Who Will Be the Next Bruins Head Coach?  | Bruins Beat

Who Will Be the Next Bruins Head Coach?  | Bruins Beat

and welcome into the Bruins Beat presented by CLNS Media. Make sure to go subscribe to Bruins Rinkside on YouTube. Lots of good content coming this spring, this summer, fall, forever. It’s forever, Connor. That’s what it is. It’s forever podcast six a week. Bruins beat, poke the bear, pucks with hags, live streams when big news uh happens. If you aren’t a big YouTube fan or you don’t want to see our faces, maybe go subscribe to us over on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Podbean, wherever you get your podcast. And there’s also tons of great content. Patriots press pass, Celtics all access. Garden Report, uh, during the Celtics playoffs, always cooking. So that’s, you know, so again, like go subscribe to that. I was on it one time. I was on Garden Report one time. I had texted John Xanis about something to do with their broadcast. It was last year and he’s like, “Are you around? Like, do you want to jump on for a bit?” And I’m like, “Who’s going to care about my Celtics opinion?” Like, “What?” Like, “Just come on.” And I was in my room playing MLB the show. And I’m like, “All right.” And so I fired up, you know, fired up the lighting and everything. Went on for like 10 minutes. Everybody in the comments is like, “Who is the hell is this?” Like, “This is this is second apron tax expert Evan Marinowski. He knows the ins and outs of the NBA cap, which makes no sense at all.” But that’s right. I’m breaking it down for I got my you know I got my chart right here. He’s our quant. He’s the guy who crunches the numbers for us. Yes. And like in the big short when Ryan Gosling’s character is like this kid he doesn’t speak any English and the kids like I actually speak perfect English. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. No one wants to know this though. But that’s great. No. Uh but yeah. So make sure to go subscribe uh to Bruins Ringside and all of CLNS Media’s uh YouTube channels and platforms. I’m Ev Marinowski. That’s Connor Ryan. Connor, what is up? Evan, doing well. How you doing? Doing great. Doing great. Coming off Memorial Day weekend. I apologize. We’re recording this Tuesday. You probably think, “Oh, it’s cuz you guys were You guys must have been on vacation. You didn’t have time for this.” Who has time for that? Yeah. Who has time for that? It was like freaking deoba was like the climate in Boston the last like 3 days. It was downpouring. Sucked. Ass. It was not. I saw I saw I saw some people down the cable. I’m like, “You had fun. It was 50 degrees out.” One of my roommates uh his parents have a house in uh Maine and it’s right on the it’s in York. It’s a nice little nice little vacation house and they went for the weekend and I’m like what are you planning on doing? And when I talked to him yesterday he’s like yeah we didn’t really go to the beach at all. It didn’t come close. Building an igloo. That’s right. That’s right. Um so tough weekend for weather for sure. Um, but one of the big reasons I wanted to save it for Tuesday, uh, was because I knew there would I don’t want to say no, like as if I’m like, you know, freaking Nostradamus over here. Um, but I had a feeling that news would kind of trickle out on Tuesday instead of the usual Monday. And that’s actually exactly how it happened. Um, two different head co NHL head coaching reports uh, made it to Twitter on Tuesday. Kevin Weekes first tweeted Monday, excuse me, Tuesday morning per sources. Jay Woodcraftoft, Mitch Love, and Marco Sturm are among the favorites as potential hires as head coach for the Bruins, Penguins, and Seattle Kraken. And then not long after, David Pegnatada tweeted, “Sounds like the Bruins are in the final stage of their head coach search this week. Both Marco Sturm and Jay Woodcraft are among the remaining contenders for the job.” Woodcraft had his latest follow-up interview the other day. So, um, does that mean that they are the final two? Not necessarily. But I’m thinking those names don’t make it out into the public if they’re not uh if they’re not, you know, not surefire for the job, but kind of the main finalist for the job. I would assume. Yeah, I would assume we’re probably in the home stretch here. Um even last week uh in interviews with both the Herald and the Globe, Kim, Neil and Don Sweeney more or less mentioned that they were uh going through their in-person interviews this week. So it does feel like maybe we get some news at the end of this week to figure out what the plan is. That Friday news dump’s going to hit like crazy. Oh, I know. Exactly. I’m bracing for it. Um, so yeah, I I do think those are two things to keep tabs on. Um, in terms of the names, not much in terms of surprises we’ve talked about all three of