Are the Bruins playing too undisciplined right now? | Pucks with Haggs
Pucks with Haggs host Joe Haggerty and guest Mick Colageo discuss the two B's losses to the Florida Panthers, and how the B's have been taking too many penalties thus far this season.
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00:00Welcome to another edition of the Pucks with Hags podcast, powered by PrizePix, the exclusive
00:09daily fantasy partner of the CLNS Media Network.
00:12I believe this is the 132nd episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast.
00:17Thank you for tuning in.
00:18As always, I'm your host, Joe Hagerty.
00:20You can find my work at joehagerty.substack.com.
00:25Subscribe and get a premium membership to get all of my Bruins in NHL writing sent straight
00:29to your inbox.
00:30I also write columns three times a week for the Boston Sports Journal about the Bruins.
00:35Usually the day after, the morning after a game, or that night, you can find my column
00:40breaking down what I saw.
00:42So check out bostonsportsjournal.com to read all about that.
00:46And also check out Greg Bedard, Mike Giardi, a host of talented people covering all the
00:50sports at bostonsportsjournal.com.
00:53So check that out there.
00:54With me today, longtime friend and colleague, Mick Colaggio.
00:57Mick, please tell everybody where they can find your work, my friend.
01:00Rankwrap blog.
01:01You can link to it on X and Facebook.
01:04And I also write seasonal issues of the Hockey News.
01:09And I'll have the article on Brad Park and the upcoming Tradition from the Sports Museum,
01:15the event program.
01:16Great time interviewing the old timers for that one.
01:19It was great.
01:20Great week.
01:21Awesome.
01:22Tradition is a great event.
01:23Brad Park is an outstanding person and personality and great storyteller.
01:28It was fun talking to him the morning or the afternoon after they were at the Kowloon last
01:32year during the centennial celebration.
01:35Then they were at the Garden afterwards.
01:36They were reliving old memories of when they used to go to the Kowloon quite a bit as players
01:40in Boston.
01:41So that was pretty fun.
01:42Brad Park's a great guy.
01:43Brad Park's the guy who everybody's there at black tie and he shows up in a windbreaker.
01:47Yeah.
01:48And I appreciate that.
01:49He's old school.
01:50He's an old school hockey guy that like I love guys like that I could listen to all
01:54day long.
01:55I love talking to them and mad respect for how great they were as players too back in
01:59the day.
02:00Brad Park was an outstanding defenseman.
02:02Let's thank our sponsors.
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02:43What time is it Mick?
02:45Game time.
02:47Game time is right.
02:49Game time.
02:50All right.
02:51Let's get into it.
02:52Mick Boston Bruins.
02:53We will break down a bit of the game on Monday afternoon.
02:57A bit of what's going on with the Panthers and the Bruins twice in four games to start
03:03the season and just a more general, you know, sort of thoughts after the first four games
03:09because there's been some interesting stuff to pick apart to compliment all that stuff.
03:15Right out of the gate, Mick, four to three loss, Bruins to the Florida Panthers.
03:21They've lost twice now in four meetings.
03:24They don't play them again for a while.
03:28You know, this was a more competitive game, I thought, than the first game, obviously.
03:34But I think there's some issues here with this Bruins team and the biggest one.
03:39And I think Jim Montgomery talked about it after the game was over.
03:44And this has been the case under Jim Montgomery, I hate to say, for all three years that he's
03:48been the coach.
03:49Lack of discipline on this Bruins team, taking bad penalties at bad times, you know, lack
03:55of discipline when it comes to like, you know, sometimes being where you're supposed to be
04:02on the ice at certain points and making good decisions as far as line changes, making good
04:06decisions as far as not taking too many men on the ice penalty, like all that stuff is
04:11all discipline in all different facets of hockey.
04:15And there's been a lot of issues with that over the last three years and a lot of breakdowns
04:19that come as a result of that.
04:21And you know, in this game against Florida, they took some penalties that hurt them.
04:25They made some mental mistakes that hurt them, no doubt.
04:28But like I point to, and it was funny, Jim Montgomery really talked about it after the
04:33game and I looked it up after the game was over and I wrote about it, 26 minor penalties
04:37for the Bruins through four games leads the NHL by a wide margin, by a wide margin.
