Defining Defense: How the Bruins Can Re-Build | Ep. 89

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome.

0:00 Speaker 2: Can you start a podcast with me? Please? I need something to do.

0:13 Speaker 3: I'll sack sit it out in trouble. I canna say this past watch tonight. Here's a chance pops right down the goalie scars. Oh my wa a move by the rookie two on one plaster.

0:25 Speaker 4: Not movie with Marshaw getting to it.

0:29 Speaker 2: Oil dances in Pakistan right way corner Pasternchester.

0:40 Speaker 5: What's that?

0:51 Speaker 4: Welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruin's Tape to Tape. I will be your hopes tonight. I am Maria from Watertown. If you're watching us on YouTube, you will see that. In addition to my lovely co host Caroline with a K, we are also joined by a very familiar and friendly face of our podcast, Mo aka Professor Mo. And we are going to be doing our second segment that correlates with several articles that Mo has written on Substack, and tonight's episode is going to be focused on the doctrine defense.

1:39 Speaker 4: Now, we had previously released our episode that was the doctrine of the philosophy of our forward lines and you know, the breaking down the differences between first line, second line, third line, fourth line. Tonight, we're going to be talking about, for me, what I've always been passionate about as it relates to hockey, and that is defense, because I am a firm believer that you build a team from the back end forward that starts with goaltending, which we will get to in another episode, and defense, and so I am really excited to hear your thought process and your philosophy on that.

2:34 Speaker 4: So welcome in, Mel, Thank you for joining us for another episode.

2:39 Speaker 6: We really appreciate it.

2:41 Speaker 2: I love you guys having me. I appreciate it. Thank you guys.

2:45 Speaker 6: We enjoy picking that weird brain.

2:49 Speaker 2: It's gonna get weird, don't worry.

2:52 Speaker 6: And I'm always entertaining always.

2:56 Speaker 2: I'm not even high tonight, so you are all sober weird.

3:00 Speaker 7: So well, we love it, and I'm excited to hear, particularly what you think about defensive pairing roles, because the Boston Bruins have for.

3:15 Speaker 6: Decades at this point, had a very strong defensive philosophy to their game, to the point where sometimes to their detriment.

3:26 Speaker 4: Sometimes in the vetrimal past it's been to their detriment, yes, but they've even so much as brought that philosophy down in Providence, so that way there they wouldn't miss a beat if they brought someone up, whether it was for one game or for twenty five.

3:42 Speaker 6: So enlighten us on what you think these defensive pairings should be doing out there.

3:51 Speaker 4: And can we just first start this by saying that the goat number four or Robert Gordon Orr forever changed how defenceman play hockey.

4:08 Speaker 6: MM one Back in the day.

4:14 Speaker 1: They basically just stood back there and try to stop the puck. And he completely revolutionized the game by actually participating in the game, dance.

4:27 Speaker 6: Dancing through, dancing through the other team.

4:31 Speaker 4: So, yeah, just just he was I know, you guys are you're both you know, a lot younger than I am, but just having watched a guy like that play and just the beauty and the fluidness to his skill level, you know. And it sounds corny to say this, but I always knew that when I had kids, they were going to be defenceman.

5:04 Speaker 6: First.

5:08 Speaker 2: That's funny because my dad forced me to play defense first.

5:12 Speaker 4: Two, well, your dad's a wise man, because there are very many reasons for that.

5:21 Speaker 6: I'm going to go quickly on this tangent.

5:23 Speaker 4: You become a much better skater when you start off playing defense. Because you need to learn the art of pivoting, turning, skating backwards as opposed to when you're a forward, your progression line is pretty much straight.

5:44 Speaker 2: Up yep yep, And I mean that's a that's basically an episode in itself. But when you think about it, I mean the defense you you mess up your crossover at the wrong time beforeward, it's going to go one way and then go around you. Yeah, that's why Connor McDavid is so good because you never know where he's going to go, which is why you always assume he's going to try to go left, right, left, right, left right. You kind of just stay in the middle and let him dance. But what what you could do is, you know, I mean, like you said, you pivot, you turn forward, you skate forwards with it.

6:17 Speaker 2: You know, you just kind of fill that gap. And I mean, if you're just always going to be a forward, you don't really learn that stuff. So it's it was one of those things that definitely helped me in my plane. Well I guess my I didn't even play in career, but my my minor, minor, minor, minor hockey plane. So it was fun.

