.

37:31 Speaker 1: And listen, if Mark Kastelik, after all these years in the league, learned to become a penalty killer, I think you can target others to do the same. I think you can target others to do the same. But if you're in a situation where you've got these two young players in Isimont and Patra who are ready to make that jump, and it has to be potentially at the expense of a Sean Corrales, I'm sorry, Sean. Love you, but.

37:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think everyone's in agreement with you on that. Question mark is Patra. Cause like there's literally, it's Asima and Patra who's going to be the last man standing.

38:05 Speaker 1: And I don't know. And as you said earlier, Patra is seemingly made of glass. I don't understand how you, and there's been no information about his injury. All that we have seen and heard is that it happened at a practice. So in terms of goaltending, zero concerns. Let me tell you, I got no issue. Mike, Pietro and Jeremy Swayman are going to be one of the top tandems in the league because based on what we saw in the preseason game, and we'll get to my concerns, they had to work pretty effing hard during the preseason games that they played in to keep their team in the game.

38:43 Speaker 1: And they made some pretty damn good saves. Yeah, they didn't help themselves at all. No, the goalies had to work harder than I would have expected them to need to work in preseason.

38:54 Speaker 2: I was seeing a bit of last season's situation where a lot was being put on the goalies.

39:01 Speaker 1: Listen, my two areas of concern that are bleeding in from last season is the fact that we're I saw in preseason once again that we were getting hemmed in our own end for significant periods of time. And then you're asking your goalies to do a lot. And I get it. They're there to backstop and make saves. The other thing is too much. There was way too much one and done with the offense. I don't recall any preseason game where I saw. sustained cycles of offense to the relative same degree that I was able to see from the opposing teams due to us.

39:38 Speaker 1: So that is a little bit of two areas of concern that we left off last season there and we're coming back in to this season. Now, again, I know those are just preseason games, but we talk about what we see on the ice. And this is what I saw.

39:52 Speaker 2: Yeah.

39:53 Speaker 1: Let's just hope the old adage is true. Messy preseason means a good start to the regular season.

40:01 Speaker 2: But speaking of the regular season, so we've got between now and our next recording, there are four games coming up.

40:10 Speaker 1: All of which will be without Charlie McEvoy in the lineup. So I'm sure you're going to get to... This is not an easy schedule for the Bruins to start with. Now, let's go through the list of games that we have.

40:22 Speaker 2: So we've got the home opener, season opener... against the Rangers. And then they are immediately on the road doing the upper Midwest trip to Winnipeg and Minnesota. So on the second and the third. So it's also their first back to back. And we know that Boston has one of the higher number of back to backs in the league this season. And then they come home and two days later they are playing Ottawa, a newly revamped, refreshed Ottawa Senators, that I think they're probably going to be playing with a much lighter heart.

40:54 Speaker 2: It'll be blown off their chest in a cloud that has been blown away.

40:57 Speaker 1: Blown away, I know. And say what you will about Winnipeg and the whole situation with Connor Hellebuck, that is likely to be, to start the season, that is likely to be a very big distraction for that Jets team where players are being asked, and some players are speaking pretty openly about when asked about, look, would you take them back? If you wanted to come back and he shows up and some player, one player in particular said he wants to come back and he's going to stay. All right. But other than that, basically saying we don't want him here.

41:29 Speaker 1: He's going to half ass it.

41:30 Speaker 2: And we don't want him here if he's just here to get paid and not because he believes in this team.

41:34 Speaker 1: And I think that's very valid.

41:36 Speaker 2: I mean, especially as the goalie, like you need to have your team having your back.

41:41 Speaker 1: Yeah. And what pieces does Winnipeg have there? This could be a very challenging season for the Winnipeg Jets if they aren't able to figure out the Hellebuck situation sooner rather than later, move on and put it behind them.

41:53 Speaker 2: But as a little bit of a looking ahead, the other two games that Charlie is going to be missing that we'll do a little preview on next week, but his final two games of his suspension are home games, Utah and Philadelphia.

42:09 Speaker 1: Utah, all right.

42:10 Speaker 2: Philly could be an interesting matchup. So that's what we've got on the calendar ahead. I am excited to... Real, for real. It starts for real. Yeah, it starts real. It's going to be an exciting final 24 hours ahead of.

42:27 Speaker 1: puck drop because like I said. And let's hope the Bruins can start on an even keel with get through these six games without Charlie McAvoy. They're 500. I would consider that a decent start. Yeah.

42:39 Speaker 2: Yep. I think that's the bare minimum that we want to see. Would love to see them starting off on the right foot.

42:44 Speaker 1: Oh yeah.

42:45 Speaker 3: No, no, no.

42:45 Speaker 1: You need to set the tone. Like this is, this is no joke. If you can't have a fire in your belly that you're taking the ice at home against, you know, another original six team with your new captain leading the way, then I'm going to have a real problem with this. So I'm going to have a real problem with all of you. You need to be fired up and ready to go because the fans are going to be ready to go. They've been waiting for hockey. They've been waiting for this captain announcement to be made. Let's freaking go, boys.

43:16 Speaker 1: Absolutely.

43:18 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.

43:31 Speaker 1: Substack. So, Bruins! As always, Go Bees!