It's a Mailbag Monday episode of Pucks with Haggs, as Joe Haggerty answers questions from you, the listeners, about the Bruins. The playoffs are all but here and the B's first round matchup has not yet been decided. Haggs dives into that, and much more!
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This episode of the Pucks with Haggs Podcast is brought to you by PrizePicks! Get in on the excitement with PrizePicks, America’s No. 1 Fantasy Sports App, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy! Football season may be over, but the action on the floor is heating up. Whether it’s Tournament Season or the fight for playoff homecourt, there’s no shortage of high stakes basketball moments this time of year. Quick withdrawals, easy gameplay and an enormous selection of players and stat types are what make PrizePicks the #1 daily fantasy sports app!
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00:00 [intro music]
00:05 Welcome to another edition of the Pucks with Hags podcast powered by PrizeFix,
00:09 the exclusive daily fantasy partner of the CLNS Media Network.
00:14 I believe this is the 81st episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast.
00:17 I'm your host as always, Joe Hagerty.
00:19 You can find my work at joehagerty.substack.com.
00:23 Join up for a premium membership. You get all of my Bruins and NHL writing sent straight directly to your inbox.
00:29 You also write columns after every Bruins game for the Boston Sports Journal at bostonsportsjournal.com.
00:34 So check it out. You can see my thoughts right now on the Bruins 6-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
00:41 Along with a few other things in the NHL notebook.
00:45 So be sure to check that out as well as Boston College losing to Denver in the National Championship game for college hockey.
00:53 I think that was interesting and there was a few subplots and storylines and narratives going on with that one.
00:58 So that was fun as well.
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02:14 Let's move right into a mailbag episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast.
02:20 We will just go over quickly 6-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
02:25 You know, it continues a pattern of what we've seen the last few weeks, the last 5, 6, 7 games.
02:33 Really good training ground for the playoffs.
02:37 Really good playoff level intensity games.
02:39 That was a Pittsburgh Penguins team that was playing for their lives on Saturday afternoon.
02:44 You saw it with Gennie Malkin and Sidney Crosby playing emotional, invested hockey.
02:49 They wanted into the playoffs.
02:51 Malkin getting into it with McEvoy and Andrew Peake at the end of one period.
02:57 You saw Sid getting tossed to the next face at the end of the game because he didn't like a slap shot,
03:01 which is a perfectly fine thing for him to do in that situation.
03:05 He told him he wasn't trying to score a goal.
03:07 It certainly didn't look like he was trying to score a goal there.
03:09 He was just trying to fire a pucket net.
03:13 But it showed you how much the Pittsburgh Penguins wanted that game.
03:16 And basically, I think the Bruins pretty much dashed any hope they had of the postseason by beating them in that game.
03:22 So playing a team with that kind of desperation is absolutely going to get you ready for the playoffs.
03:26 Six different goal scorers.
03:28 Jake DeBrusque snapped an 8-game goal scoring drought.
03:33 Kevin Shattenkirk, I believe, was well over 20 games that he hadn't scored a goal.
03:37 He scored.
03:38 Danton Heinen and Morgan Geakey got their 17th goals of the year.
03:42 Brad Marchand scored, so he's one shy of 30 right now.
03:46 So all that happened in addition to Linus Ulmark stopping 13 shots in the first period.
03:53 Really standing on his head and not letting anything in as the Bruins sort of got their bearings early in that game.
04:00 It took them about a period to really sort of get going.
04:03 But they did take over and scored four goals in the second period.
04:06 They scored a couple within a short minute of each other.
04:11 And then they were kind of off and running at that point.
04:14 So just a really solid win over a desperate team that was right there in the playoff hunt.
04:20 A nice bounce back from a bad game against Carolina as well.
04:26 The first game for Patrick Maroon, Pat Maroon, he played over 13 minutes, played with Bo Quist and Lauco.
04:33 And, you know, what would be a fourth line for the playoffs.
04:36 They looked pretty effective.
