What Bruins need in their next Head Coach | Poke The Bear

What Bruins need in their next Head Coach | Poke The Bear

Poke the Bear is brought to you by Price Picks and the Game Time app. And welcome into Poke the Bear, episode 334, part of the CLNS Media Network. If you have time, please subscribe to the Bruins Ringside YouTube channel where you can have pretty much daily content between Poke the Bear, Bruins Beat with Evan Marinowski, Pucks with Hags, Bear with Me with Joey Capone. We have you covered every step of the way this Bruins off season. So follow along with us over at YouTube. Uh, make sure you sign up for notifications so you find out right at the very instant when a new video drops. And if you don’t want to see my ugly face or anything like that, I understand. You can also subscribe and follow us over wherever you get your podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, all that good stuff. Uh, my name is Connor Ryan and once again, we are joined by the esteemed Ty Anderson of 95 Sportsub. Ty, how you doing? What is going on today? How are we doing? Uh, doing well. I am in uh Pennsylvania for a wedding. I’m in a hotel and so if the Wi-Fi is choppy, if all a sudden I start sound on like Zordon or IG88 or anything like that, please, it’s not it’s not me, it’s the Wi-Fi. So, please bear with me. Uh, can you become like the the uh I don’t know if it was a pilot or a driver in Rise of Skywalker. Objectively terrible movie. Yes. I died in the theaters when they were like, “Uh, take us to whatever.” And the guy just opens and goes, “Okay.” And starts driving. Just become that guy, please. That is one of the funniest scenes in the entire latest three-part series. You didn’t like Babufick? Uh, no. I actually did like Babu Frick. Okay, that’s a lie. I did. Yeah. No, we got two scenes, though. We got We got two scenes in a an hour and 40. What is it, an hour and 40? No, two hour movie. It’s not It’s not what exactly you’re looking for there. Uh, Ty, we might end up having to talk about The Rise of Skywalker and Babufrick this entire episode because there’s really not a lot of tangible news uh to talk about with the Bruins in their head coaching search. A lot of uh rumors, a lot of you would think that based on the reports that first came out on Tuesday, I believe it was Cam Robinson from Elite Prospects was pretty much saying that Marco Storm set to be the new head coach of the Boston Bruins. So, I think we were all expecting, all right, maybe this is a Thursday at 9:00 a.m. news drop. maybe Friday, something like that. We’re on Saturday and it does feel like they’re still in the process of talking to a few guys. Um Shenzhaw of the Athletic mentions guys like Jay Leech is still a finalist, Mitch Love is a finalist. Um where do you stand right now on the the Bruins head coaching stretch? Are you still bracing for Mako Sturm or do you still feel like it’s still up for grabs and the Bruins are still maybe pondering what you know who their new head coach is going to be? Yeah, I I I do think that they’re still going through their options. Um I reported last night that Joe Sacko was at the facility on Friday morning. Uh unclear as to what reason. Uh I do think that he is a legit candidate as well. Um I don’t want to lose sight of that. It does feel like yeah, Marco Sturm, Mitch Love, uh Jay Woodcraftoft, like we keep hearing about those guys, but I continue to hear about Joe Sacko, and you know, it’s been said to me multiple times that like, no, he’s a legit contender. Um, and so it appears the Bruins aren’t telling the truth when it comes to that. Um, him being at the facility on Friday kind of intrigues me because like, why is he interviewing for the job, which is kind of weird because they know a lot about him already. Is he part of the interview process for a guy like Marco Sturm, which would indicate that he’s perhaps willing to go back to being an associate coach, which would be kind of weird, but if you’re comfortable, you’re comfortable, right? Um, but yeah, I think they’re they’re still kind of going over their options because I I do think that they know, as we’ve talked about before, like this might be their last hire. This might be the last guy that they are allowed to hire. And when that’s the case, like you got to get it right. Right. It’s similar to how they look at the seventh overall pick. You know, Don Sweeney said to us back beginning of May like like yeah, there’s a lot of pressure when you pick this high and there should be. You know, I feel like with the coaching search, there’s a lot of pressure on them. And there should be. When you fire two coaches that one wins a Stanley Cup and the other one finds a job 5 days later and brings that team back from the dead, there should be pressure on you to get this right. Because if you don’t, everyone’s going to point and laugh at you and go, “You guys are the problem, not the coach. Right. No, exactly. And I also wonder, I don’t know if this is the conspiracy theorist in me or anything like that, but do you feel like with uh Dallas now being out of the playoffs, do you think they or is it Misha Donskov? Do you think that’s just something that we just like talking about him because he’s an intriguing candidate, but there really wasn’t a lot of maybe fire underneath all that smoke? I mean, hell, based on how uh that that final game ended between the Stars and the Oilers, is like Pete Dbor going to be on the bracket in like a few days, like do you think maybe not just Don Scott, but do you also think the Bruins are waiting for maybe the dust to settle from what Dallas might do in terms of all right before we we like some of these guys, we like Sterm, we like Woodcraft, we like Love, but let’s let’s let’s wait for a minute and see what exactly is out there and maybe if if another really intriguing head coach does become available that we can snag. Well, I mean, you can argue it’s what the Blues did a year ago with the Bruins, right? Like they were kind of watching that Boston Toronto series going, if they blow this, Montgomery is going to become available, you know? Like, so it is possible, and I think it’s especially possible when you look at who the Final Four were. The Panthers were not going to fire Paul Maurice if they lost that series. The Oilers were not going to fire Chris Knoblock if they lost that series. However, the two teams that did lose that series, Rod Bindmore, it’s