Are Bruins being UNDERVALUED? | Poke the Bear

Are Bruins being UNDERVALUED? | Poke the Bear

Poke the Bear is brought to you by Price Picks and welcome in to Poke the Bear episode 354, part of the CLNS Media Network. If you have time, please subscribe to our Bruins ringside YouTube channel where we have pretty much daily content between Poke the Bear, Bruins be with Evan Marinowski, Pucks with Hags. We have you covered every step of the way this Bruins season. So follow along over at YouTube. If you don’t like YouTube, you can follow along over at Apple Podcast, Spotify, and wherever else you get your hockey podcasts. The show is al also brought to you by Prize Pix, North America’s number one daily fantasy sports app. Download today and use code CLNS to get $50 back when you play just five bucks. Prize Pick run your game. My name is Connor Ryan and once again we are joined by the esteemed, the ever knowledgeable Ty Anderson of 985 the sports hub. Ty, how you doing? What is going on? How are we doing today? Uh, nothing is really going on, Tai, but I I hope this is the last week of that because after going through the dog days of the summer, after waiting for some sort of news to to drop on this team, it does feel like we’re going to have some actual stuff to talk about uh next week once we get to September, we get to the fall season, got pumpkin spice back at Duncan, break out the flannels, we’re ready to go. It feels like we’re finally have reached the end point over a very long, very boring off season. I can’t wait. Uh, I’m officially bored. This happens every August where I go, “Okay, that’s enough.” Uh, I’m not like you. I am not um exploring uh mythical lands. I am not in Montana. I’m noting I’m in Skyrim, dude. I’m fighting crazy. You’re in places I’ve never even heard of. The the the the American mind cannot comprehend. Uh it’s unbelievable where where you’ve been going. And it’s actually in America, but still. I I saw one of these things you posted. I went not a real place. This is AI. This is fake. Yeah, it’s Candyland. Actually, I was in the gloop I was in the gloop swamp with that old chocolate monster. Yeah, he’s a dick, too. He’s not fun. It’s not for him. Yeah. No, no. Every you you you bring that game out and again, everyone loves Candyland. Doesn’t matter if you’re five or 55, but like you you roll out the board and you see him just staring at you. It’s like shoot. I don’t want You don’t want to get stuck there, you know? No, you really don’t. I think uh Candyland I didn’t play a ton of because we didn’t have so I would go to like a after school thing cuz my my my parents worked um like late and so I would go to an after school program and they didn’t have Candyland. The the game that we always played that I never understood was sorry. I never understood that game. Like I like it was kind of boring too cuz the pieces are just like they look like like bread sticks almost just with like little like round bottom. Like it’s kind of weird. Uh, the game I loved though was uh that if you lost one piece, you were screwed. It was mouse trap or mouse was mouse trap. You lose one piece, the whole thing’s over. But it looked so cool. That that was one of those games where I remember watching I think I was watching Nickelodeon, of course, like they Don Draper and his advertising gurus reel those kids in with how good those ads were back in the day. So, I remember watching like the mouse trap uh commercial being like, “We’re going we’re hopping in the car that I can’t drive. We’re going down to South Bay to Toys R Us. We’re getting mouse trapped. My family spent like 4 hours trying to assemble that contraption. It was like assembling the lighthouse at Alexandria. It was impossible to do. We gave up. We never even played it. Eventually, I think my dad was like, “You know what? Screw this.” And like just slapped it away. So, yeah. The joy of mouse trap. I think like my my neighbors or someone I knew, they had the uh the creepy crawly like it was like the easy bake oven but for like gothic kids basically or like future gothic kids and we got that and I was like man let’s just eat this nonsense. Let’s eat the gummy worms cuz I don’t want to mess with all this. Like it was kind of the same kind of vibe. So I get it. Yeah. No, I’d rather Yeah. No one wants to cook a brick like all the stuff you have. What’s that high quality? What are we talking about here? Uh, and also in case you can’t uh figure from our conversations about Candyland and uh the Easy Bake Oven, Todd, there’s not a whole lot to talk about. We are at the bottom of the barrel. We could talk about Candyland for the next 40 minutes. I think it’d be a good time. I’m not sure how much our loyal listeners would appreciate that. So, we’re going to find something to talk about with the Bruins. And uh there were a few nuggets, few stories that you’ve uh posted over at 985 the Sports Hub over the last couple of weeks that we’ll also talk about. But I think leading off as we kind of get set for this Bruins uh training camp and we start getting a gauge on