Are the Bruins too boring? The fans ask tough questions | Pucks with Haggs - video Dailymotion

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Pucks with Haggs host Joe Haggerty answers the Bruins fan questions in this Hagg Bag mailbag episode of the podcast on Thanksgiving weekend.   💰 Prize Picks - https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS Download the app today and use Code CLNS when you sign up & Get $50 instantly when you play $5!  🎫 Gametime - https://gametime.co Take the guesswork out of buying NHL tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Terms apply. What time is it? Gametime!   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the #CLNS Media Network’s YouTube channel for Boston #Bruins hockey. CLNS Media is the leading online provider of audio/video coverage for the Boston sports. Get complete inside access to the Bruins at TD Garden, the game day skates at Warrior, and everywhere on the road. CLNS #NHLBruins' credentialed insiders Mike "Trags" Petraglia, Evan Marinofski, Conor Ryan, and Joe "Haggs" Haggerty. Providing instantaneous news and analysis all in real time, as well as full access to complete videos from the players, coaches, ownership and everyone else on Causeway Street.  For the CLNS award winning Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox, College hoops, NBA History, go here to featured channels- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiP7KyKodc3OHuN_XhEyPPw?sub_confirmation=1

Transcript

00:00Pucks with Hags is brought to you by Price Picks and the Game Time app.

00:04Welcome to another edition of the Pucks with Hags podcast powered by Price Picks,

00:08the exclusive daily fantasy partner of the CLNS Media Network. I believe this is the 145th

00:14episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast. I'm your host, Joe Hagerty. You can find my work

00:18at joehagerty.substack.com. Subscribe and get yourself a premium membership. You can get all

00:24of my Bruins and NHL writing sent straight directly to your inbox. I also write columns

00:28three times a week for the Boston Sports Journal about the Boston Bruins. So check out

00:32bostonsportsjournal.com. Get a great subscription there where you get all of the Bruins, Celtics,

00:37Patriots, and Red Sox coverage, in addition to some other great stuff as well. Well worth the

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00:47Let's first thank our sponsors here at Price Picks. First of all,

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01:19off your first purchase. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. All right.

01:25Let's get into it here. Mailbag episode. Right now, we're coming off some decent Bruins

01:33performances. They've been pretty good defensively, very good defensively, good goaltending,

01:40low-scoring games. But right now, I think it's 10 goals in five games, I believe it is,

01:46that they've scored. Not scoring enough. Not scoring quite enough offensively. They did have

01:53a nice outburst against the Islanders for six goals right before Thanksgiving, the holiday,

01:58but then they came back and again, had trouble scoring. Tough game. The one against the Penguins,

02:05Black Friday, they end up losing it 2-1. I thought that was a good game, really good game.

02:14And obviously, the Penguins now we're seeing are red hot and playing really good hockey.

02:18They've woken up and have started to rise a little bit in the standings and play a little

02:22bit more to their talent level. So I think that was definitely part of it.

02:28But I just think that was a good game where they just didn't get a good bounce in the third period

02:35and they were right in it. And I think that's what they're going to be.

02:39This team is not going to blow people away offensively. Do I think they're the worst

02:42offensive team in the NHL like they've played for most of the first few months of the season?

02:46I don't think so. I think they're better than that and they're starting to come out of it and

02:49score a few more goals and look a little bit better offensively. But they're certainly not

02:53like a top five NHL team where they're going to be cranking out power play goals and just

02:58overwhelming teams offensively and piling up all these big blowout scores. We're not going to see

03:03that out of this Bruins team. The personnel just isn't there for that. I like the way that they're

03:09playing a little more now. It's more North-South. It's more simple hockey. It's dump and play in

03:15their end. It's use the big forwards that they have and the forecheck that they have and good

03:21defensive structure and pressure and good old-fashioned hockey that they're playing right

03:26now. They're getting more consistent defensively. They're getting more consistent playing wave

03:34after wave of forward attacks with the lines where everybody's consistent and it's just wave after

03:40wave from all four forward lines where they're playing in the other end. They're forechecking.

03:45They're playing with speed. You do see right now that the Bruins are trying to speed things up

03:52tempo-wise the way that they're playing and it's like had a rough effect on their passing. Their

03:58passing is off. You can see that guys are missing other guys with passes. Guys aren't in spots,

04:04aren't getting to the spot fast enough. They need to get to at times. You're definitely seeing at

04:09times guys are sort of running into each other and a little too crowded at points kind of getting

04:15in each other's way when they're carrying the puck or going through the middle of the ice.

