Round 1 - Florida
- Thread starter The Napkin
- Start date
Seriously, I'm not usually this reactive, but completely outcoached. What a mirage the regular season was.
All that stuff that was so successful during the season? We’re going to shelve it. They’ll never see that coming.
I'm not the biggest Bruins fan (though I certainly care about them) and mostly just read people here who are way smarter than me, but... good lord. I'm sorry to you all who are way bigger fans. That was awful. The entire thing. Going out like this is ridiculous.
Montgomery should win the Jack Adams and get shitcanned. Hate to say it. The goaltending strategy or lack thereof alone is reason enough.
To recap some key decisions this series by bucket:
Debatable:
- Going with Ullmark in Game 5
- Playing Forbort all 7 games of the series
Terrible:
- Going with Ullmark in Game 6
- Sticking with Ullmark in Game 6 when it became clear he could not push off from, or catch an edge on, his right side
- Not getting Ullmark out after period 2 in Game 6
- Not getting Ullmark out after goal 4 in Game 6
- Scratching Grzelcyk in Game 6
- Pairing Forbort and Clifton in Game 6, rolling them out repeatedly late in the game
Fireable on its own:
- Throwing your goalie coach under the bus in the post-game presser when asked about going with Swayman in Game 7
Take some god damn responsibility. You're the head coach.
To recap some key decisions this series by bucket:
Debatable:
- Going with Ullmark in Game 5
- Playing Forbort all 7 games of the series
Terrible:
- Going with Ullmark in Game 6
- Sticking with Ullmark in Game 6 when it became clear he could not push off from, or catch an edge on, his right side
- Not getting Ullmark out after period 2 in Game 6
- Not getting Ullmark out after goal 4 in Game 6
- Scratching Grzelcyk in Game 6
- Pairing Forbort and Clifton in Game 6, rolling them out repeatedly late in the game
Fireable on its own:
- Throwing your goalie coach under the bus in the post-game presser when asked about going with Swayman in Game 7
Take some god damn responsibility. You're the head coach.
I agree. Management did everything they could to win this cup. Bertuzzi, Hathaway, Orlov, signing Pasta long term. Monty and the team just choked. No two ways about it
Bergeron was playing with a herniated disc he picked up in the Montreal game. Just terrible luck.
Frankly that's not luck. Bergeron deciding to play that game was a choice, and represented an unnecessary risk. It's unfair and it sucks in hindsight, but that was a choice. I feel for him that he has to live with that. IDK how many times he's entered the postseason remotely close to 100% in his career, but this year was a chance to do it with the biggest cushion imaginable, and it didn't happen yet again.
If there was no pushback on him playing in Montreal, that's partially on Montgomery as well... maybe he'd say go talk to Chris Kelly about that since it sounds like the head coach doesn't have a say over who plays
If there was no pushback on him playing in Montreal, that's partially on Montgomery as well... maybe he'd say go talk to Chris Kelly about that since it sounds like the head coach doesn't have a say over who plays
He wanted to play in Montreal because it was possibly the last chance to play in front of his father, who is battling cancer. I can respect that.
Yep, not saying otherwise -- I would hope team management would have advised against it but end of the day he's earned the right to make that call. I hope that he can live with that choice given the consequences.
I hope so too.
The organization is totally broken at this point. Monty throwing Essensa under the bus last night about the goalie decision, Monty saying Game 6 was a "good game," not a single player showing any sort of confidence in Game 7, another epic bottle job of a 3-1 series lead.....they're incredibly dysfunctional.
The organization is totally broken at this point. Monty throwing Essensa under the bus last night about the goalie decision, Monty saying Game 6 was a "good game," not a single player showing any sort of confidence in Game 7, another epic bottle job of a 3-1 series lead.....they're incredibly dysfunctional.
I don't disagree that playing against Montreal was an ill advised decision given the consequences. I can't knock the reasons he made that choice. It's still terrible luck that he got hurt.
At a certain point you make your own luck. I'm rather tired of hearing about the Bruins' bad luck every time they choke away a playoff series.
I think playing Forbort is in the terrible category. Zboril would have been better.
I'd add a couple things:
1. playing Foligno so much
2. Not being able to coach up a plan before the series and then on every off day after it started to beat this fucking forecheck better, which left Florida super vulnerable if the Bruins could have completed their exit passes at all.
What goalie decision was Monty throwing Essensa under the bus for? Is Monty saying he would rather have gone Ullmark again in game 7? That would be ludicrous.
