Offseason game thread- shed your salty tears

cshea

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Well it would help to have 88 and 73 in the pipeline. That's not the case now.
True, but 88 and 73 are also significantly younger than 37 and 46 were in 2015. You can be the judge on which core is better:

2015: Chara (38), Bergeron (30), Krejci (30), Marchand (26), Lucic (26), Smith (23), Krug (23), Hamilton (21), Pastrnak (18), Rask (27)

2023: Pastrnak (26), DeBrusk (26), McAvoy (25), Carlo (26), Lindholm (29), Zacha (25), Ullmark (29), Swayman (24)

I don't know. Probably about a push. Better defense now, better forwards to build around in 2015. Lucic was also entering the final year of his deal. Hamilton an RFA. The current core is all locked up long term with the exception of DeBrusk.
 

cshea

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The Bruins beat is pretty terrible. Generic, canned questions. Rarely any follow up. I follow the Bruins as close as anyone and I don't find any of the Bruins beat writers as must-reads. I prefer most of the national media writing/talking about the Bruins. Ty Anderson is probably the best among the guys here.

I would've pushed more on why they were unwilling to continue the goalie rotation in the post-season, even excluding Ullmark's health status. They have to have the data on the diminishing returns in performance the more frequently the goalie plays. I'm sure the answer would be "we thought Ullmark gave us the best chance to win" but I suspect the real answer is they didn't want to be the ones to buck the trend in the playoffs.

Forbort is Forbort. I gave up that battle last year. He's a bad hockey player, they know he is a bad hockey player, but fall into the grit stuff. I guess his PK stuff was pretty great in the playoffs so they can point to that but in the regular season he wasn't some sort of penalty killing savant. Unlessthe private data they have is vastly different from the public data. Probably the worst thing that happened was the PK dipping when Forbort got hurt early in the year. It was probably more coincidental than anything else but that probably convinced them he was an essential cog. Because he blocks shots or something. But he blocks shots because he can't get control of the puck and when he miraculoiusly does control the puck he cannot move it out of the zone unless it's a chip off the glass.
 

Dick Drago

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I’m still kind of obsessing over the lost opportunities, and how close they came to winning the series-despite playing poorly.

The only way I make myself cope is I have a month of my life back-I’d be obsessing over every game, each series, injury—now time has opened up to spend time and energy on family, friends, and work.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Yeah still having palpitations thinking of the thought process that went into sticking with Ullmark and not pulling him during game 6.

Not at Bozak on Acciari levels yet but rising...
 

Jed Zeppelin

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I’m still kind of obsessing over the lost opportunities, and how close they came to winning the series-despite playing poorly.

The only way I make myself cope is I have a month of my life back-I’d be obsessing over every game, each series, injury—now time has opened up to spend time and energy on family, friends, and work.
Not only winning but closing it in a tidy 5 on a nice upswing after a semi-shaky start to the series. With none of the questions that we are agonizing over now.

My kingdom for two more seconds on the clock for Marchand.
 

Haunted

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Yeah still having palpitations thinking of the thought process that went into sticking with Ullmark and not pulling him during game 6.

Not at Bozak on Acciari levels yet but rising...
This was Tuukka-is-obviously-hurt level, in my opinion. I 100% disagree with not continuing the rotation, and then with starting Ullmark in game 5, and then in game 6, and to me the "yeah, this coach has to go" moment was that third period of game 6 when Ullmark couldn't stop a beach ball.
 

cshea

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Yeah still having palpitations thinking of the thought process that went into sticking with Ullmark and not pulling him during game 6.

Not at Bozak on Acciari levels yet but rising...
Honestly, I don't really have much objection to them leaving him in for that game. It's the decision to start him in games 5 and 6 that I would take issue with.

It was 3-2 Florida entering the 3rd period. No coach pulls a goalie in that situation. Then everything happened crazy fast. Bruins went up 4-3 in the opening 4 minutes of the period. Not gonna yank him there. Then Florida tied it about 7 minutes in. I guess maybe you could make a case he gets yanked here but what coach pulls their goalie in the middle of the 3rd period when tied. Then the Bruins went back ahead with 9 minutes left. Florida answering back less than 30 seconds later. So it's 5-5 and again, no coach is pulling the goalie in a tied game in the middle of a period like that. Once FLA took the lead the damage is done and there was like 5 minutes left so there's not much a goalie change is going to accomplish, plus being down you're going to pull him anyway. Sometimes in the crazy high scoring games where it's close both ways a goalie can get pulled but typically they do it between periods.

Maybe there was some thing that was visible where they could've picked up that his movement wasn't normal and his injury was impacting his play and used that to get him out of the net but as far as the game situation it never really reached a point where a conventional goalie pull was on the table.
 

Myt1

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Honestly, I don't really have much objection to them leaving him in for that game. It's the decision to start him in games 5 and 6 that I would take issue with.