those guys, Mitch Love, Jay Woodroft, uh, Marco Sturm. I’m curious as to like Kevin Week’s uh, tweet. Does it mean like each one of those uh, guys he mentions are the favorites for each of those respective teams? like he was like, “All right, it’s Woodcraftoft. Woodcraftoft, uh, Love, and, uh, Sturm are all the favorites for three different jobs.” Like, it’s one going here is is what exactly how is it panning out? Uh, but yeah, not much in terms of surprises. Not like some guy all of a sudden we find out is in the mix. Not like all of a sudden it’s like, “Oh, by the way, like Lavolet is like the leader in the clubhouse right now or someone like that that we know of, but we haven’t talked a lot about. there hasn’t been a lot of links to um them as being interested uh coaching candidates for the Bruins. Um I would probably say still my my top option I would say right now I’m leaning more Mitch Love. Uh I also think Marco Stern makes a whole lot of sense and we’ve touched on this before Jay Woodraftoft like I think he’s due for a second chance. It’s and I think there’s a lot to like about what he’s done this past year to kind of build his stock back up and learn from his time in Edmonton. and he’s still like a pretty young coach at 48 years old I believe. Um I just I think there’s more intrigue uh with a guy like Love or Sturm amongst that group. But if that is the three, not anything that we’re surprised by in terms of what the Bruins are prioritizing, which is a younger, maybe more unproven coach that they hope and can kind of work and build with what’s going to be a pretty uh overhauled roster both this year and in the years ahead. Yeah, I like the direction. I think that’s the biggest thing. And we’ve heard rumblings of this, as you said, for weeks. You and I have been talking about this a long time of like this is the direction they should go. It feels like this is the direction that they’re going to go. And it’s good to see that they’re actually doing this. It’s not like, oh, Lavlet, Torrella, and uh Gerard Galant are the three finalists for the Bruins job. And it’s like, why would why would they do that? This makes sense. I get this. Um it’s interesting. You sent me some videos of Mitch Love. Uh I think the YouTube channel was like Coach’s Corner. It wasn’t Coach’s Corner. It was a coach’s site. Um, and he did a long podcast talking about coach. It was coach’s corner with like the corner was a K to make it kind of, you know, he made it his own. He’s the next Don Cherry. Um, but he was talking a lot about he’s, you know, Mitch loves a DZone guy. Works with the D in Washington the last two years. and he talked a lot about um different things in the Dzone, how to develop defenseman, um how he, you know, kind of his own coaching philosophies, how he’s acclimated to the NHL and how the NHL is definitely not a development league as, you know, matchups are really important to him. That was something Bruce Cassidy always stressed when he was here as head coach. U and there’s also an interesting video. It’s like five minutes. Uh Mitch Loves giving like a uh like a TED talk on sick positioning. It’s like five or six minutes and it is interesting and it’s it’s insightful and you think, “Oh, it’s really simple.” But these are things that a lot of guys do miss and a lot of players need to be coached into doing. Um, and again, I I think those kind of give good insights into who he is. I definitely went away saying, “All right, I like that guy. Not going to pretend I’m an expert on him or anything, but I like what I see. He’s 40 years old. He is younger.” Um, and then I think Woodcraft’s, you know, you and I have talked about Woodcraft extensively as like here’s a guy who um, sort of like if when you trade for a first round pick who’s like 22 years old, um, or 23 who’s already played in the NHL a little bit, you have something to go off of. So, the the shine isn’t quite there. I’m not saying Woodcraft is a first round pick. I’m just saying like in general like the shine is off because he’s had that first job. Um, and again, I think there’s different ways to look at that time in Edmonton. Um, you know, I think, you know, some people would say, well, he couldn’t win with McDavid and Dryidle, and he was inconsistent. And that’s true. And then some would say, well, McDavid and Dryidle had good years under him. And that’s true, too. Power Play was at like 34% to something that year, which is like, is that just because you have those two guys, which make a good case for, but why why did they jump that year? Was it something in terms of the structure, what have you? It’s It’s so tough to like gauge or have like a a set template of how to grade like a coach that’s involved with the Oilers. It’s like they’re such a unique roster that like it’s tough. They’re almost in like a