6:40 Speaker 4: Explain to us again because you know, we hear this this terminology quite often. You know, your top pairing defenceman, then your second pair and your third third group, so you know what what is what is the mindset behind you know, so identifying who your top pairing guys are and it's second pair, third pair.

7:06 Speaker 2: D mend Yep. Yeah, I think a lot of this is going to kind of mirror what you do with the forwards. And when I always think about it is I want my defense to complement my forwards and vice versa. You don't always want your top pair defense to go out with your top line because you, in my mind, your your top defenceman, your top two defencemen, right, they they should assist with your with your offense. They should kind of help push I guess that offensive kind of mindset where maybe they're not the most steady defensively, which is why they might not always play with your top line because you don't want, you know, your your your carlson to play with your poster knock if they both the defense.

7:58 Speaker 2: So but I mean that's why the kind of the door off signing was so intriguing because he he wasn't Chara, but he kind of reminded you a little bit of Chara who I mean, for all points and purposes, he was your number one defenseman when you know they won the Cup. You know, he was a leader. He wasn't always the most offensive person, but the dude had a cannon for a shot. His defense was almost perfect. No one stayed in front of the net, and you're kind of hoping that's what theador off was. So, yeah, they don't always have to be your top offensive, but they either need to be your your team's leader, if that's where you want him to be, or they need to be that guy that can you know, move the offensive forward and and and help those forwards almost become better.

8:50 Speaker 4: So it's it's all in my mind, a toper top peering guys to me, defensively are the guys that the other team should be skid shit of to skate into the zone and be worried about what's coming at them, you know, And I don't know that.

9:10 Speaker 6: An old school to the game.

9:14 Speaker 2: Right, Well, think.

9:16 Speaker 1: About it, right, we talked a lot about fear.

9:22 Speaker 6: But like how even in the recent years that position has changed, right we joke that the Norris Trophy is no longer for what a defenseman actually what their job actually is. It's for someone who is just an offensive defenseman at this point, and it's no longer for that player who is truly a defensive defenseman, which is I think what you kind of think of in terms of, you know, what defensemen used to exclusively be, and I don't think that that's the case necessarily anymore for a multitude of reasons.

9:59 Speaker 6: I think that philosop of like we referenced in our previous episode about how Jim Montgomery activated the D, I see a lot more of that. I think that is a USA hockey at least, you know, in the United States, and I think in Canada they're very similar models. But it's training kids in youth hockey, and like I see that with my kid in youth hockey, where they're really putting an emphasis on playing all positions and they're not even having them commit to a position now until I think a lot later than they used to.

10:40 Speaker 6: So you have a lot of a lot more offensively skilled defenceman out there who can do all of those things. So well, when you're thinking about this top line, how much of it is a coach's philosophy or or just what's available in terms of the makeup of the two players that are on that in that pairing?

11:09 Speaker 8: Is it you you try to to match up an offensive defenseman with the defensive defenseman.

11:19 Speaker 6: Does the defensive defenseman tend to find themselves more in a in a lower pairing position for specific use, like, what is your philosophy on that?

11:32 Speaker 2: Yep? So I mean you've you've got different styles of defensemen, Like you said, right, you got the offensive defenseman, You're you're kind of two way defenseman, you're shut down guy who really doesn't too much offense, and then just the kind of the guy that's like the jack of all trades. So the way I see it as your offensive defenseman is like a guy like low RAI, where you're you're gonna get more offense or more offensive opportunities out of him, but his defense will kind of lack a little bit.

12:03 Speaker 2: So I always would like to pair him with not someone that's the same, because you're basically begging for disaster. And in my mind, I only really want one or two of those guys because you're only gonna have six defenseman dressed, so I have I have know more. So he's probably your top power play specialist that's going to.

12:24 Speaker 4: Ideally you would want one of those guys to be on one of your power play units.

12:29 Speaker 2: Yep, and probably not. He's probably not a penalty kill guy, or he is if if you need it. So I mean playing him with with a guy that's probably a little bit two way. You don't want to play him with someone that's that's purely defense defense because they're they're going to slow that that line down because they're probably playing with the top two lines. So if someone's a little bit slower, like a peek or a spoon, it's going to be not really the best complimentary kind of dynamic there. So in my mind, you're going to someone that's that's more two ways.