04:20I think all that stuff is a byproduct now of like really trying to speed up the pace that

04:24they're playing at and pick it up because before I think they're playing slow and they were thinking

04:29their way through the system. They wanted to play with Jim Montgomery where there was all the small

04:33passing and you know interconnected play and then we still see some of that but I think we're seeing

04:38much more you know playing with speed, getting in the right spots, getting the puck into their end

04:46and then you know creating havoc once you get in the offensive zone and playing in their end and

04:50really keeping it there. You know and attacking through the neutral zone, getting pucks back and

04:57you know reloading and going back into their end. We're seeing all that kinds of stuff

05:02but I think the Bruins right now are trying to change that mid-season and mid-stream and there's

05:07definitely some growing pains offensively too and some things where they're just not as fluid

05:12as some of the other teams are now that have been in the same system or doing the same things for

05:16the first two months of the season. So I like what I'm seeing though like the games that they're

05:22losing, they're in the games, they're in every game because of the way their defense and goaltending

05:26is playing right now. They're going to start getting more bounces and if they get a few more

05:30power play goals they're going to start winning more hockey games and scoring a few more goals.

05:34I think we're going to see that at points. You look at the score sheet right now and like right

05:39before Jim Montgomery got fired every single game there was six, seven, eight, sometimes nine players

05:48on that team that did not have a shot on net. There were zeros up and down that lap so many

05:54passengers in these games and you're not seeing that as much anymore. I've checked every single

05:59game since Sacco took over and some of it is that they're funneling pucks now and they're

06:04shooting more pucks to the net and there's definitely a attention paid to volume over

06:10quantity over quality but you're seeing like maybe two max three guys that aren't getting

06:16shots on net. Everybody seems involved, everybody's touching the puck, everybody's firing shots.

06:22It just seems to be a much better way of going about things where everybody's interconnected

06:26and involved much more in what's happening. So I just think it's a better fit overall what

06:32we've seen from Joe Sacco in the handful of games since he took over as the interim head

06:36coach versus what we saw with Jim Montgomery before. But we're recording this before the big

06:43centennial game against the Montreal Canadiens. That should be really fun, should be interesting.

06:48I mean let's face it, should be a W for the Bruins. That's a team that they beat handily

06:53at the beginning of the year. I think they should do the same again.

06:56Hopefully it's got some of the old magic because it's the centennial between the Bruins and

07:01Canadiens because the rivalry has been kind of a dud as of late. So hopefully it's a little

07:07bit better there. But yeah, we stand there now and still want to get more of a look at what the

07:14Bruins are long term and how much better they can be than what we saw in the first few months of the

07:18season. But the most important game I think in this entire beginning juncture of Joe Sacco taking

07:25over was the night before Thanksgiving on the island when the Bruins needed a win. They needed

07:31to spark offensively after they were frustrated in a Monday night game against the Vancouver Canucks

07:37where I thought they were the better team and they just couldn't score and got shut out. They

07:43exploded for three goals in the third period. They scored six goals overall. That win pushed

07:48the top three in the Atlantic Division at the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, which is always an

07:53important marker. If you're going to be in the playoff picture and the structure at that point,

07:58usually you're going to be in the playoffs at the end of the year. And the Bruins were. They

08:00were actually in the top three of the Atlantic Division, not even a wild card as they'd been

08:05for most of the first few months. So that was really encouraging. They fell out of the playoff

08:12picture altogether leading into Sunday's centennial game against the Canadiens. So

08:17they're going to have to get back, push their way back into that picture. But they're right in the

08:21thick of things and they have not played anywhere close to their best hockey of the season. So

08:25that's another encouraging sign when it comes to the Bruins. We've got a mailbag episode here,

08:31so let's read some questions. Joe, I'm a season ticket holder for 46 years. I'm waiting for

08:38Fabian Lysell. Everyone else has come up. When is it his turn? And that's from Luigi

08:44on the Facebook fan page. Well, Luigi, I'm sure the Bruins appreciate that you've been a season

08:48ticket holder for 46 years. Man, that's a long time. You've seen a lot of awesome hockey over

08:52the last 46 years. I was four years old when you got your season ticket, so that's 1978.