class of their own in terms of how much do you draw from the coaching, the strategy because it feels like and Oilers are a great team mostly because they’ve got 97 and 29 out there, but it feels like watching them play it’s when like you’re playing your little cousin in NHL and you’re kicking his ass and then like he changes the slider down to easy. That’s like when McDavid and Dry settle out there. It’s like they’re kind of treading water and then they just wait for the big guns to come out there and it’s like is that just how you win? It’s a good strategy when you got those two guys out there, but it kind of it kind of like augments or changes how you like view the coaching part of it. I’m not saying like Chris Nlock is like a bum, but like and like they’ve responded well since he’s been there, but like how much of it is the players versus the coach and it kind of works against Jay Woodruff, right? where like maybe he is a really good coach and I think he’s done a concerted effort to be better for his second opportunity which feels inevitable but you still have that kind of like concern or skepticism right of how much of it is just him and how much of it is the roster that he’s with and again if he if he took over here he is not coaching the two best players in the world that he is not he’s you know inheriting a roster that is flawed that has multiple holes which I want to get into later in this episode but You’re taking over a roster where it’s David Posterno and then everybody else up front in front and yes, David Posternok and co and on D it’s you know Charlie Makavoy is returning and Hampus Lindholm’s returning but you still have big question marks there and you have a goalie who’s coming off a really bad year. So like it it’s it’s not quite what he dealt with in Edmonton. Um and then you have Marco Sturm who I think a lot of Bruins fans are like yes sign me up love the Sturm face you know and and I think that’s all valid. Um, and I think to back that up, he does, you know, he’s been a head coach. He’s been a head coach in the AHL. He’s been an assistant in the NHL. He’s been in coaching for a long time now, really since he pretty much retired. Yeah. Um, so he is he’s experienced, he’s young, he knows this market. We’ve talked about this quite a bit. Like Boston coaches across the four major teams. Kind of like sometimes you have to have played here or coached here. You have to understand this market to really thrive in it. Um, he gets it. He was here for five seasons, I believe. Um, ironically enough, I was home on Memorial Day, uh, on Memorial Day and I I found my old hockey cards. I’m like, I want to check those out. And I came across a Marco Sterm one from like 2008 and I was like, hm, a sign. It’s a sign. It was a little sign. Um, but he I also would be fine with him. Like any of these three, I would probably go somewhere in the range of like Sturm and Love to me are like 1 A, 1B, and then I’d have Woodcraftoft at at at two, if that makes sense. Um, I think that’s sort of where I fall. Um, but I like I like the direction they’re headed in. They’re clearly trying to go in kind of a fresh different perspective with this, which I think is the right thing to do. Yeah, I agree. Like it it’s it’d be one thing if it was to your point as you said earlier if it was Totoella and Lavlet and Golant you’re like all right like we now know what their plan is and I really don’t like it and uh just because it just feel like it’s short-term gains not looking ahead to 26 27 27 28 whereas where you hope that the team is ready to really make a sustained push if they retool and rebuild the right way with a young coach. So, I agree like any one of those three guys I think is a positive in terms of what they’re looking for. I I agree, right? Where I feel like if Wood I know what like the reaction is going to be if like the the Bruins hire any one of those three guys. Like Mitch Stern, people are going to be like, “Hell yeah. You may not know this, but I’m about to tweet that Fenway goal or the the Montreal goal.” Uh you’re going to get that. Mitch Love is going to have a lot of people probably being like, “Who the hell is this guy?” and then be like, “Oh, we we like the cut of this guy’s gym.” Like there’s gonna be that like tough guy like watching him just punch everyone in the face down in the AHL which is all of what Mitch Love’s highlights are. Yes. I feel like Wood’s going to be like Woodcoft’s going to be all of like groans of like, oh this all right, how much we get out of this a retread which I feel like is not a good label to put on Woodcraftoft. Yeah, I would with him. I think there’s pros and cons with all of them. I think again Woodcraft has been in the NHL as a head coach. There’s more flaws you can point at, especially when you just look at the talent that