You're interpreting events that happened to fit your narrative that the team is in dysfunction. Nobody outside Fris has any idea what is going on behind the scenes and the evidence you cite is not overly compelling and is overly reactionary.
It's quotes that, to my knowledge, people have only read and not heard where, when asked about the decision to start Swayman in Game 7, he said something to the effect "You'll have to ask Bob about that one."
Every one of us has to go by what we see. I saw a head coach refuse to take responsibility for the choice of a starting goalie, refuse to make any tactical changes to a team badly in need of them, and give horrific Ted Lasso-style fluff answers in the midst of that collapse.
I saw a team that set regular season records utterly fail to show up for the postseason and a head coach utterly confused.
To me, that displays extreme dysfunction.
That's a comically entitled definition of "extreme dysfunction" but whatever. This back and forth, and quite frankly discourse in here the last ~72 hours, has been extremely stupid.
In context the Goalie Bob comment is bad, but not as bad as it is being made out to be.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im0-uPes2GU&ab_channel=BruinsRinkside
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im0-uPes2GU&ab_channel=BruinsRinkside
But man that is just what Playoff hockey is. It almost always comes down to who gets more bounces. I still remember losing to MTL in the second round because the B's hit like 20 posts and MTL hit 2.
The difference between the B's failing to tie it up at the end of Game 6 and the Panthers tieing it up at the end of Game 7 was not brilliance by one team vs failure by the other. It was one puck finding a hole and the other not.
The NHL playoffs are amazing because any team can win, even the less talented ones. I am so depressed that the B's lost and hate that it was to a shit franchise like Florida, but really most of the time it's luck and the refs (STL 2019).
This isn't the NBA, the better team only wins like 60% of the time on average and the Panthers if they figure out their goaltending are probably the best 8 seed ever.
I'm very skeptical that Bergeron's decision to play against Montreal had anything to do with ending up with a herniated disc. I'd tend to think of that as something that develops over time rather than being a result of a particular traumatic event.
Hi all - no idea where else to post my feelings, so going with this forum. I didn't watch games 6 or 7; I was naively hoping I could just wake up and see they won without having to go through the ups and downs of watching. I have no idea what went wrong with this team (playing Forbort, Ullmark over Swayman in game 5, being outcoached, Krecji being out at the worst time, slumping at the worst possible time are all things that have been thrown out there) but it still seems unreal after the regular season. I can't even be mad - the Panthers beat the Bruins 3 straight games, that isn't bad luck, that's a team excelling in the chaos that is playoff hockey (the Avs lost to the Kraken too - shit happens).
This isn't as bad as Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup finals, but it is up there. I am generally anti-Sweeney, but I can't even fault him here, he clearly built the best team he could. Chalking it up to the randomness of the playoffs is about all I can do and even that feels like a cop-out.
Finally, as a superstitious person (which goes against everything these forums are built on, I know), part of me thinks that this is some kind of cosmic retribution for the Mitch Miller signing. I know that's not how it works, but when I looked back and thought "what went wrong during the regular season?" that was the first and only thing that came to mind.
This isn't as bad as Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup finals, but it is up there. I am generally anti-Sweeney, but I can't even fault him here, he clearly built the best team he could. Chalking it up to the randomness of the playoffs is about all I can do and even that feels like a cop-out.
Finally, as a superstitious person (which goes against everything these forums are built on, I know), part of me thinks that this is some kind of cosmic retribution for the Mitch Miller signing. I know that's not how it works, but when I looked back and thought "what went wrong during the regular season?" that was the first and only thing that came to mind.
Yeah, the reporting of his answer was completely inaccurate. You can’t pretend that the additional offer of color was the answer itself. I take back my condemnation of his answer there.
Yeah, it sounds like he didn’t want to be too technical and added in the Bob stuff for reference. It’s also interesting that he recognized that they played the last 8 minutes of regulation to not lose as opposed to possessing and driving for the dagger.
To be fair to me, the only blemish on my perfection stems from my reliance on other people.And people think you never admit when you’re wrong!
After the Game 6 debacle, they were pretty plainly terrified of losing the lead—another mark against leaving Ullmark in.
It’s too bad. I hate the passion play nonsense of effort and grit, etc. But the nerves and fear with which they played and coached this series were damned near tangible. I can’t remember a series like that, in any sport, in my history as a fan.