04:37 He didn't look really behind the play.
04:40 His timing didn't look bad at all.
04:41 He got in on a couple of hits, was able to get there on time.
04:45 You know, was keeping the shifts short because obviously he's still working on his conditioning, getting it back up to full game level.
04:53 But I thought he played well.
04:55 I thought he looked like he'd be ready to go for the playoffs.
04:58 He looked healthy.
04:59 He looked like he was willing to play physical.
05:01 Everything you'd want to see from Maroon in that game went down.
05:05 So now they'll probably get him in at least one more game of these final two and then have him ready for the postseason,
05:12 where they still don't have Justin Brezow skating.
05:15 So he's not really going to be an option.
05:18 You know, we'll see what happens with James Van Riemsdyk.
05:20 He may, because of injuries, be able to stay in the lineup.
05:25 Shattenkirk scoring that goal, looking good on the power play.
05:28 He looks good on the power play.
05:30 The power play itself still doesn't look that great.
05:32 But I think he's somebody they need on the power play, so I think he will probably be in the lineup to start game one,
05:37 based on the offense and the power play acumen, even if defensively he can be taken advantage of a little bit.
05:45 But you put him with Andrew Peek, I think that's a really good bottom pairing,
05:50 where Peek is going to be able to cover for him defensively.
05:53 So we'll see if that's what they start with.
05:57 We'll see.
05:58 You know, Weatherspoon's another option that we may see as well.
06:02 So it'll be interesting to see what they go with there.
06:05 But good win.
06:08 Move on to Washington and then finish up with the regular season finale and they get ready for the playoffs.
06:14 They still have the Atlantic division to play for, and that's another thing we'll get to.
06:19 But, yeah, should they win the division?
06:25 Should they have really tried to?
06:27 And we've got a question on that.
06:28 Should they really have tried to win that Pittsburgh game?
06:30 Should they have let Florida, who's won a few games in a row, pass them and let them get Tampa Bay in the first round
06:36 and you get the Maple Leafs, who you've handled?
06:39 That will be interesting.
06:41 And we will answer that because that's coming up in the mailbag.
06:44 But let's just get to the pucks with hags.
06:45 Mailbag, first question, BMHick03, what is with the Bruins not wanting to shoot?
06:53 This is an issue on that power play unit, that top power play unit.
06:56 There is zero question about it.
06:59 Brad Marchand has won zero power play goals in over 30 games since the NHL All-Star break.
07:05 I think Pasternak still only has one.
07:10 Not getting any goalscoring from their star players, where they, especially Pastas,
07:15 obviously getting taken away by penalty kills, and they're trying to take him away as a shooting option
07:21 from the faceoff circle and from the dot.
07:23 And nobody else is really willing or able to step up and score.
07:27 Charlie McAvoy won't consistently shoot the puck and look for his offense on the man advantage
07:33 and still just doesn't look to me like he's a comfortable power play quarterback,
07:39 a guy that is really feeling full comfort level there.
07:47 It looks like he's passing and trying to make plays to other players.
07:53 And that's the kind of player he is, and that's okay.
07:57 I think most of the time that works for a defenseman, and it certainly works for McAvoy.
08:01 And it's worked in the past with the players that they've had, particularly when Bergeron was in the bumper.
08:07 He could pass to other players, and they would handle the heavy lifting as far as the offense
08:12 and as far as the scoring went.
08:14 But I think if he wants to stay in that role, if he wants to be the power play quarterback,
08:18 if he wants to be the guy at the point, he needs to pull the trigger shooting more,
08:23 and he needs to be aggressive shooting the puck and be looking for the shot
08:27 and then pull defenders towards him, and then he can make plays if he wants to.
08:32 But I think he needs to be much more of a threat shooting the puck.
08:36 And Pavel Zaka, if he's going to play the bumper, also needs to be a scoring threat
08:41 and needs to be a guy that they need to start forcing the puck into him at times.
08:45 And he needs to get into places where he can score and be deadly with it.