he had to work with. But I think any one of them has pros and cons, and any one of those three coaches represents a a step in the right direction for how the Bruins should be viewing what this team is. I think any one of them is part of a group that has a lot of question marks. There’s going to be some growing pains this year. going to be a lot of younger players and it feels like at least they’re bringing in a younger coach that can grow and evolve with a new cast of characters more or less. I I I feel like even if that means it’s they’re playing the long game and you know maybe the returns aren’t going to be immediate this upcoming year, especially maybe in the fall, if they’re building the right way, young guys are getting opportunities to thrive and fail right at the NHL level. I think that is a breath of fresh air from what this team usually is, which is so focused on the win now, making the most of this window, putting themselves over the top. I think you it was inevitable this team had to take a step back. And I think having a younger coach like any one of those three falls in line with what I think they’re setting for expectations for next year, which is you’re hoping to make the playoffs, you feel like you have a chance at it, but that is not our entire plan does not revolve around playing hockey in late April of 2026. It’s for greater returns in the years ahead, which I think you want to see if you’re a Bruins fan. Absolutely. The one worry I guess you do have with a younger coach with a roster that is in transition is, you know, I we say this all the time, good organizations don’t just fire their head coaches willy-nilly or their GMs willy-nilly. What you worry about is sort of what the Ducks have kind of been going through or like the Red Wings where it’s like they bring in a young coach who has a lot of promise and you want to grow with the roster and after two or three years the roster isn’t showing great returns and that guy’s gone. Happened to Greg Cronin in Anaheim. Happened to Blash Hill. happened to um god what was the other guy’s name Leand like these guys were brought in to sort of grow with the roster and bring these guys up and it doesn’t really work and it happens a lot um now it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen here I think the Bruins are better franchise than that the roster I think is better suited for that you have your core of postronox swayman and makavoyo so you should be protected from that but it is a worry of like man if it doesn’t work out or you know like Mitch love hasn’t been a head coach in the NHL Marco Storm hasn’t been a head coach in the NHL. Like maybe they aren’t good coaches in the NHL or good head coaches. I’m not I don’t think that’s going to be the case. But like there is that risk. I’m okay with that risk. We’ve talked about this a lot. Like I’m okay if like I would rather you do this than as we’ve said go the Galant route or the TORS route um of like oh you know it’s great in the first year or two but then it’s you know then it kind of falls off or even the Rick Tocket route. So I’m okay with that. But that is that is a a a jump that the Bruins are taking. you are risking this guy potentially not being a good head coach in the NHL and you’re also risking that he doesn’t grow well with the roster and in three years you might be looking at another you know you’re looking for another head coach. You don’t want that but that is something I think you have to acknowledge with with these younger candidates. So it comes with the territory. Um, speaking of, you mentioned next season and the playoffs and and and Sweeney and Neilie mentioned this a lot uh in their postgame or postgame postseason press conference of uh they’re doing post games after the Eastern Conference Finals. They’re still involved. That’s right. They still they want to give their Neil’s just pushing like Paul Maurice off the stage. It’s like no, we still have something to say. Throwing his Dani water bottle at him full full speed. Yes. Um, people have been doing roster projections of late. Skate Podcast did one last week. had Sam Bennett in it, which I was like, whoa. We can debate that. I’m sure if I when I have Scott next time on, we can uh get into that. Um, and then, uh, Ty Anderson was spitballing with us kind of sending like mock rosters for next season because, you know, Ty just spends all his time on, uh, you know, just like cap uh, not cap friendly anymore because it’s gone, but like track and things like that. He gets in the back. He gets in the back. He hacked the main frame to still to still go through like the depth chart uh one they put up where it’s like the different salary caps and everything like that. So fixing up RFA contracts and such. Um and then like Bruins Capace tweeted uh like a blog post um on Tuesday