now his third time losing in the conference finals as the head coach of the Hurricanes and Pete Dbor third straight time losing uh in the conference finals for the Stars, the first team to do that in like 50 years. Like there’s legit case, perhaps not strong, but legit case to be made that those guys could be fired. And if they were fired, well, guess what? You are one of two teams with an opening right now. Not a bad thing, you know, like that. like that’s where the market kind of place your advantage in a way. So yes, I do think they being patient waiting for the dust to settle. Um when is that going to come though, right? Like I don’t think Carolina fires Rod. I just don’t think they do that. And I think there are economic reasons as well as what he’s been able to get out of that team reasons for that. But um you know Pete Dbor like what do they do there? You know like what what do they do? Especially those comments, you sort of alluded to it there, like the biting comments on Jake Atoner after that game seven loss and you know it’s just it’s tough to blame a goalie in my opinion when you kind of no-show in terms of creating offense for you know the first the f outside of the third period of game one you like that’s kind of how it felt honestly. So, um, that’s a weird situation now. And, and as we saw with Boston, with Bruce Cassidy, there’s a limit of criticizing players that, you know, organizations will withstand before the players go to management and go, I don’t want to play for this guy anymore. You got to do something there. So, has that happened on Pete Debor? I don’t know. He’s a good coach. So, we’re going to have to wait and see there. But, those are two intriguing candidates if they are to move on, right? And I also like as you said where you’re at this point in the the coaching carousel hiring frenzy where it’s just you and Pittsburgh and you know it does feel like Mitch Love is an Amy here a lot with Pittsburgh. I do kind of find that very interesting because how much are you actually still squeezing out of that core because it does feel like wasn’t the whole reason why um like there was that split between Dubis and Mike Sullivan is that Dubis is expecting this to be some lean year. So, I guess maybe you can sell a younger coach on that, but also you still have so much money tied up. You have so many guys that are they going along with that that re rebuild more or less, right? And I don’t really think it’s going to be a retool in Pittsburgh. It does feel like the Bruins would be the more appealing option there, but I guess everyone has something different, right? I mean, hell, Lane Lambert went to the Seattle Kraken, which like again, not what you want to do of take yourself out of the running in a coaching candidacy um and hire someone like that who as soon as Lane Lambert gets hired, everyone’s like, “But why but why’d you do that?” So, no, it’s true. And it to your point, like it does come back down to, you know, what you view in terms of like what’s important to you, right? Because like I think for brothers e even at 38 39 like Sydney Crosby is a hell of a pillar right to have on your roster. Um you know David Posnock is what you have in Boston. You also have Charlie Makavoy and Hampus Lholm and and you know Jeremy Swayman if you can fix him and get him back to being the goalie he was the first four years of his career. Like like that’s a better option than Pittsburgh. I would agree. But like what if you really value center play? you know, it’s like, okay, well, you’re getting really good center play in Pittsburgh, right? So, um, yeah, I think out of the three that were remaining, right, Seattle, Boston, Pittsburgh, I would feel that Boston is the most appealing. That’s just like that’s a team that, you know, like, and I think especially, you know, you you look at what Seattle’s done, like Seattle’s kind of Bostonesque when it comes to like the coaching shelf life. They moved on from Hackall. They moved on from Bowsma. Like I don’t know if you’re going if you have reservations about Boston because of the the shelf life and how they fire coaches. You’re not looking at Seattle going, “No, that’s where I want to go.” Like they’re kind of the same thing in that regard. Yeah. No, exactly. Um and also, you know, you you look at where the coaching search is and all the candidates. I guess it would be remiss if we don’t talk a little bit about Marco Sturm just because does feel like he’s the guy that has had the most ties to the Bruins has had the most reports linking him whether it’s Cam’s report from earlier this week. Elliot Freeman more or less said that he was talking to the team on Friday and feels like he’s the leader in the clubhouse at least. I know I think we both talked about it respectively on our podcast, but where would you stand if as we maybe expect um if Marco Sturm is announced the new head coach? What do you think of that hire and what he bring to this team? Yeah, I I I do disagree with the notion that like he’s part of the old boys club. Like Sweeney was working in development when Marco Sturm was a player here. Um Cam Neely was the vice president and then he became the team president. I believe Marco’s final year with the Bruins. Like it it really wasn’t, oh wow, he’s he’s one of us, you know? It’s not like it’s not like Chris Kelly, right? or like to another degree like like Adam Mcuade where like they’ve been working under these guys for years and years and years like no he’s a bit of an outsider and um you know the LA Kings like I I think it’s telling that Don Sweeney brought up the LA Kings at his end of end of season press conference as like a team that like you look at them and how they play it’s like okay so you’re going to take a piece from the LA Kings pipeline right like that is how you’re going to do that and so I I I I think it makes sense in that regard. I that’s why I feel like like if I were if I were betting, right, if I were creating the odds here and I think we did this last week, like you asked me and we asked each other like who would your top three be? I said Leech, Love, and Sturm because that’s kind of like they’re they’re all defensiveminded in theory. And so it feels like that’s where the Bruins are going to want to go. Um, so I don’t hate the hire, but I also like it the potential hire. It’s also not like I think people look at the German success and the fact that the Rain have