23-24 Bruins Season Thread

Myt1

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I heard on the local news last night that Monty hasn't decided if they will rotate but if they do rotate he will only rotate for games 1-4 then pick a G to ride based on performance.
If they overthink goaltending for the third time in four years to attempt to talk themselves into some bullshit conventional wisdom that is anything but, rather than plain as day common sense or what has actually worked really, really well for the past two years, I might be done with this team. Plus, if Ullmark’s hot but not going to be here next year, getting Swayman reps as well is good.
 

tims4wins

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If they overthink goaltending for the third time in four years to attempt to talk themselves into some bullshit conventional wisdom that is anything but, rather than plain as day common sense or what has actually worked really, really well for the past two years, I might be done with this team.
Yep. What if it's tied 2-2 and both goalies have a shutout each and a 4 goal game against each? What if they sweep the first round and post 4 shutouts? The only way I pick a guy and ride him after 4 games is if one guy is hurt, or if one guy completely shits the bed in his two starts. Don't back yourself into a corner. Just rotate for games 1 and 2 and go from there.
 

joe dokes

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Yep. What if it's tied 2-2 and both goalies have a shutout each and a 4 goal game against each? What if they sweep the first round and post 4 shutouts? The only way I pick a guy and ride him after 4 games is if one guy is hurt, or if one guy completely shits the bed in his two starts. Don't back yourself into a corner. Just rotate for games 1 and 2 and go from there.
I think the two starts is key. I really dont want either one of them going into their first playoff start thinking it might be their last.
 

Cotillion

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The question I've been asking for years is how to address the bolded. We all know that the playoffs are an entirely different game but it seems that no one has any clear idea about how to adequately prepare for them. Monty in particular completely fell apart in the playoffs last year.
totally agree. I was just being an ass with that comment quite frankly. Great point about urgency by the way...
I think that the organization thinks that they need to get a little tougher back there around the crease given the moves that they made. The problem is that a lot of those guys that are physical players with the ability to clear the crease are bad at moving the puck. So it’s a delicate balance. Bottom line is it’s really hard to win in the playoffs. You need skill, toughness, goaltending, puck luck, officiating luck, injury luck.
The thing is really a lot of it really just in puck luck. You can do a lot to put yourself in the right position with the right guys and goalie, but eventually it's just puck luck.

Think of Marchand having that breakaway at the end of the game against the Panthers last year, and if he only had 2-3 more seconds to get the shot off he wanted versus being a bit rushed thinking he had to get it off as soon as possible.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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This will likely be the last thing they can clinch, but the Bruins have an Atlantic clinch scenario tonight:

-beat Carolina, AND any Toronto loss AND a Florida regulation loss
 

BostonFanInCanesLand

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Montgomery is tweaking the lines again as he slots Maroon on the 4th. He’s split up the speed kills duo of Boqvist and DeBrusk, putting Jake back up with Marchand and Coyle. Third line of Beecher/Geekie/Frederic could cause some havoc.

Practice lines (Courtesy of Fluto)

Heinen-Zacha-Pastrnak
Marchand-Coyle-DeBrusk
Beecher-Geekie-Frederic
Lauko-Boqvist-Maroon
Van Riemsdyk

Lindholm-McAvoy
Grzelcyk-Carlo
Shattenkirk-Peeke
Forbort (nc)-Wotherspoon
Ullmark Swayman
PP1: DeBrusk Pastrnak-Zacha-Marchand McAvoy
PP2: Maroon Geekie-Coyle-Heinen Shattenkirk


Edited to add PP1 & 2
 

Foxy42

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Is there any early things that hint when B’s home game 1 will be / can’t be?

Edit: looks like sat and mon for games 1 and 2 per Ty Anderson
 
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wiffleballhero

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The Bruins really need Brazeau to be okay for the playoffs. I hope they've been just rope-a-doping the press on this one and now that the playoffs are coming, he'll be ready to go.
 

RedOctober3829

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Looking ahead to this offseason and knowing this team's needs, I think Sweeney should be trying to pry Sidney Crosby out of Pittsburgh. I know Kyle Dubas is on record as saying he doesn't want to start the rebuild this offseason, but they are a very old roster and they've got a bunch of pieces that are going to be hard to move. Malkin is 37 and has 3 more years at $6.1 million, Erik Karlsson has 3 more years at $10 million, and both have NMC's. Tristan Jarry has been a disaster and has 4 years left at $5.375 plus a no-trade. With $12 million in cap room, is there a path to improving the roster enough to be a contender? Does Sidney Crosby want to hang around to wait for them to rebuild at 36 years old?

