Are the Bruins in trouble? | Pucks with Haggs

20 comments

1. Charlie Coyle speaking about the team when he is one of the disasters on the team is like watching a pig take a crap. You gotta be kidding me. Thiis 6 foot 3 loser who nevers hits anything is a minus 20 in the playoffs since 2019. This loser has 4 asissts this season. 4! As a center no less. Not exactly distributing the puck is this loser?

2. Not certain about the bruins playoffs d/t Montreal, Detroit, and Ottawa no longer being easy outs. This can easily get out of hand. No easy nights off anymore. Too much parity and hungrier teams vying for ascendency against the status quo teams.

   If BOS doesn’t play exceptionally well this second half, they can easily be on the outside looking in.

3. Pasta plays with Zacha and Geekie and still leads this team in scoring by a mile. He does make his linemates better but, Zacha can't score and Geekie is a 3rd liner. The power play is brutal because there's no QB and Lindholm is so bad, not because of 88. He's the best player on the team. Pasta is 28, really bad take Joe. $7.5 x 7 for #28 is a much bigger concern.

4. We're not in the playoffs if you go by points percentage. Tampa has played like 5 games less than us

5. The on ice product this year has been really bad. I expected them to be low scoring but i didnt expect to see bad defence and bad goaltending combined with low hockey iq. Its been breaking my heart, this team cant string 3 passes together and any chance they get, they cant finish.

6. Sweeney's big signings this summer have been awful. I can only imagine how bad Lindholm will be in 2-3 years. A #1 center that seems "afraid" of the puck. Great job Don.

7. In trouble? I don't know. Are teams with average talent at best in the league, considered to be in trouble?

8. This is all on Jacobs; period.

9. Why is everyone acting like this current version of the Boston Bruins is different than the one we saw last season? The Bruins have been in trouble for over a calendar year now

   From January through May of last year the Bruins were a .500 team that played below .500 vs. the playoff teams, that also had one of the worst 5×5 offenses and power plays in the entire NHL

   This year, the Bruins are a .500 team overall that has played below. 500 vs playoff teams, that has one of the worst 5×5 offenses, power plays and penalty killing units in the entire NHL

   Thus for Monty’s last 6 months as coach last year and his first two months of coaching prior to being fired this year, his results were largely no different than what Joe Sacco has managed to produce, except under Montgomery the Bruins never lost 5 games in a row (not even 4 in a row)

   The Bruins are 6-13-1 overall vs teams within the current playoff structure which includes losing their last 4 straight to them

   Some of the Bruins Rotten Stats:

   28th in overall goal differential at a craptastic -24
   26th in total goals scored
   25th in 5×5 goals scored
   31st power play at a craptastic 12.4%
   25th penalty killing at a crappy 76%

   They are 1-5-1 in their last 6 which has included losses to dreadful NYR CLB & NYI yet, still no changes to the lineup either via bringing up Poitras, Lysell and or Merkulov or via trades by shipping out pending UFAs like Frederic,, Koepke, Wotherspoon and even Brazeau as he’s just a guy

   They could also easily look into moving their pending RFAs such as Geekie, Wahlstrom and Beecher although what would they really get back for any of those three players?

   They could and should make a big move by making an actual hockey trade where a core piece or two is moved. Whether that's to improve the team this year or to try and add picks and prospects, who cares, just do it

   That being said, it would be difficult, if near impossible, to move Elias Lindholm, Hampus Lindholm, Zadorov, McAvoy and or Pasta

   All of them make far too much money, have too much term left and or how crappy they’ve played would be the definition of trying to sell low on your most valuable assets, so forget about trading any of those guys and that's before we get into the fact all have rock solid NTCs

   Whose left to move in any hockey trades then?

   Carlo, Zacha and Coyle all have limited NMCs but they could be moved as there are teams they can be moved to today and not one of them has too much term or money tied to their deal

   After that it’s two players a lot of Bruins fans won’t want to move in any deals but with a very flawed, overpaid, and limited talent at forward roster alongside also having the NHL’s worst farm system as well as limited draft capital…

   How else can the Bruins get better other than trading a few core pieces off of their current team without blowing it all up which they're not going to do any time soon?