been a solid team in the AHL and they go okay that’s going to be great like no like there’s still some question marks you know offensively can he get the most out of the players like that’s what I’d really wonder about um he’s got to tap into younger players um the Reigns roster I know they had some kind of veteran presences down there as well so like I don’t have a full scope of that in terms of like how much was he getting out of development and coaching young players and bringing young players along because I do think I wrote this this past week like they got to get more out of their younger players like like it’s got to be a symbiotic relationship between the next head coach and your young players. I don’t care if they’re not perfect. They’re young players. They’re not going to be perfect. But you got to give enough rope to guys like Frasier Minton, Marat Husadino, Fabian Lysel. Like you cannot have another season where you waste a combined 10,00 minutes of hockey on getting something out of Vinnie Lati, Patrick Brown, Oliver Walstrom, Riley Tuy. This is not an anti-roll player take. It’s a you got to get more out of younger players take and you can’t give them one game and send them back down to the minors and kill their confidence. It was an issue. I talked to players who did the shuffle back and forth between Boston and Providence and I had multiple players tell me, “I feel like I can’t get a look in Boston for whatever reason.” Like, you don’t want that being your culture down in the minor leagues. And you need a head coach that’s going to bring the best out of younger players versus making them question their own game. So, that’s something that I want to see whoever they hire. That is like almost objective number one for me. I don’t know if the players are good enough. You don’t know if they’re good enough. None of us know because they don’t give them enough rope. That cycle’s got to break with this next hire. Yeah. And it almost feels like when you are when you do bring up these younger players based on just what the expectations of the status quo was for years, right, in terms of just how little rope they gave these younger players. I feel like the first three, four, five games, how much can you really glean from it? Because these guys are only gripping their sticks so tight, right? Because they just don’t want to [ __ ] up, you know? Like, and it’s almost like you saw like with Lysel, it’s games six through 10 where he’s like, “All right, I’m in the groove now. I know I’m not going to get bounced out of the lineup. Like, I can play my own game.” And he was kind of candid about that. I think he saw it with guys like Minton, right? For everyone, I think, looks at, you know, who scored in like their first game like Mark Mclofflin scored in their first G in his first game. Brian Donado did, right? Uh so there’s those kinds of yeah there’s kind of those immediate bumps you do get but there’s also I think some guy especially maybe more hyped players that you have so much expectations and I think Bruins fans are also so st for young talent that like hell like let’s say like Will Ze is up here in two two three years and he’s not even maybe like the guy that you’re building your franchise around but he’s a guy that the Bruins fans are so desperate to see a young player thrive that they’re they’re all in on the Wills bandwagon now that now it’s like all right like this guy’s going to be a 30 goal scorer right? Like I don’t know. Let’s see how he does in college first. Like it’s it’s not I’m not like you know knocking Bruins fans for getting carried away because again there’s just so few times where you’ve seen a player that you’re excited about where they’re going to be in three four years. Like Fraser Mitten best case scenario is probably like your 3C of the future. And like Burns fans are thrilled about that, right? And again, if he ends up being a I don’t know, a Charlie Coyle for the next five plus years, there’s a lot of value to that. But it’s it also just shows you that the Bruins fans, I think, are just so hyped that they have guys they can look forward to bringing into their lineup. Um, but in order to give them that opportunity to thrive, yeah, I think whoever the coach is has to be patient with them. And I think the biggest thing for priorities for whoever the new head coach is, it’s just that level of communication and trust in these younger players that it’s not going to be perfect. They’re going to have mistakes, bad games, games where you want to look at the tape afterwards and be like, “What the hell were you doing there?” But you got to stick with them because I’d rather that than, you know, an AHL kind of journeyman who maybe gets the job done right now, but where’s he going to be in three, four years? Probably with another like AHL team, right? Like it’s not a knock against those kinds of players. They’re important for filling out your depth chart in your organization. But if you’re not going to give guys like Lysel or Minton or Potra or whoever else rope, then you know how successful is this kind of retool on the fly going to be? 100%. And and sort of you look at you you look at sort of like the patience that you have to have. If the Bruins, if the Bruins had Brad Marshian, rookie Brad Marshan in 2024 25, does his career ever get off the ground? This is a guy who had one assist, I think, in 19 games in his in his like rookie season. And people will tell you, “Oh, no. I saw it back then.” No, you didn’t. No, you didn’t. You didn’t. I I was watching those games, too. I was there in the stands. You didn’t see it. He got He He produced in his first game and then went like 18 games in a row without a point or whatever it was. Like Like you didn’t see it. He looked like a fill-in kind of player. He looked like a guy that you wouldn’t see back in the NHL, but they they trusted him. They gave him the rope and and he kept going. And so, you know, like how desperate, how thirsty are the Boston Bruins and their fans for someone like in Vegas, Pablo Dorf, where like he just he breaks in, you know, but you look at him out of the gate, like he had some results, but I think his second season, he went without a goal in like nine of his final 10 games or something like that. And the goal was a multi-goal game. The game he got a goal was a multi-goal game. like like it’s not linear. They’re not like there’s going there’s going to be bumps