08:49 And it took Bergeron a little while and a lot of practice and a lot of work
08:54 to become a lethal threat from that bumper spot with the shot
08:59 and being able to take a pass quick and flick it at the net and score.
09:03 But he became super dangerous, and he became a second scoring option along with Pasternak
09:09 that really made penalty kills have to think twice about sending multiple killers at Pasternak
09:15 or trying to deny him the puck or do whatever they want to do to try to disrupt
09:19 and just throw the top power play unit off track.
09:26 With Zaka there, a guy that doesn't shoot it as much and a guy that's not looking
09:32 for his offense first as much, I don't think he's nearly as comfortable as Bergeron was
09:39 in his latter years on the power play.
09:42 I just think you put players like that in certain positions where they're not threats
09:47 and they're not looking to shoot, and all of a sudden it becomes a power play
09:52 that doesn't want to shoot. There's too many players on there that don't want to score
09:55 or aren't looking to score and are looking to pass and playmake instead of scoring.
09:59 And just in general, the Bruins, when they're at their worst, when they're struggling,
10:05 they're definitely a team that looks like they're passing and they're trying to pass
10:10 and they're not shooting and they're passing up open shooting lanes and open seams at the net
10:16 where they could shoot the puck to try to be overly fancy or to try to set up a teammate.
10:22 And really that's a clear indicator and a clear sign that the Bruins are struggling
10:27 confidence-wise, that they're struggling offensively, is when they pass up the real
10:33 open looks at the net and the real good scoring chances from the good scoring areas
10:38 to try to make an east-west pass or to try to go over the--I believe they call it
10:43 the Royal Road, right, across the Royal Road with a pass. Because we all know that
10:47 statistically when you get the puck moving side to side across the middle in the offensive zone,
10:52 it really ups the scoring ability that you have and ups the percentage and the chances
10:57 that you're going to score. So everybody knows that. But at a certain point,
11:03 when you're an NHL player, when you have an open shot on the net, you really need to take it.
11:09 And you need to be the threat to score and a threat to shoot in order to set up some of that playmaking.
11:15 And it's just an easy barometer to look at to know the Bruins are struggling when you see that kind of stuff.
11:23 So yeah, they need to shoot more. Certainly on the power lip play, they need to shoot more.
11:28 Jim Montgomery's been very vocal about wanting to see that more. And they're going to need to do that
11:33 if they're going to beat teams in the playoffs. It's as simple as that. They absolutely have to do it.
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12:30 RyanRoberts77. The playoff seeding is so stupid. Here we go.
12:35 They need to go back to 1-8. If the Bruins win the Atlantic but not the East,
12:40 they will get Tampa or Toronto, where is the 1-8 as the #2 seed,
12:44 they would get either Philly, Washington, or the Islanders.
12:47 Well, they certainly won't get Philly, but they'd probably get Washington or the Islanders or the Red Wings maybe.
12:52 For finishing 2nd in the East, that draw is bull bleep. Bull crap. Bull expletive.
12:59 We're going to keep it clean here at the Pucks with Hags podcast,
13:02 but there was a little swearing in that one.
13:09 I go back and forth on this. Part of me is like, yes, they should traditionally just go 1-8.
13:15 Make sure your top seeds get the best draw. Get the most advantageous matchup.
13:21 Why else are you playing a regular season unless you're going to reward teams that excel in the regular season at the end?
13:28 But there's another part of me that kind of likes that the East, the Atlantic Division,
13:33 has turned into a battle royale between the Lightning, the Panthers, the Bruins, and the Leafs.
13:42 I love that those four teams have to go at it, and it's a grudge match every single year,
13:49 where they have those divisional matchups, those teams that they keep playing in the first round,
13:53 that has bred rivalries. The Bruins hate the Florida Panthers. They hate them like poison.
14:01 You can tell when they're playing on the ice. They absolutely hate that team.
14:04 They can't stand Matthew Kachuk. They can't stand Sam Bennett.
