Following Don Sweeney's heated press conference, Ty Anderson joins Conor Ryan on Poke the Bear to discuss the start of Bruins training camp, Jeremy Swayman's absence, and Jim Montgomery's future? Plus, Ty gives his take on why his question to Sweeney sparked such an impassioned response. All that, and much more!
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00:00Poke the bear brought to you by price picks and the game time app
00:09And welcome in to poke the bear episode
00:12260 presented by price picks in game time tickets. My name is Connor Ryan
00:17Once again, we are joined by the esteemed tie innocent of 98 5 the sports hub tie. How are you doing?
00:24I'm alright. How are you doing?
00:27Ty I gotta tell you it's a great day
00:30We're finally back a warrior training camp is back in the vibe suck. The vibes immediately have gone to dogshit
00:37Oh, yeah, it is. We are immediately back to doom and gloom
00:41Right out of the gate all the talk of you know
00:45Getting's a door off getting Elias lent home the younger players all that stuff
00:50Out the window. It's done because we did get the news that
00:54Jeremy swimming not gonna seem it warrior anytime soon. Not until he puts pen to paper on a contract
01:01Don Sweeney, you know mentioning how disappointed he is the fact that they haven't come to terms yet on a deal
01:09Pushed back against some reports. He was not happy with the spin chicklets guys about
01:17mentioning that
01:18Don Sweeney the Bruins had not contacted or
01:22Reached back out to swim it's camp in three weeks called it bullshit. I believe that was to your questioning over the
01:29particular inaccuracies that he was
01:32not happy about but
01:34as a whole a
01:36Little bit of a damper on terms of what should usually be. It's the first day of school
01:40Everyone's excited to be back ready for the new year
01:43Kind of rains on the parade a little bit when a guy that is your
01:46Should be a franchise goalie a big piece of your success now and in the future
01:50Doesn't seem like there's any clarity of when he's gonna be back on the ice for this team quite yet
01:55Yeah, absolutely. I mean, hey, what's the sure sign that Bruin season is back?
02:00Well, I got Don Sweeney to swear into a microphone on the first day or come again. Yeah the rivalry. No, it's not a rivalry
02:08You know, this was one of those rare instances where I don't think I was drawing the ire of Don Sweeney
02:13I think it was merely a vehicle
02:16He saw you and she's like I this is my guy. Yeah, exactly. No, but I I think that
02:23Ultimately when we talk about the frustration that he showed he showed today. I think it does come back to
02:31More than anything else. Yes. Is he frustrated that a deal was not done?
02:37By camp. Yes 100%
02:39I think he's all but I think more so sorry to the long way of getting to this point here. I
02:44think that he's more
02:46upset with
02:49basically, what would be
02:52Criticizing him as a person and how he communicates as a GM
02:56Knowing Don Sweeney now for a decade on the job
02:59Essentially one thing that he's always stressed Connor and everyone listening is communication with his players making sure the lines are
03:06Steady, you know as steady as they can be throughout any sort of process whether that's a trade whether that is
03:13finalizing a deal an extension anything and so what happens is Ryan Whitney's report
03:19Basically says oh, yeah
03:20He's also an absentee GM and he's not listening to or he's not talking to his top free agent
03:26Which I think is really what bothered Don Sweeney more than anything else is that it's an implication or an implication
03:34It's an implication or inferring that he is not giving this the attention or the care
03:42that it requires specifically with the player directly, which again, I think that's a big no-no for Don Sweeney like
03:48We've sat in on many a press conference where he's talked about the communication talked about making sure there's no gray area
03:54And so I think that's what really pissed him off
03:57I think he's upset that a deal is not done and it's gonna hang over the the team's head until it's
04:03finalized and you know tomorrow and Friday and Saturday
04:07Players are gonna be asked about
04:09Jeremy Swayman and they don't want that it puts everyone in the weird spot, you know
04:14Now, you know, it's corporate silo. The question is not hey, can you be a steady backup?
04:18It's hey
04:19Can you be like a 50 game guy if you gotta be like you don't want to put him in that spot?