in the road. And so if you got to know how to manage those bumps like that is the biggest thing for this next head coach. Like you cannot banish Frasier Minton to to the miners because he doesn’t play your brand of hockey after three games. Like because you need found money, right? Like look at the way that you know it’s so maddening, right? Like and we’ve talked about this adnauseium. I understand. But like you think about what they did with Justin Brazo, right? a guy that you signed to a contract and was basically found money for you, right? And then you trade him and you trade him for a guy who was the 40th overall pick, you know, like I think it was I think off 40th overall, 38th overall, something like that. You get that player, right, in return for a guy who was found money. I mean, imagine what you maybe perhaps could have gotten for a guy like Georgie Merkel if you gave him the minutes you gave Walstrom and Tuy and Jones and Tyler Johnson. And it’s like like you got to utilize your pipeline more. Whether it’s a pump and dump, whether it’s finding guys that are good third line fits, like you got to do more of that, right? And and it’s so maddening when you watch a success story of a guy like Brazo and you go do that more. Please do that more. you can do it. It’s a good mechanism. Please go and do that more. So that they got to figure that out uh this next season because I also think and and we’ve talked about this and we’ll talk about this more down the road as we get closer, but like you can’t rebuild your team from fifth worst in hockey to a playoff team by signing a bunch of 31year-old free agents. Like like yeah, that might give you a one-year pop, but you want sustainability, right? That’s what Charlie Jacobs has talked about when it comes to why he’s not going to fire Cam and Dawn. Okay. Well, if you go out and sign five Craig Smiths, all right, you’re going to be good for two years. Then you’re right back where you are right now. Right. Exactly. And it’s like to your point of like maximizing value doesn’t mean you’re also keeping every single player. Like can you imagine if in this last season where nothing was going right if you had Georgie Mulov and he didn’t again like the world on fire, but he had like 28 points in 61 games. You don’t think like a team would take that, right? if it’s just like even if it’s throwing out there just for some sort of return or something like that. It’s not I think making the most of these prospects is what it drives some people crazy in terms of just yeah finding guys that are part of the equation for your team or moving them on for assets. And to your point like even as a fourthline guy he’s a guy that you hope you can pencil in for the next couple years and you got him off of as your point found money. So, um I will also say, yeah, whoever they do end up hiring, I think you’re right where they’re all kind of cut from the same cloth, um of defense first, whether it’s Marco Sturm, Mitch Love, all these kinds of guys, and it’s for the Bruins getting back to their foundational strengths, right? If they can get their goalending and defensive line, then it all kind of builds out from there and it’s kind of setting the foundation in place. But I am very curious as to what the approach on offense is going to be because if if it’s Marco Sturm and it’s like kind of the the Kingsh system, especially defensively, not the most riveting product on the ice, but I think if that’s what you got to do to get your game back in order, okay. But what do you do um offensively? Are you a forch check heavy team? Are you, you know, what’s your approach in terms of shot volume? Are you quality over quantity? Are you kind of just peppering the net? How is your approach? I think offensively with your defenseman, how active you want them to be. And I think for Sturm, it’s kind of like that is the main question. I I think I don’t know if you’re going to do the 131 with Sturm here, but I think you’re seeing kind of what 91 won’t. Yeah, I was gonna say it’s not real hockey according to Nikita Zidora, but I do think that based on who you’ve seen linked to the Bruins, it is about getting first their their their house in order, right, defensively, but how they augment and change this approach defensively or offensively rather is going to be like maybe determining what the ceiling of this team could be. And I think you don’t you won’t find that out until we get to camp. It’s like John Gruden, I think, was a great one-year stint here as an assistant coach. didn’t expect going into it that these guys are gonna be flying around like they were in 22 23. So how they actually practice and preach uh the principles of what they’re doing offensively I think is gonna be the biggest key. Yeah, I think both you and I were pretty high on the 22 23 Bruins once we saw them in training camp. I think once we saw the way that they were utilizing and deploying their defense, you kind of went, “Oh, this team might be good.” I remember I I I infamously or famously predicted them to win the division and Felgar and Maz were like losing their minds. I’m like, “No, wait till you see this team.” They ended up setting a points record. I didn’t see that coming, but I saw them being a good team because of what we saw in training camp and how it was like, “Wow, they’re really putting an emphasis on everyone being a puck mover, everyone getting involved.” And I think, you know, not to be a broken record here, but you’re seeing that with the cup final. You’re seeing that with Evan Buchard in the way that he can create. Darnell Nurse is now in a more complimentary support kind of role as an offensive producer. And then you have Florida who, you know, the last two offseasons they’ve lost Brandon Montour and they’ve lost Oliver Ecman Larson. Two guys that are pretty decent when it comes to activating and creating offense. No worries. Now Nico Mika is going to become, you know, Victor Hedman 2.0 here. activating and jumping into the rush like like it it’s you got to get more out of that grouping, right? And I think for the Bruins like you look at the Montgomery system, you look at the the the Sacko system in terms of like, you know, a lot of time in your own zone, a lot of time unable to get the puck out to get enough from your back end. I crunched the numbers last week. The Bruins had the fewest amount of points from the back end uh last year. Obviously, no