04:43The only other team that's even close is Florida with 19.
04:46And that's because I think Florida and the Bruins have had two games where they've taken
04:50a lot of penalties, two intense, like hate filled games where there's been a lot of penalties.
04:55But like, aside from Florida, Boston has 10 more minor penalties than anybody else in
05:00the NHL right now, like a ton more.
05:03And some of them have been like just dumb penalties.
05:07I think to the Charlie McAvoy throwing the net off the Moorings, there was an obvious
05:12penalty that they were going to call to lay a game there when he did it.
05:15He didn't even try to hide that he was doing it.
05:17He just basically took the penalty.
05:19That play where Brad Marcian fired the puck into the netting in the offensive zone, that
05:23I know that's a new penalty this year, I guess, but still, I still don't understand what the
05:28hell he was doing when he did that.
05:29Because he looked like he obviously fired the puck into the netting when he was carrying
05:33the puck in the offensive zone.
05:34And I don't know why he did that in a million years.
05:37But those are ones that stuck out in my head, like, what is going on here?
05:41The one from the game against the Panthers on Monday, Pasternak gets hit by A.J. Greer
05:48from behind, probably should have been a penalty.
05:50Pavel Zaka does the right thing, responds, drops the gloves with Greer.
05:54They both go to the box.
05:56But then in the aftermath of that, the temperature obviously went up in the game.
06:00And there's a play where again, Charlie McAvoy hits, I think it was Carter Verhage, knocks
06:05him down, knocks him off the puck, great hit, great defensive play.
06:09And then he doesn't stop.
06:10Then he decides he's going to cross-check him four or five times and keep cross-checking
06:14him until the ref finally says, OK, I guess I have to call a penalty here.
06:18And the Panthers immediately go on the power play and score a goal there.
06:21Like, that's a dumb penalty, a very ill-advised, undisciplined penalty.
06:25I think we see that a lot with McAvoy, where I love his physicality.
06:28I love that he plays with an attitude.
06:30I love that he tries to take it to the other team.
06:32But there's also times where he veers way off into this undisciplined place where he
06:37takes really bad penalties.
06:38And that was one of them.
06:39And it immediately cost the Brewers.
06:40It was almost like hockey karma was slapping him on the wrist and saying, that was a mistake.
06:44And we're going to let the Panthers score a power play goal immediately, just to underscore
06:48how bad a penalty that was to take.
06:50In games against the Panthers, in those playoff-style games, when you're playing against a team
06:55that's probably a little better than you are, those mistakes will kill you.
06:58And it just stuck out to me so much when I was watching that game yesterday.
07:02And in these four games, I really feel like McAvoy's been undisciplined quite a bit, that
07:07this is a recurring problem with the Bruins under Jim Montgomery.
07:10And this is probably one of the issues that Bruins management looks at Montgomery as the
07:13coach and says, can we continue to live with this?
07:15Because we see the same kind of problems and issues with him as the coach.
07:21That depends on whether you win.
07:25I do think that this is a work in progress, where the Bruins, who have been losing every
07:33year in the playoffs by teams outmuscling them, are determined not to be that team anymore.
07:43The transition is messy.
07:48And I think a lot of guys as individuals and the Bruins as a team have a lot to figure
07:53out here.
07:55And it may not happen in a matter of a week.
07:58It may be something that what I would hate to see is for them to abandon and say, oh,
08:04we're really not good at that.
08:05We better just go back to being a smart hockey team.
08:08Well, they can't.
08:09I mean, personnel-wise, they can't make that switch now.
08:13They've gone big, physical strong.
08:16There's really no going back.
08:17And I don't think that's a solution anyway.
08:19I think that that would be defeatist.
08:22I think that this is going to be messy.
08:24It may not be a great regular season, but if they can get in the playoffs and over the
08:28course of the season, figure out how to calibrate smart hockey.
08:33Now, first of all, they used to be, they see the Florida Panthers and it used to be, you
08:37know, Niagara Falls, slowly I turn.
08:41Now they just see red.
08:42That's a great Three Stooges reference, by the way, Mick, I appreciate it.
08:46Now they just see red, you know, and they have no composure at all when they play these
08:51guys.
