Do the Bruins finally have an identity under Sacco? Could the Bruins actually make a playoff run? Legend Mike Milbury joins!
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00:00happy new year mr. Milbury well same to you guys where you been hiding uh well
00:06I went on a little trip to Costa Rica I don't know if you've ever been there or
00:10not no I haven't and then really did nothing which I kind of like but I'm
00:14delighted to be back how are your holidays everything good you see the
00:17family and the grandkids and all yeah yeah I just got to see my one of my
00:21grandsons play a basketball game it was a thrill of their 130 to 29 and then the
00:26same day I saw a little uh my Mikey from Western Connecticut played in a
00:31hockey game scored a couple of goals and looked really good so it was fun and
00:34then we went to New York City where we ate ourselves through Christmas I can
00:38only imagine you watching you know grandson play hockey and like you are
00:43you a vocal grandfather no I'm no I'm not vocal during the game but we had a
00:49chat afterwards we did you know I gave him the pluses and minuses no screaming
00:55or yelling but there's some things he's got to work on if he wants to go to the
00:58next level yeah his turns is his turns is stopping needs to be improved if he
01:06wants to separate from the opposition but no question he tries like a son of a
01:10gun they do I know the officials get nervous if you take your shoe off yeah
01:18they do but I was I just had an anniversary is like 45 years ago when I
01:23hit somebody with a shoe I was hard to believe speaking of family I was told
01:27recently that your son and I share the same barber really yes in South Boston
01:33huh that would be Jake or JP I don't know which one yeah but I probably Jake
01:40is I don't think JP likes to spend money on a haircut yeah it's an expensive spot
01:43I'll tell you that is the is the shine wearing off the winter classic or is it
01:50just depends on the quality of the teams that are that are playing it's
01:56certainly the quality of teams is gonna help it out but it's it's a you know it
02:00doesn't really I didn't even look at it this year to be honest with you I so I
02:04guess for me the shine is left it a little bit but it's tough to televise it
02:09it's tough to get a good angle if you're in the house it's a it's a lousy event
02:14to watch live most of the time you're looking at the scoreboard to see what's
02:18going on on the ice but it's a you know it's kind of a thrill but these days
02:23that you know when you go to event you never know what kind of a thrill you're
02:26gonna get I guess Mike there continues to be question marks around pasta he
02:31game after game seems to have the most shots on goal for the Bruins but they're
02:35just not going in what has been the issue there you know what he's as long
02:41as he continues to get chances I think he'll wind up getting on a hot streak I
02:46mean March and has had been on a real role and those two guys are carrying a
02:50lot of the weight of this team and let's face it that the identity that they're
02:55now starting to form under Sacco is is fewer shots allowed you know they had
03:00ten wins in December which is almost as much as they had in the previous two
03:04months together and their checking game is better so and if you're checking game
03:08is better your skating is better and if you're skating is better you're probably
03:11moving the puck a little bit more efficiently which I've seen but their
03:16personnel dictates that they have to play defensively and a lot of pressure
03:21offensively goes on to March and into Postenok but there's there's not enough
03:25firepower for run and gun and you know if you look at the guys beyond Marsha and
03:29imposter like Lindholm's not in soccer they don't cut the mustard on the top
03:33six for me I mean Lindholm scored his points when he was playing with Johnny
03:38Goudreau and Matthew Tuchuk but you didn't have those guys right now and but
03:42he does have one quality player on the wing but they just don't have it and you
03:46can see that you can see when you watch the Washington game they had 13 quality
03:53chances that was the count and they only scored one goal and that one goal was
03:58scored off a dump and when it hit a stanchion and came out front on a weird
04:01bounce and Brazzo just was able to tap it in but 27 shots blocked that tells a
04:08story you know when you get that many shots
04:10lucky give Washington credit for getting in the way but Peter McNabb my old buddy
04:15God rest his soul used to say you have to see the holes you don't see the
04:19goalies or the checker in front of you you have to find the holes and they don't
04:22they don't seem to have the ability to do that so I think they've done a good
04:26job on the Sacco won a bunch more games and they've kind of established an
04:31identity that works to their personnel and they're gonna have to live with that
04:35does that make them a bonafide cup contender I don't think so but it makes
04:39them a better team than they were in October and November and in your mind
04:43what is that when you look at that month they put together in December minus Jim
04:47Montgomery with Joe Sacco like is well it wasn't was kind of Montgomery was
04:53kind of run-and-gun and possess the puck and get quality chances and now
04:57they've turned it into you know we don't want to give up quality chances and
05:00we'll take our we'll take a quantity of shots and crash the net and defense
05:06first seems to be the order of the day and I think it needs to be order of the
05:10day I'm happy with Swayman coming around he's played much better I think much
05:14more solidly than he did at the beginning of the year got through some
05:17early season hiccups Corpus Allo for the most part has been fine but you know
05:22they lean on the goaltenders they'll get Lindholm back and as much as I think
05:27think he's more flawed than he should be or worth his paycheck but he's still a
05:31pretty good player and that'll help but um defense first and get your chances
05:37the one thing they have to figure out is is the power play they have enough to be
05:41better than their dismal record so far I mean looks like they're trying to do
05:45some things lower I was on the first unit instead of McAvoy they have guys