Makavoy, no Lindle, and that’s going to affect that. But like, they’re just not getting enough out of their back end. And so, I feel like that’s a way to augment the offense. They said it a year ago. They said it like we’re going to ask more out of Hampus and and Mason. Didn’t happen that way, right? And so, now’s a chance at a second crack at it to actually say it and do it. And so, that starts with training camp, starts with the head coach, starts the support staff around that head coach. Um, but that feels like, you know, that and July one is going to tell us a lot in terms of like how they plan on getting more offense, right? Like we kind of knew last year on July 1 when they made their signings, we all kind of left that press conference going, “Okay, so they’re going to it’s going to be goals by committee apparently. Didn’t work out. Two-1.” Yeah. Yeah. Didn’t work out. And so again, second chance now for Don Sweeney to kind of write that wrong. But how do they do it? You know, is it Eers? Is it Besser? Is it, you know, off sheets? Yeah. Is it offer sheets? Is it maybe trading for distressed assets or guys that need to be on the outslair or a Mason Marchman who you’ve brought up in passing before about like, you know, Dallas has to cut some cap perhaps? Like, could that be a guy you get for cheap? Like, you know, I wonder their method of the method to the madness of how do you fix the offense? How do you do that? And so they’re going to have a lot of ways of doing it, but I feel like that’s going to be telling. You know, the week of the draft to July one is going to tell us a lot in terms of how they envision their offense leading up to training camp. Yeah. No, absolutely. Um I do think Yeah, we’re all expecting this team that their focus is going to be getting back as a defense first club, getting Swayman’s game in order. Obviously, that’s the biggest determinant, but how they alter and augment their offensive approach and get more out of not just whoever they sign, but also the guys they have on this team. Like, I’m sure any coach, I’m not sure they look at this roster the past year and they’re like, “Oh, I got a ton to work with.” But if they see Laurai and like I can unlock more out of his game, if it’s like Zidorov who’s, you know, you’ve seen him when he’s gets a head full of steam, it can be a really dynamic player. um you know, Linton being back and getting him back to where he was in 22 23 of uh encouraging him to be a playmaker which is something that he really wasn’t the previous year right in 23 24 he was like a defense first guy with Koa which is he can do but you’re not really maximizing the the potential of I think Lindholm when you’re trying to just make him a D first defense only guy. So I think it is trying to figure out what you do in the offseason of adding talent but um kind of the same thing as 22 23 like yes it helped that you had cring coming back and like Zako was a good move but for most of that year before you then added you know guys at the deadline a lot of it was just depth and the systems being tweaked in a way that was just feel like every person was put in a spot to succeed and I’m not saying that’s all going to happen. I’m not going to say that you’re getting a 20 goal season from third line center Fraser Mitten. Woo, like that’d be great. But I think tweaking those systems, having it so it compliments the players you already have. And if that means that some guys that either were good foot soldiers this year or guys that you wanted more out of, whether that’s, you know, Lindtom, whether it’s making getting, you know, even more out of Geeky, uh, Laurai, all these kinds of plays, Andrew Peak, right? Like there’s a lot of guys that if you can tweak some things, maybe you just raise their ceiling a little bit more. If every guy, you know, it’s kind of when we were looking at the 22 23 team and I think we were seeing early on of like this team could be really good. I think it’s when you could see that one like guys like Taylor Hall were going to be on the third line. You’re like, “Oh, he’s going to feast there.” The way they were so active in training camp and then just, you know, it’s all about setting reasonable expectations. Can you get 5% more out of Taylor Hall in a third line role? Can you get five percent more out of Jake De Bruss where he’s a second line guy and he’s gonna be playing with Berseron? Can you get like five percent more out of David Posanok who still was what 25 at the time? And I think if you did that all across the roster, it wasn’t out of the realm of expectation for all those things to happen. Not saying the same thing’s going to happen this year, but I think if you have a fresh uh voice uh behind the bench, a new system in place, I think you can have guys that all can rebound from what for a lot of them was a pretty miserable year this past year. Yeah, I mean even even Zidorov, right? Like you you watched him in Vancouver and the way that he was able to generate a lot offensively, like you feel like there’s another level there, right, that he can tap into. And you know, maybe it’s just as simple as his luck turning a little bit, you know, like I think he shot like 3% this year. So like maybe he’s just getting himself into better shooting situations, better angles, better, you know, whatever. But like you saw it, right? You saw it in Vancouver both in the regular season and the playoffs. You saw it in spurts, I think a year ago. Like he had one goal where it was just awesome. It was just like a just absolute hammered shot on goal. I want to say it was against like Detroit perhaps. I can’t remember exactly, but like you saw it right in in you know bits and spurts here. And so like you want just get more of that, right? And obviously Lori, Lindholm, Mack, like those are your top dogs, but like if you can get more out of the support guys, like that’s what really separated them from the pack. in 22 23 like like you had a situation where Matt Grizzlick who for the majority of his career was a noticeably worse player away from 73 had a great year without 73. They barely played together for a while that year and and he was getting results. He was getting production. You know Connor Clifton, Derek Forbert, like everyone was making plays, right? And so that’s what you want to get back to I think because that’s how you know that you have a great team is that like you are a multi-line threat. You are