08:52I find it funny.
08:55I'm pretty much laughing through this because I know they're a hot mess when they play these
08:59guys.
09:00They just completely lose their, you know what, and the results show.
09:07I mean, the first game they weren't going to win anyway.
09:10This one here, they could have, if not should have, they could have won.
09:15And you know, they were playing, they had certain parts of the game that are going well,
09:19certain parts of the game that are not going well.
09:22But the whole composure thing goes right out the window when they play these guys.
09:26It was a little like Bruins-Canucks in the sequel season when Marcian had that flip thing
09:33when Nasella was coming.
09:34And five guys jumped Sean Thornton by the Vancouver bench.
09:37Yeah, yeah.
09:38It was just, it was the Canucks trying to play in the Bruins.
09:40It was them, you know, doing the Bruins are now like, we're not, we're mad as hell.
09:45We're not going to take it anymore.
09:46Kind of like the Minnesota North Stars, February 1981, you know, by the end of the season,
09:51and they figured it out.
09:53And the Bruins need to be the team that over the course of a season doesn't lose too much
09:57ground that they missed the playoffs, but that they figure it out.
10:01And because they're, it's a brave new world and accent on brave and, but they got to get
10:09smart and it's a process.
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11:59Let me cut in for one sec, Mick, because this fits right in with what we're talking about.
12:03This is what Montgomery said after the game about the Florida Panthers after yesterday's
12:08game.
12:10It's taking the mental side of the battle on us.
12:11Pasta got hit, and I loved what Zaka did going in and defending him, but the penalties after
12:16that, it's all undisciplined.
12:18It's all four games that we've taken at least four minors.
12:21You can't win hockey games that way.
12:23Then we can't lose as many battles as we do.
12:25They are the standard for winning battles in the NHL right now, talking about the Florida
12:28Panthers.
12:29We're not up to that level yet, and we have to vastly improve to get up to that level.
12:35That's right.
12:36You can play tough.
12:37You can play physical.
12:38We're not going to let them push us around anymore, but you can't go out and lose 50-50
12:42puck battles all over the ice and shrink from the physicality when they're throwing the
12:47body at you on the forecheck and start to get gun shy.
12:51That's the true toughness.
12:52Toughness is not cross-chipping a guy on the ice four times when he's already down.
12:59Toughness is taking a hit to make a play, knowing that they're coming, and they're coming
13:04like kamikaze style, and they're going to blow you up, and still making the right play
13:08and standing up in the face of that, and going in there and winning the battle despite the
13:12physicality that they're throwing at you.
13:14That's the true toughness, and that's when you start to win hockey games.
13:18I think that's what Montgomery's talking about here.
13:20The one thing I will go back to, Mick, is that it's not like this is a new thing where
13:25now all of a sudden they're taking penalties.
13:27Now they've decided to step up the attitude, step up the physicality.
13:30We're going to be the big bad Bruins.
13:32Maybe we take some more penalties.
13:35For Jim Montgomery, they have been one of the most penalized teams in the league since
13:39he came on as coach.
13:41It's been like that throughout, and I think it continues to be that way.
13:44They continue to make mistakes that hurt them.
13:47You can go back to the too many men in the ice panels, the eight or whatever that they
13:50took in the playoffs last year.
13:51That was after they took a bunch during the regular season, and they were one of the most
13:55penalized teams in the league last year.
13:57They've had a negative penalty differential where they take a lot more penalties than
14:02they draw, so they end up on the penalty kill a lot more than they're on the power
14:05play, and they're already a minus four this year.
14:08It looks like it's trending in the wrong direction again.
14:11That's the one thing that I look at that's a trend that is something that continues to
14:16happen and it's undeniable, is that under Jim Montgomery, they are taking a lot more
14:20penalties and they seem a lot more undisciplined.
14:24I feel like that's an issue that's legit.
14:27You don't fire the coach or you don't make a change with the coaching staff and the head
14:32coach if there's correctable things or things get corrected or if it's not the same mistakes
14:38over and over again, but I feel like if you see the same problem areas and they're never
14:42improved upon, that's when a coach can get in trouble.
14:46This is one of those areas that I don't feel like under Montgomery there's been any improvement
14:50whatsoever, and it doesn't seem like the players want it to improve.