what Marco Sturm and this revamped team is trying to accomplish this year or what they’re trying to build with this group. I think a lot of the consensus from, you know, setting expectations this team has been uh could be some tough sledding, could be a lot of growing pains, could be a team that has pretty clear holes all across their depth chart that, you know, I I think as a Bruin fan, you can draw some silver linings out of this group. Maybe they’re more competitive day in and day out. Maybe they’re a more entertaining product, but still, I think there’s going to be a lot of struggles this year. Does that mean they’re going to be a top 10 pick bad? are they going to be in the lottery? Whatever it may be. I think that’s been generally the consensus is that, you know, maybe they’re a harder out in terms of just the regular season, like that they’ll be a little bit more competitive, but still this team is a ways away from being a competitive team. Do you think though that we’re maybe underrating this team in terms of maybe not just like doing the sunshine and rainbows of like, ah, well, you know, Middlestat’s going to be a 60 point guy. Blue’s got 24 goals incoming. Like I don’t think we’re doing that, but are we underrating like the path that this team could take to being a somewhat more competitive team, a team that, you know, maybe not not finishing first or second in the Atlantic, but could firmly be in the mix for like a wild card spot? Yeah, I I I do think that it’s possible, right? Like I I’m not picking them to win the division obviously. I don’t think any anybody really is, but you know, you look at sort of where they are and and where they could go. Like you have to start with the obvious, right? Like they had their best left shot defenseman in the lineup for 17 games, right? They had their best right shot defenseman in the lineup for 50 games, right? Like if those guys are healthy, you’re going to have more stability, right? You’re going to be a little bit better if only because those players are good players, right? And and they are going to add they’re going to be value add most nights, you know? And so when you have those kind of presences back there, and I’m talking obviously about Hampton Lynholm and Charlie Makavoy, like when you have those guys back there, like it can change things dramatically for your team. And so I I don’t think they’re a division winner. But like if those guys are as healthy as they say and the Bruins believe that that was the biggest thing that was missing last year, then then they should be better. They should be a team that is contending for a playoff spot. You know, you think about the Eastern Conference a year ago and how flawed it was. And you know, the Bruins really took themselves out of it. like they like they were they weren’t a true tanker, you know, like it was decided for them in a lot of ways, but like that East was pretty eh, you know, towards the end of it and and you had teams that were competing and contending for a long time and so they could be, you know, still in it. Um I do think they’re ceiling is probably third place in their division. I think that’s if everything goes right, that’s how good they could be. Um, but I think it does begin with those guys and and you know, we’re we’re often victims of what we saw last, right? It’s human nature. We saw a Bruins team that did not have either Hamp Lenholm nor Charlie Mackoy for the final, you know, 30 something games of the season basically. And so you look at that team and you go, “Oh, the Bruins are ass.” Okay, well, what if those guys come back and like they’re pretty good. You know what I mean? Like so that’s going to that’s going to win you five or 10 more games just given how good those guys can be and how they can impact a game on a nightly basis. Yeah, I I think it comes down to it’s clear even from like listening to Marco Sturm that offensively there’s going to be a lot to be desired there, right? That is uh not a finished product in the slightest. You’re still missing two, three, four like proven not saying you need two, three, four Marty Naseses. you would take that, but just two or three four guys to plug into the lineup that stabilize the rest of your forward core. You don’t have that right now. It’s going to be a work in progress and you’re kind of just banking on, I think, throwing a lot of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, whether it is the Blue MLS or the Steves or younger players or anything like that. But I I think from what Sturm says, it all comes down to getting back to their bread and butter and what is kind of the strengths of their roster or what’s been the case over the years, which is defense and goalending. You can make the case the Bruins had the same strategy last year of like we’re gonna have to win a lot of games 2-1, but we got the personnel in place. Didn’t work out. But I do think if Lindome is healthy and fully recovered from his knee injury and Makavoy stays healthy and if swimming bounces back, like that already puts you in the spot where to