Bruins legend Mike Milbury joins!
Do we know what this Bruins team is? Is there anything on this team to be excited about?
Do we know what this Bruins team is? Is there anything on this team to be excited about?
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00:00Morning Mike. Good morning. How are you today? I'm pretty good, but I'm a little disturbed by
00:05Courtney's willingness to eat Domino's pizza. It's really, I mean, I'm all for, to quote a
00:10wiggy-ism, anything that tickles your fanny, but Domino's just doesn't do it for me. Well,
00:16you clearly haven't had it since 2010 when they changed their recipe. No, I haven't had it at all
00:19and I don't plan to have it ever again. But I do have a story about Little Caesar's pizza. Do you
00:23know that it was founded by Mike Illich who owns the Detroit Red Wings hockey related story and the
00:30tigers and the tigers too. And, um, when Brad Park was here, he was a free agent and they,
00:37um, tickled his fanny with the offer of a free agent ball of cash. Plus included in that was
00:43two Little Caesar pizza franchises, which is, you know, that would make it interesting for you. And
00:50one more Mike Illich story is like Rosa Parks left Montgomery after a civil disobedience and
00:55moved to Detroit. And she actually got mugged in one of the places that she was living. And,
01:00um, a friend heard about it, moved her to someplace safe and Mike Illich paid for her
01:04apartment for the rest of her life. Wow. Wow. That's pretty interesting. I like Detroit. I've
01:10been there one time. I thought it was a cool little city. Everything's right downtown.
01:14And those two franchises for Brad Park would, uh, would be worth a lot of money.
01:19Yeah. I think they folded. Well, it's like the guys who took their salary in the NFL and crypto.
01:28They finally have made some money. They better cash out right now.
01:32Oh, no. Beckham in the other guy. Yeah. OBJ. Yeah. And the offensive lineman.
01:37How much is like one Bitcoin right now? It's $105,500 as of last night. Uh,
01:43so you guys get it. I don't get it. I don't get it. Like how much did people buy? Like how much
01:48did they pay for one? Some people, uh, like, uh, uh, your friend and mine, uh, S S S carp was in
01:57there for like 15 G's on the, on the, on the Bitcoin. So it's a pretty good return, but I mean,
02:04I, yeah, it's like the lineman, I think he put like 6 million of it and ended up getting what?
02:08Well, I mean, if he still has it, then he, if he didn't sell out at some point,
02:12well, I don't think he did sell out. I think he's like, he was able to get like either some 12 or
02:1620 million, something along those lines. All right. Listen, Mike, you get the comeback win
02:20in St. Louis. I cannot, I don't know if you can, I can't figure out what this Bruins team is right
02:25now. What, what is this team? No, I, and you know, and nobody saw this coming except for
02:30Nostradamus. I mean, Andrew Raycroft, you know, like he's telling the people that they're going
02:35to come back in the third period. And I don't know why the previous game in Ottawa, when it
02:40was two to two, they, they hadn't had a shot in 25 minutes and they're the worst third period in
02:45the team going into verse third period team in the league, going into the St. Louis game.
02:50And surprisingly, amazingly, and just what they needed perhaps was to come from behind when,
02:57and, you know, but there's still not a lot to get excited about. I mean, both sides of the special
03:03teams are, are iffy. You know, you liked that Postenok broke his scoreless streak. He hadn't
03:09scored, I think in what, six, seven games. And it came with a price with Hampus Lindholm going
03:15down. I don't know what happened there. It looks to me like they call it weeks on the shelf.
03:21Probably cracked something or broke something in there. I know you're not supposed to speculate,
03:25but why not? But it's a win that puts them a game over 500. The holes are still there.