04:24And so but that's a spot they're in and so I think frustration
04:28Is there but I think it really boiled over
04:31I just felt personally and why I asked that question is
04:34that he kept scratching that itch of the inaccuracies the inaccuracies and I was like
04:40I gotta find out what it is exactly and sure enough the answer and what it is. It's not
04:46Courtney Cox or rich key for myself. It's what was said a few weeks ago that he's an absentee GM
04:53Essentially, and so it boiled over today and and I think this has been a long summer
04:57It's been a very fruitless negotiation so far and here we are
05:01yeah, and I agree in terms of I think what Sweeney probably takes umbrages how he's
05:08Perceived amongst the people, you know his peers and the players and that kind of thing, right?
05:13he's mentioned time and time again of like
05:16Dealing with this market dealing with the media dealing with the comments from fans all that stuff says he doesn't you know
05:23You got to put the the air muffs on and not really pay attention to that
05:26But I think something like that as you said where it's hey, you know, this is our deal
05:32Screw it
05:32like this is what we're you know, don't contact us any of that stuff that kind of perception for a guy that as you said
05:38Has stressed that part of of the the GM job of being in communication?
05:44Trying to bridge the gap during these uncomfortable negotiations. It's not his first rodeo in terms of he's dealt with RFA
05:52He talks with Pasternak with McAvoy Carlo all these guys as well
05:56Yeah, it's almost like I feel like you know, listen, this has been going on the entire summer. We've heard
06:02tons of different reports tons of different
06:06Gauges and where these negotiations are going hell even on Tuesday like or Monday
06:12Elliott Friedman a widely respected reporter right was like, yeah
06:16There's still philosophical differences as to where these two parties are you hear that you're like, well, that's not great
06:22And then on Tuesday Darren Drager from TSN who's also been in this business for a long long time
06:2712 plug-in was like oh, it's feeling positive like there's a lot of again
06:33established reporters a lot of stuff that's going on out there and I think you know the
06:38the back-and-forth where the
06:40Negotiations going those kinds of things that kind of comes with the territory with hockey with this market with the importance of swamin
06:48All those kinds of things I think it's almost expected when it's how
06:53Sweeney and his camp run the ship and it's something that he vehemently disagrees with
06:58Then you get him swearing then they don't get him swearing like a sailor
07:01So yeah, I'm not surprised in terms of that being the thing. He kind of take umbrage with
07:06In terms of where these negotiations are going but for you like, you know
07:11We've mentioned before this has been the case time and time again where guys sign around the startup training camp
07:18You get to that one like you hit DEF CON 5 and you're worried a little bit there
07:22Which I've just learned DEF CON 5 is actually the lowest level
07:25I thought it would be the opposite but DEF CON 1 is the worst
07:28So that makes no sense. We have we haven't hit DEF CON 1 yet
07:31If we're in late November, then we're at DEF CON 1
07:34But are you surprised for right now at least as we are, you know
07:39Starting up training camp that this still hasn't been resolved and it
07:42Seems like it's at least from the Bruins how they're presenting it crickets right now. Yeah
07:47Well speaking of that remember we were kids and like they would have terror alerts in colors
07:53Oh, yeah, they'd be like, hey today's orange. I'm like it. What does what does that mean?