of sort of what the Bruins could do at each position to try to make it work. And he mentions you know um you know is does do they go with someone like Nick Perix on D? Like you can’t um you know Andrew Peak’s probably a number five defensive which I agree with. um you know who’s going to be kind of your your um second pairing right shot D and then you look at like up front um they should have some money to play with if they don’t go like the Marner Eers route could they look at someone like Kyle Paul Mary do they look at Chris Krider Andre Palot guys who’ve been kind of older but um coming off down seasons um or do they go offer sheets um do you try to go for trades with like JJ Purka who just opened number one um on Frank Sar Valley’s trade big board Mason McTavic Will who we’ve talked quite a bit about. My whole thing is like, are they going to be a playoff team next year? And I keep looking at the Atlantic. The Atlantic is nuts. Florida should be back in it. Tampa should be. We’ll see. Ottawa got in it this year. Montreal got in it. They seem to be building. Um, Toronto, Lord knows, but like they should be back in the playoffs next year. And I just look at like the, you know, the mock Bruins rosters and we’ve talked about this up quite a bit. You know, Makavoy should be better. Hampus Lindholm should be better. Elias Lindholm seems to be on the up and up. Um, David Posternok is David Posternok. Uh, you hope you get a good Jeremy Swayman. We’ll get into that in a bit of him looking much better of late. But like I don’t know like it’s going to be tough with certain additions. Like if they went out and got Brock Besser, are they now a playoff team? Um, if they get a bunch of depth uh signings that are, you know, three and four million dollars like a Will uh or like Luke Evangelista, are they now suddenly a playoff team? I don’t know. Like, not to be a negative Nelly, but like I mean, they’re contending for the playoffs, but they’re not in it. Yeah. I mean, I think you look at this team and yes, they’ve got what a little over 28 million in cap space and, you know, they could even make more if they were to move out more contracts, but they got some money to work with, but this team has so many uh holes in their roster and on their depth chart that barring some like crazy moves going on. I’m like, let’s just spitball like they trade for Elias Person and they offer sheet and they trade for Ma like they do a whole stuff. That’s not going to happen. But even if they do, you know, uh, they sign like Dante Fabro, right, for the right shot D, which people have mentioned a lot. All right. Well, that probably means you’re not signing Will Culie or you’re not getting like a Besser or like a proven like top six player, right? You have to make concessions somewhere. Maybe it’s you sign a guy like Pervix who again like is a serviceable NHL defenseman. Is he a top four guy? Is he a guy that moves the people like you know? And it’s the same thing even with like if you go the offer sheet route like we like Will I’ve said it multiple times, but is he like the one fix, right? You still like are short another two or at least two other wingers, right? Is Luke Evangelista. I like his game like Tai Anderson’s kind of the guy that brought him up and he’s like a shot first guy. doesn’t mean that as much as he his play style and his limited reps paint the picture of a guy that could be like the next geeky or the next like I think his skill set reminds me of Craig Smith who like could be a shot first middle six 20 goal guy that’s what you hope for but that is not set in stone right so and Craig Smith had his struggles when he was here we thought like oh my god he’s going to come in and be a top six regular and he really put him with and like he’s going to automatically be a 25 goal guy yeah it’s not set in stone even if they make a couple of moves, we’re not, I think, going to look at this depth chart um in September and be like, “All right, those top three lines are all set.” There’s going to be either one spot you’re like, “Uh, I wish they were able to shore up that area of the roster.” Whether it’s like you get you get and uh Eers or something like that. I don’t even know if that money would work, but then you’re like, “All right, well, guess we’ll see how Perix does, right?” or it’s like, all right, they got Fabro and like, you know, he was like literally put on waiverss two years ago. He had a great year with Columbus, but is he really the guy that is going to be a long-term solution on the right side? No. Now Lysel has to be up front or something like that. Yeah, it’s you’re going to have a lot of question marks and you’re not going to be able to really retool this roster all in one off season even with the money. And again, like you’re in a spot where you still have your