your point, if you win like an extra five games, it changes the whole complexion of where this group was. to your point, like before they bottomed out after the deadline, they were not a fun team to watch, but they weren’t KO’ed on the mat, right? They were just kind of hovering around treading water. You’re kind of waiting for them to take off. It almost felt like from like January through February, we’re like, well, this team has only had one winning streak like over two games the entire season, they got to be better than this. They got to fall into some sort of groove. And it just never happened. But they weren’t like unwatchable. And so I think when you look at the margins and the number of guys that you know realistically can have bounceback seasons, right? Looking at guys who have done it maybe before as opposed to banking on younger players taking a huge step forward. There’s a lot to like about what this team reasonably could do this year in terms of just their their key pieces being back in the lineup and playing to their strengths. Yeah. And and to that point, you know, just real quick, I looked it up because I was curious like, you know, uh small sample size obviously, but five on five, hammer homemol had their best goal differential on ice, you know, at five on five, 11 to seven, goals for goals for percentage of over 61%. Uh number three on that list was Henry Yoki Haru, who was uh outscor plus six differential. Uh then four, Charlie Makavoy, then five, Nikita Zidorov. Like the outlier there is Jordan Osterly who got claimed off Waiver, so he’s also in the top five. He’s not back, but like you’re bringing four of those guys back, right? Those those guys were all positives. And I think the Yoki Are You edition might might help a lot of people out, you know, in terms of like how steady he can be and how smooth he can be. And so like if you have a more well-rounded defense, like you’re better equipped to be what you wanted to be a year ago, right? Like I think that a lot of us, myself included, were probably guilty of like anointing Mason Loai as being top four ready last year and he wasn’t, right? And that really kind of reared its head once you lost Hamas Lynholm because you didn’t have the the the safety net behind him that the the best options were Michael Callahan and Parker Wtherspoon and and guys like that and all of a sudden everyone’s moving up almost too high, you know, on the board, Mason Lorai included. So, I think just based on what you have now, you know, like you’re a bit better equipped to handle, you know, a guy not delivering or a guy missing some time. Um, it’s just, you know, can can that depth, you know, really continue to be depth or is it going to be thrown into a situation higher than it should be? And that’s, you know, it’s an obvious statement. I know, Connor, but like you got to be healthy, right? like they like for them to be what they think they can be and what we’re talking about right now potentially being underrated team like they got to be healthy and it begins with those top two guys because if they’re not healthy everyone’s moving up a step and those steps as we saw last year might be too high. Yeah. It almost kind of you can draw some parallels I feel like with a team that I think is on the right track and like the Patriots. I know like this market talks a lot about the Patriots. I’ll keep this brief because I can only do so many roster bubbles. But it’s almost like that team feels like it’s in the right direction, right? You got some optimism, but you then look at like the whole roster and you’re like, man, if X, Y, and Z goes down, this team is up the creek and you’re kind of right back where you were. I think it’s kind of the same thing with the Bruins, right? Where if all of a sudden like Jordan Harris is playing 19 minutes a night because Lindol is down or Makavoy is banged up, then you kind of fall right back into the same thing. So it it feels like and that’s I think why the general consensus is that it’s tough to get a read on this team, but I at least lean more towards like this is going to be more of a bridge year. You can draw some positives, you can draw some silver linings. You feel like the overall organization’s going on the right track even if they don’t make the playoffs, but still there’s a lot of uh margin for error with this team if especially one guy gets hurt or when you look at the the scoring depth and I I think especially five on five is going to be a struggle. The the one thing that I think gives me some optimism is that if like if you’re the Bruins and you’re trying to map out how you become a somewhat competitive team this year, it falls on health on the back end. Swaming getting his game back in order. I also think like the power play is the most reasonable way to look at how this team can generate more offense. I’m not expecting them to all of a sudden go up to a top 10 group, but if that power play bumps up to like 18th overall this year and you got like the personnel that you could make some plays there, I wonder if that’s how