05:49that can move along the blue line and usually that's a good sign when you see
05:53movement along the blue line by the defenseman they change the angles can
05:56get pucks to the net and you know you get dirty goals that I met in that
06:00regard so they got to keep working on and they got to keep they got to keep
06:04it simple they got to keep themselves moving and it's got to have more
06:07productivity if they want to you know move up in the standings and they should
06:11they they can move up in the standings they're only four points behind Florida
06:14I mean that's remarkable isn't it well you have a Rangers team on deck now
06:19that's in a real slump so what do you do if you're Joe Sacco going into this
06:22game and what can you take away from it you know the the start from this game is
06:27is very important you know when you're the Rangers and this is a team that was
06:32people had them I'm and I was among them had them ranked in the upper echelon of
06:38teams in the league this year and they've just you know they can't get out
06:42of their own way I mean they're benching a guy like Chris Kreider who was you
06:46know if people thought his jersey was going to be retired in New York but it
06:49as head-scratching and now Shester can is out with I don't know what the injury
06:54is but apparently they just put him on injured reserve so get the good start
06:59get a team that's not feeling confident about itself put him on their heels and
07:03I think that's the way to approach this game good good quick start with lots of
07:08pressure and see how they the emotionally handle it and then New York
07:12if they get down again here I mean that crowd will be nasty Mike you talked
07:17about the Bruins finally having an identity I think that to me was one of
07:21the most important things that they find over the last you know a couple weeks
07:24under Sacco do you think that identity though allows them and you also talked
07:28about them possibly getting hot like would that allow them to make a
07:31playoff run are they good enough to even do that if they do get hot like if pasta
07:36does start finding the goal and get a little healthier and and other guys
07:39start to contribute offensively outside of you know Morgan Geeky who seems to be
07:42the only person that can score constantly and then Swayman kind of
07:46continues to get in a rhythm like is this a team that can make a run I don't
07:51know I don't see them as a threat to win a Stanley Cup there are too many other
07:55really good teams out there that I think would would make it impossible for them
08:00but they you know if they continue to work on this type of game plan and they
08:05do get all those things in order yeah they can win a round could they win too
08:10yeah maybe there's a lot of crappy teams in the Eastern Conference right
08:13now for whatever reason you know Pittsburgh can't figure it out the
08:17Islanders can't figure it out the Rangers can't figure it out it's it's a
08:21bunch of teams at that end but there's still New Jersey up top is still Florida
08:26up top there's still some teams that can do some in Washington certainly has
08:30improved so I don't see them as a you know can they can they win around yes
08:35can they win too probably not but there's still a trading deadline to look
08:40at and maybe they can pick something up along the way offensively that would
08:43help them out but I don't see them getting to the conference final is there
08:47anything they would have to do come postseason to secure Joe Sacco a job
08:51long-term for the Bruins or do you think he's qualified to have that position he
08:56certainly qualified and he certainly has established himself with the players as
09:01somebody that they can lean on and with this I think this right approach to
09:07defense first and you know make your offense a little bit more simple there's
09:12got to be a believer believability in his his style as a coach for this team
09:17but it's going to be incumbent upon management to find ways to get this team
09:23better offensive weapons otherwise they're you know they're running in
09:27neutral different sport but you were a head coach for a long time if you were
09:33Gerard Mayo would you start Drake May on Sunday you you know I I'd like to think
09:44that despite the fact that I was in a very bad position that I might have the
09:52courage to keep him out of the play he's had a couple of whacks in the head
09:58yeah one kept him out of a game or so whatever how long the other one was you
10:04know scared me and if you have to start to have multiple concussions then you
10:10really you know you might have a long-term problem and let's face it the
10:14protection that he's getting is not exactly first-class so if I'm gonna play
10:20him and I understand that they want to give him you know and this is not
10:23exactly your average team here this is the Buffalo Bills that's gonna they're
10:27gonna come after you and I'm gonna give a big challenge to to Drake May I would
10:34hope that I wouldn't but if I was gonna play him I'd hope I'd get him out of
10:37there at the end of the first quarter yeah yeah all right Mike well we're
10:41getting into the interesting time season-wise when it comes to hockey and
10:46so delighted that we will talk to you every week and we will talk to you again
10:51next week well I'll be here I don't know if you'll be on vacation again I'm
10:55planning to go away you know maybe a day here or there I mean I feel like I've
11:00earned it yep but certainly I'm here for the for the it's hard to be humble when
11:05you know you're good good for the time being I mean you're getting into the
11:09dreary days well you probably like them on the Cape when there's nobody around
11:12like the winter some people think the winter is the best time on the Cape it's
11:17certainly more manageable but it can get a little mentally draining because it's
11:23a today's breezy it does all get out well I'm sure it is in Boston too but
11:28anyway I'll take it is what it is take up like puzzling like you seem like a
11:33big jigsaw puzzle no my my wife does this wordle stuff all the time you might
11:38as well be in Chinese to me no thanks I'm just gonna go to the gym get a
11:42sweat all right yeah we will talk to you soon