franchise pillars signed long term. the cap’s jumping up drastically the next two years. So, you’re going to have more money to address more needs next off seasonason, which is good, right? It’s not like all of a sudden we’re looking at like a flat cap and this offseason is your one chance to build up like you whether it’s you’re drafting well and guys are coming through the system gradually in the next couple years. um you know guys that are already in the system like Fraser Mitten or Potra or someone like that Dance Lash Melis you have those guys that can step in but as much as there should be optimism for this team next year at least in terms of going in the right direction I agree we’re going to look at this team in September before like preseason begins and be like there’s going to be two or three spots of the roster where you’re like I could see this happening but there’s a lot of risk involved right and I think you’re going to have to make some concessions yes you want to you want to acquire Marshmint and win two or three offer sheets. Like there’s no guarantee like the Rangers can move heaven and earth to keep and like dump Crider’s contract on a dumb team that’ll take that contract, right? Like yep, a lot can go go wrong and your best late plan is you rarely ever actually work out for you when you get to the NHL offseason. So it’s Listen, could the Bruins make the playoffs next year? Yeah. Like if Swayman finds his game, the defense uh writes the ship. Makavoy is back. Lynholm, that can be kind of your bedrock and you still have David Poster not playing at a high level. That top line can do uh some good things and pull its weight and you’re going to add some guys, right? You’re going to add some scoring talent. You’re going to at the very least add an aggregate of 30 goals. You hope it’s more than just 30 goals, but um the amount of talent you’re bringing in is going to help out this team moving forward. But it’s not all Rome’s not built in a day. Like you’re still going to have spots of the the lineup where you’re either banking on upside. You’re rolling the dice on a gamble or you’re putting in a placeholder hoping it works out but knowing full well you probably have to address that whether it’s a trade later on in the year or more likely the following off seasonason when you do have more cap space and maybe more assets at your disposal. Whether it’s all of a sudden a team really likes how Will Zellers is playing or maybe Casey Middlestead bumps his value up and he’s a trade chip. A lot can change, but it’s not all going to be done in one fell swoop this summer. You’re probably looking at the next couple years. Agreed. And this is the thing, right, with like kind of how to frame the playoffs cuz everybody wants, you know, Bruins fans want the Bruins to go back to the playoffs. Everybody likes playoff hockey around here. It’s a fun time of year. Um, but you look at sort of the amount of first round picks, second round picks, and where the roster is at, and you say, “All right, you know, the future’s the most important thing.” The one thing that holds that up, the one thing I keep coming back to with, like, can they get in the playoffs next year? Pos can’t waste his prime. You cannot under any circumstances waste his prime. and you’re not wasting his prime um you know with younger guys around him and such. But if you’re you know miss if missing the playoffs becomes a consistent thing. This is the best you’re going to get of Postnock. You’re entering those years and if that’s I don’t want to say wasted, but if that’s used on a team that is, you know, picking 13th in the draft or 14th and is just out of it, missing it, whether it’s by a little bit or a lot, that’s a tough sell. Now, you do not trade David Pastnog. That is that that is not something you do ever, ever, ever, ever under any circumstances. But does it force them to get a little bit more aggressive? Do they go after a JJ Purka who’s, you know, 23 years old in Buffalo and he’s been a productive NHLer on the left wing? Um, do they try to swing for an Elias Person deal? I can’t see them doing that because that feels like it’s going to be giving up a good amount of those firsts. So, I I don’t I don’t know. Um, or do they go the route of say, “Hey, let’s go get a Kyle Palary and let’s get some veteran guys who might be a little bit more proven to try to tread water while we make our picks and things like that.” Um, now I don’t love like Chris Krider. I I I I’d rather give that spot to a younger person on the roster. Loved him four years ago, but Yes. Yeah. Not not quite anymore. Um, but like do they do they try to make those small concessions or different kinds of concessions where it’s like, well, maybe he’s a little more proven. Um, you know, let’s get him in the lineup, you know, cuz we know