Crosby is making $8.7 million next year and will want a new contract. The Bruins can easily add his salary and also make improvements in other areas. The downside to making such an offer is lack of draft picks, but would a package of Zacha/RFA rights to Swayman/Lysell/Lohrei/2025 1st be enticing?
 

kenneycb

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No because Crosby has an NMC and isn’t going to leave Pitt. The downside is the lack of picks and good young players. Your offer is a pu pu platter of middling prospects, an okay 2C, and a mediocre draft pick. Plus they have Jarry signed until 2028 so they don’t want Swayman. I could keep going. For a guy that put up 94 points and is the player of his generation in a city he’s played 18 years in and won 3 Cups.
 

The B’s Knees

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Crosby has won everything he needs to - Cups, Olympics, world championship, Jr championship, Hart, etc.
He'll finish his career in Pitt and then likely move to management, and maybe even get part ownership of the Pens (if Lemieux is feeling generous)
 

Myt1

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No because Crosby has an NMC and isn’t going to leave Pitt. The downside is the lack of picks and good young players. Your offer is a pu pu platter of middling prospects, an okay 2C, and a mediocre draft pick. Plus they have Jarry signed until 2028 so they don’t want Swayman. I could keep going. For a guy that put up 94 points and is the player of his generation in a city he’s played 18 years in and won 3 Cups.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? :)
 

RedOctober3829

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No because Crosby has an NMC and isn’t going to leave Pitt. The downside is the lack of picks and good young players. Your offer is a pu pu platter of middling prospects, an okay 2C, and a mediocre draft pick. Plus they have Jarry signed until 2028 so they don’t want Swayman. I could keep going. For a guy that put up 94 points and is the player of his generation in a city he’s played 18 years in and won 3 Cups.
In the hypothetical that he is open to a move, he can obviously pick his destination which would drive down the package Pittsburgh would get from any team. We've seen this in other situations in other sports. If Crosby doesn't want to be moved, a similar move should be Sweeney's top priority. Another franchise icon in Stamkos could be hitting the free agent market. Stamkos wants to stay, but there hasn't been much movement on contract talks. If he does hit the market, the Bruins should be very aggressive in trying to sign him.
 

cshea

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With the caveat that I never thought Iginla would move either, I just cannot see any situation where Crosby wants out of Pittsburgh. He's an icon there.
Iginla had never won a Cup. He, like Ray, was trying to win one before calling it quits.

Crosby's got 3. He's not going anywhere.
 

Cotillion

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Coyle putting up career numbers with Bruins now that he can train properly | NHL.com

BOSTON – For each of the five-plus seasons that Charlie Coyle has spent as a member of the Boston Bruins, and the two previous ones with the Minnesota Wild, he has taken the ice every night, almost every game, playing his relentless style of hockey, using his strength and power to muscle past opponents, his stickiness to grind them to dust on the penalty kill. He has played all 82 games each of the past three seasons, 17 minutes a game of hard-nosed hockey.

And he did all of it while not being able to jump. Or sprin

Coyle had broken his right fibula on October 12, 2017, while playing for the Wild. He underwent surgery and was out until Nov. 20. But, compensating for the original injury, he over-relied on his left leg. Over time, the muscle started pulling on his tendon. Eventually, it tore.

“But I didn’t know it for a few years,” he said.

In the summer of 2021, after his first full season as a member of the Bruins, Coyle had a second surgery, this time to repair an avulsion fracture in his left kneecap and a small tear of the patellar tendon. He was ready for training camp that fall. Coyle added an injection in the summer of 2022 -- “That set me behind, I still couldn’t do stuff,” he said – and it was only last summer that his knee finally, finally, finally felt better.

“This summer I was able to train fully on my leg,” he said. “It was awesome. I hadn’t ran or jumped in a while. So you feel good. Sometimes when you don’t do that, you feel like you’re just planted to the ground. You have no spring, you have no jump. So that was a big thing this summer was I was able to train without any restrictions.
Interesting that he's been limited somewhat in his training until recently.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I watched the Edmonton-Vancouver game the other night and what struck me was how much better the ice was in Edmonton than it is at the Garden. Obviously Edmonton doesn't have to use its arena for an NBA team, but the difference was stark enough to make me think that one of the reasons the Bruins struggle so much at home in the playoffs is that the ice at TD is shitty and works against their game.

