"Only three players that are untouchable". Bruins legend Mike Milbury joins! Could the Bruins deal their captain?
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00:00Good morning, Mike.
00:01Good morning.
00:02Where where does one go to get back the time
00:06that they gave to the Boston Bruins last night?
00:09Like I gave them a couple hours of my time.
00:12I want it back.
00:14Like them, you lose.
00:17I mean, it's a I don't
00:20I don't think that there's a lack of effort, but it's clear
00:24that there needs to be changes in the lineup.
00:27And and and I don't think the
00:31the press conference last week, not withstanding with with Cam
00:35and Charlie Jacobs, I think it's it's time to make sure
00:39you've given every one of your potential prospects.
00:42And I say potential because they're, you know, I'm not sure if
00:46Patra or Lysel or even Laurie, who's had some pretty good luck lately.
00:52I need to find we need to find out from the Bruins perspective
00:56if these guys have any future, they need some fresh blood
01:00and whatever fresh blood that's in there, they have to give a try to.
01:04Would you call it luck when Laura couldn't keep the puck in the zone last night
01:07and they got to break away out of it or no?
01:10And you've seen that.
01:11And I've seen him make these mistakes over and over again.
01:14But he also is their best offensive defenseman right now.
01:18But but you don't get called a defenseman because of your offense.
01:22You know, you've got to find your way around the defensive zone
01:25and and he sometimes seems to be lost.
01:29I don't know if that's his inability to do
01:33sort of calculate what's going on around him.
01:35If he doesn't see enough, he sees enough offensively.
01:38So he should be able to see things defensively as well.
01:41I don't know if it's a coaching problem, but it's clear that he's he
01:46he needs to be corralled in his own zone.
01:49And it's not that good.
01:51You've been really generous to these guys, surprisingly.
01:53But how many times how many different coaches
01:57can we blame the coaching problem on?
02:00Well, I've always thought that they've needed somebody
02:04and they have one guy in there now that's supposed to be a defensive coach.
02:08But I don't see the progress with Lowry right now.
02:13But I think they have to keep on.
02:15They have to keep on trying with him and they have to keep on trying to coach him.
02:18They have to keep on making sure that, you know, the guy can skate like hell.
02:22He can move the puck offensively.
02:25And now you start to to just put him in a position
02:28where he does things simply in his own zone.
02:31And that needs to be that needs to happen.
02:33And if he can't do it, then he can't do it.
02:35But that's my point.
02:36We have to look at every possible, you know, guy under 24
02:41that could possibly fit in this lineup, because the guys that are certainly
02:46on the back end of the offensive lineup or even the defensive lineup
02:50are not are not going to cut the mustard.
02:52The Bruins are out of a playoff spot right now.
02:54It's not by some minuscule margin, but they're they're out of a playoff spot.
02:58And and it doesn't look like there's reason for optimism
03:03for this particular unit.
03:05So if you're going to go forward, there's two things that have to happen.
03:08You have to look at every younger and there's a risk
03:12that you might not make the playoffs, but you've got to look at all your young
03:16players and you have to calculate towards the trading deadline.
03:20What what do you want to give up?
03:22How do you want to approach this?
03:23And as far as I'm concerned,
03:25there are only three players there that are untouchable,
03:28and that's Swayman, Postenok and McAvoy.
03:30And McAvoy is hasn't hasn't come around the way I would like him to.
03:34But another another head scratching situation, as far as I'm concerned.
03:39But those are the only three guys that should be protected.
03:43So you would look at deals when it comes to your captain?
03:46I you know what?
03:48I I look at all the teams
03:52in the National Hockey League with great players like Crosby and Malkin.
03:57Why wouldn't they want to be traded?
03:59Why would you want to go at the end of your career?
04:01I know you've had a long story career, one city,
04:05but the chance to go to, let's say, Colorado or Edmonton
04:10when they have a legitimate chance to win a Stanley Cup.
04:13So, you know, you're making a bundle of money and you're going to stay
04:16in a fancy hotel in another city for a few months,
04:20or maybe even move there for a couple of years at the end of your career.
04:23Why wouldn't you want to do that?
04:25I don't get it.
04:25This is this no trade clause nonsense.
04:28You've got to go, as far as I'm concerned, or at least limit it to,
04:31you know, 10 teams because, you know, they're making so much money.
04:35And and oh, my God, you'd have to move your family
04:38for for a couple of years to another city.
04:41Heaven forbid, making $10 million a year.
04:45It's just this team like the basics.
04:48It's like and I don't know if it ends.
04:50It's not it can't all be a skill thing, a roster thing.
04:54It's the the the basics like the the
04:59Dougie Hamilton power play goal last night.
05:03I think that was in the second period where they just they give up the seam.
05:08Their wiki brings us up all the time.
05:11There's guys that are bunched together.
05:13It's it's basic hockey that they can't seem to execute, Mike.
05:17No, I see it.
05:19I mean, every every statistical category is a failure
05:24for the Bruins right now, from from from power play to penalty
05:28kill to goal differential and you name it.