09:02So you missed the Bobby Orr years for the most part, or pretty much altogether. Actually,

09:08altogether, I think you did. So yeah, you missed the Bobby Orr era, but you caught on at the very

09:17end. Lunch Pail AC, those were fun teams to watch. The 80s, obviously, you saw Oliver A. Bork. I

09:22mean, that's a pretty good time to jump on and to get season tickets. So good on you for doing that.

09:31And yeah, I wish my dad was a season ticket holder since 1978. I've gone to my share of

09:37Bruins games, especially since I started covering the team in 2003. But there's a lot of the 70s

09:42and 80s and 90s where I went to a game every year or every couple of years and didn't go to

09:47as many as I would have liked, as many as I go to now. So I'm jealous of all the hockey you've

09:53been able to see. But as far as Fabian Lysel goes, look, there's a reason he has not been

10:01called up from Providence, okay? A bunch of the other players have been called up because they

10:07played good hockey, because they were deserving of the call-up, because they did something to

10:14merit the call-up. Mark McLaughlin got it because he was on a five-game goal-scoring streak and

10:19great penalty killer, good face-off guy, good bottom six forward, good detail player,

10:24does all the little things well. He's done all the stuff to earn a call-up.

10:29Georgiy Merkulov had been a playmaker, was producing offensively when he got called up.

10:36All these players that you're seeing get called up, the young sort of prospect-y guys or the

10:42younger type players that are getting called up and getting looked at, it's because they've earned

10:47it. It's because they deserve it. Lysel has not to this point. I think he's starting to play a

10:53little bit better, but he was not being effective at the beginning of the year. And from what I was

10:58told, bad habits were creeping into his game. He wasn't the force that he can be when he's really

11:06feeling confident and feeling right about his game and firing on all cylinders. That was just not

11:12happening. I think he had one goal in the first handful to 10 games of the season. I'd have to

11:17look up exactly where they are for games played at this point in the AHL, but he was on one goal

11:22for a long time. He hasn't been a real big producer. He was a minus player. I think he

11:28still might be. Just not good enough and certainly not anything to merit a call-up. I will

11:34harken back to the good isn't good enough speech from Brad Marchand at the end of training camp

11:42when you asked, it's sort of, Merkelov and Lysel have had good camps, where do they stand kind of

11:47thing. And Marchand launched into a good is not good enough for this team sort of thing where

11:53it's not good enough. He wasn't even good. Lysel was not even good the first month and a half,

11:59two months of the season in the AHL. And even if it was good, good is not good enough. You should be

12:05dominating at the American Hockey League level, taking over games, scoring a lot of points if

12:10you're a skill guy like Lysel with the speed and the skill that he has. And really mastering that

12:18level to the point where you look like you're ready and they will put you in a role where you

12:22can do that at the NHL level. The Bruins would have liked nothing better than Fabian Lysel to

12:29be ready to play right wing and replace Jake DeBrusque going into the season. I think they

12:33would have loved that. I think that probably was the internal hope or plan is that finally your

12:38first round pick from a few years ago was ready to take that next step and was ready to step in,

12:44which is the circle of life in the NHL, salary gap wise, where once you can't afford to keep

12:48the free agent anymore, you have to have somebody in your system that you can put into place that's

12:53on an entry level contract and will be a cheaper option. And Lysel would be that. So I think they

12:58would have liked nothing better than Lysel to be a guy that they would have called up. He just

13:02hasn't earned it yet. The merit is not there. And I think the first thing you can do as an

13:07organization to lose respect from the players in that organization is if you start making decisions

13:12based on something that's not merit and something that's not deserved. Imagine how pissed all kinds

13:18of players in Providence are going to be if they start seeing guys get called up that they know

13:21are not playing the right way, are not doing the right things, are not doing the things that

13:26you are stressing are important organizationally, and they're not hitting all the notes that you

13:30want them to hit for their prospects. And yet you elevate them anyway, and you give them a

13:36promotion anyway that he probably doesn't deserve or hasn't earned. That's going to be discouraging,

13:41and that's going to create bad morale throughout your organization with all your players if you

13:45start making decisions that way. So I just don't think Fabian Lysel is there. And maybe he will

13:50get there. He's still pretty young. You can't say he's young for the NHL anymore. No, he should be

13:56a dominant player, an impact player at the NHL after having been there for a few years and being

14:02in his early 20s now. And he's still not really there and doing that yet. So he needs to get to

14:07that level before I'm going to start banging the drum for him to be up here. I know you want to

14:11get a look at him because you've heard good things, and he's got a cool name. His name's Fabian. Cool.