14:53They continue to make bad mistakes that lead to penalties.
14:57If and when there is a coaching change at some point, if it happens, I wonder if this
15:02is one of the issues that is major in their minds or problematic in the Bruins' management
15:07minds.
15:08Yeah, I think that if we do get to that point because of the win-loss record, if this team
15:16starts projecting that they're going to be, right now they're on the bubble, but Tampa
15:20Bays played one game and they're last in the division, so they won it.
15:26So we don't really know where the standings are right now.
15:28We only know that the Bruins at 2-2, it's not a playoff record.
15:32So they got a lot of work to do and yeah, I don't know.
15:40It's a good question.
15:41I think it's interesting, Mick, just to throw this out there, there has not been too many
15:48men on the ice penalty so far this season.
15:50No, not yet.
15:51Not yet.
15:52There was a terrible change with the D yesterday, though, that led to a new one.
15:55Oh, there was.
15:56It was a beauty.
15:57Well, what happened was Frederick had the puck in his own zone on the weak side of the
16:02ice and he had a guy up on the north side of center that he tried to connect with and
16:07he passed the puck up and he beat the first four-checker, but the puck didn't connect
16:12with that player.
16:13Instead, Florida got it and threw it right back the other way and took advantage of the
16:16long change, came down and scored.
16:18So there was a, you know, I mean, these are plays that the Bruins have not been great
16:25at.
16:27There's a lot of little stuff that persists and it's not that the wrong guy had the puck.
16:33Frederick's fine with the puck.
16:34The problem is that the play, somewhere along the way, it didn't connect and it wasn't managed
16:41properly once it didn't connect and the Bruins wound up getting, you know, so what's wrong
16:47there?
16:48I don't know.
16:49I'm not sure.
16:50You know, I watched the play a hundred times.
16:51I don't know what to say about it other than that Florida's a well-tuned machine, which
16:57was my pregame question to Monty was Florida is the gold standard now for bringing in new
17:06players and immediately they assimilate to the Borg and they play the game the way Florida
17:13wants to play the game.
17:15They fit right in and it seems like they've been on the team for three or four or five
17:18years and the Bruins have been pretty good at that.
17:25But I feel like they're starting to, you know, I mean, like the new guys are playing great.
17:31I would say like the fourth line, but not all the new guys are playing great.
17:38Some are playing okay, but I feel like a lot of incumbents are having a hard time with
17:43the integration of the new guys as far as playing as one team, one style, one way.
17:49I don't see any of that with the Bruins right now.
17:50It's a hodgepodge.
17:51Yeah.
17:52Well, this is the other thing that I would say over the first week, over the first four
17:59games, certainly that game on Monday, the fourth line has been awesome.
18:05Like Mark Kastelik has been really, really good.
18:09He took a really solid pre-season performance body of work and took it right into the regular
18:15season.
18:16Had three assists in that game yesterday.
18:18Like the fourth line with Cole Koepke and Kastelik and Johnny Beecher, I think has been
18:22excellent.
18:23Excellent.
18:24Like just excellent every game, a couple of games they've been their best line.
18:28They've been their most effective line.
18:31Yeah.
18:32Which is not a good reflection on like some of the top lines with the high money players
18:35on it.
18:36It's a great reflection on Kastelik being a guy that they saw, they got good value in
18:42him in that Linus Elmark trade and getting him from Ottawa.
18:44And I think he's a guy that as long as he stays healthy, I think he's going to be a
18:47factor all year.
18:48He's going to be a guy that can do a little offensively in the fourth line role, is in
18:54the middle of everything physically, really will throw his body around and plays in the
18:59style that a lot of the Panthers do and the way that the Bruins want to play more of.
19:04He brings that.
19:05He brings that attitude and that ability to do it and that willingness to do it.
19:08And you can see that the strides that Johnny Beecher has made in his second year, as far
19:12as using that speed a little bit more, carrying the puck a little bit more, like carrying
19:16the puck hard to the net a little bit more.
19:18He's better when he plays with guys who are like him.
19:21Oh yeah.
19:22And Cole Koepke, I think is a really good, a great find.