It was 3-2 Florida entering the 3rd period. No coach pulls a goalie in that situation. Then everything happened crazy fast. Bruins went up 4-3 in the opening 4 minutes of the period. Not gonna yank him there. Then Florida tied it about 7 minutes in. I guess maybe you could make a case he gets yanked here but what coach pulls their goalie in the middle of the 3rd period when tied. Then the Bruins went back ahead with 9 minutes left. Florida answering back less than 30 seconds later. So it's 5-5 and again, no coach is pulling the goalie in a tied game in the middle of a period like that.
Why not? If his leg fell off, they’d replace him, right?

I mean, it’s not just physical at that point. Guy was a fucking shell of himself. Horrible for anyone’s (and the team’s) confidence.
 

tims4wins

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The right time to play Swayman was starting game 5, IMO, after he had finished off the last few minutes of game 4.
 

cshea

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Why not? If his leg fell off, they’d replace him, right?

I mean, it’s not just physical at that point. Guy was a fucking shell of himself. Horrible for anyone’s (and the team’s) confidence.
The rub, and where I think the error was made, wass that they decided prior to the game that he was healthy enough to play. Once that decision was made, they are declaring him healhty enough to complete the game. Barring his leg literally falling off, he wasn't getting pulled in a tied or in a 1-goal game . If they had gone down 3-0 5 minutes in, then yes. But they didn't and it was a 1-goal game until the ENG and I don't think any coach makes a goalie change at any point of that game.

They deserve to be hammered for starting him in games 5 and 6. There was clearly something wrong with him when they pulled him at the end of game 4 and sent him straight to the training room for treatment. His series should've been over at that point. 100% agree.
 

Myt1

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The rub, and where I think the error was made, wass that they decided prior to the game that he was healthy enough to play. Once that decision was made, they are declaring him healhty enough to complete the game. Barring his leg literally falling off, he wasn't getting pulled in a tied or in a 1-goal game . If they had gone down 3-0 5 minutes in, then yes. But they didn't and it was a 1-goal game until the ENG and I don't think any coach makes a goalie change at any point of that game.

They deserve to be hammered for starting him in games 5 and 6. There was clearly something wrong with him when they pulled him at the end of game 4 and sent him straight to the training room for treatment. His series should've been over at that point. 100% agree.
But whether a game is tied is a completely independent variable as to whether he’s more or less likely than Swayman to save more shots. If it were 12-12 or 12-11, he doesn’t get pulled because the game is tied or a one goal game? It doesn’t make any sense.
 

cshea

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But whether a game is tied is a completely independent variable as to whether he’s more or less likely than Swayman to save more shots. If it were 12-12 or 12-11, he doesn’t get pulled because the game is tied or a one goal game? It doesn’t make any sense.
Totally agree that situation and score shouldn't matter, but I believe it does to NHL coaches. You almost never see a goalie pulled in close games due to performance, even in the high scoring 8-7 type games. I would say when it does happen, it is usually done between periods. They just don't ride with one guy for 50 minutes and then suddenly decide the other guy gives them a better chance. I agree they should, but coaches aren't there yet. I don't think you'd find a single NHL coach who would've made a change in the midst of that hectic 3rd period.

Someone needs to buck the trend, much like someone needs to willfully rotate goalies in the playoffs like Monty should've done in the first place, even without Ullmark being injured.
 

NYCSox

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Totally agree that situation and score shouldn't matter, but I believe it does to NHL coaches. You almost never see a goalie pulled in close games due to performance, even in the high scoring 8-7 type games. I would say when it does happen, it is usually done between periods. They just don't ride with one guy for 50 minutes and then suddenly decide the other guy gives them a better chance. I agree they should, but coaches aren't there yet. I don't think you'd find a single NHL coach who would've made a change in the midst of that hectic 3rd period.

Someone needs to buck the trend, much like someone needs to willfully rotate goalies in the playoffs like Monty should've done in the first place, even without Ullmark being injured.
Yup. No one wants to be "that guy" who tried something different. God help him if the backup comes into a 5-5 game and gives up a softie right away.
 

Myt1

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Totally agree that situation and score shouldn't matter, but I believe it does to NHL coaches. You almost never see a goalie pulled in close games due to performance, even in the high scoring 8-7 type games. I would say when it does happen, it is usually done between periods. They just don't ride with one guy for 50 minutes and then suddenly decide the other guy gives them a better chance. I agree they should, but coaches aren't there yet. I don't think you'd find a single NHL coach who would've made a change in the midst of that hectic 3rd period.

Someone needs to buck the trend, much like someone needs to willfully rotate goalies in the playoffs like Monty should've done in the first place, even without Ullmark being injured.
Ah, I gotcha. Thanks for clarifying that you were describing water, rather than extolling its quality of wetness. We’re aligned. :)
 

MiracleOfO2704

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It’s probably also the reason the Leafs made the playoffs at all. What are the odds Reimer and Scrivens survive a full schedule before being badly exposed?
 

PedroSpecialK

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mmhmmmmmmm

still feeling some anger, misdirected as it may be, towards PB37 that i will keep to myself. every bit of new info this offseason just cements how big a blown opportunity last year was.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I’m down the rabbit hole tonight. Dafoomie posted a replay of a random 2006 game against the Ducks at the Garden. Bergeron’s wingers were Marco Sturm and Brad Boyes. We’ve come a long way, baby.