we’re going to get out of him a little bit more and maybe that keeps them competitive for longer. They they might not. I hope they don’t do that, but you also can’t waste Posox Prime. And that’s what I always come back to is that’s a truth you just can’t escape. And I wonder how much of that impacts what they do this off season, how aggressive they might be, whereas like it’s not like they’re in a full rebuild. Like they would like to get back to contention within the next year or two. Um I’m just curious how that kind of factors into their plans this off season. Yeah, exactly. And I think it’s all about setting the right expectations. And I think the biggest key this team, maybe they make the playoffs, maybe they don’t, but you can’t be middling, right? like you can maybe miss the playoffs, but you’re going in the right direction. The power plays showing signs of life. Younger players are stepping into roles where even if it’s uneven, there’s going to have the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys. You feel like they’re on the right track where especially next year, a guy like Fraser Mitten can really be an everyday impactful player. Maybe he’s not going to be a 60point guy, but if Fraser Mitten you you see what he does here and especially moving forward, you’re like, that’s our 3C for the next five plus years. There’s value in that and you can unearth that out of what this year is. So I think the biggest key is yeah the one thing you don’t want to be is just in the middle middling right where Pernok is keeping you afloat but no one else is pulling on the ropes right like Kiki’s play dips or the younger guys aren’t doing well or your free agent signings are are busts or anything like that. If that’s the case then it feels like you’re just stuck in neutral and that’s what you can’t have if even if this team doesn’t make the playoffs. Bruins fans, as vocal as they are and as passionate as they are, understand I think like good hockey and like building things up the right way. And it’s like I mentioned this to Tai last week. I think the best case scenario for the Bruins this upcoming year is kind of what the Bruins in 2017 were where like you don’t make you feel like you’re not making the playoffs, you go on a run, you have these younger guys contribute, you lose in the first round to Ottawa, but I feel like the overarching like sentiment for Bruins fans, right, as like they’re doing the handshake with Ottawa and like Eric Carlson’s like giving Charlie Makavoy props and you’re seeing him step up and you’re seeing like De Brusk uh play well in Providence and and just Buick and Ryan Donado light it up in college. It all didn’t work out right like but at the time I feel like the overall sentiment from Bruins fans were like man I can’t wait till October because this team’s going to be fun. I think that’s what you have to view as the main goal. And Bruins fans, I think you can sell them on that. If like this team comes up short and they’re out in the first round, but Will Zeo’s got 20 goals as a freshman and Jacob Bryan’s got 100 points in juniors and could make a push next year and Will or Evangelista or someone has a 20 goal season and feel like they’re a piece of the puzzle moving forward. You can sell Bruins fans on that. They’re going to buy in and be excited. You just got to show promise and that is what you need to do this upcoming season more than anything. Promise and progress and like hey we’re working towards something like and I think that’s the biggest thing. Young guys are taking steps and hey the playoffs is more on the table in 2627 than it is this upcoming season. Um I completely agree with that. Before we get into sort of uh good news for next season uh make sure to go subscribe to Bruins Ringside on YouTube. Lots of great content, six podcasts a week across Bruins Beat, Poke the Bear, Pucks with Hags, live streams when Big News uh breaks or right after it breaks. Um and uh if you don’t love watching us, and you’re like, “These guys aren’t my kind of guys, but you like listening. Maybe you love our voices. You’re like, “Man, these guys melodic voices.” Yeah. Huh. Maybe they they really like that. Uh make sure to go subscribe to us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from. Um, great news for next season. Jeremy Swayman killer in leading team USA to their first win in worlds in 92 years. 