07:58Do I have baseball or what are we doing? It was a really weird time in America
08:03Yeah, and what I would say is building off what the big heavy hitters are saying
08:09and what makes covering the Bruins locally so difficult is that
08:15This is an organization that specializes in misdirection
08:18They do not want you breaking their news
08:21I think it's a I'm sure the players like it but for local guys like myself
08:27It's hard and yeah, like I will say that on Tuesday. I was hearing
08:31Hey, this is looking like it's getting close and it wasn't just hey, I'm getting random DMS, you know from Bruins fan
08:401985 like no like these were legit people
08:43inside the industry
08:46Agents people who work for you know teams like they receive they were saying and hearing that things were getting close and you know
08:52at the finish line or or wrapping things up and so
08:56When you dig and you try to find out what's going on. I will say this is that I
09:03Felt personally that there was enough to feel like hey, we might be getting something here
09:08I'm not a hundred percent sure
09:10And then when I dug further it was met with a quick denial from people who were extremely close to the situation
09:19Let's just put it that way
09:20And then it's like okay like but that's sort of the unknown here for people
09:25Trying to break this story trying to scoop this whatever the case may be is like you're gonna run into
09:30Misdirection because that's the way the Bruins like it to be they want it. It's it's misdirection by design
09:36And so
09:38You got to go through seven layers of hell to try to get the information that information's got to be correct
09:44But clearly I think based on what what happened today like this isn't
09:49Hours away. I think we're talking probably a couple of days at least of missing training camp
09:55I'm curious what you think right because like I think Don Sweeney is a very smart
10:01Calculated man in terms of how he communicates it felt like today
10:06may have been a negotiating tactic in the sense that
10:10He kicks it off by saying
10:12You know beyond the opening kicks the door down like the Kool-Aid man. Oh, yeah, but he kicks things off by saying like
10:20Jeremy has chosen not to report to camp
10:23Until it's a contract and then almost immediately. He says I'm confident. We'll get things done by December 1st
10:30It's almost like he's saying like
10:33It's almost a play like you've decided this and now we have until December 1st, so what's the play here and
10:40Again, he just he's a very calculated man in terms of how he communicates
10:45and so part of me was wondering like if that was a negotiation tactic in its own right of
10:50We're gonna say that you are choosing not to report and we're gonna throw out that December 1 deadline right off the bat
10:57Not we hope this is done in three days like McAvoy or day two like posture knock. It's like no
11:02No, we're gonna go right for December 1st. Like that's kind of a weird move. Yeah. No, absolutely
11:06I was gonna say that I think like Don Sweeney sends every Bruins
11:10Staff member everything to like Raza ghouls training facility
11:16theatricality and deception
11:18They're all trained to just throw you off the trails any sort of good nugget of news you can get but
11:24No, I agree in terms of like mentioning it does feel like you know, this has been again
11:29This has been a storyline that we've been covering all summer long
11:32but Don Sweeney goes out and mentions December 1st and almost like I think that
11:36Set off an alarm for a lot of people where they're like, well, like maybe we'll miss a starting training camp
11:40It's like a you know
11:42NFL training camp where you always have holdouts or hold ins or stuff like that
11:45And by the way, this is not a holdout. He does not have a contract so important to note that but
11:51It is a different in terms of how the contract structure is
11:54But I think mentioning December 1st people like oh shit. Oh shit. Could this actually go that long?
11:59Could he not play this entire year? And so I think mentioning these things it does kind of
12:05ramp up the
12:07Anxiety the urgency of these things and I think again, it's something where I'm sure the Bruins don't want this to be the case
12:15Again, I think they'd like to have signed him in August, right?
12:18but it is something where
12:21The everyone's now gonna be talking about it
12:24we're gonna be looking at the fact that as you said on Thursday and Friday and Saturday and
12:29Probably after whoever's starting in net on Sunday in the preseason opener. I'm gonna be talking about Jeremy Swayman
12:35We're gonna be talking about on the radio. We're gonna be talking about December 1st talk about what happens if it's
12:41Corporate solo and Brennan Bussey on October 8th in Florida, which is a bad spot to put either one of those guys in like
12:49It's not you know, Don Sweeney more or less mentioned like listen, like this is a team that is
12:54Seems like they're set in terms of how negotiations are going. They're not ready to make probably the
12:59concessions yet, but usually lead to these
13:01Deals getting done, but he kind of pretty much said it's a lose-lose for everyone right now
13:06Like he wants Jeremy Swain in camp. It's not like Jeremy Swain was rolling into a familiar spot
13:10He's going into kind of uncharted territory in terms of the number one goalie the workload
13:16You know at warrior working out with the guys working with Bobba Senza all these things it's gonna hurt his game and
13:23Obviously, it's gonna hurt the Bruins if he's not out there. So I agree that kind of
13:28We kind of mapping out the entire scenario the fact that there are deadlines affected