03:34Um, their problems don't go away with a win like that, but maybe it changes their mindset. Maybe
03:40they get a little more excited and they get some jump for it. We'll see against the pretty good
03:44Dallas team tonight. They were over again, power play in St. Louis where he was asking
03:50this question the other day. So, uh, what, what do you do to fix that? Well, probably different
03:57personnel. And they did that. They, they put Lindholm on the point on the power play until he
04:01got hurt. But what it effectively did was, you know, flick the switch in McAvoy's mind to shoot
04:09the puck a little bit more. I mean, he can shoot it. He can shoot it like hell. I mean, Montgomery
04:14made the comment after the game the other night that if he could shoot it like that, he'd shoot
04:18it all the time. And I don't know why different people have the mindset to dish the puck as
04:24opposed to shooting it, but there's, there's so much more effectiveness that goes into shooting
04:29the puck, making people turn and look where it is and people get free. It's just, but if you're
04:34not going to shoot the puck from the point, you're not going to have much luck on the power play.
04:37Mike, one of the things that I don't understand is we heard Montgomery criticize a pastor about
04:43his turnovers, but when you do look at the power play a lot of the time, it seems like between the
04:49neutral zone, it's like they allow pasta to carry the puck into the zone. So I don't get you're
04:55criticizing a guy for turning the puck over, but you're then you have him be like your main guy to
05:01bring the puck through the neutral zone into kind of like into the scoring zone. Well, that's an
05:06excellent point. I mean, I mean, he can skate pretty well. So they, they think that the speed
05:11of entry is one of the most important criteria. You know, you need, they dropped the puck back
05:16late. You know, it's the same old story for most teams, but that guy that gets the puck late has
05:22to be flying and he has to be able to, you know, take advantage of the gap that's created by that,
05:28that sort of drop pass situation. But you also have to be aware that, you know, if, if you run
05:35out of real estate, you're going to have to place the puck in a, in a, in an area where you can
05:39retrieve it. And I'm not sure a pasta has that aspect of the game down. Mike, we haven't talked
05:44to you since all Mark made his return, leaving the garden with a win. What do you say to people
05:48that say, well, did the Bruins make the right decision sending him out and keeping Swayman
05:54go home, have a nap. That's what I'd say. I mean, it's ridiculous. The kid, the kid
05:59Swayman is much younger. I mean, good for all mark. If he plays well in Ottawa, that's fine,
06:05but they couldn't afford to have both of them. I think Swayman has the better disposition.
06:10I wish they had just given him the money right off the bat. I don't know if that's weighing on
06:14his mind at all. And he should probably step away from the microphone a little more quickly
06:19than he's doing lately. He's got a little too much to say, but anyway, I think he's going to
06:23be a terrific goaltender for a long time. And so he's, I mean, he's four and five,
06:28no concern about that. It's too well, the team is eight and seven. They're, they're,
06:32they're in the same boat. I don't think they've played well defensively there.
06:35You know, they gave up a couple of power play goals. Do you see the two tap ins the other night?
06:39I mean, there's standing off to the side of the net unattended and there's not anything,
06:44any goaltender could do with that. And I think a lot of the goals that he's given up,
06:48most of the goals he's given up, I can, I can sort of analyze and there's been some stinkers.
06:53And, you know, I think maybe he was a little shaken up by all the, all the stuff around his
06:59contract and maybe taking a little while to get back on track. But I have, I don't have much doubt
07:03about him being a steady top line contributor going down the line. Mike, the people that know
07:10hockey far better than I that's list is long, but Kevin Paul DuPont in the globe, there's been the
07:16people that have been around the team. The longest have been relatively the loudest when it comes to
07:22Monty and his future with the team. Do you believe that he is going to be here at the end of the
07:29year? And if the Bruins are standing behind him, why wouldn't the Red Sox, why wouldn't they do
07:34what the Red Sox did and extend him? So he has a little more credibility in the dressing room.
07:40You know, that's a good question. I think we did talk about that a couple of weeks ago,
07:43would have been interesting to see, you know, I've been in that situation before where coach
07:48actually, we gave him a three-year contract to start as his tenure in New York. And at the middle
07:55of the second year, we we, we weren't playing very well. And the owner said to me, you know, pick up
08:01his option on the third year. So he feels comfortable. And, and we did, unfortunately
08:07came in at the end of the second year and asked for more, a contract extension, and we had to let
08:12him go. You probably threw a shoe at him. Yeah. But anyway, it was an interesting play. It spoke
08:19to me that there was some doubt about his ability to do certain things within the organization,
08:27notably advance further in the playoffs. But, you know, we talked about this too, that he got
08:32beat by Florida both years. And Florida is one of the cream of the crop teams in the league right
08:36now. So, and I don't think you can look at the Bruins and say they're cream of the crop.