a multi-pairing threat. And you know that is what has made I think we get so lost in in the you know better call the chicannery of the of the Florida Panthers that we lose sight of why they’re so good. They’re so freaking deep dude. It’s unbelievable how deep they are. And and that’s what it is versus the Sam Bennett punching goalies and punching captains. Like no, like it’s it’s the it’s the depth. It’s the pairings one through three and then lines one through four. They they can do it all, man. Like that’s what it is. And they got a great goalie behind them, too. And so I I I think, you know, you just got to get more people involved, right? Fewer passengers, everyone has a confidence of a driver, and you you’re off to the races. Yeah. I I feel like when you look at what makes the Panthers so good and it’s very easy to get lost in to your point the identity politics I guess of what they are as everyone looks at Kachchuck stirring stuff up chasing after a which doing none of his teammates did anything in that series which rough look for the Carolina Hurricanes for most of that series anyway but they look at Sam Bennett but like that team just when they’re locked in it doesn’t matter what the line is or who’s out there it’s just they they go out and play like and it feels like that’s the simple way put it, but they just they just go out and they react. Like it’s not even like you even saw with the uh the uh that sound clip with Paul Maurice a few years ago where he’s just like go out there and hit someone like make something happen and just play your game. It’s like they’re not, you know, like they’ve got structure. They’re a very very very good defensive team. It’s like all off of just them every player. It’s kind of like the the Bill Bichc do your job of just like they just do one thing and the the chaos that ensues they react off of it and they capitalize. And that’s what good teams do when you have also just skill and talent from lines one through four out there. You have guys that are going to bury those chances too, which is also a big part of it. So, uh it’s a reason why, uh Florida’s now going back to the Stanley Cup final for the third year in a row rematch with the Edmonton Oilers. Uh are you looking forward to that series, Tai? And what are your expectations for this latest Stanley Cup final? No, I’m not looking forward to it. I think Florida not looking forward to You’re not looking forward to uh reporters complaining about going from Florida to Edmonton on a pay for trip. Yeah. No, I’m not I I And the hockey I don’t think is going to be very good. I think it’s going to be a Florida sweep. I I really do believe that. I believe that Florida is going to win this series 4 nothing. Um I go back to what it was a year ago. Uh the Oilers dug themselves a massive hole. I think the Panthers are a better team this year than they were a year ago. And the Oilers have no Zack Heyman. So, I I look at that and I go, “Yeah, I don’t see it.” Like, listen, it’s great they got a goal from Jeff Skinner in game five. Uh uh AJ Greer is going to uh put Jeff Skinner in a back body drop and take him out of the series. Like, that’s like I just feel like it’s just not it’s not going to be like a good matchup for them. I just think that Florida is far and away the best team in the playoffs. Um, and I honestly feel like, you know, Dallas was the only team that I I thought would have a chance to beat them because of their depth and because of their defense and the way that their goalending can can seal games. We didn’t see any of that in that third round. And so, so that’s out of it. Uh, yeah, and I think Florida’s going to win. I don’t think it’s going to be a competitive series. I just don’t. And listen, I could be totally wrong on that, and there’s a good chance I will be, but I do not foresee this being an exciting, good, entertaining series. I just don’t see it. Yeah. Beyond the fact that unfortunately as talented as some of uh the Oilers are, they are not the most uh fun car, you know, they’re not the most charismatic squad. I would probably say I I like it’s So, here’s my whole thing. I hate tanking. I hate tanking. I think it sucks. I do not enjoy it. Everything the Oilers have become is like I don’t want to see that method being rewarded in any fashion. I want them. So that there’s two things about the Oilers that I hate. I hate that they were a tank team and have have like a billion first round picks and everyone goes, “Oh, they also got Yakapov and Hall and those guys weren’t good.” It’s like doesn’t matter. They got the generational guy, so it doesn’t really matter. Like if you do that, you know, for a billion years in a row, you’re bound to get the generational guy at some point. Secondly, the way they have, and listen, I know Stuart Skinner has been has been good. The way they have outright ignored goalending infuriates me. I do not want to see teams get rewarded for sucking their way into generational talents and being like, “Ah, that that position doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter.” I hate those two things of team building. So, I hate the Oilers to my core as a franchise. I’m sorry. Go on. I know. I was going to say I feel like the Oilers are just like such in a a sphere of their own where it’s tough to gauge much of them in terms of like as much as the NHL is a copycat league, how much can you glean from a team that is literally just treading water until 97 and 29 are out there? Like yeah, sucks. It’s not fun. like yeah, it’s I I wish I could I wish I could build a roster that had also just all league minimum guys or you know Evander Kane or some of these players that you can just you know sprinkle across your dep chart and like they can pull on the rope when needed but it’s also because you have two guys leading the charge every step of the way and like I get it like Bard’s been great they’ve had guys Heinman was a great fit there right of just being a setup guy so they’ve had some smart moves but to your point like I don’t think that goending is like the running back by committee in the NFL where it’s just you put any guy out there it’s like no when you got guys like McDavid and dry saddle out there it covers a lot of blemishes it’s not just one like it’s not just one or two flaws like they are they are a cheat code out there it’s like I say it’s like when you’re playing like NHL with like your little cousin you’re