they map out like all right, as we continue to kind of retool our offensive capabilities, just getting that power play to tick up a little bit could again help those margins that if they change just a little bit for us could lead to three, four, five, six more wins. Yeah. And you know, again, going going back to the last thing we saw, which was last season, you know, the fifth highest scorer up front for the Bruins had, I think, 15 goals and like 28 points, right? And and so like you look at that and you go, okay, like you should eclipse that, right? Just just by existing. Like I know that sounds really silly, but like they had so many guys that had really bad years a year ago, right? And some of them are gone now, some of them are back. And you know, you’ll see what happens here. But like I look at I look at a guy like Pab Zaka, right? Like where we we’ve talked about him before and and how slow he got out of the gate. You know, I think same thing for Elias Lynholm, right? If those guys have more consistent years and that’s been a problem for them, you know, like their entire NHL career. They’ve had a hard time being consistent. But if they can be consistent out of the gate or or get off to some runs that you know with Lindholm you saw in Calgary and with Zaka you saw his first two years here in Boston like if if they can get off to those kind of runs like okay you’re going to win some more games that you might lose early in the year you know 3 to2 you might win it four to three instead you know and so I I think those guys like pulling on the rope and and coming back in with something to prove like that might help this team it should help this team it’s just you know you got to prepare and for that geeky drop off. I hope it doesn’t happen, but a 30 what? Three goal season a year ago, like is he that guy? We’re going to have to find out. But you got to prepare for that. But you you have to hope that if that comes, you got enough guys that are are stepping up that are almost offsetting it in a way. And so, um, I still think scoring goals up front is going to be a challenge, but I I think a clean slate for a lot of these guys might do them might do them well. You know, I I I think it might I might serve them well that they have a new head coach. no biases, you know, like they that the team realizes what they got to do. They realize that they’re going to have to maybe be a little bit more, you know, patient with guys, uh, given the the, you know, the agony that scoring was for them a year ago. And, you know, your story with Marcos Sturm from the summer where he kind of talked about scoring is going to be difficult, you know, like does he give guys longer leashes now to break through and do they break through? Right? Because if that happens, okay, now there’s weapon X, Y, and Z that you didn’t previously think were going to be scoring goals for your team that are now scoring. Yeah. And it’s almost like as to your point about the clean slate, I think having a new coach in like and just starting from scratch, I also think maybe helps you out because beyond like Marco mentioning like the clear flaws this team has, doesn’t it benefit the Bruins of like having, you know, if you’re building this back up and Marm’s looking at this team and it’s like, hey, we’re not going to be able to score remotely as easily as some of these other teams. We’re going to change our, you know, our approach offensively to better bump up our odds. And I think you look at last year where like the Bruins were so illquipped to be the kind of team that I think Jim Montgomery wanted them to be, right, of like puck possession, holding on to pucks, waiting for the perfect opportunity. Like you didn’t have the skill and the depth especially to just continue to to be what you were in, let’s say, 22 23. You didn’t have Taylor Hall on the third line. You didn’t have a team as deep as that. So if Maricurm comes in with a strategy where it’s like, hey, when we don’t have the the finishing ability, so we’re going to be high effort, winning pucks, flinging everything on net, and if it bumps up our odds of the tips, the rebounds, all the greasy stuff, that’s kind of what we have to do. Maybe like a few years from now when we’ve got James Hagens and Zealas and Marty Nis and all that stuff, we can tweak that. But I almost feel like having a new coach in who’s already kind of read what the team shortcomings is going to be, I think, can help you out in terms of all right, this is the team I’m I have to work with instead of trying to build like the team into what I want them to be. Here’s what they are right now and we’re going to adjust as it goes forward. I think that can maybe benefit this team in terms of getting them playing to what they need to play as opposed to what Marco Sturm maybe wants them to be in the next couple of years. Yeah. And forget Marco Sturm, that’s what I want them to be. I want them to be a high offense, you know, high octane offensive team because I think that’s where the game is going and I think that’s, you know, you look at