05:30And I don't know.
05:33I can't tell you exactly why I'm not on the bench,
05:36but I believe that these guys are are just it's limited talent.
05:41I mean, they don't see the ice as well as they have to see the ice.
05:44I think it has to be shaken up.
05:45I think it's I think it's personnel related.
05:48And it's, you know, certainly after there's plenty of blame
05:51to go around from top to bottom in the organization.
05:54But I think the jig is up.
05:56I think I've seen it.
05:57I've seen enough now to know that this this group of of personnel
06:02is a middling team, not with not with a great future.
06:07It's still OK to watch once in a while.
06:10I mean, the game against Ottawa a few days ago was was tremendous.
06:13It was great.
06:14People were fighting.
06:15People were aggressive.
06:16They were even though the result wasn't what you wanted.
06:19It was it was entertaining.
06:21But that that comes far too
06:25far less often than I'd like it to.
06:27Mike, when it comes to your captain, we haven't talked to you
06:30since Sacco's benching of him in overtime last weekend.
06:33How do you think that he handled that?
06:36First of all, that is a dangerous game to play.
06:39If you're Joe Sacco, I mean, that's a really I mean,
06:43has this guy ever given you less than 100 percent?
06:46Sometimes he gives you too much.
06:47But there's no reason to think that there's anything but, you know,
06:53passion in his heart for the game and for the team.
06:56That's a tough play right there.
06:58That's that's a that could be a coach killing kind of move.
07:02I remember when Steve Casper benched Cam Neely and Craig Janney many,
07:07many years ago, and that spelled the end of his time behind the bench.
07:11But but I didn't know why.
07:13Maybe he thought he was didn't have the jump in his legs.
07:15I mean, he's a 36 year old guy and we all recognize that.
07:19But I mean, that's a tough call.
07:22I don't know what happened there, why that happened.
07:26And I question I question the intelligence of that decision.
07:31It's just not that's just not something you do to your captain intentionally.
07:35Really embarrassing.
07:37And especially Marcian, who's given you blood and guts for so many years.
07:42Mike, if you're the Jacobs like
07:45and you're saying, all right, maybe talent's the issue.
07:48Are you then because figuring out what you're going to do with Sweeney?
07:52Are you figuring out what Sweeney is going to do with Sacco behind the bench?
07:56Like, what direction do you think they're going to go in
07:59when it comes to front office and then maybe removing the interim
08:04from Sacco and making him the full time head coach or looking in a whole
08:08nother direction for another new head coach?
08:13I think they have to from from an administration standpoint,
08:18I think that that group has to be judged in the next within the next year.
08:22I don't think they need to go any different direction with Kim or or or Don
08:26Sweeney now because when we've talked about this, they they threw fastballs
08:31at their team and made big trades and tried to go for a Stanley Cup.
08:35And I agreed with the decisions that they made and it fell short.
08:40Now, was that the coach's problem or or did they misread their talent?
08:45I thought we all saw them play brilliantly near the end in that first year
08:49that they played Florida and sort of blew that series.
08:53But we all thought they were going to make a deep run for the cup.
08:55So they lose their draft picks.
08:58Now they have to make good on the ones that they have remaining
09:01and they have to make good on the assets they have in their hand now
09:04in terms of of making more assets available at the trading deadline,
09:09finding a way to get more draft picks, making sure that the draft
09:12picks that you have are successful.
09:14I'd give them I'd give them more time because I give them credit for having
09:18the you know, the colonies to go out there and try to make trades
09:21and try to win a Stanley Cup.
09:23They went all in.
09:24Now they have to go all in in a different direction.
09:27And as far as Joe Sacco is concerned, well, you know, I think
09:31you know, he's he's done fine.
09:33But I mean, it's if you're going to make a full scale lineup change,
09:38I guess you have to look at, you know, is this the right guy for the for
09:42for the kids that you're going to bring in?
09:44And that's what they're going to have to do.
09:45They're going to have to bring in kids.
09:47I don't know how you can be Cam Neely and look at this team going absolutely
09:51nowhere, like desperately trying to get themselves in into a playoff spot
09:56and not understand that you've got to blow it up.
09:59He probably does.
10:00You know, when you're a general manager, you have to lie or president.
10:04You do you try to make it all look warm and fuzzy when it's
10:09not warm and fuzzy and scratchy.
10:11And so you try to you're selling tickets.
10:13You're trying to sell something.
10:15You're not trying to say, hey, we suck.
10:17Don't come to the game.
10:18I mean, it's not a very good approach to business.
10:21So you have to sort of like code it a little bit.
10:24And I think he coded it as best he could in the last press conference that he had.
10:29And I get that.
10:31And you have to make sure that you're trying to stay positive
10:34with with the assets you have, knowing that you're going to have
10:37to make some big changes.
10:38And I think they do.
10:40Mike, thank you.
10:42All right, kids, we will talk to you next week.
10:44You got it. All right.
10:45That is Mike Milburn.