13:33We've hit another level now where things are building up
13:36It does seem like it's is ramping up that urgency and you hope that hopefully gets the wheels turning here
13:41It's otherwise
13:42Yeah, no, it really doesn't and and I think I don't think the Bruins want that either because I
13:48Think one of one of the great
13:52underplayed storylines kind of throughout the decision to move on from Lena Salmark and and
13:59To truly give the reins to Jeremy Swayman is the fact that
14:03They love Jeremy Swain
14:06To truly give the reins to Jeremy Swayman is the fact that
14:11They love playing for this guy like they rally around him
14:16He's a heartbeat type of presence and that's kind of unusual for a goaltender
14:22Goaltenders usually kind of stoic and very reserved and hey stay out of this guy's way. He's meditating right now
14:29you know, but like Swayman is a guy who
14:32He's talking he's singing he's laughing, you know, he's getting the team kind of like relaxed
14:37And so I don't think the Bruins want to play without this guy
14:40I mean think about the the difference in the mentality that you have as a team if you're going from
14:48playing in front of the guy who's singing songs and
14:52You know bopping his head with the with the crowd that hates him playing playing ants matching by Dave Matthews. Yeah
15:00It's a you go from that to
15:02Okay
15:02We got Brandon Bussey who's never played in this league before and Jonas Corpo solo coming off one of the worst seasons any
15:09Goaltender has had in recent memory. We got to repair him in his confidence
15:13and so like that's such a difference in terms of your mentality as a team and so I don't think they want to play without
15:21Swayman for too long and that's an obvious statement, of course, but I
15:25Don't this doesn't benefit anybody and
15:29You know listen hand up when we spoke in June. I said I late July
15:34I said, ah, you know that I did a podcast with with Matt doll of sports of underground this week
15:39And I said it's gonna bleed in the camp I think but not too many days now. I have no idea
15:43I I truly have no idea
15:46I'd love to say this is wrapped up maybe after the black and gold game or the first preseason game
15:51Whatever it is. Monday's an off day right now. Give us something to do. I don't know
15:56I'll be on a plane home on Monday. So maybe not maybe wait till Tuesday morning, please. Thank you very much
16:02But I just wonder like like you don't want this dragging out. I don't think it benefits anybody
16:07Yeah
16:08I thought that he was gonna I was at the Pearl Jam show on Tuesday night
16:11I thought there I thought Eddie Vedder was gonna bring out Swayman for that
16:14Have like Swayman do a little yellow lead better announcing he was back or something like that didn't have a song called Jeremy
16:21He comes out
16:25Man what a waste what a waste
16:29terrible Michael's movie two thumbs down
16:33No, I the other part of this though Connor and I'm curious what you think about this is like
16:38There's been a lot of talking and Sweeney kind of alluded to it
16:42today about like
16:44Years, they won't go compromises. They won't make by now. It's clear. Someone's gonna have to bend
16:51What do you think that bending is like like is it years? Is it AAV? Is it both?
16:57Keep in mind. He's two years away from UFA status
17:01Personally, and I said this to Evan today. We were actually outside warrior together
17:05I was trying to throw rocks at him to get him to go away from me, but he was hanging out flexes. He's good
17:10Yeah, he's ready really kind of annoying actually, uh, I said to him I think we're personally
17:16I know there's been a lot of talk about a bridge deal
17:19You do a two-year bridge deal and then you pay him what he's worth
17:22I think you're freaking crazy if you think that they can do a two-year bridge deal and
17:28Work things out at the end of that two-year bridge deal
17:31They need an arbitration one year and they still are it's going on the training camp now to get a new deal done
17:37If you take that two-year gamble, I think you're crazy, but I want to know what you think
17:42What is the concession made what years we looking at all of that? Yeah
17:46I mean, I think for me it has to come down to knowing full of that
17:50I think it's person like personally reasonable for like the Bruins that happen to be reservations about a
17:56Six seven eight year deal knowing that he still has these unproven qualities
18:01I think you look at the body work that he's showcased so far the playoff run that he just had his age
18:08his commitment to his craft the fact that I think he keeps on getting better and better every year and
18:13The fact that this has been such an arduous undertaking both last offseason and this year I'd be like
18:20Yeah, sure. Like we'll sign you as long as possible knowing full of it's probably ideally the best case scenario if he ends up being
18:26What do you hope he is?
18:28So I think for me it more comes down to all right. No, we agree Jeremy you want to be here long-term
18:32We want to have you here long term. Mm-hmm. We can't give you nine nine million man. Like we can't do that
18:38No, we listen. We know what the market is
18:41We can't hit you I we can't get to that level
18:44yeah, I feel like it ends up being more of a and I could be completely wrong like this at this point whenever that deal
18:49gets announced and gets posted on Twitter and there's a gif of
18:53Swayman putting the mask down and we know like a release is coming two minutes later
18:57I can't tell you what the contracts gonna be but I feel like in terms of where
19:03Both sides aren't budging. It feels again more to do with what is that pale going to be for a guy that?