Florida and and they can they can score, man. Lines one through three, even include the fourth line if you want. The way they can clip a game like look at Toronto like like you got to be able to score some goals, right? But in the now, you got to find out who your scorers are, right? And so that’s my other hope too is that I do hope that you know I I recorded with Evan earlier this week and we were talking about breakout candidates like you guys were Yeah, we were it was we were sharing a hot dog a lady in the style. Um you know like I I I think that you know you need you need some of these guys to break through here. Like I I can’t go into the year you know we did that episode last week talking about like the the the lineup projections. like I really can’t have a safe and boring lines three and four. I got to have a younger player here. I got to see if a guy projects as part of your future because if they do, okay, now you’re, you know, now now you’re you’re feeling a little little bit better about your team and and what you have there. And you know, every good team that you watch has that player that, you know, doesn’t come out of nowhere necessarily, but you’re like, “Wow, okay. Well, they they got their core pieces and now they got E2 Lucarin scoring goals. So, what the hell is going on here?” You know, you look at um Pablo Dorf in Vegas. Like, he’s not a top dog. He wasn’t, you know, when he first came up and now he’s one of their best scoring threats. Like, uh I even look at Tampa, you know, with the way that um you know, like they’ve had they’ve had uh who was it? Um, Gage Gonzalez come up came up this past year. Um, who’s the other one? Mitchell. Yeah. Even like Ross Coleman, right? They have all these guys that just bump up that maybe they’re not the the points or anything like that, but become third line guys. You’re like, where the hell did they get this guy from, right? And and if Blue Mel or if Steves or if Sadino, any of these guys, like if they can become your next Morgan Geeky, all right, now you’re cooking. Now you got Now you got some depth scoring here. it’s helping you out and and you’re off to the races. And so that is what I really hope we get out of this year’s team, out of Maros Sturm in the now. Knowing that goals are going to be at a premium for your team uh beyond the first line, you know, do you take a chance on a kid that you know, you give them 20 games, you give them 25 games, if it’s not there, you reassess. I think that’s what you got to do, you know, because they’re not going to develop anybody with the current way of doing things where you get eight games playing 11 minutes and then if you’re no good, you get sent back down to the miners forever. like they got to break out of that cycle and I feel like with having a rookie head coach that’s their best chance at breaking out of that cycle. Yep. Absolutely. So, we should hopefully get a little bit more clarity in the next couple weeks once training camp, captain’s practices, all that stuff gets underway. Uh we’re going to talk a little bit more about another key guy in Jeremy Swamman and what his odds are of bouncing back. But before we do that, take a quick break here from our friends over at Prize Picks. Preseason football has just wrapped up and college football is finally here. So don’t miss out on any of the action this season on prize picks. Patriot season is about to begin and hope is riding high in Foxboro. 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You even had a special guest showing up when they we found out about the great deals we had out there. Unbelievable. Yeah, that’s right. That’s uh Baby Grim, everyone. Everyone, that that is the newest edition of the house. Uh she is uh she is a delight and a nightmare all at once. Love her. Oh, beautiful. Sounds like most cats. Yeah, it’s great. Yeah. No, we adopted her like she was she’s very young. Like she was like like three two or three months, I think, when we got her. Yeah. So, she’s been it’s been great. Aussie again loves and hates her all at the same time. So, it’s good. It’s a fun house. Yes. Absolutely. Uh Ty, looking at uh other key pieces for this team and I think what are going to be the biggest determinance as to what type of team we’re going to be watching for the next couple of months. I think a lot of it falls on Jeremy Swamman, right? And uh he was on the uh Jimmy Fun Nessen uh WI radio teleathon uh said what what is expected in August from hockey players of uh not you know wanting to put last year in the rearview mirror, feeling confident about his game, all that stuff. Nothing groundbreaking, right, from a no one’s gonna be like, “Yeah, that sucked and like my game is lost.” No. Like Jeremy Straman’s a confident guy um and feels like he can, you know, make some positives or take some positives out of a year where obviously both he and the team underperformed. Uh for you looking at Swayman and what, you know, as rough as last year was, do you expect like what is your confidence level in him taking another big step forward is? And and when I