Conor Ryan and Ty Anderson break down the Bruins getting absolutely smoked in Columbus. The timing couldn’t have been worse, especially after a big win against the Capitals. Once again, special teams continue to struggle, and it’s starting to cost them. With these issues piling up, what lineup moves does this team need to make to turn things around?
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SportsTranscript
00:00Poke the Bear is brought to you by Price Picks and the GameTime app.
00:07And welcome to Poke the Bear episode 290 presented by Price Picks and GameTime tickets.
00:12My name is Conor Ryan.
00:14Once again, we are joined by the esteemed Ty Anderson of 985 the Sports Hub.
00:18Ty, how you doing?
00:20What's going on?
00:21Coming to you live from the my office here at the 985 the Sports Hub studios.
00:26Not at home today.
00:27Live from the studio.
00:28So it's a little bit of a weird, weird location.
00:31But uh, but you know, here we are.
00:33Changing things up a little bit.
00:34I know it's fresh off the hockey show.
00:36I'm sure we're going to be talking about the same things, Ty.
00:39But before we dive into a miserable game for the Bruins in Columbus, how was your how was
00:45your Christmas?
00:46How was the holidays?
00:47I was good.
00:48You know, I think it's it.
00:49I'm one of these people who I, I like the holidays, a bit of a different holiday this
00:55year.
00:56Just a lot going on for sure.
00:58But it's always nice to to, you know, get a little bit of downtime, see some friends,
01:03see some family, go from there.
01:05I know it's not unique to to like the holidays.
01:08Everyone likes the holidays for the most part.
01:09But I think as you get older and you know, every year, your kind of Christmas gets a
01:14little bit smaller.
01:16You enjoy having that on an uninterrupted, you know, family time where like, listen,
01:21it's Christmas Day.
01:22Not a lot of places are going to be calling my name.
01:25This is when I'm happy that we don't cover the NBA where, you know, Celtics are playing
01:28and we got to be we got to be at the Garden.
01:31So it's nice.
01:32It's nice to have an excuse free sort of hangout with all your family and friends, you know,
01:39and shout out to everyone who wasn't able to get that, you know, working, keeping the
01:45country running and what you're, you know, everything like that.
01:49But it was great.
01:50Just again, just have have a couple of days where you're just seeing family and you're
01:55juggling some schedules, but it's not nearly as chaotic as it is now, you know, on a random
01:59Sunday, you know, so to speak in terms of getting time with family.
02:03Yeah, absolutely.
02:04Well said.
02:06Same boat was able to relax a little bit low key.
02:09Nothing better than that.
02:10So to get back into the swing of things now, I don't think the Bruins were in the same
02:14boat where I think they enjoyed their holidays, but we're not ready to go on Friday against
02:19the Columbus Blue Jackets, lose six to two.
02:22And I think you look to the last game they played before this was that Monday game against
02:27the Capitals.
02:28I would say probably their best one of the year and great timing, right?
02:31Tough matchup.
02:32You dominated play, held them to 11 shots on goal, and you have like the holiday break
02:37to let that kind of marinate a little bit of like, maybe they're back.
02:40Maybe they're they're turning the corner here.
02:41You're feeling good.
02:42And then they they they drop a deuce right on the ice in Columbus.
02:48Not exactly what you're looking for for this team.
02:50And again, kind of falls on what we've said all year, where take a step forward and they
02:55take a step back.
02:56It's tough to kind of find a groove or find any sort of momentum with this team in terms
03:00of what they're trying to build here.
03:01Yeah.
03:02And I think I think, you know, Billy Jaffe said it on the Nessun postgame last night.
03:07I thought he nailed it where, like, you know, the part that really sucks about this is not
03:11the fact that they lost the game.
03:12Like Columbus has beaten some pretty good competition, especially in their building
03:17this year.
03:18It's that it comes right after what you mentioned, the defensive clinic against Washington.
03:23And yeah, Washington was on the second leg of a back to back.
03:25They didn't have they didn't have a vet skin.
03:28So maybe you're not getting their best punch, but you still won that game.
03:32You had some some key moments there where you really stepped up and you had a good five
03:37minute kill.
03:38You allowed zero shots on goal during that kill.
03:41And then really what happens on Friday night in Columbus is a lot of what has happened
03:45when they've lost this year.