19:25Another player that was buried in another organization that the Bruins identified, brought
19:30him in.
19:31I think his speed and the ability he has to do a little bit offensively as well, while
19:36being willing to play in sort of a frenetic fourth line style with that speed and the
19:40tenacity, even though he's probably a little bit more of a skill guy, and the fact they
19:44all have good size.
19:46I think it's giving the Bruins a fourth line that I think has a chance to be their best
19:52fourth line in a while, like in the last five plus years, given what we've seen early, if
19:57they can stay healthy.
20:00That's a tough thing to sustain, and it also makes you wonder that if things don't improve
20:04through the middle of the lineup, it's pretty clear that Montee's leaving Lindholm, Zaka,
20:08and Pazta intact for now.
20:12But clearly we saw a major shakeup on lines two and three yesterday, the focal point being
20:18on line two, where by the end of the game, Matt Potra was centering Brad Marchand.
20:23So there's definitely some juggling going on through the middle here, as Montee tries
20:28to figure out what's going on.
20:34Charlie Coyle disappeared for a little bit yesterday and returned, played a hard shift.
20:41Things aren't going well for him.
20:42There's no chemistry there.
20:44The Geeky as the right winger there, there never seems to be any individual complaints
20:49with Geeky, and I agree with that.
20:52The only thing is that right now it's not working.
20:55So where do you go from here?
20:57We all knew there would be a revolving door at right wing here.
21:02What I did not see coming this soon was that not until Potra played a couple of really
21:11good games that it started realizing here that Montee might do a switch like that and
21:17separate Coyle and Marchand and put Potra there and see what happens.
21:20And then sure enough, it happened yesterday.
21:23So a lot to watch there as the Bruins go on this road trip to see what he does.
21:29No, definitely.
21:30But bottom line, yesterday, Posta two shots on net, Marchand two shots on net, Elias Lindholm
21:36one shot on net.
21:37Not enough from the best players, not enough to beat the Florida Panthers.
21:40They had to be better.
21:41They had to be more impactful.
21:43They weren't.
21:44The fourth line was on the ice for three goals at least, or all three goals, I should say.
21:51Kastelik got assists on all three of them.
21:53Defenseman got two of the goals.
21:55And up and down week and game yesterday, frankly, from the young guys, phenomenal, outstanding
22:05three on three overtime goal to win over the weekend with Pasternak out there with Potra
22:13and Lowry, just all kinds of skill, all kinds of great vision, playmaking, like Mick, I'll
22:19tell you.
22:20And as soon as that threesome came on the ice in the overtime and I saw the way they
22:24were skating with each other, I said, this game's over.
22:26They're going to score on this game.
22:27So you could just tell right away the way they were all playing off each other, that
22:31they were going to score and it was going to be the end.
22:34And it turned into a give and go between Pasternak and Lowry after Potra.
22:38I thought the young kids were getting kind of gassed on that shift.
22:41And well, they were.
22:42Potra gave him the puck and got off the ice.
22:44He was at the very end.
22:45Like, he was gassed for sure.
22:46So I thought that somebody's scoring here.
22:49I didn't realize it would be the Bruins, but I should never have dealt Pasta.
22:52Yep.
22:53No, no.
22:54All three of them, no.
22:55I think you put Pasta, you put a finisher like Pasta and a guy that thinks the game
22:58like Pasta with those two kids, that see the ice really well and want to make plays.
23:03Like you're going to have a lot of, I would like to see that threesome a lot more in three
23:07on three OT, because I think they won't give up the puck, which is the name of the game
23:11and three on three overtime is holding on to the puck and they do that really well.
23:15And they see the ice so well and they think the game kind of the same way.
23:18Like, I think they're going to be really dangerous.
23:20Of course, they're going to give up a goal every once in a while because they take chances.
23:23But I think that's something I want to see a lot more of in three on three OT, which
23:27traditionally the Bruins have not been great in over the years.
23:29I would like to have seen more of Lowry yesterday when they were desperate to try to tie the
23:34game up at the end.
23:37And instead Lindholm was the guy trying to outleg people and he plays a lot of minutes
23:43one.
23:44He's not as fluid a skater as Lowry.