13:02 Speaker 2: So a guy like McAvoy is perfect. You know, he can skate, he can hit, he can be that physical guy, but he also doesn't have to put the pressure on himself to always score. And I think that's one thing that Bruins fans kind of get hung up on is Charlie doesn't, you know, generate offense on the score sheet, but he's he's a game changer in so many other ways. And I mean Chara never lit up the score sheet either, but I mean, the dude hit everybody in sight. He never wanted to go into the corners with him.

13:31 Speaker 2: And you know, I mean they literally had to change how.

13:36 Speaker 6: The boards are structured because he almost cappecated someone.

13:40 Speaker 2: He almost killed a guy, which was the best thing ever got. That was the best.

13:47 Speaker 6: We can laugh about it now, but it's just like it was just so again.

13:54 Speaker 2: I laughed at the time too.

13:56 Speaker 4: Yeah, I did laugh at the time because I thought, okay, listen, I mean again, if Zadano Chard is not a dirty player, never has been, has never been part of his game. But what was ridiculously funny was their fan base calling freaking nine to one one to have Parah arrested for assault and battery. For Christ's sake.

14:21 Speaker 2: That's perfect. But when you when you look.

14:23 Speaker 4: Back at that, you know, because I know, you know, we're going to use the twenty eleven defensive pairings for the Boston Bruins as kind of an example of how you want to maybe focus on building your your core defenseman moving forward. Those guys were fucking wrecking balls.

14:47 Speaker 6: Man.

14:47 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I mean when you when you look at the list of names and and and this is why I used the word like you want to be afraid to go in the corner. You wanted the opposing team to think about which one of these guys is gonna knock my block off before I even get to the goalie to take a shot.

15:11 Speaker 2: Yep. I mean even Seidenberg, who wasn't the meanest guy. That guy was big and he was tough, and.

15:18 Speaker 4: When he hits someone, he hits someone like Ronnie Boychuk was the same. I mean, that guy was like, you know, but I missed that type of play. And I know it's hard to do in today's NHL simply because of you know, the rules, and it just seems that there's an aversion on the part of the league to allow defencemen to stand their ground. Yeah, and you know, and I'm saying play play the game in an honorable way, but there seems to be in instances of, you know, if a defenseman is jockeying for position or trying to keep a guy out of the way, that the officials are looking for something to call either you know, some ticky tack stick infraction or you know, an interference call of some scored So I do think that today's defenceman has a harder job than they did in the past.

16:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they I think the defenseman in the past used to get away with more grabbing, a little bit more innerh yeah.

16:38 Speaker 9: Yeah.

16:38 Speaker 6: It was clutching, grabbing, drag.

16:41 Speaker 4: I mean, you want to talk about it, you want to talk about a slash, you go back and watch. You go back and watch some of those Bruins games in the seventies and they were like trying to shop each other's wrists off. And they still weren't calling slashing penalties today. I wouldn't, but the stick gets to a slashing call, so.

17:04 Speaker 6: I don't even have to go he doesn't even have to go that far back. I mean, twenty years ago,

17:12 Speaker 6: Scott Stevens was was out there as a defenceman, practically murdering people out there, you know, on the ice, because that's just kind of how the game was, right, But I will go out there for that express purpose, right, he didn't go out there.

17:28 Speaker 4: Stevens did it cleanly. I'd say ninety percent of the time. I'd say ninety percent of the time he did it cleanly. And I mean, if anybody ever wanted to learn how to hit as a defenseman, go back and watch.

17:45 Speaker 6: Yeah, some film on Scott Stevens. Yep.

17:49 Speaker 2: I always uh, I always went back to like casparaitis, Yeah, Jack, bring back the hipcheck man, That's what I want.

17:57 Speaker 6: Yeah, but we digress here. Yeah.

18:01 Speaker 2: So I think your top defenseman, they've they've they've got to be your leaders. I mean, they are the leaders of that defensive corps. I think they they should be veterans. At least one of them needs to be a veteran in this case. I mean, you've got LORI. You know, if if there's a rookie or a rookie ish type player that has the the ability and you're willing to kind of put up with some turnovers or giveaways or give up some offensive chances, play them up there. I think that dynamic of kind of veteran rookie ish kind of mentor works.

18:39 Speaker 2: I think kind of Chari Mac Yeah, I.

18:43 Speaker 6: Did, did Carlow for the longest time.

18:48 Speaker 2: Yeah, when the Bruins had Dougie Hamilton was he playing. I forget who he played with, but I know he didn't last too too long. But I feel like there might have been something there too.