03:47You know, so the penalty trouble, they go for three on the PK and really what happens
03:53is bad decisions that end up in the back of your net pretty much every time.
03:58And thirdly, when things slip for this team, they slip quickly, right?
04:03Three goals in two minutes and forty seven seconds.
04:05And that's your ballgame right there.
04:06You know, like that that that two minute forty seven second stretch, like that's where it
04:10all falls apart for the Bruins.
04:11And so that sort of, you know, that was an element there where it was it was all of their
04:17bad qualities coming coming back to the table, back to the surface in that second period
04:22of play, I thought.
04:23Yeah.
04:24And I think the concerning thing, as you said, we've seen multiple games where they've spiraled
04:28out and they've lost lopsided matchups.
04:30And we've seen games like Carolina and Dallas where the defensive lapses lead to odd man
04:36rushes, all these sorts of things.
04:37The PK is not up to par, all those things.
04:40But this game to like listen, like Columbus, I think, is a young, skilled team.
04:45They got some speed.
04:46They can score a lot of goals.
04:47You should be able to score goals on the other end of the ice, which the Bruins did not do.
04:50But you look at like the underlying numbers as it wasn't like like the Carolina game was
04:54a lot of like quick strike, big fuck ups, and it leads to two goals and pucks in the
04:58back of the net.
04:59This was like a pretty thorough ass kicking like throughout the game.
05:03Like you look at like the underlying numbers, Blue Jackets just at five and five play, not
05:08counting the fact they went three for three on the power play.
05:10They had a 15 to seven edge and high danger chances.
05:13They had a 31 to 18 edge in scoring chances like they were bullying the Bruins in their
05:19own end for the entire the entire game.
05:21Like this wasn't like multiple blips where you're looking at a Kala or Zdorov or McAvoy
05:27and be like, oh, or Laura, I like doing like, oh, what exactly are you doing there?
05:31This was consistently getting your ass kicked in your own end, which was, I think, probably
05:35even more discouraging when you look at the quality of competition, the timing, all of
05:38it.
05:39It it was just there's not a whole lot of positives to draw out a game like that where
05:44you were just you got pants pretty much in Columbus.
05:47Yeah.
05:48And and I mean, look at the look at how it all breaks down.
05:53Right.
05:54Zach Rowenski has four assists.
05:55Best player on the ice, Charlie McAvoy is missing hits and taking penalties and having
06:00a downright miserable game.
06:03And, you know, that's that can be the difference when you go against high end talent.
06:09And, you know, let's even look at look up up front of Verankov has a great game.
06:14Marchenko has a great game.
06:16Sean Monahan scores two goals like like.
06:20Teams that have that high end talent, like if your talent doesn't match it, you're going
06:25to have a hard time winning.
06:26And that's sort of been the name of the game for this team this year where, you know, they're
06:32not talented enough to to.
06:36Cover up their mistakes most nights.
06:38It's just it's not a knock on them as as a ceiling, but they're just they're not built
06:43to win five to four most nights unless they have a posture knock takeover, unless McAvoy
06:48is a three zone dynamo like it's going to be hard for them to do that.
06:52And so when other teams is best players are their best players, if you don't match that,
06:58you're not going to win that game.
07:00And that has been the theme of the of this team every time they lose.
07:05It's more than just what we've talked about with things getting away from them.
07:08It's that when when when good players elevate and are great, if your guys don't match that,
07:14you don't win the game.
07:15You are not deep enough to cover up for those inefficiencies.
07:18You're too top heavy right now.
07:20And it is what it is like.
07:22You can't go back and change that.
07:24But when when a guy like McAvoy does not does not have it like you didn't have it on Friday
07:29night, it's going to be hard to win that game right now.
07:31It just it just is.
07:32Yeah.
07:33And it also makes you dread, you know, these upcoming matchups against teams like Tampa
07:38Bay, where they have a pretty top heavy roster.
07:41And I think they're a lot better than what I was expecting this year, because they were
07:44going to be pretty one dimensional.
07:46But they've had a lot of guys pulling on their weight, but also their top guys routinely
07:50take over games between Kucherov and Point and Gensel.
07:53So like, again, if you're in some of these games against some of these opponents where
08:00you just have to shrug your shoulders when Kucherov has a takeover shift, like if you
08:04have the offense or the or the metal to, you know, stick in the game and stick to your
08:08system, then you can overcome that.