14:17And you would think he's got some skills that would electrify or excite people at the NHL level,

14:21but I can tell you I've seen enough preseason games where I didn't even notice him that you

14:25should not be clamoring for him to be called up until he's ready to go. Because if he does get

14:30called up before he's ready, you're not even going to notice any of the skill. You're not going to

14:33see it because he doesn't showcase it enough, consistently enough, for him to be an impact guy

14:39and for him to be somebody that they can rely on to make plays. So he's just not there yet.

14:44So maybe that will happen soon, but we're not there yet. All right. Can they win three games

14:51in a row from BMF 0-0-0-0 on Twitter? This is the rub. This is where the Bruins are at right now.

15:00We're starting to see it for a few games at a time. We're starting to see them look okay.

15:06I think they will win three in a row because of the way they're playing defensively now has got

15:10them in every single game. Their goaltending is much, much better. Jeremy Swayman has looked much

15:14better since the move with Jim Montgomery. So I do think you're going to start to see

15:21a little movement there and you're going to start to see things start to come along

15:27from a consistency perspective where they can string a few wins in a row.

15:30And really the goaltending is a big factor in it and the consistent defense. Once you start

15:35getting those, you can start beating the teams you're supposed to beat and you'll get some

15:39bounces and beat some teams that maybe it's a 50-50 thing and you don't necessarily deserve

15:44to win, but you don't deserve to lose either. And I think we're headed there. They just did

15:48not play that way in the first two months of the season where they were not good enough

15:52defensively and the goaltending was getting shell-shocked by the bad defense to the point

15:57that they weren't in enough games. They just weren't competitive in some games and they were

16:00never going to win them or never going to get a 50-50 shot at potentially winning the game.

16:05So they weren't going to get into that winning streak thing. Once they get the goaltending and

16:09the defense settled down and stabilized, then you can start to think about winning streaks or

16:12playing good enough to string some games together. And I do think we're going to see

16:16a three-game winning streak from the Boston Bruins sooner rather than later, but I understand the

16:22frustration. It's been a tough first few months. I have heard more boos at the end of periods in

16:28the last few weeks than I had heard in a while. So there's definitely unrest with the fans and

16:34fans aren't happy about the money they're spending on tickets and not seeing a good enough product on

16:39the ice, not seeing an exciting enough product on the ice, all of that stuff. I totally get it.

16:46And I agree with it. I understand the frustration. I understand why fans are feeling that way right

16:53now, especially on home ice. They are not scoring enough goals on home ice. What is it, like four

16:58or five goals in four games on home ice over the last couple of weeks? Going back to all the

17:05playoff games that they've lost on home ice over the last few years and now they're not able to

17:10show up offensively and score on home ice right now. I get why there's a lot of clamoring in fans

17:17that are aggravated. My family went to that Vancouver game and that was a frustrating game

17:23because they didn't even see a goal scored. Half of the fun of going to a Bruins game, if you're a

17:28fan, is hearing the Zombie Nation song and celebrating after a goal and seeing the explosion

17:34of emotion and energy that happens in that place when the Bruins score. And they didn't even get

17:39to see it once against Vancouver. Tons of chances, tons of shots on net, tons of offensive zone time,

17:46tons of potential scoring chances, but couldn't bury anything, couldn't follow through.

17:52And I think the Bruins were frustrated after that too because they knew they could have and should

17:56have won that game and had the chances to score all over the place and just didn't finish.

18:01And that translated into the outburst the next night against the Islanders. But

18:05you can't do that on home ice too much. There's too many games where I think it's

18:10too frustrating for the fans to watch right now on home ice and they need to

18:13find a way to turn up the dial offensively and score more at home to kind of make the fans,

18:18send them home happy a little bit, and give them something to watch, something to talk about,

18:22something to cheer about, so they're not quite as aggravated at the end of these periods or when

18:26the game is over. And I think that's going to have to be a focus for this team over the

18:31rest of the season is doing better at home consistently during the regular season and

18:37the playoffs because I think they just have to. That's something they have to figure out and get

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20:10podcasting action, answering your questions in this mailbag episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast.