They played scared and it's more than fair to note that. That's why there are references to passion and grit and character. They are real aspects that contribute to results.
They simply nerved up. It's a major mark against them going forward. The coaching staff and the players got too nervous to win. They froze in the spotlight of the series.
They'll have to bear that burden either the rest of their careers or until they figure out a way past it. Easier said than done.
Can I ask a casual fan question without poking bears - everyone is lamenting the loss of Bergeron (and Krecji), but they’re also the senior leadership with cup experience on a team everyone is calling out for consistent inability to close out across various playoff series. There’s no tension there?
I’m probably in a “necessary but not sufficient,” place on the spectrum. Losing players like that can hurt, because of the culture of professionalism that even experienced new additions to the locker room seem to note immediately. But it’s not enough by itself to get you where you need to go.
@Smiling Joe Hesketh ‘s broadsides, while completely and utterly insane in the best of ways, have at least a germ of truth to them, IMHO. Absolute fucking debacle of a series for Lindholm and McAvoy, outside a couple monster hits by the latter. McAvoy’s play on the tying goal is inexcusable.
Honestly in my mind there is. None of these guys are blameless for this collapse. Bergeron and to a lesser extent Krejci are beloved figures, Bergeron in particular is an icon. But your question lingers and did occur to me.
Bergeron playing injured probably absolves him of most blame. Whether or not he should have played in Game 82, or played against Florida at all with the injury he picked up in 82, remains another question entirely.
I would rather hear your opinion. It's one of the most unexplored and interesting things about the team we've had in a very long time.
Please share.
Huh, stepmother just called. Apparently my stepsister teaches Bergeron’s kid. Looking forward to supplying hot goss on Bergeron’s moves this summer.
Kidding - that’d be weird.
Kidding - that’d be weird.
I love Patrice. I think he somehow continues to be underrated in how good he is. I think he's the very definition of what a role model should be. I had decided if they won a cup my first purchase was going to be a Bergeron jersey with the Finals patch on it. His dad has cancer. It sucks, I get it. I feel for him. But his dad has seen him play thousands of games. He and the team preach sacrifice and greater good and team over individual. And he made a choice to play a game for himself instead of resting for the playoffs.
I think it was selfish and surprising in how out of character it was. And I think it cost the team.
I think it was selfish and surprising in how out of character it was. And I think it cost the team.
Same page here friend. You said it more eloquently than I. So uncharacteristic in terms of the unnecessary risk it represented.
Do you think that a herniated disc that showed up in the Montreal game wouldn't have subsequently shown up in the Florida series if he'd sat out the Montreal game?
Personally, I think that's a injury where he was damaged goods and it was going to hit him regardless. I think he (and Krejci too) are both players where we knew based on age (both players) and injury history (Bergeron), the team was rolling the dice on their health, and they came up snake eyes at the worst possible time.
This is entirely a reasonable take and likely close to the truth of the matter.
Would love to hear from DRS or radsoxfan on the chances that he would have avoided the disc problem if he sat the last game of the regular season.
Incidentally, and like some other key players, they rested Bergeron quite a bit in the final two weeks. He sat against PHI, STL, and PIT, which amounted to 3 of the final 8 games. Should they have sat him for good once they clinched the Prez trophy? Or when they were near mathematically certain to do so? This is a tough question to answer.
Incidentally, and like some other key players, they rested Bergeron quite a bit in the final two weeks. He sat against PHI, STL, and PIT, which amounted to 3 of the final 8 games. Should they have sat him for good once they clinched the Prez trophy? Or when they were near mathematically certain to do so? This is a tough question to answer.
I don't know. And neither do you. But we do know what happened. And that's that it did in fact happen in the Montreal game.
I don't know where I net out. I just lost my MIL the night of game 2, so I feel like I have a little persepective and understanding of where Patrice is coming from. The urge to do something with a dying loved one a last time is very, very strong. There's a lot of regrets. Wish I did x,y,z one last time. That sort of thing. I feel like Patrice earned the right to make that decision for himself, though I can understand people questioning the decision he made and it does run counter to the Patrice we've grown to love over the last 20 years.
They clinched the 1 seed effectively months ago. If he’s got a disc issue, fucking LTIR him until the playoffs like any team with common sense would do.
I thought the belief was he suffered it during the Montreal game? Apologies if I’m missing something, I’m just trying to understand the medical situation their management of Bergeron operated against.
If he wants to come back next year, but needs surgery, it might be a way to help the cap situation for next year.