19:08has shown the upward trajectory, but
19:11Even accounting for the market and the cab jumping up. I have no idea what exactly the
19:16The common ground is on what that annual payouts gonna be. I couldn't tell you. Yeah. No same. I don't have guesses. I don't have
19:24Inklings in terms like that's been the hardest thing to track down
19:27It's like you can talk to somebody and they'll tell you they're making progress and they're getting closer
19:31But but what does that mean? Like that's been the hard part to nail down. I think a true compromise here personally
19:39This is just me, you know pulling some numbers out of the sky here
19:4250 million over six years that that's what I would do. It would give him an eight point three million dollar cap hit
19:48it would buy up some of his UFA years while
19:53Paying him more than the eight times eight that we've talked about and listen
19:56I think we have to acknowledge that if the eight times eight was as easy as we've made it sound it would have been done
20:01By now, right? So I think a six at eight point three per 50 million
20:07It would allow sway meant to re-enter the market at 31 years old which in goalie terms is not that crazy
20:14You know Connor Hellebuyck signed when he was 30
20:17He got his big money deal at 30 UC Soros just got his at 29 doesn't take effect until he's 30
20:24And so it's not that far off it's not that far-fetched it pays him near top of the market Goldie money wise
20:32And I think that might be your best bet at a compromise you're buying up UFA years you're paying him more than eight million
20:40but he has a chance to to hit the market when the cap is a
20:45115 million, you know potentially or a hundred, you know, whatever it is like so that's where I would try to lean
20:51But again, I'm I'm speaking as someone who's not in the room
20:55I don't know all the the asks and all the demands
20:58But I think that's something like somewhere around that kind of structure is
21:02I think where I would try to go where you buy up some UFA years you pay a premium
21:07but you're not totally wiping away the chance of a second payday or
21:12You know being completely hamstrung by that contract. Yeah. No, I agree
21:17Like it's I think that's probably ends up being the concession something effects as you said eight by eight
21:22So we've all mentioned would be a best-case scenario
21:24I feel like if that was the case it would have happened by now, so we'll see how this develops
21:29Unfortunately, we're gonna keep on talking about this whether it's through to the end of the month. Maybe in October. We'll find out
21:37We have a little bit more to talk about Ty
21:39Before we do that, though
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23:24Shout out to our good friends over at prize picks. All right, Taya in terms of other takeaways from today beyond there were others
23:32Yeah, do other things going on besides that a lot of the expected stuff you talk about right?
23:40There's a door off and Lindholm what they can provide the younger players stuff like that, but
23:44Jim Montgomery's future in Boston is also something that was touched on
23:49Sweeney kind of took a page out of Brad Martian's book didn't want to get into too much of how they're handling it
23:56But so there have been talks about an extension
23:58Jim Montgomery says that his kind of
24:01expiring deal status and something that is going to affect him which I
24:05Don't know that's kind of tough to just to operate day to day with that uncertainty. It's something that I don't think anyone wants to
24:13Deal with in such a
24:15pivotal year, which is not like you're a
24:18Rebuilding team or a team on the upswing your team that should be competing this year after all the additions you've made
24:25Where do you think this ends up going in terms of a contract?
24:28Do you think this is something that?
24:30Gets resolved in the preseason and something that they have to wait and see where they're at because it doesn't feel like it's from
24:36Montgomery's perspective an ideal situation
24:39Yeah, I can't see this being an ideal situation for anybody
24:43if you work for a company that is
24:46Constantly going through layoffs or changing personnel and leadership. Yeah, you always feel like you have an axe hanging over your head
24:54It's human nature, right? I think especially when you have two guys that
24:59Have head coaching experience on your staff now between Joe Sacco and Jay leach Joe Sacco years ago
25:06but experienced nevertheless, you know as a head coach with Colorado and
25:10Jay leach with Providence a few years ago. And so I
25:15Wonder where this goes and why I wonder that is that this is actually just the second time
25:20That Don Sweeney has had a quote-unquote lame-duck
25:25Head coach on his staff and if we go back to 2019
25:28They had already hammered out the extension for Bruce Cassidy by this point. That was actually signed on September 11th, 2019
25:37Before they started training camp
25:39I think captains practices were just underway or they had or formal skates were about to happen something along those lines in
25:46Cassidy outright admitted. He said yeah, I wanted the security. He's like it I didn't want this hanging over my head and
25:52The Bruins
25:54Themselves Neely and Sweeney. I actually went back and read some of the quotes cuz I was curious like they also mentioned
25:59They didn't want this hanging over him because they didn't think that would lead to success for the team
26:04and so this is a bit of a course reversal here from the Bruins standpoint and so the other part of it is like I
26:12Would probably give him an extension
26:15It's just like what are they looking for like do they want to see a young guy?