The biggest improvement the team could do to in regards to on-ice performance may well be investigating ways to make the ice at home much better.
 

changer591

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I watched the Edmonton-Vancouver game the other night and what struck me was how much better the ice was in Edmonton than it is at the Garden. Obviously Edmonton doesn't have to use its arena for an NBA team, but the difference was stark enough to make me think that one of the reasons the Bruins struggle so much at home in the playoffs is that the ice at TD is shitty and works against their game.

The biggest improvement the team could do to in regards to on-ice performance may well be investigating ways to make the ice at home much better.
I believe Edmonton is known to have one of the best ice surfaces in the league. And I feel like Boston's ice has always been shitty in the spring months...if they haven't addressed it yet, I fear it's not high in their list of priorities.
 

wiffleballhero

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Has anyone on the board here ever skated on the ice at the garden?

Seems like a big ask, but on the other hand, they have all sorts of stuff where someone maybe has been out there. My sense of things is that it is pretty easy to tell when ice is garbage when you are actually on the sheet of ice as a skater or even a coach of little kids playing a between periods cross ice game. It certainly is obvious in my experience as a skater.

If anyone has been on the ice, what is the issue? Hard water/ excess snow/soft ice feel? Deep cuts that don't get adequate smoothed? Warm ice?

My understanding is that the league has requirements for both ice temperature and water quality, so I find it hard to imagine that those are the issues, but who knows?
 

Salem's Lot

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Has anyone on the board here ever skated on the ice at the garden?

Seems like a big ask, but on the other hand, they have all sorts of stuff where someone maybe has been out there. My sense of things is that it is pretty easy to tell when ice is garbage when you are actually on the sheet of ice as a skater or even a coach of little kids playing a between periods cross ice game. It certainly is obvious in my experience as a skater.

If anyone has been on the ice, what is the issue? Hard water/ excess snow/soft ice feel? Deep cuts that don't get adequate smoothed? Warm ice?

My understanding is that the league has requirements for both ice temperature and water quality, so I find it hard to imagine that those are the issues, but who knows?
It’s like slush. The only surface that I’ve ever skated on that is worse is Hockey Town.
 

wiffleballhero

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It’s like slush.
With deep enough pockets, that seems like an easy fix with some conventional approaches that are used in rinks all the time: with a modern water filtration system, a modern HVAC system to properly control the humidity and better ice temperature monitoring, they should be able to get this under control, even with the basketball floor.

It seems totally bush league that I can skate on a 100 degree day in August at my local podunk rink and have pretty damn good ice and they can't get this figured out.
 

ColdSoxPack

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My limited understanding of rink conditions comes from an LA Times story a couple years ago when the Kings fired their ice guy and hired the ice guy from Montreal, who the Canadiens just fired. They have to take constant measurements for temperature at ice level and humidity levels. Basketball games with the ice covered up and warm moist air flowing through the arena make it difficult to maintain good ice. They keep the doors and curtains closed on game days but it all goes to hell when the basketball crowd arrives. Funnily enough I skated on Forum ice 30 years ago on a 95 degree day and the ice was like glass. Except when I skated underneath the scoreboard and hot air was pushed through the open middle of the scoreboard from the ceiling down to ice level. Very strange.
 

Salem's Lot

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With deep enough pockets, that seems like an easy fix with some conventional approaches that are used in rinks all the time: with a modern water filtration system, a modern HVAC system to properly control the humidity and better ice temperature monitoring, they should be able to get this under control, even with the basketball floor.

It seems totally bush league that I can skate on a 100 degree day in August at my local podunk rink and have pretty damn good ice and they can't get this figured out.
It’s easy in theory, but I believe that the issue is that the union representing the bull gang refuses to budge on training on new/modern Zamboni equipment that everyone else is using. That’s the story I heard. It would seem to me that in a union negotiation, if you gave them more money that they’ll usually agree to the other things, but I’m not qualified to speak on that.
 

katnado

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It’s like slush. The only surface that I’ve ever skated on that is worse is Hockey Town.
I honestly didn't mind Hockey Town ice that much. Although skating on it as an adult I definitely noticed how soft it was compared to what I remembered when I was a kid haha..... That being said now that I live in Alaska, we have a local rink called Ben Boeke (ironically Swayman grew up playing on this rink) that is the softest, slushiest ice i've ever skated on in my life. Probably why he's good on home ice, he's used to garbage. haha
 

