Have the Boston Bruins Given Up? Bruins Playoffs News | Bonus Content

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome in everyone to an emergency Bruins tape to tape podcast episode. I'm your host this afternoon, Caroline with a K, and let's cut to the chase, because this Boston Bruins team is an absolute disgrace, and so what better way to welcome back my fantastic co host Maria. Hey, Maria, how you feel I.

0:24 Speaker 2: Came back from Italy for this shit today? Sunday, April twenty six has to be one of the worst and most disgusting and embarrassing playoff losses in recent Boston Bruins history. Never mind the fact that since twenty nineteen you have virtually sucked eggs at home during the playoffs, and here we find ourselves with a relatively new core because we've flushed out the core from all of those previous playoff heartbreaks, and we find ourselves in a similar situation. You show up for an afternoon playoff game, or any playoff game, and start in the manner in which you did in the first period, looking unprepared, lost, lack of focus, disengagement, and disinterest in playing.

1:25 Speaker 2: It is deplorable, absolutely deplorable. And the fact that Jeremy Swayman ultimately ended up, pulling himself and skates over to his bench and gives the business to his teammates on the bench deservedly. So everybody who listens to this podcast knows that I'm not a Swayman fangirl, but in this instance, he has every right to rip the heads off of every single player, including his coach, who stands there with his goddamn hands in his pocket.

2:06 Speaker 1: What are you waiting for?

2:08 Speaker 2: To me, there was no good reason to have Jeremy Swayman come back out and start the second period of that game when you're already down for it to nothing.

2:17 Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, Maria, Look, I'm not proud to admit this, but I feel like this was an exception. You know, I don't quit on this team. You know I don't quit on this pod. I sit and I watch, and I sit through as close to eighty two of those games as I possibly can. You know, I take one for the team and I watch them, no matter what gorgeous day it was not supposed to be a gorgeous day outside sit down to watch this, which is what the games.

2:46 Speaker 2: Will be doing very soon if they don't get their heads out.

2:50 Speaker 1: Of their asses. I didn't even make it through the first period, they scored. Buffalo scored four goals. They had eight shots on goals, but Boston had one shot on goal. And I said to everyone in the discord online, if the Boston Bruins are going to try to waste my time and disrespect the seventeen thousand fans in TD Garden, I'm sorry, I'm not going to allow that. And I left the back and then say, in Boston, right, kids in the building an afternoon game.

3:31 Speaker 2: The building was allowed to start the game. The fans were ready to go. The fans were ready to go. The problem was the team immediately was not ready to go.

3:44 Speaker 3: I knew immediately as soon as the very first crashing to the net by Buffalo on Jeremy Swayman, where the net got knocked off its moorings and there were.

3:59 Speaker 1: Bodies all all over the place. In that moment, I knew, oh boy, that's the kind of game we're going to have. And I have to say, and I mentioned this a little bit on the pod last week. We've talked before in the past about Okay, you can see the youth in an experience when you have teams that are new to the playoffs, right, but and we saw a little bit of that from the Buffalo Sabers when they got started in the beginning of the series. They were excited because they've never been pretty much in a very long time, and Boston was the team that was measured and controlled and experienced, and they played that way for the first two games.

4:42 Speaker 1: However, of all of the people on the Bruins' staff that showed me their incredible lack of experience, Marco's term was the biggest offender. And I thought to myself in Game one, Okay, I will allow it. That's his first time as an NHL head coach. He's been a player, but he's never been a head coach. In a playoff game. Game one, mistakes can be made. I will allow it. I will allow it. How else are you supposed to learn? Right in game two when Jeremy Swayman had to be the one all a time out after the game before, when Marco Sturm was explicitly asked by the media, hey, should you have called a time out when you started to lose control of the game, and his answer being man, I didn't even think of it.

5:45 Speaker 1: Okay, maybe you were just saying that because you didn't want to publicly admit that you made a mistake. Okay, I can understand that, I get it, I get it. But then it showed me. He showed me in game two, the fact that he did not call the time out, that Jeremy Swayman had to call the time out made me think his comments about not even thinking about doing it were actually real, that he literally did not even think for a second to call a timeout. And I gotta tell you because again I didn't see this, and now I feel like I gotta go watch part of this shit show atrocity of a hockey game.