08:10If you have the offense to be like, all right, like we know Kucherov is going to get his
08:14same with like a McDavid, what have you like.
08:16We know sometimes shit happens, but we stick to our game plan.
08:20We can get on the power play, get a goal.
08:22This seems not necessarily built that way, right, where it's almost like you have to
08:25play like a pretty flawless game.
08:27That doesn't mean like the game against the Capitals where it's 11 shots on goal.
08:32That's not going to happen.
08:33But like, you have to play like a pretty rigid, structured system.
08:37And if one guy fucks up, like it all comes undone, right?
08:41Like it's like you look at some of those plays, it's just one guy, one bad line change, and
08:45all of a sudden you're chasing the game.
08:46This team just doesn't have the horses right now to claw back when it is like even a three
08:51one game that even even that feels insurmountable.
08:54Yeah.
08:55Let's go back to the Monday game real quick.
08:57So you have the five minute PK.
08:59You allow zero shots on goal.
09:01But a key part of that, in my opinion, was right off the jump.
09:04You have a good shorthanded rush and all of a sudden, you know, that puck doesn't get
09:09on goal.
09:10Washington has numbers going the other way.
09:12Nikita Zdorov gets on his horse, snuffs out the play.
09:16What could have been a game changing kind of goal for Washington being on a five minute
09:21major.
09:22They scored unlimited power play goals and, you know, no one's coming out of that box
09:25until it's five minutes.
09:28But then you look at the game winning goal, right?
09:30It's a ferocious back check from Charlie Coyle, who gets back there, wins a puck battle, protects
09:35the puck and then sends it up ice where it leads to the Martian Lindholm chance that
09:40Lindholm scores a goal like like those details got to be there, right?
09:45And you compare those details versus the Fantilli goal, the second goal where you got four guys
09:51going off the ice at the same time.
09:53In a second period, we get the long change.
09:55You're coming off the powerful opportunity.
09:58And Brandon Carlo then makes a bad read on it, tries to make a puck play when he doesn't
10:03have the proper support and you have four guys chasing like like it just it can't happen
10:08in that situation.
10:09It can't happen in that moment.
10:11And that's the difference for this team between winning and losing.
10:14When their details are there, when they simplify their game and they realize who they are,
10:18they win.
10:19When they try to make hope plays and Hail Mary plays, they are not answered nearly as
10:24much as they are when they stick to their structure and their detail and their details.
10:28So that's what it comes back to for me.
10:30Like you just put those two segments side by side and you have your answer as to why
10:36the things happened the way they did on Friday night.
10:39Yeah, it's really, really frustrating for the Bruins, especially when you look at the
10:43timing of it, the straying from the identity.
10:46We'll talk a little bit more about this one, Ty.
10:49Unfortunately, we still have to talk more about it.
10:51Why?
10:52We do.
10:53I know there's nothing else going on, Ty.
10:55I wish they won 5-1.
10:56We keep the good vibes going, but we can't do that.
11:00No, the Bruins refuse to actually turn the other momentum on.
11:03So we'll continue to talk about a miserable game in Columbus.
11:06But before we do that, let's take a quick break here from our good friends over at Price
11:10Fix.
11:11The snow is falling.
11:12Eggnog is still flowing.
11:13I don't know about you.
11:14Eggnog is still flowing.
11:15Amazon.
11:16I don't want I don't want any of that.
11:17I don't keep you.
11:19I will take I will take all of it.
11:21Eggnog is still flowing.
11:22Yes.
11:23It's hurt.
11:24It is.
11:25It is.
11:26Sorry to interrupt this.
11:27Eggnog is one of those things that is hurt by just having an abysmal name and just an
11:31abysmal name.
11:32I don't like eggs in it.
11:34And you say nog and I think noggin.
11:36And so it's like egghead.
11:37I'm thinking egghead when you tell me about eggnog.
11:39I don't want it.
11:40I'm all set.
11:41It's a cherished shrink.
11:43You know how hard Phil Hottman and Jingle All The Way worked to get that perfect eggnog?
11:47Listen, I'm going to you can have that.
11:49I'll stick with my Shirley Temple's.
11:50Thank you very much.
11:51Sorry to interrupt.
11:52You have that.
11:53That's fine.
11:54The snow is falling.
11:55The eggnog is still flowing in this household.
11:57And you know what that means?
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13:32Ty, we'll pivot from the eggnog discussion.