say that, I don’t mean like we’re going from what was it 8.97 to 928 save percentage or anything like that, but how reasonable is it do you think for him that he can get back to being maybe not a Bezna guy, but a guy that is one of the the best younger goalies in the league, a guy that’s on the upswing and is part of the equation again for a team that you hope is competitive a couple years down the road? Yeah, you know, I would say out of all the things we’ve talked about, right, whether that’s Geeky maintaining his scoring touch, whether that is uh Posternok being 100 points and available for all 82 for the fourth year in a row, um Charlie Makavoy, Hamilton Sunholm, you know, all those guys like the most confident player in my opinion, the most the player I had the most confidence in rebounding is Jeremy Swayman. Um and I say that for a multitude of reasons. Goalenders are voodoo number one of all above all else. You can have a really crap year one year and then come back and be amazing. And so would it shock me if that’s the case? No, it wouldn’t. He has a normal offseason. There’s no contract. He’s not doing a PR tour, a podcast tour. He’s not talking to bozos like me. He’s working. You know, he’s working this summer. He’s putting in the work. And that’s, you know, he’s backing up what he was what he said he was going to do at breakup day. Um secondly, I thought he had a good end to his year. I thought he was good the final month of the season. um and and on a very bad Bruins team. I thought he I thought he delivered uh more often than not a and so that gave you confidence and also the worlds. I thought he was great there. 7-0 921 like and I know it’s not the Stanley Cup playoffs. I know it’s it’s not the highest caliber of competition. Um but you know those were games that were meaningful, right? And and he played well and so um I I cannot begrudge a player for playing well in a big moment. That was a big moment. 25 save shut out in the gold medal game. Like that’s something to build on, right? And so I I do feel like, you know, to your point, I’m not penciling him in forna. I’m not penciling him in for being the best goalie in the league, but can you get back into the top 10? You know, can you be the eighth or ninth best goalie in hockey, the seventh best goalie in hockey? I don’t think that’s an unreasonable ask. And if he is, that’s why this Bruins team is going to be a good team next year. Yeah. And I I feel like it’s I know that a lot of the sentiment has shifted on Swayman I think off of just how off the rails disastrous last year was between the production the the goalie the the contract discussion rather um all that stuff that his kind of sentiment has changed a little bit from some fans at least from where he was a year ago. I don’t know if that’s just again what have you he done for me lately, all that kind of stuff. But I think also the reason why I think there should be a good amount of optimism or confidence that he’s going to regain his form is that it’s not like Jeremy Stayman’s this guy that we’re waiting for him to break out. Like now this is going to be his year. Like trust us guys, trust me, bro. Like he’s going to be good. Like we’ve seen it, right? Like we saw a guy that carried them through a better Toronto team a a year ago and like was really damn good for uh the Bruins in a series against Florida where the Bruins might have been like their toughest out in a year where they were still a wagon, right? Like they they played pretty competitive for some of those games and gave them some issues and a lot of it, you know, fell on again Jeremy Swimman bailing out his team. So whether you look at that where I think that kind of solidified that he was going to be their goalie of the future or in the years prior where I know he had the benefit of having a guy like Lena Smar and a really good defense in front of him, but he’s still a guy that has made timely saves time and time again for this team. High danger stops, everything you want to see in a goalie that for the past four years before this past season, we’re like this is a future key cog of this team. And I don’t think that’s really changed. And so I think having him submit what has been an extended track record before this disastrous year where other than your David Pson and Morgan Geeky, everyone sucked. I think that should give you some confidence that that’s a guy that again maybe he’s not just fully regained his form as being a top five goalie, what have you. But I think he can get on the right track for this team. And for him getting on the right track, if that means a 914 15 save percentage, maybe that’s enough that gets you into the wild card picture, right? Like that’s just how I think slim the margins were last year and how disastrous last season was. That if he just gets a little bit of an uptick and plays more to what we expect and what we’ve seen maybe more importantly, then you’ve got a guy that could get you playing meaningful hockey in March in April. Yeah. And and honestly, like I I go back to what I’ve said before