   The answer is unless they really went nuclear and went into a 4-7+ year rebuild, the only way out for Boston right now would be to make a few roster level, good ole’ fashioned hockey trades

   Mason Lohrei has a ton of upside but he’s lousy defensively and he’s a long way from being any kind of sure thing in the future

   As for the next guy, the only way out of his contract is ASAP as his full NTC kicks in when the 2026-27 season begins, which means this current season, this off-season and next season are the only times Boston will be able to move Jeremey Swayman without him waiving a FULL NTC until the 2030-31 season when his full NTC moves to a limited NMC 10 team trade clause.

   That’s it.

   The only “real” Bruins trade chips are roster players and those are really just Swayman & Lohrei in terms of guys without NMCs or NTCs this season and guys with limited ones that should be easier to move such as Zacha, Coyle and Carlo

   Again, you can say move Frederic Geekie, Brazeau, Wahlstrom, Koepke Mclaughlin, Wotherspoon and or Osterle but none of those players will yield anything “talent” wise that would alter the Bruins trajectory or fix their offensive woes

   And again, they’re not moving Marchand, Pasta, McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Elias Lindholm or Nitkit Zadorov again because of the money they make, the term they have, their importance to the team and or their NMCs/NTCs

   The Farm System is absolute trash and they don’t have a 2nd round pick again this year.

   The Farm System is trash because Sweeney has drafted and developed poorly and he’s pissed a crap ton of their draft capital away either fixing bad UFA mistakes like Belesky, Backes, Zach Rinaldo, Jimmy Hayes and John Moore

   Or Sweneey has pissed their high draft capital away chasing his next 1st round playoff choke as the Bruins under him have only won ONE lousy 2nd round series in his 10 years as GM

   So to sum it up the Farm System is not getting Boston out of this

   Their limited draft capital is not getting Boston out of this (not to mention Sweeney is shite at drafting and developing anyway)

   They aren’t trading McAvoy, Marchand, Pasta either Lindholm or Nikita Zadorov for reasons mentioned already

   They won’t’ get much of anything in terms of real talent for Frederic, Geekie, Brazeau Wahlstrom, Kopke, Mclaughlin, Beecher, Wothersppon and or Osterle

   So Sweeney is literally only down to trying to move Swayman, Lohrei Zacha, Coyle Carlo

   That’s it

   Swayman and Lohrei can be moved without restriction as neither has an NMC/NTC this year

   Zacha, Coyle and or Carlo all have limited NMC but can still be moved, none of three have much term left and none of the three have gross dollars tied to their current deals

   I don’t expect Sweeney to move any of those guys though.

   Instead, he’s more likely to piss away another first round pick adding some burned out vet to this flawed roster all in effort to do one thing and one thing on, save his own ass and job and adding some Tyler Toffoli type at the deadline at the cost of a 1st round pick won’t change the Bruins fate this year

   The Jacobs should also be sued for malpractice by this fanbase if Don Sweeney, after handing out $160M in contracts last offseason and who has built the NHL’s worst farm system, is allowed to piss away even more of this team’s future draft capital trying to save job

10. Walhstrom was let go from a bad team that can’t score and hasn’t scored here (no surprise). If he was let go from a stacked powerhouse team that had overflow then I could see the silver lining. But this is common sense that he wouldn’t produce. Comparing him favorable to anybody is a questionable take at best.

11. This team sucks not even close to be a playoff team

12. Not Even fun to watch boring hockey

13. Bruins top to bottom are garbage right now. Out of position, no defense, no offense, spotty goaltending. The system does not play to the roster

14. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for telling it like it is with Charlie McAvoy. Love the player, but he's not been consistently good all season, and i'm tired of him being treated with kid gloves. He's a 7 year veteran for chrissakes! Plus, can you imagine Bourque or Chara's defensive teammates having to 'learn' to play with them, instead of them elevating the play of their linemates??

15. You lose all credibility when touting Coyle as an asst. captian. The guy has killed this team in the playoffs since 2019.

16. Are the Bruins in trouble?
    Duh.
    Been in trouble since Sweeney showed up.
    Fire the bum.

17. They are unwatchable right now. I'm thankful I don't pay to see them.

18. The word on the street is they don't want to play the young guys b/c then everyone will find out the cubbard is bare.

19. He’s a leader hags???? He takes too many nights off!! He might talk after the game, but he sucks as a player!!

20. The problem is no one but #63 has been close to consistent. Idk what happened who's to blame but Don knows & he needs to fix it. Why is trading Freddy so important guys a decent player. Does he want too much $?