08:41They're not, they just don't have the personnel to contend with some of the better teams. And I
08:45don't know, it's a difficult, it's a difficult position in which to assess a coach. They don't
08:51have the personnel or the personnel is not executing the way they should. Well, I don't
08:56think they have the person. Can you, can you, okay. Right now, the first line is, is Lindholm,
09:00Postanak, and Marchan. Give me the next three, the top six forwards. We always talk about top
09:07six for choosing the who's in that. I feel like your guy, Charlie Coyle has been. No, he's not.
09:11He's a third line player. Stop. And he's a great third line player. And I love Charlie Coyle style.
09:17I think he's terrific. Pavel Zakh is not a second line player. He's been given plenty of opportunity,
09:22but they don't have any other choice. So if you're asking me, I'm telling you,
09:27no, they don't have enough depth that the key personnel in order to be considered a really,
09:32you know, contending team. So they're back. Like they used to be when they had the Bergeron,
09:38Poster, and Marcian line. That was it. Yeah. Yeah. Until they get crunchy back.
09:43And then there was a viable second line and, you know, they still had to piece things together
09:47there, but, um, you know, they're going to play Dallas tonight. Dallas picked up this kid,
09:52Logan Stanko. And he's only like five, eight, but he was a surprise is a second round draft pick.
09:57That's what the Bruins need to do. They need to find some surprises in their,
10:01their draft roster. And right now their surprises are unsurprising. And they're just not, they're
10:07not able to pick off some of these. And they've given away a lot of fairness to their scouting
10:13staff. They've given away an awful lot of their, uh, high draft picks in order to see if they could
10:18grab the brass ring, but it hasn't worked. Mike, when do you make the decision, right?
10:23If you're the Bruins, if it's say, if front office saying is saying to themselves behind
10:29the scenes, Montgomery has to get to the Eastern conference finals. But if nobody believes that,
10:35when do you make the decision to move on from the guy? Do you wait for the playoffs or do you
10:40maybe try to shake it up and move on from middle of the season? If, if, you know, the, the
10:49conversation comes around to, has he lost the team? I guess. And really what that means is,
10:54do they look uninspired? Do they look like they're, they're sort of confused or disinterested
11:00or dispirited, whatever the terminology is that you want to, um, go by that has never,
11:06you know, when the team gets to that standpoint and it goes for, you know, let's call it a month
11:12and it looks, it looks like it's, it's not coming out of it. You really don't have any choice.
11:17Even if the personnel isn't there, you know, you're, you're still selling tickets to fans,
11:22especially in this town. And for, for decades, the, the byword has been hard work. It's not
11:29always been a Stanley cup, but there's always been hard work and it's mostly been visible.
11:33But if you lose that, you've lost your franchise identity, and then you have to
11:39clearly make a change and maybe address not only the coaching issue, but take a look in the
11:44personnel mirror. Uh, Mike, what are your thoughts on sending Matthew Potra down to Providence?
11:50You like that move to get him some time to kind of grow a little bit here.
11:54You know what? He, he only had a handful of points. I mean, he looked like he made some
11:59things happen, but how long do you, you know, go to that well, and the Bruins needed some wins and
12:07look like he needed some seasoning. They just, I just don't want them to see them
12:11go up and down like a yo-yo. I think that's deadly. So I can't disagree with it. He wasn't
12:16that productive. I'm disappointed for him, disappointed that Lysell hasn't stepped up.
12:20They needed a guy like that to be a surprise as I talked about, but it hasn't happened. So I can't
12:26second guess them on that. He, he needed to do more in order to secure a spot here. And he didn't,
12:32there was a time that razor was calling him Bergeron 2.0. I believe.
12:38Well, he's not a hundred percent right in all these things. Is he?
12:43All right, Mike Milbury, always a pleasure. And we will talk to you again next week.
12:47You got it. See ya. All right. There's Mike.