kicking his ass he’s wait and then turns the sliders all the way to easy and all a sudden guys are going 80 miles per hour it’s like this isn’t hockey to call Nikita Zidorov so yeah it’s It it it’s just so maddening. Like you look at their you look at their roster and yeah like when 97 and 29 aren’t out there it is borderline unwatchable. It is not a fun brand of hockey to watch. You know for as much [ __ ] as the Hurricanes got for being boring. I think the Oilers are a way more boring boring product for the 41 minutes that McDavid and Dry Settle are not on the ice. Like that is not a fun thing to watch in my opinion. So I know they balance them out. They put them on two different lines whatever. Like it’s just like Yeah. It’s like what they are. Remember when like the Penguins and like the Blackhawks and even the Lightning had to like sign too many veterans and like they started to kind of lose in the first round, the second round, whatever. Like this is like that but like they’re still winning and it’s so annoying because of how good those two players at the top are. Like that is so annoying to me because those are teams that should be out in the first round. Instead they are representing the West in the in the Stanley Cup final once again. Yeah, it it break it almost breaks your brain in terms of like don’t use them as a model. You want to look at the Florida Panthers and how they built their team and like yes, like follow that. Uh it’s almost like I know Kyle Paul Mary just signed an extension with uh back with the Islanders, but isn’t he feel like a guy that like if he hit the market, he would sign like a two-year $4 million deal with the Oilers and score like 37 goals? It’s like I see like they’re just being smart picking up these guys. Like no, he’s playing with the best hockey player ever. Like sorry. Yeah, exactly. I mean, they’re get they’re squeezing something out of Cory Perry, who is uh 9,000 years old. I was just going to say Rick Van Winkle in the top six. That guy remembers when Yeah. Corey Perry grew up in the age of Scotland and the Appalachians being in the same area like that’s that that’s when that’s what he that’s when he was around. Ste was skating on the frozen lakes of Pangia and now he’s still right still locked in early man himself. Yes, I mean I I agree. Um, again, because the Oilers can just break your brain. I would not be surprised if they win this series off of just what we’ve seen, right? Uh, but I still think Florida’s just a relentless team. So, I won’t go four games, but we’ll go six. I I’ll say they ends up being kind of interesting, but I feel like it’s going to be like Florida jumps out pretty early on. And you know, it’s just when they play their game, which is almost every single time they’re out there. Uh they’ve got so many guys that can burn you. And it’s you can’t play McDavid in a dry side for every single minute of those games. They tried to when they were coming back in that series, but I just can’t see it happening. Yeah, I admit I might be blinded by my hate of the Edmonton Oilers. I I have to admit that I might be blinded by that hate. So they they might they’re probably going to win a game. I just I just don’t I just don’t think it’s going to be as competitive as it as it uh perhaps you know you you would want this time of year uh in the NHL. But that’s a different story for another day. As we know, we got absolute slop this playoffs. Third year in a row in my opinion where it got worse as it went on and the NHL has to make a difficult decision here in my opinion. Are you content with your first round being your best round every year or do you want the best on best at the end of the day? I think this is something that the NFL gets right where the NFL wants it to be one verse two in the third round. They want it to be best on best. The NHL feels like no, no, let’s get our ratings in round one and then let’s hope for the best. Like that’s not a good idea, you know, like you it’s just and I think the ratings are kind of playing that out and you know, like you you want to have more you want to have more eyeballs on your product on the biggest stages versus the opening round and they got to figure that out. I don’t think they will. I think their answer is gonna be a playin tournament which is gonna be stupid as hell. Um, but it’s I I I’m curious when we get the push back in terms of the players saying this format is terrible. Let’s get a new format because that’s the only way it’s going to change in my opinion. And I’m so pissed about it because when we had the when we had the press conference with Don Sweeney, um it was the perfect chance for me to ask him as a GM who does talk to the competition committee and all that. I wanted to ask him his thoughts on the playoff format because I can’t most years because it comes off as sour grapes. They didn’t make it this year. So, it’d be the perfect time to ask him what do you think about the format? Like, like do you like it? Do you think it should be tweaked? Like I don’t know what he would have said. He probably would have said, “Ah, that’s that’s a league.” You know, but like I’m curious how GM Maroon would have kicked the door in and be like, “You guys are raising these [ __ ] narratives.” Yeah. Now, like all right, all right, sorry. I that remains like one of the funniest things because I was I I just remember being like, “Yeah, man. I want you to beat him up. I don’t like him either. Like he’s a jerk. Like I’m not into creating a narrative. I want you to do it. I know they’re afraid of you.” Yes. No. Exactly. And I agree though. um when you look at just the playoff format, it’s like why don’t you just lean into like the chaos of the first round knowing that you’re going to get at least out of like those various first round series like two or three of them are going to be just riveting anyway off of just the the chaos of hockey. Like there’s going to be an upset whoever you match up with, but it doesn’t need to be you’re getting your big guns knocking each other out, Colorado and Dallas in the first round. Like shouldn’t it be the to your point like what if it was Toronto and Florida in the Eastern Conference finals? How much better that would be? Probably the two best overall teams in the East going up like that, right? If it’s if it is the Oilers, but even if it was like Colorado and Dallas in the Western Conference Finals, like a lot of eyeballs