1933 was the last time. Swayman goes 7-0. Lo 921 save percentage. Uh, he was fantastic. Looks like himself again. Says he feels like himself again. Like a new goalie. I saw you wrote that story. Um, that’s huge. And then Elias Lindholm led Sweden in points. Had a very productive uh tournament. they he won bronze. So again, those are two key components. I look at those guys and say those guys not performing up to expectations were really maybe your two biggest roster problems last season outside of guys with injuries. If they can ride this momentum and get right throughout the offseason and show up in camp and be the guys that they’re paid to be, maybe they are a playoff team next year. Like I don’t think that’s completely out of the question. So good news coming out of Worlds for those guys. Exactly. I think it’s just you got to take any positives you can. And yes, you can have people be like, “Ah, it’s not the Stanley Cup playoffs. How much are we going to draw from this?” Even though I mean, there’s NHL talent on all those teams in world. And yes, you can dilute how much you’re taking out of Swayman’s play or Lyn Holmes because playing on the bigger ice over in Europe and it’s still not the Olympics. It’s not the roster. The rosters aren’t as stacked as they are in the NHL or what have you. But you also can’t like discredit like Swayman and Lindol playing well and then like retweet Dan Los playing well. Like you know it’s take take whatever positive news you can get. It like Swayman playing at that level and and winning a gold uh for team USA doesn’t mean he’s going to be a 925 say percentage guy in the regular season. uh Elias Lindum scoring uh you know leading the the tournament in goals doesn’t mean he’s going to be a 40 goal guy but I’d rather them put their best foot forward now in this off seasonason feel good about their games and have that clean slate going into this upcoming year. It can only it can only help them and it only should reassure Bruins fans that these guys still have stuff left in the tank. And I say that not being like these guys are on their last legs but Lihome’s not even 31 years old. Jeremy Straman’s 26. Um, listen, a lot didn’t go right for them. Whether it’s on the ice, off the ice with like Lind Holmes back injury before camp started, swim in the contract drama. These still are talented players. Maybe they’re not a franchise like line driving center and Elias Lindol, but he’s a guy that you saw even before the tournament how he played with David Post. If he’s healthy, he can contribute and be an effective piece of the puzzle. I think that’s all you’re looking for from a guy like Elias Lindholm now. And the same thing with Swayman. If he he’s shown in the past, it’s not like he’s a guy that you’re banking on potential really. Like he’s shown it. He saw you saw it in the playoffs against Toronto. You saw it against Florida where they were clearly the better team. And that was like it’s funny like beyond the the Oilers in the Stanley Cup final last year. The Bruins last year with that team that had no business going there played a more competitive series than a lot of these other teams have. Oh yeah. Especially with Carolina now. It’s a joke. But um you you do look at the body of work that Stman has put together before this up this past year. Still a guy that had like a career 919 save percentage before this season. Like there’s still a lot to like what he can do and he validated that I think during Worlds. So yeah, I’m not running with like all of a sudden like oh you guys are all doubters like here comes the Vesma season. know, but when you’re coming off a year where there’s so few opportunities to draw any sort of positives or silver lines out of anything with those guys, for them to end the year on a high note, especially on Lindol’s uh point of view, go into Worlds, play well there, and now have a full off season to rest, recharge the batteries, have that clean slate for next year. It should only help both those players and uh the Bruins as a team as a whole. Absolutely. And I think it gets it’s in a season full of negativity and bad signs and roster holes. It’s nice to end the full hockey slate on sort of a positive, which is where we’ll end this podcast on a positive. Uh Connor, what can the people look forward to from you over at the Globe and Boston.com? Yeah, you can read all my stuff over the globe and boston.com. We have you covered every step of the way this Bruins off seasonason, whether it’s the head coaching search and see when that ends. Uh free agency, the draft, trades, offer sheets, all that stuff. We’ll have you covered every step of the way over at the globeandboston.com. And if you want to follow me on Twitter, X, whatever you want to call it, you can at Connor Ryan_93. Go do all that. That’s Connor Ryan. I’m Evan Marinowski. You Bruinsbeat listeners have a great rest of your week. [Music]

On this episode of Bruins Beat, Evan Marinofsky and Conor Ryan break down the latest reports of who might be the next Bruins head coach. They also dive into whether the Bruins should be expected to make the playoffs next season and Jeremy Swayman’s big confidence boost.  All that, and much more!

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