13:34Still a great drink, so it gets me in a festive mood.
13:37I digress.
13:39When you look at other things that have hurt this team, one thing that kind of keeps coming
13:43back to, and even when they've been playing well under Joe Sacco, special teams still
13:48is crushing this team right now.
13:51You look at where they are, power play wise, they're still 31st in the league at 13.1%.
13:58And even the PK, which, you know, they've had strong stretches, especially under Joe
14:03Sacco.
14:04They have the five minute kill against Washington, which has felt like one of the bigger moments
14:09of the season in terms of, you know, thriving and taking on the challenge of a gut punch
14:15moment.
14:16There's still 70, you know, there's still 25th in the league.
14:18There's still, I think, 75.4%.
14:21Not really a winning formula for your team, especially when you've got so many issues
14:26in terms of scoring.
14:27Like the defense, I think at five on five, yes, again, they're not going to be 11 shots
14:31on goal good, but I think they can stick to a pretty rigid system that will make things
14:36difficult in terms of limiting high danger looks, what have you.
14:39But at five on five, you're not going to be able to score at a consistent rate.
14:43Your special teams has to be better.
14:45Like it's, it's, you just run the numbers.
14:47It's not a winning form in any capacity to be 20, you know, bottom 25 and bottom 25 in
14:53both power play and PK.
14:55Like something's got to give there.
14:56This team actually wants to make some gains.
14:58Yeah.
14:59You know, you said it right bottom 25 or, you know, so 25th on the PK.
15:0731st on the power play, as you mentioned.
15:09So that's your bottom, your bottom eight, right?
15:12Like you're, you know, for bottom seven, whatever it is, like, like it's not, it's not a formula.
15:19I forget the exact number.
15:21I think somebody, I think it's a hundred, right?
15:23Somebody said that typically if your power play percentage plus your PK percentage is
15:29a hundred, like you're, you're a good team.
15:31They're not.
15:32They're at, they're at 85, basically.
15:34Like, you know, it's, it's, it's not, it's not, it's not good, not good enough.
15:39And so I think one thing, you know, one positive right within the coaching change as it relates
15:48to the PK has been, they're not taking as many penalties.
15:51You're still going to kill off the ones you are taking, but I believe since the coaching
15:55change, the only game where they've taken more than three minors or four minors it was
16:02a Winnipeg game where they took six or six trips to the kill, however you want to, you
16:08know, phrase it.
16:10But you got to kill the penalties you do take, right?
16:12And I think what I didn't like about last night's game is that the penalties were a
16:16result of being hemmed in your defensive zone or being out of position and having to take
16:21a dumb slashing penalty, whatever it is.
16:25And that's a sign that's when they're at their worst, right?
16:28Like you look at, at when they take bad penalties, it's always, it's almost always a sticking
16:32fraction because they're chasing the play and you know, they've now given up at least
16:38three power play goals, six times this year, six times in their last 33 games to be more
16:44specific.
16:45I was really curious how long was the previous stretch of, of giving up three, giving up
16:52three power play goals, six times.
16:56Like how many, it's been six and 33.
16:58How many was it the last time that happened?
17:01Do you want to know the answer?
17:02It's going to blow your mind.
17:04Yeah.
17:05I really don't, but I know you're going to tell me and it's going to be really bad.
17:08Six times in 652 games dating back to February 9th, 2016.
17:16You don't, you know what that February 9th game was, by the way, in 2016, that was the
17:19game where the LA Kings dropped nine goals on them.
17:22It was Milan Lucic's first game back in Boston after being traded to LA.
17:27So that's how long ago that was, right?
17:30Like, like that's an insane number.
17:32And so part of that is the league changing, right?
17:35Like teams have better power plays now than they did, you know, let's say even three years
17:38ago.
17:39It's such a bigger part of the game.
17:41I think we all agree, but that's bad, man.
17:44That is really bad.
17:45Like you got to get a key kill because as you, as you said, as you alluded to, like
17:50you don't have the talent to outscore those kinds of problems.
17:52You just don't.
17:53And so I think especially to your point with like, if your power play is as bad as it's
17:59been, you can't go, you know, goal for goal with another team's power play unit.
18:03You just can't do it.
18:04It feels like, and so it's a massive problem for this team and it's been better, but last
18:10night was a massive step back in that regard.
18:13I don't know how you felt watching it.