6:29 Speaker 1: The fact that Jeremy Swayman was the one who had to go to the bench and lasen to everyone, what is the job of a coach?

6:39 Speaker 2: He's at the bench, There's clear video of him looking over at the bench, like, are you going to take me out of this fucking game? Excuse my language, Are you going to take me out of this god damn game?

6:52 Speaker 1: Like? What are we waiting for here now? Marco?

6:57 Speaker 2: Right, there's plenty of blame pie to go around, and the Bucks apps with the coach. You are absolutely correct, and I'm not taking anything away from the Buffalo Sabers because they whatever they figured out, they have figured out. And this team is in no way, shape or form intimidated by the Boston Bruins. The Bruins have had nothing but trouble trying to figure out how to maintain and keep up with the Buffalo speed and their relentless or check. Stop me if you've heard this before, but this has been a proverbial problem throughout the season for the Bruins.

7:44 Speaker 2: And you also have Lindy Ruth, who is insperienced NHL coach. I knew this series was not going to be a cakewalk for the Boston Bruins. What I didn't see coming is this team laying down like dogs in the first period. Now they showed some life in the second period, missed an openet, hit two posts, same old song and dance, same old song and dance.

8:15 Speaker 1: With this team.

8:16 Speaker 2: Can't finish and listen, You don't burn the take for this. You make those guys sit and watch this until they freaking throw up. As fower as I'm concerned, because we as fans and the people that were in that building that paid god only knows how much money to sit there and watch this game. You're gonna sit there and watch this shit too, and you're gonna swallow this shit sandwich that you put out there today.

8:40 Speaker 1: Yeah. And I would also like to point out the fact that we are recording this right now and that game is not even actually over.

8:46 Speaker 2: No, it's not even actually over. And I'm not sure what's going on here, but Nikita's a door of I think like might have taken some liberties here and they're trying to figure out what the penalties are. But he's got a five in a power by oh Buffalo, So it's likely because of Nikita Zadora kind of throwing a sucker punch at someone.

9:06 Speaker 1: So there we have it. I can barely even articulate the degree of frustration because it's not like the solution was complex or complicated, or that one team is inherently more talented than the other. We post it on Friday as a wrap around post on our substack. These are the keys to the game, right. You got to continue to win the faceoff great. Guess what as of right now, Boston has an almost sixty five percent face off win Excellent, that's what we love to see. Penalty minutes, they have fewer than Buffalo.

9:47 Speaker 1: Great hits forty to twenty two in favor of the Bruins. Awesome block shots eleven to fifteen. Great, Okay, the giveaway is relatively matched, I mean not awesome, Ruins.

10:01 Speaker 2: The hero has been decent because okay, buffalowaway, it's just as atrocious as ours is.

10:07 Speaker 1: Takeaways exactly the same, pretty much four and three? Like, So what is happening? What is not being translated that? Then the offense is just not doing anything at the like, because the biggest indicator that the offense is just not showing up is the fact that it took three periods once again to get to twenty shots on goal to Buffalo's thirty four. That is unacceptable. The fact that I turned this game back on, like at the start of the third and there was still only eight shots on goal eight eight eight shots on goal the Boston Bruins eight shots on goal?

10:58 Speaker 1: What is that? Garbage? What is that? What? What I don't understand? I don't understand. It's not a talent issue. What's happening? Did they just stop playing? Is? Have they lost the mental game already? I Why would I want to watch the garbage? No one wants to watch the scarbage. The scarbage.

11:27 Speaker 2: What is very troubling to me is the fact that you got off to such a poor start at home. They were not ready to play, they were not engaged. You were at home. It is the e and Stanley Cup playoffs. You are down two games to one, and you're on home ice, and you stand around and look at each other like, no, you take it in. No, you take it in. No, I don't want it. You take it, and you leave your goalie out there hanging by his thumbs. If I'm Jeremy Swayman.

12:20 Speaker 1: I'm livid. I am giving the entire team the tongue lashing of a lifetime because to abandon your goaltender in the way that they have. And it's not just this game, and it's not just this particular situation. It's you're abandoning your goaltender when you don't backcheck like your life depends on it, because you are just what deciding that well, he's probably got it, no.

12:58 Speaker 2: You.