26:20Be given a chance to flourish and succeed or they just want to win games like and it's hard for I we've talked this before
26:28It's hard for a coach to do both when a he's an angel coach and B. He's potentially coaching for his job
26:35you know, I remember kind of there was an air of you know, when the Bruins fired Bruce Cassidy, right like
26:42It was kind of said to him
26:45You know they
26:47Questioned how you didn't develop young guys and in his response and in not so many words was well a what young guys
26:54They weren't very good and B. I got a win that night. Where's the only cup contender?
26:59I can't focus on developing guys
27:01And so like I just wonder if that conflicts and if that collides
27:07For Jim Montgomery the way that it kind of did for Bruce Cassidy
27:11But to your point about taking one day at a time I
27:15mean this in
27:17Absolutely the best way possible
27:20Jim Montgomery's off-ice past and
27:23the mindset that
27:25People in recovery tend to have makes me think that if there's any guy who could have that day-to-day
27:31Hey, man, just get through today
27:33Mindset it would be a guy like him. And again, I don't mean that in an insulting manner
27:38I mean in just the opposite where like that's a that can be a pillar of strength for somebody with his background
27:44He's talked about that openly and so like if I trust one guy to walk the walk with that. It would be Jim Montgomery
27:52yeah, no, absolutely and it is such a
27:56Precarious spot to be in as a coach because as you said like when they brought in Jim Montgomery
28:00One of the things was mentioned was developing these players and it's been the case in terms of you had guys like Mason
28:06Flourish here
28:07You've had like, you know, Johnny Beecher Trent Frederick has taken steps toward like other guys have contributed under a Montgomery's watch
28:15But as you said if you even if you're staying grounded and taking the day-by-day approach
28:21If you know operating on an expiring deal like that and you're looking at the team and you're like, all right
28:27I can roll with Fabian Lysel who's got the potential and in terms of the the health of the franchise it benefits them
28:35To stick with lifestyle knowing there's gonna be one of these games. We're gonna look at the tape afterwards in his D zone play
28:41It's gonna drive you crazy
28:43but you stick with it and you're patient and hopefully yield strong returns or you look at Tyler Johnson who
28:50again, maybe is
28:52Less of a high ceiling guy in terms of his age
28:57Contract all that kind of stuff, but maybe gives you the best chance to win that night, right? And again like it's
29:02Two contrasting kind of approaches there
29:05But ideally you want him to stick with a guy like I sell if I sell proves it, right?
29:09Like the young guys have to show what they can do
29:11Obviously that is the most important part, but if it's all things being equal, you know
29:16And if you do have an expiring contract and that is something that like it or not
29:21Comes down to the final performance on the ice wins and losses points in the standings all that stuff
29:27It does feel like you're giving your coach here you're limiting your coach in terms of how much leeway he has to you know
29:34Especially develop younger players when again when it comes to the end of the offseason
29:39He doesn't have a contract and you're evaluating things. What's the first thing you're gonna look at probably wins and losses fair or not, right?
29:46Yeah, no, absolutely. And you know, I I do think that
29:52You know
29:54What would ownership?
29:56Let Don Sweeney in the front office fire a third coach
30:01normally, I'd say no because I
30:04Mean, that's three coaches man
30:05And you've been on the job ten years like what's been the one constant throughout that was those ten years and those three coaches
30:12The guy, you know buying the groceries now what I would say though is that if you're the Bruins
30:18You can look at what you've done and if your ownership specifically
30:22You can look at this past summer and say we made over 85 million dollars in
30:29financial investments and players to build a more complete
30:34Contending team Elias Lindholm is making what?