23:46So as a result, you know, Lindholm had a hard time trying to be that defenseman who's
23:52going to go back, retrieve the puck late in the game and try to turn it up ice and make
23:57something happen.
23:58It just wasn't.
23:59It wasn't there for him yesterday.
24:01Lowry seemed to have the juice.
24:03It would have been nice to see if that didn't work out.
24:06I understand why the deference works the way it does.
24:09You know, you've got to go with a veteran, a proven guy.
24:13But you know, now they now you've got a rep like that in there, hopefully now going forward,
24:17they can look at Lowry more in that kind of role.
24:20You know what team Boston sports fans are most excited about this time of year right
24:25now?
24:26It's not the Patriots, definitely not the Red Sox.
24:29I mean, there's plenty of Bruins fans that are very excited about the Boston Bruins.
24:33But I've got to tell you, I think the team that everybody's most excited about is the
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24:38They're excited about NBA hoops coming back.
24:41They're excited to go to the Garden and watch the Celtics play, defending that world championship
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26:25What time is it?
26:26It's Game Time.
26:27I will say, though, Mick, you live and die by the young players when you have them in
26:32your lineup, and both players made big mistakes yesterday, too.
26:36That play where Lowry threw it back to Hampus Lindholm behind the net that turned into a
26:41goal.
26:42He just threw it right back into traffic and Lindholm being in trouble.
26:45That for me was on Lowry.
26:46Like, he should have thrown it up the boards the other side.
26:49Like, he just threw it right back into Lindholm and didn't give him a chance to even make
26:53a play.
26:54I put that goal on Lowry early, and that was a bad decision.
26:58And then Patra trying to make that curl move by the offensive blue line just got stripped
27:03by a good player, and he took it down the other way and scored shorthanded.
27:07That's another one where I think that I've seen him do that a few times, and you need
27:12to pick your spots when you do that, because I knew that eventually he's going to get stripped
27:17of it, and it's going to backfire on them, and that was one of those times.
27:20I think as soon as the scouting reports go around on Patra that he does that a lot, other
27:26teams are going to jump all over that and turn that into a curl either way.
27:30Absolutely.
27:31Yeah, that was one that you wish that he knew better.
27:34I think the opponent, too, is really one of the best at smelling out, sniffing out those
27:40scenarios, opportunities, and seizing it.
27:45And so for him, if you were playing a team that is more of a tomato can, then yeah, go
27:51ahead and knock yourself out.
27:54The other thing is, we were talking a minute ago about what was going on with the top guys,
27:59and one thing that was quite obvious is that Pasta's best hockey was when he was playing
28:05in combination and not trying to do too much himself.
28:08Marcian right now is getting way too much into his old Marcian game of trying to beat
28:15guys one-on-one.
28:19I understand why he does this through the course of a season, but I do wonder if we're
28:25getting to a stage in his career where he no longer has the foot speed, and the book
28:31is so well-published on him that he has a tendency to do this.
28:38So I think that maybe he needs to start changing a little bit and not being so much about the
28:45one-on-one game coming up out of his own zone.
28:49There's little pockets and situations in which he can still do that and be deadly,
28:56but I do feel like as a general style, it's always too much in his game early in the season.
29:03And I feel like with every passing year here, as he gets past these surgeries, and he gets
29:09into his mid-30s, and now he's going to be 37 before the season's over, he's at a
29:15stage where that kind of hockey's not going to pay off for him anymore, even in the long run.
29:21All right.
29:22Tweet of the week.
29:23We're giving it to DaveRobinson3, Mick, on Twitter.
29:28Hard to admit, but I might hate the Florida Panthers so much that I might want the Habs
29:33or the Sabres to get better so they can be a real rival again.
29:36I am confused and angry, and I won't be taking any questions this season.
29:40Thank you for understanding.
29:43That guy, Dave Robinson, sounds very distraught and upset about how much the Florida Panthers
29:49have the Bruins number, and he just wants it to be over.
29:52He wants to wake up tomorrow and it'll all be a bad dream and be over, and they're
29:56back to battling the Montreal Canadiens like in the old days.
29:59Do you see any evidence that later on in the year, the Bruins are going to be able to flip
30:07the script on the Panthers?
30:09Yeah.
30:10Yeah, I do.