19:01 Speaker 6: I'd have to go back and look, I don't remember.

19:03 Speaker 2: I don't remember.

19:03 Speaker 4: I was not a fan of his game, to be perfectly honest with you, So.

19:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I don't know if a lot of people were or were sad when he got traded. So but I mean they are your you know either you know, one's probably a top p K guy, one's a top power play guy. So they're they're going to be your minute, your minute munchers. I mean, some guys could probably take upper twenties, low thirty minutes in the playoffs. I mean, let's charm those guys are crazy.

19:35 Speaker 6: So yeah, So no, I've got a question.

19:38 Speaker 2: Yeah.

19:38 Speaker 8: One of the things that I know I've heard you talk about before, you know, and it's not unique to you, the notion of hockey iq right and hockey iq means different things based on the position.

19:54 Speaker 6: That you play right, you know, with a.

19:56 Speaker 9: With a forward, being able to see where a play can develop and go into that empty space before everything else happens, so you could be in the right place the right time.

20:06 Speaker 8: Right.

20:07 Speaker 6: But one thing that I've heard you talk a lot about this year with Zadorov is his seemingly black of hockey IQ got better for me. I've grown hearing your qualms with him, and I want you to kind of walk us through that in a second. But hearing your qualms has really also opened my eyes to better understanding really what the requirements are for good hockey IQ when it comes to being a defenceman. So you know, like just you articulating the fact that, well, yeah, if you have someone like Mason Lori who is a little bit more of a loose cannon, he should be paired.

20:57 Speaker 6: So that means he's probably going to be in either a little bit deeper into the offensive zone or he's going to have a little bit less control over the play and the puck. So you want to be pairing him with someone who has a very, very high IQ to understand and recognize what is my partner doing in this moment and what is happening in front of me, so I can make the right decision to book it backwards as facts as possible to avoid any kind of disaster. So yep, what tell us about your qualms? And where does Zadora?

21:36 Speaker 6: Well, I would say typically play, but our top two defensement we're out for most of the season, so I can't really say that. But where can he be and what's the deal with this guy?

21:48 Speaker 4: Well, let's for the sake of this exercise. Okay, we're starting healthy. Everyone's healthy, Yeah, Knackavoy's healthy, lind half is where's be. Presumably those are your top two guys whether weather now doesn't mean you pay them up together, right, but those are your top two guys.

22:10 Speaker 2: Yep, yep. So all right, so let's I guess we've got three things to talk about, right, So let's just finish with the third pairing of your defense, because they're I mean, if in my mind they're they're kind of like your fourth line. They're the guys that aren't gonna get the high leverage situations. They're gonna probably be a little bit stronger, a little bit tougher, a little bit meaner, and and probably a little bit more shut down minded. So I think that's kind of where you look at your defenseman and and probably also they're your power They're they're your penalty kill guys too, so that's where they're gonna make up their time on ice.

22:51 Speaker 2: So Zadora off for me. When I watch him play, he is extremely lazy getting to the puck in his own zone. After the forward kind of like chips it past him or or dumps it in from the neutral zone. So there's a couple of things that he does that that really kind of pisses me off, for lack of better word.

23:19 Speaker 2: The biggest thing that he will do is if the puck is dumped in behind him, he will not skate for the puck. He will either turn and try to just be that big body that blocks the forward from coming in and expect the other the the the other side defenseman to come in and get it, which if you go back and watch, they never really did because there was no communication and no one knew what was happening. And he just took so many fucking penalties. So he was like, what the most penalized player in the well or something.

24:01 Speaker 6: So yeah, at multiple points in the season, right, he.

24:05 Speaker 2: Was, and and he I don't know if the Bruins still play the same kind of defensive structure where basically your your two wingers guard guard the guard the defenseman at the point and kind of come down to like the top of the dot if they have to. You've got each defenceman their job. If the puck's in their corner, they're fighting for that puck and the other guy is in front of the net when the puck goes to the other side. They flip flop. So each kind of guy mans their own like quart their quadrant.

24:37 Speaker 2: Right, It's like that the other side of the trapezoid, that's where the defenseman's point is, and then the center. Their job is to be that second guy in fight for the puck, be that support for a breakout pass. That's how their defense used to be. I think they still kind of run a form of it. It's it's not better because I mean, you lost burg Around, you lost Kretchi, you lost guys that basically created that system. But Sidorov is just slow to getting to his side or reading and reacting and trying to understand if he should go to the front of the net or go in his corner.