14:09 Some of the other guys are gone from last year's playoffs that were problematic.
14:14 Radko Guttis obviously is not there anymore, so he's a big piece missing from that equation.
14:20 But you could tell those teams didn't like each other, and there was that seven-game series,
14:25 and the regular season matchups they had, too. It really kicked up something.
14:30 You could see it this year. The last game that they played against each other was playoff-level hate and intensity,
14:35 and it really brought out the best in the Bruins.
14:37 It seems like it also brought out the physicality that they're going to need in the playoffs and in the postseason.
14:44 We've seen that a little bit more down the stretch this year, them playing with a certain level of physicality,
14:50 a certain level of surliness, nastiness, a certain level of knowing they have to do certain things
14:56 to just take it from other teams in the third period if they want to win,
15:00 and if they want to protect a lead, and if they want to avoid overtime.
15:03 It comes down to will sometimes in these situations where earlier in the year they were giving up goals.
15:09 Late in the third period, they were allowing games to get to overtime at a clip unseen before in the NHL.
15:17 Thank God for the loser point, the overtime point. Otherwise, the Bruins would have been a lot lower in the standings.
15:22 But I think that's what we're going to see in these playoff series,
15:28 because they're playing these teams that they've played over and over again.
15:32 How many times have they played the Leafs over the years?
15:34 How many times have they played the Lightning over the last few years?
15:36 How many times have they played the Panthers over the last few years?
15:39 These are teams that will be rivalry series, will be series where there's hate on the ice,
15:45 where they don't like each other. That's the best kind of playoffs.
15:48 Would you get that, do you think, if you played the Islanders in the first round?
15:51 Would you get that if you played the Capitals in the first round? The Red Wings? No.
15:57 From that perspective, selfishly, as a hockey fan, I want to see the most entertaining playoffs that I can.
16:04 So I want to see them play the teams that they've been playing in these divisional rounds to get out of them for the last 10 years, whatever it's been, 12 years.
16:13 I want to continue to see that. I like it. I like it from that perspective.
16:17 And I'm always looking at it not from a fan perspective of what's best for them, what do they deserve, what should they get.
16:24 They're getting screwed because the NHL doesn't do one through eight.
16:29 I look at it more from a matchup perspective, from an entertainment perspective, from what's going to be more fun to cover, what's going to be more fun to watch, all that stuff.
16:38 And I'm sorry. I think playing the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, although it's an extremely tough draw for them, probably the worst draw they could get,
16:48 it's going to be a lot more interesting watching Bruins versus Lightning in the first round than Bruins-Islanders or Bruins-Red Wings.
16:55 It just is. So that's kind of my stance. I'm not looking to tweak the playoffs. I'm not looking to change the seedings.
17:03 I'm really not looking to change anything as far as the Stanley Cup playoffs go right now.
17:07 I love watching the playoffs. I don't think there's a lot of problems or flaws with it.
17:11 I don't think we need to mess with something that's broken. But Ryan Robert, 77, you go, boy.
17:17 You have your own opinion. You run with it. And I know there's a lot of people that feel the same way you do
17:22 and that they should just go straight one through eight seeding based on points and how they finish in the regular season.
17:28 So there you go. That's my take.
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18:49 All right. This one's from Roger Perry, Facebook fan page.
18:54 Hi, Joe, I have a mailbag question for you. If in your latest podcast episode,
18:58 you mentioned how well Paul Maurice coached the Panthers versus the Bruins in last year's playoffs.
19:03 Aside from setting the line combinations and choosing a starting goalie for each game that, in your opinion, makes a good in game.
19:09 What makes a good in game coach versus an average in game coach?
19:13 Is it as simple as keeping your players motivated throughout each game or is there more to it than that?
19:18 Thank you. Love the podcast. Roger Perry. It's a good question.
19:22 And, you know, I think some of it is tone. Some of it is keeping players motivated, knowing what buttons to push and what not to push.
19:32 A lot of times in that series last year, Paul Maurice talked about how he didn't have to really do much with his team.