30:11You do?
30:12Yep.
30:13I do.
30:14I mean, could it go south?
30:15Sure.
30:16It can get derailed.
30:17It can all go wrong.
30:18Well, it's not even going south.
30:19It's just status quo, right?
30:21The status quo is not going to get it done.
30:22They're going to have to change something.
30:23Well, I feel like they are changing, and I just feel like it's a messy change.
30:27I feel like they're becoming a physically aggressive team, a team that won't take any
30:31more crap, and I frankly love it, and I feel like it's a mess right now.
30:37It's ugly right now, but I'm okay with that as long as there is a sense of progress
30:44month to month, and that this team, you don't want to see them get so chaotic that they
30:50wind up falling out of the playoff picture, especially after the signings, because now
30:54you're going to fire your coach.
30:56Now you're going to make a trade.
30:57Now you're going to do stuff that might not be the best.
31:00So it's a risky ground.
31:03It's a choppy surface they're on right now, but I love the fact that they're becoming
31:10an aggressive team, that they're physically standing up for one another, that Zaka drops
31:14the gloves and fights a guy who's clearly going to beat him up.
31:20That's good for him, but there's an awful lot there that's messy right now that they
31:26need to get a hold of, like you were alluding to.
31:29Along the way here, there has to be a progress.
31:31There has to be a steady moving of the needle, and then maybe five months from now, they'll
31:38be ready to take on whoever's there waiting for them, whether it's Florida or not.
31:45I understand Monty's perspective yesterday.
31:47Of course, Florida's the rival.
31:48Well, Florida's two years straight in the Stanley Cup Final and winning the Cup this
31:53year.
31:54And has ended their season two years in a row, too.
31:55That's right.
31:57That's the biggest part.
31:59But I look at it and say, hey, no team has made it to the Stanley Cup Final three years
32:03in a row in the cap era.
32:05I don't think the Florida Panthers are going to be the first.
32:07Not with so many guys lost, significant players lost to them in the offseason.
32:13I just don't see it.
32:14I do think the continuation of their style, but hey, when they're not playing the Bruins,
32:19they lose two games.
32:21So as much as this affects the Bruins in a negative way, it affects Florida in a positive
32:26way.
32:27Yeah.
32:28Oh, and I'm sure Florida got up for those two games, too.
32:31It's clear those two teams don't like each other.
32:33The Panthers were going to make sure they brought their best in those two games.
32:36What do you think, Emily, about Edmonton when they play them?
32:39Yes.
32:40100%.
32:41I, you know, there are certain things I like that the Bruins are going to, you know, make
32:46a concerted effort to, like, be hard on Florida's skill.
32:50I think that's something you have to do against teams like that.
32:53But I also think, like, I'm of the opinion you have to make life miserable for Sam Bennett
32:58and Matthew Kachuk.
32:59And you really have to make it, like, always a hard day at the office for them when you're
33:03playing against that team.
33:05And that's something the Bruins still don't do enough.
33:08And they've tried.
33:09Like, Trent Frederick tried in that first game to go after both of those guys, and neither
33:13one of them wanted anything to do with them.
33:15Kachuk reeled him right in.
33:16He said, let's go.
33:17And that's when Frederick was yelling at the ref, he told me, let's go, he told me, let's
33:21go.
33:22And then Kachuk's like, ah, ah.
33:25But he's playing them like a violin, you know?
33:27Of course.
33:28I mean, so the Bruins right now look like a dumb team.
33:31They are, but they need to be the proactive rather than the reactive.
33:36Absolutely.
33:37And I feel like the Bruins are reactive far too much against the Florida Panthers.
33:40Well, on opening night, yeah, definitely.
33:42But it's not about challenging them to fights, it's about friggin' lining them up and smashing
33:47them at the boards.
33:48Well, to your point, McAvoy hits Rahegi yesterday, but then he stands over him, Rahegi's probably
33:55grabbing on to him, talking to him, grabbing on to him, and McAvoy's trying to cut loose.
33:59So he stands over him, he stands over him again.
34:01Now, if this is the playoffs, they'd probably never call it.
34:03It didn't look like McAvoy was trying to break loose.