Salem's Lot

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I honestly didn't mind Hockey Town ice that much. Although skating on it as an adult I definitely noticed how soft it was compared to what I remembered when I was a kid haha..... That being said now that I live in Alaska, we have a local rink called Ben Boeke (ironically Swayman grew up playing on this rink) that is the softest, slushiest ice i've ever skated on in my life. Probably why he's good on home ice, he's used to garbage. haha
Biggest issue in Hockey Town now is the roof leaks. Causes holes in the ice. I switched to another league that plays in Bedford MA. I still play in the roller hockey league upstairs so I’m there twice a week. It sucks that we have to have rainouts for an indoor roller hockey league.


Edit: roof leaks, not room
 
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katnado

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Biggest issue in Hockey Town now is the room leaks. Causes holes in the ice. I switched to another league that plays in Bedford MA. I still play in the roller hockey league upstairs so I’m there twice a week. It sucks that we have to have rainouts for an indoor roller hockey league.
Oh wow, been years since i've been back to Saugus, didn't realize it had gotten so bad. Place was never in the greatest repair, even when I was a kid. But sounds like it's just been steadily going downhill.
 

Fred not Lynn

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Hoping @Fred not Lynn chimes in about the ice, he seems to have good knowledge of the subject
This is one of those subjects where once you start learning a little, you realize how much you don’t know…but I know I cringe when the on-air commentators go on about ice, because THEY don’t know. There’s a pile of variables; Desired ice temp, water quality, ambient temp, outside temp, humidity, how air moves in the building.

I can’t say I know any inside baseball on what goes on at TD Garden, but I can say NHL takes ice quality very seriously. Some rinks are chronic problem children, and some are very highly thought of - but I don’t know where TD Garden falls on that scale.

I’m actually at a rink conference this week. I’ll see if I can hear any rumors worth repeating…

It seems totally bush league that I can skate on a 100 degree day in August at my local podunk rink and have pretty damn good ice and they can't get this figured out.
You’d be surprised by how many local ice techs actually care, a lot, about their ice!

But I’d also say it’s an easier job when you have way less air to manage, and not have to deal with the body heat and gaseous emissions of 18,000 living, breathing creatures in the building.
 

LogansDad

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Especially when those living, breathing creatures are Boston sports fans, primarily known because of the large amouts of hot air that we spew.
 

Fred not Lynn

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They make too much money from the beer and nachos to change that.

Thanks for your input
In all seriousness, the sheer volume of air to be handled in a NHL arena is a very big deal. Your optimal rink would have a ceiling 1/4” higher than your tallest skater is tall - so a 20,000 seat arena is a very different animal than your local rink.

And by gaseous emissions I more meant exhaled breath, not flatulence. But also flatulence, I guess…
 

changer591

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Yeah, seriously. Are we even comparing local small town rinks to an arena that also has to handle basketball? It's like comparing your local pickup player vs an NHL player. The difficulty curve isn't a straight line.
 

Zososoxfan

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In all seriousness, the sheer volume of air to be handled in a NHL arena is a very big deal. Your optimal rink would have a ceiling 1/4” higher than your tallest skater is tall - so a 20,000 seat arena is a very different animal than your local rink.

And by gaseous emissions I more meant exhaled breath, not flatulence. But also flatulence, I guess…
You also have to take into account the amount of hot air coming from the multitudes of mouthbreathers, this is Boston after all ;-)
 

The B’s Knees

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In the yearly NHLPA player poll, they used to ask players which rinks had the best/worst ice.
The players haven’t been asked about the best ice since 2018-19, or about the worst ice since 2017-18. So, the opinions are dated but here is what they were at the time:
https://www.nhlpa.com/player-poll/2018-19

Best Ice (2018-19):
  • Bell Center (Habs)
  • Rogers Place (Oilers)
  • Bell MTS Place (Jets)
  • XCEL Energy Center (Wild)
  • T-MOBILE ARENA (Golden Knights)

Worst Ice (2017-18):
  • BB&T Center (Panthers)
  • Gil River Arena (Coyotes) – moot
  • Barclays Center (Islanders) – moot
  • Honda Center (Ducks)
  • PNC Arena (Canes)
 

cshea

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Charlie opens by saying there will be no changes in personnel at the top levels. He has complete confidence in Cam, Don and Monty