13:01 Speaker 1: One of the things that I love culturally about this game that I think no other sport has is the relationship of a team and their goaltender and your job. And I can attest to this that the messaging from age eight and up in youth hockey is you do whatever you can to protect your goaltender. And that doesn't just mean clearing the crease or showing up, you know, and pushing some bodies around if people are getting too close up in your goalies business. It means also not leaving your goalie high and dry.

13:51 Speaker 1: It means backchecking like you've got a pants your pants are full of bees. Okay, it's putting in the effort to show your goaltender. I respect you, and I don't want you to have to do this alone. And I have told my kid this. When games get out of hand like this and your goalie is getting peppered with a million shots, and in spite of all of those shots, you know, it may seem like a ton of goals have been scored, which they have. That only happens when the five players in front of you completely fail.

14:33 Speaker 1: That is a result of five players in front failing your goaltender and abandoning them because they didn't do their job. And it's not just the defense, it is the forwards as well, because they all have to backcheck to get back there when the other team has the puck. Everyone is a defenseman in that moment. I don't know how much more clear the job could could be.

15:01 Speaker 2: The game is now mercifully over. Sean Corelly scored with a little under forty seconds left in the game to make it six to one. The series is not over yet. Being down three to one is not ideal. But I don't even know how you regrouped from this. I don't even care to hear what any of them have to say post game. I'm not gonna listen.

15:31 Speaker 1: I don't care.

15:32 Speaker 2: You all sucked today, starting with the coach and all the way down through the roster. And this has nothing to do with Marco Stern making a couple of lineup changes. Those lineup changes were inconsequential. James Hagens was looking like a deer in the headlights in Game three. He needed to take a seat, Okay, he needed to take a seat. And Henry Yoki Hirru is who he is, He is who he is, Okay. Making those changes in the lineup had nothing to do with the fact that your leaders and your core have basically been no shows for these games.

16:21 Speaker 2: Like they need they need to show up, and they need to do more. Pasta has got to stop. Frick I don't know if he's injured or if something is tweaked.

16:34 Speaker 1: But he looks like a shell of himself. Yep, I think I'm not going to disagree, but I'm gonna say I think that the coaching staff had a greater involvement in the collapse of this team. Granted, you're one hundred percent right. Where is the offense? Where are the top guys? Where's Morgan Geek, Where's David Pasternak?

16:59 Speaker 2: Where's the second I mean, I don't even know what the stats are for today's game, but the first three games, these guys are like all in the minus Pabo Zach a minus foot past a minus three. Ardvidsen's a minus three. Although I let's go in the game, I'll get Yeah, you know, Casey middle stat is a minus three. God only knows what Charlie McAvoy's stats are today, because I swear he was on in the ice for a good number of the gold sequences that Buffalo scored. And again it sounds like we're not given credit to Buffalo.

17:33 Speaker 2: No, Buffalo is playing very very well and the right right the momentum turn for them when they made the change in goal and then that penalty shot.

17:52 Speaker 1: That Arvidson missed, missed. But I think also it comes down to game management. This is where I'm hyper fixating on Sturm, and I hope, look I like him. I don't want to see him go anywhere. Like, let's be clear, this is not me saying, Okay, this is gonna be his head on a play. Absolutely not, Absolutely not has made thoughtful and impactful tweaks, both in game and pregame or postgame, every single matchup. The fact that going into game three there were zero changes alarm bells immediately for me.

18:42 Speaker 1: Zero changes. Really, you think that game two was that good? Really? When they were stopping their play with X number of minutes, you thought that the kid was doing a great job. Really, And then I also said he needs to make changes, but not changes for change sake. And I think that sitting Loria and Hagens was making a change for change sake because it did nothing. What other changes did you make? You didn't make any changes in game, You didn't pull Jerry Jeremy Swayman after the first period, Like the fact that Corpusollo did not come out and start the second it's mind blowing.

19:39 Speaker 1: I just you have nothing to lose right now, you have nothing to lose.

19:48 Speaker 2: There are some that might say, well, you know this was you know, four games in a row for swiming. No, no, no, no, this has nothing to do with that. Swayman was not the problem today. Swayman did not look fatigued. Swayman did not look like he wasn't ready to play. It was everyone else in front of him. The turnovers, the bad decisions, the inability to establish your own for checking down in Buffalo's and so that you have any sense of sustained offensive pressure. Now we saw a little bit of push in the second period, but at that point it's too little, too late.