30:3854 million I think over over the life is contract
30:42Zdorov is making 30 million over the next six years, whatever it is
30:46You know, then you got your guys assigned to like 1 million dollar deals, but yeah, it all up
30:50It's over 85 million dollars that you that you invested in your future
30:54You're gonna sign Swayman and you're gonna ink him to a contract. That is
30:59Probably eight mil a year at least and so we're looking at that now and and it's like that's a lot of
31:05Heavy investment that that you have made to give
31:10The coach the best roster possible. And so in most circumstances, I would say
31:16No, you don't let a GM fire a third coach at the same time
31:21They've kind of given him the tools to succeed in my opinion
31:24It's not perfect
31:25But nobody is like to have a perfect roster you have to go full Tampa full Vegas full
31:322023 Bruins and go so deep in the LTR bag that you're paying for it the following season or with a Stanley Cup parade
31:40Like it's hard to build a flawless roster
31:43And but I think the Bruins have identified two areas of a major, you know concern for them
31:49And so now it's on the chef to cook the meal. You got the groceries
31:53They were purchased from Wegmans not the gas station. So get it. You got to make the nice meal now
31:58So so I like that part of it is intriguing to me. Yeah. No, no, absolutely
32:03It's how the Bruins approach it front office
32:07Ownership and how they chart the path move forward Montgomery is definitely something worth keeping tabs on
32:12And hopefully we'll see what kind of comes of it because again
32:15Then it doesn't seem like it benefits anyone to have this kind of linger throughout the year just like your goalie situation
32:21Tie, well, we'll wrap this up talk about a few more quick topics here before we do that
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34:06All right, I Don Sweeney Jim Montgomery. I think they spoke for about
34:10combined like 45 minutes
34:13Touched on a lot of other topics the makeup of the team the younger players
34:18what's one thing to kind of set out to you beyond the obvious headlines the
34:23Swain in Montgomery contract all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I just think the overall excitement that
34:31we have
34:33Have shown and talked about when it comes to do the defense
34:37grouping of this team
34:38I think that excitement is shared by the Bruins where right now they look at their their defense and they say we got a
34:45group of six guys here that can
34:47move up and down all around any situation we're ready for it and
34:52You know, I think what's gonna be interesting, you know
34:55We've talked about the guys they've lost right that goal-scoring void has to be filled by
35:02Hampus Lindholm and Mason Lowry and I
35:06Think you know how these guys are utilized is gonna be really telling and I think you know
35:10Even right now you can tell that Montgomery is still kind of playing around some ideas in his head of
35:16Where these guys can play where they will play
35:19But it's gonna be a by design
35:21mentality and I think I think what I want personally is I want the Bruins defense to get back to what they were in
35:282023 where every guy was involved in the offense every guy could could lead a breakout make a strong first pass
35:35Activate in the ozone take some chances like that was the biggest difference
35:39I think between the first year of Jim Montgomery and the second year now, they lost John Gruden
35:44They added more to Joe Sacco's plate
35:47I think they were playing a bit more safe a year ago defensively given the construct they had
35:52But right now like they got a full deck, right? And so how are you gonna unleash these guys?