19:37 He kind of stepped away and let them run things and run the show. And that was a field thing for him.
19:43 That was a confidence thing for him that he didn't have to get involved.
19:46 And to be honest with you, there was a little bit of that with Jim Montgomery as well, because Patrice Bergeron was there and he was the captain.
19:53 I think there was a separation of Montgomery away from the team and letting the players sort of run things and letting Bergeron run the show when he was in there.
20:02 So there was an element to that, for sure. That was actually a similarity.
20:07 Problems become when you're not making adjustments that you need to make, and that really is what it comes down to.
20:15 I think the Panthers made adjustments and in a lot of cases they didn't have to make adjustments.
20:22 They just got better as the series was going on. But they did make adjustments.
20:25 They made line adjustments. They made lineup adjustments.
20:29 And they obviously changed their goalie. That was a big one when they finally went to Bobrovsky pretty early.
20:36 But I think one thing that you've seen with the Bruins was they did not make the goalie move early enough.
20:46 They did not. In Game 5, they needed to start Jeremy Swaman. They really did.
20:51 I just think they needed to put him at that point in the series. It was the right thing to do.
20:56 He had been sitting for a while. It was the perfect time to get him in. They were up in the series.
21:01 And if you believe in the goalie rotation, that was the right time to do it.
21:06 Do they close it out if he's starting Game 5? I don't know. Who knows? We'll never know what would have happened.
21:15 But I think waiting and then putting him in Game 7 was too long.
21:19 I think Jim Montgomery's tone after Game 6 was not good.
21:31 He just talked about what a great hockey game it was and all this other stuff.
21:37 I just think the Bruins needed to hear something different. They needed something different at that point.
21:42 I just think Jim Montgomery didn't have a ton of playoff experience like Paul Maurice did behind the bench.
21:49 There were certain moments where they should have made adjustments. The tone should have been a little different.
21:55 Maybe there should have been a little more accountability with certain things and certain players.
21:59 There was a lot of that stuff that I think just didn't happen.
22:03 It kind of went by the wayside in that series.
22:07 Jim Montgomery was very honest about it afterwards. There were a bunch of teaching moments in that series that he was going to learn from and be better from.
22:16 Frankly, I think he has been and I think he has learned. I think he's going to be much better in these playoffs.
22:20 Better for the experience of last year. More confident, more assertive, more willing to do certain things that he feels he needs to do.
22:27 Rather than maybe defer like he perhaps did at times to Patrice Bergeron being the captain and leader of that team.
22:34 Obviously, I think Jim Montgomery has done an even better job this year as the coach than last year.
22:42 Given the record that they have, given the season that they had, and given what he was able to get out of them.
22:47 He had to put them through some bag skates at certain points.
22:52 Cut drills short and have them do some conditioning skates as punitive measures.
22:58 Call out his team at certain points. Hand the room over to his players and say, "You need to take care of this and you need to figure it out."
23:06 Instead of constantly him being the one that had to motivate, cajole, challenge, whatever.
23:13 I'm interested to see how these playoffs are going to go for him and what he's going to change as far as how he runs the show.
23:22 How he manages the light up, manages the emotions, manages the motivational type stuff, manages the goaltenders.
23:29 All of that. I'm really interested to see what it's going to be.
23:33 I think it's definitely more than simply keeping your players motivated or having a good rah-rah speech in between periods.
23:42 I think the players will derive a lot of their attitude and a lot of what they bring to the ice and how they play from their coach.
23:51 I think if the coach feels like he has all the answers, seems like he has all the answers, seems like he is totally in control of what's going on.
24:04 Even keeled, prepared, unflinching, all of that stuff. Unflappable.
24:12 I think the team will be too. I think the team takes on some of the personality of the coach and certainly the leadership.
24:18 I think that's what needs to happen in this first round series and in the postseason in general.
24:25 I'm really going to be watching that and I think it's going to be interesting to see exactly how that manifests itself this year after the experience of last year against Florida.