34:05It looked like McAvoy just wanted to cross-check the living bejesus out of him when he was
34:08down on the ice.
34:09I don't feel like that was to get him in the top four.
34:10No, I do.
34:11I do think McAvoy's a rough guy.
34:13He will not take prisoners.
34:15So I like that about him, too, because I feel like there's a certain nastiness that you
34:20have to have to win in May and June.
34:24And you don't want to distinguish, you don't want to extinguish that with McAvoy or discourage
34:28it.
34:29And that's a fine line, because you don't want him to play any less tenacious than he
34:33always does.
34:34Right.
34:35But there's just certain things that he does where you're like, that's just not the right
34:39time, not the right place, not the right thing to do.
34:43And you've got to pick your spot.
34:44Not the right month of the season.
34:45Yeah, that, too.
34:46That, too.
34:47That, too.
34:48But, yeah.
34:49I don't know.
34:50I haven't seen—I like to see tangible evidence that things are going to change, and I do
34:56like the personnel changes that the Bruins had.
34:59I do like what they brought in over the summer.
35:02I think you've seen in the other two games, like, some really good evidence of how effective
35:07they can be, especially against every team not named the Florida Panthers.
35:12They look like a playoff—
35:13We're about to find out.
35:14Yeah.
35:15But they look like a playoff team.
35:16They look legit.
35:17Like, you know, I like what I've seen, but I have not seen any evidence that anything
35:21has changed with the Florida Panthers.
35:23I have not seen any evidence that things are going to be different in the spring when they
35:27play each other in the playoffs again, which they inevitably will.
35:31I have not seen anything to make me think that it's going to be a different story this
35:34time around.
35:35Now, they've got a lot of time now to build up a different narrative, to build up who
35:41and what they're going to be, to build up until the next time that they play them.
35:45And maybe it will be a different story the next time, and we'll see more evidence to
35:48say, OK, I think this is a different story now.
35:51I think this is a different Bruins team that's ready for this Panthers team.
35:54I just didn't see enough of that in the first two games to make me think it's going to be
35:57any different when they play each other this spring.
35:59I really didn't.
36:00I was hoping to, but I certainly didn't.
36:04Definitely not in the first game.
36:06And even in that game yesterday, like, they had some chances in the third period to tie
36:11that game.
36:12Like, they were in it.
36:13That was a very winnable game, or at least a game where they could have had a point and
36:15pushed it to overtime.
36:17And the fact they couldn't get the goal and some of the breakdowns that they had that
36:21led to the goals against for them just told me that they're not ready yet, and they still
36:25need some time.
36:26I'm hoping the composure will be different when they see them again later in the season,
36:31whenever that is.
36:32I haven't checked, but their composure needs to be much improved against the top opponents.
36:39And this used to be, the Lightning used to be their daddy.
36:41Now it's the Panthers.
36:44So I think that this is a situation that they're going to have to, they got a long time to
36:51figure out their season, their team.
36:53They got things to focus on internally with their top lines, especially the Coyle-Marshan-Geeky,
37:01whoever it's going to be on right, or whether or not Coyle and Marshan are going to come
37:05back together, or what's going to happen there.
37:08This lines two and three are the two that they're getting a hairy eyeball right now.
37:14So I think the Bruins got a lot to figure out on their own.
37:17They got a lot of discipline to put back in their game.
37:20I mean, Monty even said before the game, he said, we need to be all business.
37:23We need to really get back to playing hockey here, and sure enough, all hell breaks loose.
37:29So it's quite clear that there's a disconnect between him and the players in the moment.
37:35Now it's like the kid who comes home from school, but dad, I didn't, but dad, it's,
37:42I think that this is, it's good for them not to see them for a while and get the white
37:47noise out of their head and just get back to being who they are and find their identity.
37:52Something Monty says he hopes that everybody will understand what that is by Thanksgiving.
37:56Absolutely.
37:57They better have a team identity by Thanksgiving.
37:59All right, Mick, thank you very much for joining us.
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38:43What time is it, Mick?
38:44It's a GameTime decision because it's GameTime.
38:47GameTime, GameTime.
38:48All right, Mick, thank you very much for joining us, my friend.
38:52Everybody else out there, thank you for listening.
38:54We will see you at the ring.