20:17This one is from Steve Kimball77. Mason Lowry is very weak defensively, very soft, and he shies

20:23away from contact. He will not get any better defensively. He is a liability in the D zone.

20:28All right. He is a young, skilled offensive defenseman, okay? He's never going to be a

20:36killer in the defensive zone. I think this is obvious. I think this is something that is clear.

20:41He's not a Brandon Carlo. He's not a Zdorov. He's not somebody that's going to bury people

20:46in front of the net, bury guys in the corner. But there are times, I think, when you put him

20:54out there with other people, and it's just not going to work. He was out there, and I think it

20:58was with Andrew Peake the other day, and they were tough, tough in the defensive zone together,

21:02just not enough, not good enough, the two of them together. And it was against Pittsburgh,

21:08and they ended up getting overpowered for a goal because one of the Penguins players just decided

21:14he was going to disrupt and cause chaos around the front of the net, and he distracted both of

21:17them. It got to the point where Peake was like chasing the guy across the ice and opened up the

21:21slot for Tomasino to come in and score. I think it was Drew O'Connor. I think that was the name

21:28of the guy for the Penguins. He was doing a lot of disrupting and a lot of distracting,

21:31and he was effective. So I think Leroy, the whole key for me is that he's competitive in the D-zone,

21:40that he's working hard, that he's fighting, that he's at least giving resistance, and that he's

21:44trying. And I've seen him do that. Sometimes it's not going to be good enough. Sometimes he's going

21:49to get overpowered physically. Sometimes he's going to get tossed around a little bit. I think

21:53that will happen less and less the older he gets and the stronger and smarter he gets because he's

21:57a big kid. He's 6'4", 6'5", and he's a good-sized kid. I don't think he's going to get manhandled

22:02by people physically. And I haven't seen him shy away, I would say, to times when he's got to go

22:12get the puck in the corner, retrieve it. He's got to do the things he has to do. I haven't seen a

22:16lot of that. To be honest with you, the first two months of the season, I thought he struggled

22:21offensively. I thought he struggled with his strong suits, carrying the puck, making plays,

22:26making smart decisions with the puck, making confident plays with the puck, doing things that

22:33showed that he was really feeling good about his game and good about himself. I didn't see

22:37enough of that in the first two months. I can overlook some of the defensive shortcomings,

22:41especially if you know you're going to have to pair him with somebody that's a good stay-at-home

22:44defenseman in order for him to be effective. He's played a lot with Charlie McAvoy. Because

22:50McAvoy riffs and has worked well off Grzlik in the past, who's kind of a puck-moving,

22:58more skilled guy that isn't the greatest defensive defenseman in the world,

23:02I think it makes sense in a lot of ways to put Lowry with McAvoy. They can be a really effective

23:06top pair, moving the puck, creating offense, complementing each other really well. Charlie

23:11will have to be more of the traditional stay-at-home guy that blocks shots, that throws

23:16his weight around in front of the net and plays the heavy role a little bit more. But I think

23:21that's to his strong suit. He is not a slick Eric Carlson-type pure offensive defenseman, McAvoy.

23:29He's more of a Drew Dowdy, plays both ends. When he's at his best, he's frustrating you because

23:35he's doing the job defensively and he's really pissing you off because he's hitting you and he's

23:40playing physical and he's intimidating you too because he'll throw that huge hit at the right

23:46time of the game where it's a momentum changer. But then he's also able to surprise you with some

23:52things that he can do offensively and he's got some skill to create and he gets a little time

23:56and space and can drive the net, he can make things happen. And in that way, he's a lot like

24:02Dowdy. He's a traditional, just good defenseman that will put up pretty good offensive numbers,

24:07but is not going to ever be considered the best offensive defenseman of his generation or anything

24:12like that. So I think Lowry paired with McAvoy actually does a little bit of that and it allows

24:18McAvoy to protect Lowry a little bit. And I think that's what you should be doing with your young

24:24players and your best players. Your best players should be able to protect your young players and

24:30bring out the best in them while covering for some of their shortcomings or the things they

24:34don't do quite as well. And I think that's the point of where we're at with Lowry and McAvoy. But

24:42I think Lowry's offensive potential, and he's going to get better as he gets more confident,

24:48as he makes more plays, as he gets a little more assertive with what he can do with the puck and

24:53just holding on to it and doing things. But you see him make plays, walking the blue line and