18:14I just felt like they weren't even close.
18:16Like they were just getting battered and peppered on the PK and it was just inevitable.
18:21Like poor, poor Jonas Corposalo going side to side, you know, it's like pinball against
18:27the poor guy.
18:28I felt bad for him.
18:29Yeah.
18:30And it's almost like, what do you view as, I think the, the correct statement is that
18:35it, both the power play and PK are both very concerning.
18:38Which one are you more concerned about?
18:39Cause you can make an argument that like the power play should not be this bad.
18:43And the fact that it's been so stagnant and so predictable with the personnel that they
18:47have is very concerning, but is it also more concerning that PK, which has been kind of
18:52this team's bread and butter, and this is kind of their identity of being a rigid structure
18:56defensive system is also committing these lapses.
18:59Like is, is there a one that leapfrogs the other in terms of like, man, what the, what
19:05the hell's going on here?
19:06Cause both are, you know, going well below what I think we all expected.
19:11It's gotta be the power play for me because they have too many power play opportunities
19:15where it's just listless.
19:18Like there's really not a lot of high end opportunity, high end chances, a lot of standing
19:25around a lot of being very stationary, like, like, okay.
19:29Go to the, uh, Veronkov power play goal in the second period, uh, on Friday night, it
19:38should have been a penalty.
19:39Brandon Carlo stick gets Tomahawked right off the, right off the face off, but it's
19:42not, but they're making aggressive plays to try to get the puck out.
19:47Brandon Carlo moves up.
19:48I probably shouldn't have cause he left the front of that all alone for Veronkov there,
19:54but he tries to make a play realizing Elias Lindholm doesn't have a stick.
19:58He's trying to, I got to jump up and try to get this puck out of here, get a change, whatever.
20:04Then you watch the power play.
20:06You got four guys just standing around, just standing around watching the puck carrier.
20:11And there was a sequence there where I think it was, uh, Posnack tried sending a puck to
20:17McAvoy I think, and McAvoy just wasn't ready, just wasn't ready.
20:22It's like, why are you out there then?
20:24Why?
20:25What are we doing?
20:26What are we doing?
20:27You got to be ready.
20:28And again, you compare it versus Columbus's power play where every guy out there already
20:32knows what he's doing with the puck before he even gets it.
20:35I don't feel like the Bruins power play has that kind of mentality.
20:39It's almost like they get the puck and they're waiting for something to happen.
20:43And it's like, you got to force the issue guys.
20:45You got to take charge.
20:47You got to do something there.
20:49And I think it's especially noticeable with the top unit, with the top unit, they are
20:53hunting for the perfect play.
20:56And I think teams are letting them beat themselves right now.
20:58So for me, it's the power play, because if you're going to give your top unit 90 seconds,
21:03they got to do something, man.
21:05And it just feels like they are way too stationary and they wait for the place to come to them.
21:10But it's like, yeah, well, you got to do something.
21:12You can't just stand there.
21:14It's like, it's like, I love you.
21:15It's forgetting Sarah Marshall.
21:16Well, you can't just lay there.
21:18You got to do something.
21:19You got to get up like there's an element there of do less, but also do something.
21:24And I feel like right now the Bruins just they aren't doing much of anything on that
21:27top unit.
21:28Yeah.
21:29Not us, buddy.
21:30Not us.
21:31Honestly.
21:32Yes.
21:33Honestly.
21:34That's the way it actually is playing out.
21:36Yeah.
21:37Very frustrating.
21:38Ty, we'll keep on talking about this game.
21:40Let's keep let's keep the bad vibes going.
21:42But before we do that, let's take a quick break and hear from our good friends over
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23:35Now, let's get back to the show.
23:38Shout out once again to Game Time.
23:40Ty, before we wrap this up, looking at just this team in terms of what they do now, especially
23:47with the post-holiday roster freeze done, are you looking at any lineup changes or things
23:53that need to be done to shake things up?
23:55Because again, listen, I think you have a lot of star players who should be leading
24:01the way for you that did not show up on Friday night in Columbus, but you also have a whole
24:07bunch of dead weight all across the roster that also is not impacting the game, especially
24:11look at that third line, the Brezo, Fredrick, Walsh from line.
24:16Miserable.
24:17Yeah, has not given you pretty much anything these last couple of games.