35:56I remember that 2022 training camp that 22 23 season
36:01It was about unleashing their defense and I think that you're gonna see something similar with this year's grouping
36:07so to hear that excitement
36:09from Jim Montgomery
36:10About the versatility of their back end that gets me excited because it's it's kind of confirmation of what
36:16People like us have been hoping for all summer where it's like, all right
36:20You lost some wingers
36:21But if you can get that defense back to rockin being a being a three zone threat
36:26It can probably make up for those losses in my opinion
36:28Yeah, exactly when you got so much I think dynamic talent back there and you know
36:33a lot of it can be focused in on the
36:35the gains of a guy like Mason Laurie, right who has I think such a high ceiling but
36:40you know look at like Zdorov even Jim Montgomery mentioned today how he does the little things with
36:46Retrieving pucks making smart plays the neutral zone can can activate when needed
36:51And that's something that again you look at Zdorov. What does everyone look at first? No shit. It's fact that he's pummeling people
36:59Inflicting punishment all those kinds of things
37:01He is much more of a dynamic player than people give him credit for and a really really underrated puck retrieval guy out there
37:07and you know
37:09Montgomery kind of more or less deflected a question about you know, we'll putting Zdorov with McAvoy
37:16Open up McAvoy's game and he's like, I think McAvoy does well with anyone
37:19But I think when you do have a guy that is that physical can do the dirty work of retreating pucks kind of like grizzly
37:25It's like a bizarro is the inverse of grizzly but both have that skill set if that frees up McAvoy to kind of be
37:33Be like a rover out there and be a little bit more dynamic
37:36That's a guy that when you see McAvoy on his game and he's you know
37:40Bringing the puck down, you know at the half wall and being really dynamic
37:44and he's looking he's looking around looking to make plays if you have that approach for the guy like him and that bleeds into a
37:51Laurie a
37:53Lindholm a guy who's due for a breakout or a bounce-back year
37:57You like what that group can can do down both ends of the ice without a doubt. Oh
38:02100% and I think that's you know, that's the name of the game with this year's team. It's just
38:09clearly they have the construct of
38:12Strong and goal strong on the back end and I think every single night that grouping is gonna set the tone for them
38:19I think I firmly believe that we're gonna see the best version. We've seen of Charlie McAvoy this year assuming health
38:27assuming
38:28You know, he's he's upright again for for the full 82 we're close to it
38:32I think we're gonna see a better version of him than we've seen in recent seasons and you know, I think people are just
38:41unnecessarily down on him because he's not the 60-point defenseman as we've talked about in the past, but
38:46You know like he had a career high in goals a year ago, right?
38:50Or something, right? Yeah, I think yeah, I was 12 13. Yeah, I think was 12. I think
38:57But but you know like people are down on him and I think they're too down on him and
39:04you know, I thought Montgomery brought a great point today while we're talking about the defense like
39:09quarterback in the top unit is still kind of new to him, right and
39:14And and there's a number of ways that that can go and you're gonna get
39:18More, you know, you're gonna understand what you can and can't get away with the longer you do it
39:22And now is he ever gonna be kale Makar? No, I think kale Makar is a one-of-one. He's a freaking unicorn
39:28but I do think that
39:31Playing was a door off. It's gonna make McAvoy feel bigger. It's gonna make him feel
39:36Bit more like like you said like Rover, but also just more confident that
39:41He doesn't have to be the guy to spark the play
39:44Create the play finish the play and then get all the way back if it doesn't work out like there's greater support
39:49around him now and so I
39:52Think that we're gonna see the best version of him in
39:552425 I firmly believe that it's probably my biggest hot take I have for the upcoming season is that I think
40:02We might see McAvoy's best Norris run yet
40:05And by that I don't mean he's gonna win it
40:07but I'm we're gonna look back and say you know what that was a really Norris caliber year by
40:13What I consider the 0809 to 2013 Norris standard versus now the high-end
40:19scoring version of the award
40:21Yeah, Charlie McAvoy becomes like hockey's version of Ed Reed just the roving guy out there's making plays. I'm here. I love it
40:28Let me tell you I would love that. Yeah, so yes again a very busy first day of training camp
40:35We'll see how much more headlines are drawn from the upcoming days. They take to the ice but
40:40Tie with training camp officially now underway where can we read you stuff? Where can we hear you on the airwaves all that stuff?
40:48Yeah, you can hear me at a you can hear me on 98 how the sports hub.com also on the podcast I do
40:54For them the sports of underground
40:57You can find me on the website 98 how the sports hub.com
41:00I think I'm gonna unplug from social media for the next couple of days. I'm gonna head out enjoy
41:06It's always sucks when your vacation lines up with the opening of training camp. However, I'm only missing two game
41:11I'm only missing one game missing the black and gold game as well
41:15But ultimately I'm gonna be back ready to go on Monday and then that's when you can find me on
41:21Xthreads all that fun stuff at underscore Ty Anderson. How about yourself? Yes, you can find me over at Boston comm in the Boston Globe
41:29we have you covered every step of the way with
41:32Recaps features breakdowns columns all that good stuff throughout the year. So you can read all my stuff over there
41:38You're gonna follow me on X Twitter, whatever the hell it's called
41:42You can at Connor Ryan underscore 93. So this was episode
41:47260 of poke the bear. I'm Connor Ryan. That's Ty Anderson. You fans. Have a great rest of your week
42:12You