24:57making plays when he has a little time and space and he can create. You see him making plays that

25:02nobody else in that back end can make. He has it. It's just a matter of putting it all together

25:09and being able to finish off some of these plays, whether it's shooting the puck and scoring,

25:15whether it's passing, whether it's creating things. He's right there and I think you just

25:20need to let him play and he's going to turn into an incredibly effective, impactful, finished product

25:26when he's done developing. It's just, I think we underestimate sometimes

25:31how difficult it is to play defenseman at the NHL level, how tough it is for those guys to

25:36figure out when to stay, when to go, when to take a risk, when not, how to manage the game,

25:41how to do all that while guys are trying to take your head off in the corner when you're

25:44retrieving pucks and are trying to red light you when you're skating up the ice if you're not

25:48watching them. You don't have the awareness to know who's on the ice with you and who's going

25:52to look to come hunting for you when you have the puck. To do all those things is incredibly

25:58difficult and to not feel like the veteran established scorers are not going to get

26:07pissed at you because you're not passing the puck and feeding the puck in certain situations and

26:11making sure you're doing what the right play is and you're helping your game, but also being a

26:16good teammate and making sure you're doing the right thing for those guys that are established

26:21and want the puck. None of that is easy. That is a hard job and I think Lowry has been good at it

26:27and I don't think he's been a terrible liability in the D-Zone. I don't think he's going to be a

26:32hard-nosed shutdown defenseman, but I think he's been fine and I think you live with that

26:36to get the offensive upside to it and eventually get him to the point where he's a top power play

26:42unit quarterback guy that can create a ton of offense, I think, from that kind of spot on the

26:47power play. I just think we're seeing the progression here and I think these are the kind

26:52of players you should be patient with. These are talented young players that are going to turn into

26:55really good players. You just need to give them a little bit of rope and need to allow them a little

27:00freedom to create without them getting paranoid that they're going to get yanked or they're going

27:04to get scratched. Let's be honest, Lowry getting scratched the second game of the season

27:12after the bad loss in Florida by Jim Montgomery, I don't think that was a good move. I think Jim

27:17Montgomery did not do Mason Lowry any favors and I think his confidence was dented because

27:24of that scratch right after the first game of the season and how badly they lost. I think that's

27:29something you can't do. I think that's a mismanagement of young players. That's, I think,

27:33one of the things that kind of lost some of the players. I think there were moves like that

27:39along the way where Jim Montgomery was making decisions based on worrying about his job security

27:46instead of what was best for the team and what was right for the team. I think it manifested

27:50in moves like that. It manifested in, you know, going at Marchand on the bench. It manifested in

27:56benching Pasternak in the third period of the game. All that stuff. That's why he's in St. Louis

28:01now and he's no longer in Boston. He's doing fairly well there just like Joe Sacco's, I think,

28:05doing really well in Boston. I would challenge you to look at the first 20 games of the year

28:11under Montgomery and then look at the last, I think it's five since they've played since making

28:15the move, challenge you to find any ways that they were better in the first 20 games than they

28:21are now. The Bruins are a far better hockey team in the last handful of games under Joe Sacco than

28:25they were in the first 20 under Jim Montgomery and I think that's the big deal. That's what we

28:30should be looking at. That is the important part and I think we've seen it. It's, he's a, Sacco

28:36has been the right guy for this team. Maybe they're going to look for a full head coach in the off

28:41season depending on how things go this year. Maybe this will be a short-term thing for Sacco.

28:47I would love to see what he can do the rest of this year and if he does a good job, give him

28:50the job because like I forgot how good of a coach effectively was when he was in Colorado and he's

28:56another guy like Mike Sullivan, like Bruce Cassidy who has had over 10 years between NHL jobs. So now

29:03having this head coaching job now, it allows him to use everything that he's learned in his entire

29:08experience of being a coach to be effective and to better the things that he did the first time

29:15around. I think those are, that's a fantastic mold to get a highly successful NHL coach is

29:21give a guy a job when he's 39, let him learn some of the hard lessons, yes he'll get fired,

29:27then let him be an assistant for a decade, really learn a lot of those lessons or be in the NHL,

29:32one or the other, and then give him another NHL job and see how much he's learned and how much

29:36more effective he can be. And I think we're starting to see that right now and it's a great

29:40thing. All right, this from Shore477, zero identity, if they're going to play lunch pail,