20:29 Speaker 2: You're already down four to nothing. Yeah, yep, and now no Victor Arvidson, who knows what the injury to him is, so that could potentially be an impactful loss for this team. Yeah, it's I I'm just I am disgusted, absolutely disgusted by the display of so called hockey that was presented to us by the Boston Bruins today.

21:06 Speaker 1: Yeah. I think game three you could have chalked it up to not respecting the opponent, because we've seen this team pull that crap before. Today. I can't explain. I can't explain that there is no explanation. I'm not tired that had an extra day off. Then everybody else they were not tired. Okay, they were bad. They were bad, atrociously bad. I mean, listen to this quote from Marco Star. This is from Ty Anderson. This is.

21:41 Speaker 2: Starmouse to explain the letdown quote. I can't if you're a Boston Bruin and playing at home in a playoff game, you should be very excited, very disappointed.

21:51 Speaker 1: End quote. Isn't it your.

21:52 Speaker 2: Job to ensure that they're fucking ready to go, that they understand the enormity of what's at stake here.

22:00 Speaker 1: Like guys are ready to hit the links just can't understand. We didn't. There was never an expectation that we would be here. But two things could be true at once. You can be glad because nobody for the most part, was expecting them to be in this position back in the playoffs. But you can also be disgusted with the product that they have presented and be disappointed and disgusted and ashamed at what you've seen at this point. I And again, you know, I am the optimistic one. I'm the one who's like, well, this is a bright side.

22:37 Speaker 1: I don't want to watch. I don't want to see anymore. I've seen enough. Let's we're done. I've seen enough two games in a row. I'm gonna say the words out loud, and I don't want to say I'm enough enough end it. Try not to be too embarrassing if you can. In Buffalo enough just all I said, I had said at one point, and I discord in the first period, the next guy commits a turnover and our own end needs to have his ass staple to the bench.

23:05 Speaker 2: Huh, okay, staple is sorry, ass to the bench, and there if it's Pasta or Charlie mckaboy or Hampus lnt Home, who, by the way, has sucked balls in this series, absolutely sucked balls in this series.

23:22 Speaker 1: But that's my point about the in game mismanagement to this game. Like I said, you have nothing to lose, so use this game to make a point with your players, hold them accountable, staple their butts to the bench, and say you don't get to play now for a little bit because you can't do that. You can't do that. But then again, he didn't pull Jeremy Swayman. No for and when when your fourth line, when your fourth line has consistently been your best line in a playoff series, that's a little bit of a problem.

24:05 Speaker 1: Give them credit for walking their asses off, but they're not the guys. They're not the guys.

24:14 Speaker 2: That are going to be taking you or should be taking you to the promised land in terms of keeping you in a game, putting the puck in the net. You know, they're not part of typically not pasive, your power to play units or your penalty kill units, Like

24:31 Speaker 2: today was an epic fucking disaster. M Can you recover from this? I don't know. I honestly don't know, because I don't know how fragile the leadership core in that group is at this point. You've got a goalie who's pissed off, who's part of your new core. Okay, you've got Charlie McAvoy who seems to be like you got a good hit today. You got pasta who looks around like a lost soul out there and can't seemingly keep the puck on the end of the stick for any significant period of time, and a Hampi slint home well looks like a shell of himself right now.

25:28 Speaker 2: And isn't capable of making a decent decision when he needs to when he has the pup. So I'm at a loss. I'm at a loss.

25:39 Speaker 1: The series heads back to Buffalo. When is that? What's today? Sunday? Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday, So could all be over by then. But until then, make sure you like and subscribe if you want to hear more from us, give us a rating and review so that other Boston Bruins fans can find us. You can follow us on all of our socials at tape to tape MK and then on our substack at tape to tapemk dot substack dot com. We'll have a regular episode this week, but I don't know what we're going to talk about. Maybe we'll learn some new things.

26:16 Speaker 1: But until then, any final thoughts, Maria, I.

26:20 Speaker 2: Can't even say, go bees. I don't even know what to say to these players and fans. They live to fight another day. I think is about as positive a spin as I can give you on this. And here's the other positive. When during the regular season this team has been subjected to embarrassing and gut wrenching losses as they did today, they do seem to have the ability to bounce back.

26:55 Speaker 1: We'll see on Tuesday. All I'm asking for is that they give a crap, But until then, go bees.