25:15 Speaker 2: There's just so many little things that just frustrate you to the point where I don't know why the Bruins signed him in the first place, because I don't know if you can teach this guy to actually give a shit, because it doesn't look like he does well.

25:31 Speaker 4: Right, we're gonna we're gonna briefly pause there for our ad break because I'm gonna I'm gonna share a stat with you, Mo that you might not be aware of, or maybe you are aware of, where Zadorov is concerned, because I want to hear from you about where you would hear him and the hierarchy of defenseman. So then to take a quick little ad break.

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28:18 Speaker 6: Welcome back, folks and U when we yes, it was

28:25 Speaker 6: where we paused.

28:26 Speaker 4: We were talking about the breakdown of defensive pairings and most philosophy about you know, your your top paer defenseman pair two and pair three, And we were talking about Nikita's Zadorov and and well, I would agree with you on the concern related to hockey IQ. And you know, far be it for any of us to pass judgment on what we think players do or don't know. We just base our assessment on what we see on the ice.

29:04 Speaker 6: And you know, when.

29:05 Speaker 4: He first put on the Bruins jersey, it would make you wonder quite often, dude, what the hell are you thinking?

29:14 Speaker 6: Right?

29:14 Speaker 4: We asked ourselves that numerous numerous times.

29:18 Speaker 6: Now, your.

29:22 Speaker 4: Comment before we went to break was, I don't know why the Bruins signed him to begin And I would say to you, I would say to you the reason why the Bruins signed him was because they were thinking that they were building a team to go up against, specifically, in my mind, the Florida Panthers. We had been getting the crap kicked out of us by this team, and our defenceman looked relatively soft during those series. So I understand the method to the madness. I will agree with you that he was kind of a train wreck, an unmitigated train wreck to start the season.

30:07 Speaker 4: But I just pulled up the Bruins stats to finish the season, and again, this isn't the be all end all, it's the stats still means something to me. His plus minus plus twenty five the highest.

30:23 Speaker 6: On the team, I know. I don't even know.

30:29 Speaker 4: Again, it may not because I wanted to hang my hat on something positive through this disastrous freaking season.

30:36 Speaker 6: We sat through.

30:38 Speaker 4: But I thought he got better and yeah went along. I think got more comfortable in his role. I think he was embracing being somewhat of a leader after the Bruins pretty much traded all of their leaders.

30:58 Speaker 6: And their core.

31:00 Speaker 4: But I think that means something of significance to him, and I think he cares. I do truly believe, hearing him speak that he cares about that spoke fee. He cares about, you know, his his play on the ice, the play of his teammates. So I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with you know, a full season with a training camp that doesn't look like it's it's it's a shit show. It's from what it sounded like, it's just a shit show. And you've got new guys coming in and you're running your training camp.

31:42 Speaker 4: I don't know who the hell was running it like a gong show.

31:44 Speaker 6: So true, he's on this team.

31:49 Speaker 4: He's not going anywhere because honestly, I don't think anyone's taking that contract even if we wanted him to be gone. So where where would you have Nikita Zadorov in your scheme of pairings?

32:07 Speaker 2: That's a great question.

32:08 Speaker 6: So and who with by the way, So.

32:13 Speaker 2: All right, I don't think he's a top guy. I don't think I want to agree with you looking at it. He's a left handed shot, I think, if I remember right. So unfortunately you've got Lindholm who's also a left handed shot that I don't think you want to put two lefties out there and have one play right. And you know you can't do the boards properly.

32:40 Speaker 8: So.

32:42 Speaker 2: I think in a perfect world he would probably be a second line defenceman was someone that was a little bit more offensively minded, like a Lindholme. If one of those guys was a right handed shot. I think that combination could work, just because Lindholm is a better skater and would probably pick up the puck if if if Zidorof is doing that same thing and letting the puck go and and that sort of thing. But maybe you can.

33:11 Speaker 6: Put him with Chucky because he's not Ultimately Zadora is just ultimately not good enough to be on that first pair.

33:20 Speaker 2: I think he is, but I don't think Chucky is offensive minded enough. Yeah, and I think the pressure would get to McAvoy where the fans would just turn on him, and I don't it's fair to anybody. And LORII and McAvoy seemed to play really, really well together. I don't know what it is, but they seem to have really good chemistry. And I think Louri kind of suffered when when Mac went down and then he kind of picked it up.