24:20So if you're the Bruins and you are, now that you have the ability to tweak your roster
24:23a little bit, whether it's this game on Saturday against Columbus or moving forward, what are
24:29there anything that you're trying to look at or trying to move in order to maybe get
24:33a little bit more of a spark here or change things around?
24:36Well, I mean, off the jump here, I think we can both agree that this is probably the best
24:41top six that they can have with this current roster.
24:45I've actually really liked Charlie Coyle on the wing, and I've been one of these guys
24:50that I've been very adamantly against that because my feeling was always, well, if you
24:56move Charlie Coyle from center to wing, his in-game impact is not going to be as high.
25:01He's a guy that that needs some puck touches, needs possession, all of that.
25:06But what really has happened here, he's got goals in three straight games, but also it's
25:10not three goals on four shots.
25:13He's taken 13 shots the last the last three games, and if he keeps bringing that, it's
25:18like, OK, that's that's great.
25:20Like I'll take that.
25:22Morgan Geeky has come alive playing with David Pasternak and Pavel Zaka.
25:27It's been better than I thought it would be.
25:30Now it's still going to you're still going to have some warts, but sort of what you saw
25:34on that Zaka goal Friday night, like that is their bread and butter, right?
25:38Like Geeky gets in deep, you know, makes a hit to win possession, and then he gets the
25:43puck to the skill guys.
25:45All right.
25:46That's the formula for a guy like him to succeed there consistently is going to do that.
25:51You know, that third line, though, as you mentioned, they're giving you nothing like
25:57like I will straight up.
25:58I will give you twenty five bucks if you can tell me anything that they have done that
26:03has been good, meaningful, has led to something.
26:07And now that I say this, you're going to have like five points on Saturday night, like combined,
26:11I bet.
26:12But it's just not it's not giving you enough.
26:14Right.
26:15There are multiple problems with that third line.
26:19I think you got to give Wallstrom a chance to stick when they acquired him.
26:25The first thing was kind of we got to give him minutes.
26:27All right.
26:28Well, Friday night was first time he's played at least 10 minutes like, yeah, they're not
26:32buying more minutes right now the way they're playing.
26:35He's not going to play a lot on the power play.
26:37And so Frederick at center, I've never liked I just I just I've never liked it.
26:43And I think he's had a bad year so far.
26:47But, you know, you asked me the question of what changes should they make?
26:51Well, you got a guy down in Providence right now who has I didn't check last night's game,
26:55Friday night's game, but he's got points.
26:57He had points in nine of 10.
26:59He had a seven game goal scoring streak and he had 15 points in 16 games or 16 points
27:05in 17 games, whatever it is.
27:07If that's not enough to earn up a call, I'm talking about Matthew Potra.
27:11Let's just get rid of Providence.
27:12We don't like just get rid of it, then just get rid of it.
27:14We don't need it.
27:15We don't need it.
27:16And so I think Potra should be called back up because you get that third line.
27:20You need some more offensive creativity.
27:21You need some more speed.
27:22He brings that.
27:23And I think if you're going to maximize Oliver Wallstrom, you got to give him a center like
27:28Matthew Potra over a center like Trent Frederick or Mark Castle, like, you know, like like
27:33you got to do something closer to that than what they've done so far.
27:36Yeah, no, I agree with like Potra.
27:38And I was like tempted at first.
27:40I think last week when we were talking about it, being like, you know, let's wait till
27:44after the new year, like let Potra Maroney have another couple of games.
27:47And so I think he's he's really benefited from playing heavy minutes down there.
27:51And I think that's the one thing that I'd be kind of concerned about of like, all right,
27:54you're on a roll now.
27:56Go drive play with Trent Frederick and, you know, Bresault and and Oliver Wallstrom.
28:02Like, is that going to translate even if he's making plays when these guys aren't doing
28:07a whole lot out there?
28:09But that's the best option you have right now.
28:11Like, I would be I'd love to see Potra in between him and Zaka and Pasternak.
28:17I don't think that will happen.
28:18That's just not one can dream, you know, like it won't.
28:21But I do think now when you look at it, the needs at the NHL level is more than I think
28:28what Potra has already showcased, like it feels like he's ready.
28:31Also there's that game was it last week where like he was just skating away and a dude cross
28:35checked him right in the back.
28:36And like, I also forget that, like, the NHL is kind of no holds barred, like Western Justice.
28:41And I'm like, oh, God, let's get him out of there.