24:35 Alright.
24:37 "Would love to see the Bruins somehow squeak past the Rangers and get whoever backs into that second wildcard spot instead of playing Tampa from Delhi tweets."
24:46 I mean, I understand that. I think naturally you would want to get into the one seed and play the eight seed.
24:56 You would want to avoid Tampa in any way, shape, or form you have.
25:00 Could, whether that is losing or falling behind Florida, losing the division to Florida, whether that's going ahead somehow of the Rangers and getting that top seed.
25:14 I think there's a lot of, there were a lot of scenarios. I don't think there's as many scenarios as before.
25:21 But I think the general consensus from Bruins fans, and I agree, is that Tampa Bay is not going to be good for them in the first round.
25:32 That's going to be a tough draw. It's going to be a tough series.
25:35 That's probably the one team they could face in the first round that could eliminate them, that could make it really tough for them.
25:41 And I think that's true. Andre Vazilevsky, all-world goaltender. Victor Hedman, all-world defenseman, especially in a first-round series where he's not worn down later in the postseason.
25:52 Brayden Point always gives the Bruins problems, has always done that in the playoffs.
25:58 Nikita Kucherov, having his best NHL season and is going to be a handful in the postseason.
26:04 Stephen Samkos, obviously motivated to want this Lightning group to go on a long run and wanting to continue to punch his ticket, keeping him in Tampa Bay.
26:16 Anthony Cirelli, there's a ton of really good players. Obviously, the Sergeyev injury hurts, and they're going to miss him.
26:26 And they're not as good defensively as they've been in past, as far as their personnel goes.
26:31 They had constantly had these big, huge defensemen cores that had really given the Bruins problems and kept them away from their net.
26:38 I think that's less the case this time around, but I still think it's going to be an issue for them.
26:45 In a perfect world, maybe it would work out where you would either pass the Rangers or fall behind the Panthers, play the Light Leafs, play somebody else, Red Wings, Islanders, whoever it's going to be, and miss the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.
27:04 But I also think I'm of the mentality that just play who they put in front of you. You really need to get worked up or try to avoid anybody in the playoffs.
27:18 If you think you're good enough to win, if you think you're a championship caliber team, a Stanley Cup caliber team, just go out and beat everybody.
27:25 Beat anybody they put in front of you. That's always been, I think, the prevailing and the best attitude to have in sports is not to get worked up about any of that stuff and just say, "You know what?
27:37 We're going to have to beat everybody if we're going to win the Cup, so just put anybody in front of me."
27:42 And maybe it won't work out for the Bruins. And I think that's perfectly okay if it doesn't.
27:46 I still think this is a transition year. This is a year that's almost a bridge year to next year and beyond.
27:54 Going from the old guard, Krejci and Bergeron retiring last year, and going to the new guard of David Postranec, Charlie McAvoy, the young guys they're introducing, the low rise, the Matt Potras, the Johnny Beechers, those kind of players that they're introducing into the fold this year.
28:13 And the young veterans they're taking over too, like the Trent Fredericks of the world, those kind of guys, they're taking ownership of this team.
28:20 And Pavel Zaka and Charlie Coyle becoming much more of a leader.
28:24 This is becoming their team, and I think this is the first step towards that.
28:29 And I think it could be fraught with some difficulty come playoff time when they have to elevate their game.
28:36 And it's going to be difficult, and there's weaknesses on this team that they weren't able to adequately address at the trade deadline because they don't have enough salary cap space to make these big moves.
28:46 And they didn't have a ton of draft capital either to make trades.
28:49 So, you know, they're a good team. They're a flawed team.
28:52 And I don't know that they're going to have enough to really go on a run for two months.
28:57 So, you know, this may be a very challenging series for them, but that's okay.
29:04 I think a round or two, if they can get past the first round, get to the second round against Florida, maybe they don't beat Florida.
29:11 I think that's a reasonable progression and step in the right direction from last year to this year and from what they had and what they're going towards next year.