33:50 Speaker 4: We'll talk about asking a kid to do too much, and I know he finished the season disastrously put it right, just disastrously. But here we also have to understand that again we were they were without lind Holme and McAvoy, and so I don't know that he would have been put in the myriad of situations that he was was with Laura was put in to finish off the season.

34:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, right, So I mean, if you think about it, I mean probably the door off in Peak would be a decent third line. I mean you've got a right hand to chat and Peak and a lefty and the door off that kind of lets the door off be a little bit more risky offensively. I think he kind of has it in him to want to probably pinch a little bit more where Peak will be that kind of that Adam McQuaid type guy. And then hopefully that allows Zadoroff not to be the guy that takes all those stupid penalties and and let Peak kind of do it so Zadoroff can can do that penalty kill and and go from there.

35:01 Speaker 2: So I think the Bruins have a pretty big void to fill in that second line defensive spot to pair with.

35:10 Speaker 6: Jumped from first to second to third.

35:13 Speaker 8: But like what, Yeah, it's because he doesn't have an ideal partner. I mean, I can't remember now off the top of my head for some reason, the year of the Perfect season, who was Lynn Holmes's partner because he had a nominal.

35:32 Speaker 6: Year that year? But who was he paired with? Was he paired with Carlo? I didn't think so, but.

35:39 Speaker 2: He was paired with I don't remember anymore. I don't remember. No.

35:44 Speaker 4: Yeah, But they then then maca mine because like we're joined at the hip, which always drove me crazy, drove me absolutely.

35:55 Speaker 6: Who was with lynn Holm? Freaking bonkers? Listeners yell at us in the comments the top of our head number with him? But I don't know so about who should be doing what?

36:16 Speaker 2: So here's here's the thing. I mean, you guys, and we've.

36:18 Speaker 6: Talked about you guys, which I you know. I love your idea of pairing him with Peek. We're poured together.

36:29 Speaker 2: Who put so? Who plays with Linda?

36:31 Speaker 8: Right?

36:31 Speaker 6: Is it? Is it?

36:33 Speaker 2: Yoki Haru? Does he come back? Do the Bruins sign Dante Fabreau who Chinzawa was was talking about. I mean, is there someone in Providence that can step up? Who was who was the guy who was the rookie that played the last game? Is that Jackson?

36:57 Speaker 6: Mm?

36:57 Speaker 2: Hmmm, Edwards, Yeah, I think so right. I mean I liked what I saw from him. I don't think he's ready, but I think he's a guy that, in the coming years, could you know, be that seventh defenceman. But man, it's it's one of those things where you you wanted Carlo to work out, but it just didn't. I think a guy that they're gonna need is someone that is probably a little bit more physical, because I don't think Lindholm. I mean that's if his knee holds up. I mean, Lindholm is not the toughest guy and can probably be pushed around, which is why him and McAvoy played well because no one messed with mac.

37:42 Speaker 2: So I hate the idea of bringing Yokiharu back just because I don't see him as that kind of physical defenseman that could play with with Lindholm. So it's I don't really know what's out there or what's available, But is.

37:57 Speaker 4: There anyone down in Probably I know these guys don't grow on trees, but is there anyone down in Providence.

38:07 Speaker 6: Or what about some of our our alternates, Like while the Spoon.

38:13 Speaker 2: Spoon is is, I think Spoon's probably priced himself out of Boston. But I would say he's he's really like your sixth seventh defenceman, Like if Pete goes down, that's who I want in. I didn't see a whole lot out of Spoon that that made me go, holy shit, I need this guy back. You know. Let's just I mean they've got I mean, there's not really a lot down there. I mean we've got Ian Mitchell. I didn't think that.

38:42 Speaker 6: Maybe, you know, I thought you might know something I didn't.

38:45 Speaker 4: I mean again, yeah, you know, franchise altering defenceman don't grow on trees, is what I.

38:56 Speaker 2: I don't think they're gonna unless they get like the first or second overall pick. Don't think they're going to draft a defenseman that's gonna slot up and play right away. I don't know who's available in the free agency market, but maybe they can swing a trade. Maybe they can, you know, I mean, Corposalo probably will look to get traded. Maybe you pair him with Zaka and look for a defenseman to fill that role, or or who knows.