28:45Well, I mean, and I think, you know, conversely, I think the best that Frederick has looked
28:50this year has been playing with Matthew Potra.
28:52I think that's when he's been at his best.
28:55And so it's a two birds, one stone kind of thing.
28:57Now.
28:58Now, the problem with that, though, is that we're going to punish you're going to punish
29:02or Oliver Wallstrom because they all can't play in the same line.
29:07I don't think they're going to scratch Frederick.
29:08I don't think they're going to feel so good trying everything they can not to do that.
29:12But this is where sort of the in my opinion, the identity or or not the identity, the status
29:21of the GM in having an interim head coach is kind of it's a little bit, you know, it's
29:27unusual, right?
29:28Like, OK, like, well, who do you want to play, Donnie?
29:30All right.
29:31I want to play Trent Frederick, my homegrown first round pick.
29:34I want to try to get, you know, Johnny Beecher, another first round pick going like, is it
29:39merit based right now or is it is it like I don't know, like I don't want to get too
29:45in the weeds on that.
29:46But like there are certain guys that are playing right now in the lineup that I don't think
29:50they should be given the kind of rope they're getting.
29:52And I wonder if they're getting it because they are first round picks and they are guys
29:56that they have developed.
29:58And, you know, like I just think the two most disappointing Bruins to me up front this
30:02year, it's been Johnny Beecher and Trent Frederick.
30:07I just don't think they've been good enough.
30:08And I don't think that they have taken that next step that a lot of us hope that they
30:12would.
30:14And they are first round picks.
30:15You want to stick with them.
30:16You want to see them play it out.
30:17But if you get guys knocking at the door and your third line is not going, you got to do
30:23something to get to get it going here, I think, because you got to be the best team you can
30:28be.
30:29And right now, I don't think you're getting enough from those guys.
30:30And it's it's it's making you a worse off team.
30:32Yeah, we'll see what they end up doing, whether it's Saturday or next week, especially the
30:36guy like Patra.
30:37It feels all but inevitable that he will get called up here pretty soon.
30:40So we'll see how that plays out.
30:42Ty, before we let you go, where can we read your stuff?
30:46Where can we listen to you on the airwaves?
30:48All that good stuff.
30:49Yeah, you can find me at 95 sports up dot com as well as on the air every Saturday morning,
30:54the hockey show from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
30:58This week, we had to do a nine to ten because the the absolute shit bum Patriots have to
31:02play on a Saturday.
31:04So we have Patriots preview at 10 a.m.
31:05So we did an express show only one hour.
31:08I had a hard out at nine fifty nine, which was really stressful for me.
31:12I'm not going to lie.
31:13I'm not going to lie, because I was talking with Billy Jaffe.
31:15I like talking with Billy.
31:16You know, you said you had Pat Patriot just slamming on the glass in the studio.
31:21Yeah, they had they had Joe Milton ready to throw a football at me from Foxborough.
31:27I was going to hit me right in the head.
31:29No. And Billy's a guy.
31:31He has so much knowledge about the league and what's going on with this team and that
31:37team. And so you ask him about teams and, you know, like you like the information, but
31:41you're like, oh, shit, Billy, we got to get out of here like nine nine.
31:45So I felt really bad about that.
31:46But yeah, you can hear me there.
31:48Also have the sports of underground podcast with Matt Dahl.
31:50If we do, I'll also be hosting December 30th, Monday night.
31:55I'll be hosting the night show six, 10 p.m.
31:58So you can hear me there.
31:59Follow me on social media at underscore Ty Anderson on pretty much every platform.
32:04So that's where you can find me.
32:06How about yourself? Yeah, you can read my stuff over at Boston dot com and the Boston
32:10Globe. We covered every step of the way with recaps, features, columns, breakdowns, all
32:15that good stuff. You can also find me on Twitter X, whatever you want to call it at
32:21Connor Ryan underscore ninety three.
32:23Ty, thank you for taking the time out to appear on this latest episode of Poke the
32:29Bear. I appreciate it.
32:30Absolutely. Anytime.
32:31Always fun doing this.
32:32And we're going to, you know, now our schedules, our holiday schedules should be a
32:36little bit easier so we can do more of these.
32:39Perfect. Sounds like a plan.
32:40Well, fans, thank you for listening.
32:42This is the bear episode two hundred ninety.
32:45You have a great rest of your week.