29:19 And they can sort of, you know, they can really tack on some good players and really add to that roster this summer and really become a legit threat based on who they get if they can really hit a couple of home runs.
29:31 Don Sweeney in the Bruins front office. So, you know, I can understand the sentiment of them wanting to avoid Tampa.
29:38 But I think at the same time, if you think you're all that in a bag of chips and you can win the cup, bring on anybody, put them in front of you and play them.
29:46 Great. If they lost and came in second, if they lost against the Penguins and came in second, they'd have the Leafs who they handled all season.
29:55 But no, they want to win the Atlantic and get Tampa Bay who can beat them in their sleep.
29:59 Sometimes it's better to be smart than proud. That's from BFD Mike.
30:04 Yeah, I don't I don't think Tampa is going to beat them in their sleep. I think that's a tough series and that's a tough draw.
30:11 But. I also think that would end up being a long series, six, seven games, and I think it would be back and forth and I think it could go either way.
30:19 It's just not I think they beat Toronto if they play Toronto in the first round. I really do.
30:25 Tampa, I am less certain of that. So, you know, I think that's difficult.
30:31 And I think that's why a lot of fans have the same sentiment about that.
30:35 There is the big old Glen Ordway used to say they're running a scared of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
30:41 And maybe they are to a degree. But. I think. I think that's that's a toss up.
30:50 I think either team could win that series. I think it would come down to who's healthy. A couple of bounces.
30:56 The way the goalies are playing all that stuff. But, you know, the Bruins have a lot of things to answer.
31:02 If they're going to beat anybody in the playoffs, they're going to have to have much better performances from Lina Selmark and Jeremy Swainman.
31:08 They're going to have to get something out of their power play. It's at least not going to have to be a momentum suck like it's been lately.
31:14 In addition to not scoring now, they're giving up shorthanded goals and chances and really just looking bad.
31:22 So they need to change the mojo with that. They need to start becoming more of a threat to score.
31:27 Figure out what they need to do, whether it's forcing the puck into the bumper, whether it's using Pasternak as kind of a passing decoy,
31:37 making Charlie McAvoy shoot more from the point, creating more movement in the power play, just having pieces moving or whatever they need to do.
31:43 Change personnel, use the second unit first and give them some chances, like whatever.
31:49 Whatever they decide to do, they need to be bold and they need to try some things because right now it's simply not working and that's going to be a problem.
31:56 And they're still like, they've been much better in the third period. They've been much better about holding leads.
32:02 They've been much better about when they play when the goalie's been pulled by the other team.
32:06 They had an empty netter from Danton Hynden in that last game against Pittsburgh.
32:09 They've been better in a lot of those situations, but I need to see that that's not going to crop up and be a problem in the playoffs.
32:17 I need to see that that's not going to come back to bite them.
32:20 What was a real flaw with this team all year, blowing third period leads and not being able to hang on to them, not being able to extend leads, all that stuff.
32:28 That they've shown lately they can do against good teams in high intensity situations.
32:33 They just need to be consistent with it and you need to see it in the postseason as opposed to the regular season,
32:40 which it's easier to do things in the regular season, obviously, than the postseason.
32:43 But we'll see. We'll see what happens. We'll know next Pucks with Hats podcast.
32:52 I'm sure we'll have a lot more answers. We'll know who they're going to play.
32:54 We'll have a guest who can break it down with me and we'll still take some of your questions.
33:00 Certainly we'll answer a tweet of the week and we will throw it around a little bit and talk about some other things.
33:07 Maybe some end of season awards for the Bruins.
33:11 What's been a stellar regular season for them, just like last year.
33:15 Tune in for that. We'll know more next week.
33:18 For this edition of the Pucks with Hats podcast, thank you very much for listening.
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34:51 Thanks for listening to this edition of the Pucks with Hags podcast.
34:54 The mailbag episode will be back next week.
34:57 As for now, thanks for listening and we'll see you at the rink.
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