29:50grind it out, rely on defensive hocking, goaltending, could they at least hit and fight,

29:54entertain me, please. Shore477, I mean, look, this is the one area where I think it's problematic

30:04for the Bruins right now and I think it's something they have to worry about and it's

30:07something they have to fix, okay, is they're kind of boring. Like, it's effective hockey,

30:13what they're doing, they're playing good defensive hockey, good structure, good goaltending,

30:19they're relying on a forecheck, they're trying to have more of a pressure forecheck like they

30:22talked about wanting to do at the beginning of the year, you know, but the problem becomes

30:30they are not scoring a lot of goals, they are not good on the special teams right now,

30:35especially good, they're getting better at the penalty kill, but the power play is still up and

30:38down. And they're not playing physical enough, certain guys, like Marcus Stelic, I think has

30:45been very physical and I liked the spark that he's given. Trent Frederick, not physical enough,

30:52not doing enough, like he's done a few things here and there, but like for a guy that's in

30:56a contract year that's not really doing much offensively, like he's got to find a way to

31:01factor into these games. He threw a big hit in that last game against Pittsburgh that I liked,

31:05he like clocked somebody and knocked them on their butt right after they released the puck,

31:10it was like hitting them right as they got rid of the puck. It was a good hard hit, like we need,

31:16you need to see more of that out of Trent Frederick, you absolutely need to see him

31:20do things to impact the game if he's not scoring, if he's not making plays,

31:25that he hasn't been able to do. So like, I will agree with Shore 477 that you got to start

31:31throwing the body around, you got to start hitting people, you got to start playing with energy,

31:35you got to start dropping the gloves, you got to start making it exciting. If you're going to win

31:38every game two to one, one to nothing, three to two, and you're not going to score a lot,

31:42and it's not going to be all that exciting, you got to do something else to entertain the fans.

31:46This is an entertainment thing, business, the NHL, it's not just about the sport,

31:51it's about entertainment too. And the Bruins need to bring some of that entertainment back

31:55if they don't want to start losing, you know, creating malaise with the fan base where they're

32:00not buying as many tickets, where we're starting to see empty seats, where, you know, the ratings

32:05start to get affected, like all that stuff, the Bruins need to play exciting hockey and

32:09entertaining hockey in front of the fans. And I think the physical part of it is a place they can

32:13do that. And it's not as difficult to scoring goals and trying to score five, six goals a game.

32:19You can entertain the fans by playing good hard hockey and dropping the gloves every once in a

32:22while. I think that's something the Bruins need to listen to the fans a little bit more

32:26and play a little bit more exciting brand of hockey than necessarily playing right now.

32:31All right, let's give a little love as we take another pause in the podcast to game time.

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33:44game time today. What time is it? Game time. All right. One more question here.

33:52A better way to celebrate the centennial, this is from Bob, by the way. A better way to celebrate

33:57the centennial would be to fire Cam Neely and Don Sweeney after putting the ax to a good guy

34:02in Jim Montgomery. Jacob should be embarrassed for putting such a mediocre product on the ice

34:07as he rakes in millions from gullible and loyal Bruins fans. All right. Look,

34:14they did not play well the first two months of the season, but they pretty much sucked under

34:19good guy Jim Montgomery. They've played better under Joe Sacco. They've won more than they've

34:24lost. They've been in a playoff spot. They've actually looked like they were putting forth

34:30the proper effort to win NHL games, which they were not doing under good guy Jim Montgomery.

34:35I don't... If you actually know hockey, how can you look at the first 20 games and say,

34:41wow, that's a Bruins team that's really busting it and giving everything that they have to try

34:44to win for the fans? How can you do that? Why couldn't good guy Jim Montgomery get a better

34:49effort out of them? And then all of a sudden they fired good guy Jim Montgomery. They bring

34:54in Joe Sacco and everybody's skating. Everybody's back checking. Everybody's doing the right things.

34:59The goaltending was way better. The special teams have been better. All the players seem

35:06much more invested and much more connected and engaged in every single game. On some level,

35:14that is the management's fault because they put a coach in place that wasn't able to do what he

35:21had to do to get the best performance out of the Bruins those first 20 games of the year.