39:23 Speaker 6: But I think more games, Yeah, I think.

39:27 Speaker 2: You're gonna need you need, You're gonna need to find someone that can play with lind Holme that I I would like them to be someone that can. Man, you'd almost want like a Carlos the door Off hybrid.

39:45 Speaker 6: You're gonna want like some more like the muscles, right, but someone that can because I'm a little bit more of a finesse player.

39:54 Speaker 2: But I think the door off is is a little too slow for lind Home. Yeah you even though I think doesn't zidorof have like the fastest burst of any Bruins player this year?

40:05 Speaker 6: So just does his legs are ten feet long? I mean, the stride is just ridiculous, Give me a break.

40:12 Speaker 2: I know.

40:13 Speaker 6: So it sounds like and we know because you mentioned in the last episode that you would, of course rather see Mason Laura be a forward. Yep. I can't imagine that that's ever going to happen.

40:31 Speaker 4: No, no, But here's what I do want them to make a determination on about this kid. Yeah, he seems to be more my view watching the games, he seems to have more interest in being an offensive minded defenceman than balancing his game with some defense. Right, So I know, you know the means are taken off, and you know they've they've taken the pony and they've turned him into or trying to turn him into, you know, a show horse, but there there needs need to strike a balance here, or he needs to strike a balance as a player, because you know, if if you're going to be a top pairing fenceman, you've got to be able to play defense, and you've got to be able to make smart decisions with with the puck.

41:32 Speaker 4: And I know we've touched on you know, Zadorov's hockey IQ, and I think the same could be said sometimes of Mason Mouri with decisions that he's made with the puck. So he has a little bit more of an excuse he's I know, he's a lot younger, younger, Yeah, he's definitely younger. But this is why, though, I think it's imperative that the Bruins get this figured out with this player. If he's part of your core defense and he's part of the future of your team, yeah, then this aspect of his game has got to be focused on and worked on.

42:14 Speaker 9: Yeah.

42:15 Speaker 2: Yeah, right. And I mean looking at the list of defensive free agents, there's not really a whole lot of people out there that make you make you happy. Yeah, I mean, do you go after a guy like Brent Burns who's forty one?

42:32 Speaker 5: No enough, And now I walked about one of the younger teams, and I don't want I don't want to recycle coaches, and I don't want to recycle players who should be, like you know, filing their retirement papers.

42:47 Speaker 6: I just I'm good with that.

42:50 Speaker 8: Yeah, well, that's a great idea for one of our episodes that we'll have in the month of June leading up to the free agency.

43:01 Speaker 6: But let's wrap this up. We're gonna have, of course, more conversation in the coming weeks with Professor Mo, So make sure, if you haven't already, to like and subscribe and follow us, rate and review on all the podcast platforms. But make sure you also sign up for our sub sets so you can get all of those unique takes by Professor Mo right in good good articles, Yes, good arts ready. So I have no doubt it will eventually turn LORI into a forward. So I know if anyone can do it, it's gonna be Mo. But any final thoughts about your your philosophy around defense.

43:50 Speaker 2: I think I think we're in better shape on defense than with forwards. I think, depending who the coach is and what their philosophy will be is going to kind of help determine kind of whose holes get filled. That's why you might see a Yoki Haru come back if they want a guy who can kind of skate and do a little bit more offense. But the biggest thing is going to be how is Lindholm's knee, What is the health of it? Can it hold up? If not? I think the Bruins are a little bit more screwed, but but I like what they have, and man, it's it's kind of nice to have at least something you don't necessarily have to worry about.

44:35 Speaker 2: You know, your your top goalie, your top two defensemen, and your top line are are probably your most important things. And the Bruins seem to have that under control. We'll call it so. I mean, I know people, so we'll just throw in.

44:51 Speaker 6: They all have to play better though than they did this past season.

44:54 Speaker 2: Yes, well, perform better. I think they will so, But but I think I think we're gonna be okay, So we'll see that again. I did think Max Jones was gonna be really great last year, and that didn't happen.

45:10 Speaker 6: I think I think we all did. So You're not alone. We all we all have those moments.

45:17 Speaker 8: Yep, but stay tuned for another episode UH coming up soon with us and as always Gobs Goby's.

45:27 Speaker 6: Thanks for tuning in.

45:29 Speaker 2: Thanks guys.

45:55 Speaker 6: Yeah, I can't stand the leaves