on that series as well. A lot up for grabs, a lot of star power. You got the Rantin thing. I’d rather talk about Rantin scoring a hat-tick against his former team in at the end of May in the conference finals than the first round where it’s kind of like oh like that’s a funny little storyline. Here’s the uh eight other NBA games are going on at the same time. The NHL can’t grasp that the further you go along the higher the the stage is the more eyeballs you get that aren’t watching things. like I’d rather, you know, they’re trying to force Conor McDavid who is a generational player, but just because like they’re at this point in the the playoff format where it’s like look at this guy, he’s really boring. He’s not going to say anything fun, but look at these highlights. It’s like I’d rather you have Austin Matthews or some of these other guys that you’re trying to market later in the series. Like it’s why I like Matthew Kachchuck is like the most popular dude in America in the NHL because he’s always playing late. They always doing a lot of like features on him on like ESPN and stuff and he’s a pretty charismatic guy. So, you can see why guys like him, Marshian, the further these guys go, it’s better to market these players if you’re in the NHL. But nope, let’s get most of these really fun formats, these fun matchups, these fun teams out in the first round, out in April. Give them more time to golf. That makes sense. Yeah. And the other part of it too is like I was making the joke on Twitter like like we don’t have time for blowouts to your point in miday in late May. We don’t there’s only two shows in town. They got to be good games. You can’t they got to be good games. There’s got to be good competition, good quality competition. You can’t give me a first round matchup in May because first round matchups, as we know, are unpredictable. They can be really good or they can be absolute miserable dog [ __ ] fivegame series over and done with. We got two first round series in the conference finals. Not good enough. The NHL’s got to aim better. They got to aim higher. And I know people out there are going to say, “Look at the draw. Some years it’s going to be like this. Other years it won’t be.” It’s happening too frequently. It’s happening too often where and I think this is especially true in the Atlantic bracket. The Atlantic bracket has been an absolute gauntlet for about seven years now. It feels like you’ve had probably three or the four best teams in your conference have been in the bad Atlantic bracket. It’s tough to knock them all out so early, right? And I would say the same thing about the Central. Central, which has had Dallas, it’s Winnipeg, uh Colorado, St. Lewis Nashville when they were good. Like you gota it just go back to one verse eight. Why is this so hard? Yeah. It’s even like look at this year with Florida Tampa and it’s like what we’ve always I forget who it was. Was it Felo that was saying like the first round is the toughest round. Like you can’t glean anything from a team in the first round. Everyone’s trying to get their footing. Like that Tampa team I thought was going to win the East this year. I thought they were so damn good. And like maybe if you don’t have those two juggernauts go like this in the first round. They’re both playing deep. They’re both getting their confidence and then they meet in the conference finals or what have you. Like, isn’t that the better format as opposed to like the first round like, “Oh, look at all these great games. We got Colorado. We got Dallas. We got this Battle of Florida. We got Oh, this is great. Battle of Ontario.” It’s like, how about we save like the theatrics and the the drama when the games actually really matter when it when it’s further on. Like, it’s and have it and have it matter, right? Like, have it h like have it happen organically. Like there was nothing better than when it would be Boston Montreal in the playoffs in the first round, but it happened organically, right? Like if you’re creating it, if you’re manufacturing it, it’s like, okay, yeah. I mean, yeah, rivalry because of you, not because of the the hockey gods, it’s because you like I I think organic is is something that the NHL is allergic to. Like they’re like a they’re like an 8-year-old who just loves Red 40. Like that’s like their whole thing. They like you give them a banana like no I don’t want that. Like that’s what they feel like. Just eat something good for you. It’s you’re going to feel better. Exactly. Yeah. I I was trying to rationalize and figure out what the NHL is doing. I don’t know if that’s going to be a fruitful endeavor, I would say. Uh Todd, before we let you go, uh where can we read you stuff? Where can we hit you on the airwaves? All that good stuff. Yeah, you can find me at 98thportub.com. Uh you can also find me um on the podcast there, the Sportsub Underground. uh new episodes every week and on social media_TY Anderson most places. Um just search my name, you’ll find it. Uh that’s that’s where I’ll be. Uh how about yourself? Yeah, you can uh read my stuff over at boston.com in the Boston Globe. We have you covered every step of the way this Bruins off seasonason, whether it’s the head coaching search, free agency, trades, the draft, all that good stuff. We have covered every step of the way. Uh you can also find me on Twitter, X, or whatever you want to call it, Connor Ryan_93. Uh thank you all for listening. This was episode 334 of Poke the Bear. A reminder once again to please subscribe to our Bruins Ringside YouTube channel as part of the CLNS network. We have you covered every step of the way this Bruins season. Uh and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button to get notifications in case any new videos drop. Once again, this was episode 334 of Poke the Bear. You fans have a great rest of your week. [Music]

In this episode of Poke The Bear, Conor and Ty discuss the latest on the Bruins’ head-coaching search, what a new head coach should prioritize in Boston, and the Stanley Cup Final between the Panthers and Oilers.

0:00 – Welcome
2:40 – Latest on Bruins Head Coaching Search
10:30 – If Bruins Hire Marco Sturm
12:45 – Young guys on Bruins need to get PT next year
20:45 – Bruins new play style under new head coach
31:30 – Stanley Cup Finals Preview
38:30 – Should NHL Playoff Format Change?
44:55 – Wrapping up

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