35:26So that's on them. But the way the team performed on the ice, this is a similar roster and a better

35:33roster than last year when they had a great run in the Atlantic division, won a playoff series,

35:40and lost to the Stanley Cup champs. This is not that different a team. This is similar to the

35:45team that they built before. This is not about roster buildup. Look, they need another winger.

35:50They need a little more offense. They need another guy that can score goals. That is

35:54definitely the case. They're last in the NHL in scoring. They're last, I think, in the power

36:00player, second to last. They're certainly down on the list. So scoring is an issue for them right

36:05now. But they also weren't playing defense, weren't stopping pucks, weren't doing anything

36:09before under good guy Jim Montgomery. So that's on the coach and the players. That is on them for

36:16not playing as well as they can, as much as it's on or more than it's on Cam Neely and Don Sweeney,

36:22who have been together putting up teams that have won regular season games at a huge clip.

36:29They've been a perennial power in the league for the last 10 years. They've been one of the best

36:33teams in the Eastern Conference. For God's sake, they played like crap the first 20 games of this

36:37year, and they were still in a playoff spot. This is a talented roster. This is a good roster. This

36:43has star players. They have solid NHL players. They have ways to win when they play to their

36:49strengths. This is not about team building, and everybody wants to jump on that bandwagon. People

36:55that think they know and talk like they know hockey and have you convinced that they know

36:59what they're talking about will crap all over the roster management on this team. But the roster is

37:04fine. The roster is a playoff roster in the NHL level. It is. They need to add a winger at the

37:10trade deadline, and they will. This has been in the plan all along. They did not properly replace

37:14Jake DeBrusque when he left in free agency. As we referenced before, Fabian Lysel would have been

37:19the in-house candidate to replace him, and he's just not there. They need to probably go outside

37:24the organization and get somebody, and they will. Don Sweeney has a long tradition of going out and

37:30addressing needs at the trade deadline, and I think they will do that again with this position

37:35and this need. I don't want to hear about ownership of the Bruins when they spend to the cap every

37:43year. I don't want to hear about management when they put a decent roster on the ice,

37:47a playoff roster on the ice, every single year. They are putting quality players out there. They

37:52are paying their star players to keep them. They overspent, I think, frankly, on Jeremy

37:57Swayman because all the fans out there were crybabying that they had to pay Swayman $8 million

38:01a year when he didn't earn it and he hadn't deserved it. So that's on the fans. That's on

38:06the soft crybaby fans. That's not on Bruins management, and that's what happens when Bruins

38:10management listens to the fans too much, and certainly when the player listens to fans too

38:14much or people that think they know hockey but don't really know it, when everybody just

38:18immediately says, oh, let's pay the guy that hasn't played more than like 40 games a year.

38:22Let's pay him $8 million a year to be the starting goalie and the number one goalie when he's never

38:26done it before, and oh, what happens? He holds out in training camp, and he can't handle the

38:30pressure of being the number one guy to start the year after being a 26-year-old goalie that held

38:34out in training camp, and he struggles. That is exactly what was going to happen because he's

38:38never done this before, and he hadn't proven that he could do it, and you paid him before

38:42he could prove that he could do it because some of the fans that don't know what they're talking

38:46about had pressured management into doing it. So let's hold the phone here on killing Bruins

38:52management and saying everybody should be fired when this was frankly, I think, a very clear

38:58example of a coach, good guy or not, that couldn't get enough out of this team the first 20 games of

39:03the year, and now all of a sudden they're performing under a different coach and a different

39:07voice. So that's on the players. That's on the coach. It's on management for putting all of it

39:11in place, but I think they have a secondary thing behind the players who deserve a brunt of the

39:16blame and certainly the coach who couldn't get it out of them anymore and started doing panic

39:22things, I think, to try to get something out of them and being something he wasn't, and it ended

39:26up landing him in the unemployment line. Now he got a job immediately in St. Louis, five-year

39:31contract. Let's see how he does down there, but it wasn't working in Boston. I think that's pretty

39:35obvious now. All right. Thank you very much, everybody, for tuning in. Let's thank our sponsors

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40:07today. What time is it? GameTime. All right. Thank you, everybody, for listening to this mailbag

40:13episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast. Now that we're out of the holiday weekend next week,

40:18we'll have two regular podcasts with guests. We'll talk some brewings. We'll talk everything,

40:22but for now, we're going to sign off and say thanks for listening. See you at the ring.

Are the Bruins too boring? The fans ask tough questions | Pucks with Haggs

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