on this podcast about him. Like if you were going to throw the faith in him out the window after one year, then you never should have given him an 8-year deal, right? you never should have done that cuz like what’s what’s the point at that you know just keep Lena Mark if that’s really how you feel. Um, and so I I do hope that like they’re just in a better place now, right? Like it got a little contentious there. You know, I think we have to admit, you know, Cam Neely grabbing the mic, you know, and and deciding that like he wanted to do a rap battle basically with Jeremy Swayman and his agent and saying, “I got 60 million reasons why I’d be here.” Like, you know, you look at that and you’re like, “Okay, well, he he was looking for Rick Rubin.” I was like, “Rick Rubin’s not here. It’s just us. It’s me. Me and Kevin Paul Dupont.” Like, we’re not Rick Rubin. You got Came the Black album dropping right now, you know, like like it’s unbelievable. Um it was Rick Rubin. It was Joe Thornton in the back. Come on, man. Like what are we doing here, you know? Like and so like that’s good that like that is behind them. I think they’re going to be in a better place there. And I and I do think that, you know, again, a head coach, a new head coach, like it allows for a better communication now. and and and I’ve said this I think I said this on our podcast that we did like you know talking with players that have talked to Marco Sturm they’ve all said the same thing so far that he is very black and white and he is very blunt in how he delivers information and what he expects out of you and so uh for a guy like Swayman like maybe that’s what gets him back to being you know an elite goalender is is that hey man you got to pick it up here you know or or hey you’re you’re playing well keep it rolling like I think that’s better than you know what they tried last year which they admitted that they tried last year to kind of get him going, right? Like like they would they would abandon their own ideas and their own plans to try to get him going. All right. Well, don’t do that. If it’s a black and white coach now, he’s going to be like, “No, you’re not playing well enough. Sorry.” You know, like tweak him that way if you have to. Or if he is be like, “Hey, we’re empowering you. Like, roll on. Keep going.” You know, and and I think that might be good for him as well. Yep. So, we will see what happens once we get to training camp. Again, a lot of this season and the hopes of this team to maybe exceed expectations is going to fall on Jeremy Swayman. Uh Ty, we’re going to talk a little bit more about a guy you spoke to recently and James Hagens. I don’t know if you heard of him. Uh but before we do that, let’s take a quick break here from our friends over at Cus Media Network. Again, if you have time, please subscribe to our Bruins Ringside YouTube channel. We have daily content between Poke the Bear, Red Sox beat, sorry, Bruins beat with Evan Marinowski with Hags. He’s already He’s already in there right now. Even though the game’s not happening, Evan’s looking like the the freak alien from Men in Black 3 who can like see the baseball games in Empty Stadium. That’s Evan right now. He’s like, “Oh, down the pesky pole.” No, no, Evan. Uh he’s just at a diner somewhere just waiting. Uh but yes, you have beyond uh Evan just having a permanent spot at the bleachers at Fenway. You can follow along with CN Media Network for all your daily Bruins content. We’ll have you covered every step of the way this brewing season. Again, follow us on YouTube. Please hit the notification button so you get all the up tothem minutee YouTube videos, uh, podcasts, all that good stuff online. And again, it’s not just the Bruins. Cus Media Network has a crew of, uh, great reporters, podcasters keeping updated every step of the way with Patriots Press Pass, Celtics All Access, uh, pretty much daily content for all those teams. I mean, the Celtics have been in the offse just like us, and the crew they have there between uh, you know, Bobby, Noah, everyone else with that crew are just churning out an insane amount of content for a team that feels like they they’re looking at a bit of a tough season, but you wouldn’t guess it from the work they put in. So, please subscribe to all of our different channels over the CNNs Media Network, and we’ll have you covered every step of the way this Boston Sports season. So, shout out once again to the whole crew over at the CNS Media Network. Uh, Ty, as we wrap this one up, uh, wanted to, uh, talk a little bit more about your story with James Hagens. I know you caught up with him over at TD Godden. Pretty much confirmed that he’s going back to BC, and it does feel like even from how he mapped it out, feels like everyone agrees it’s the right call up for what you needed from him, uh, your top prospect going into the 2526 season. Yeah, I mean, you can’t mess this one up, right? And I I feel like given where the Bruins are right now, they actually have a glut of centers. I think we’d probably agree between Lindholm, Zaka, Middlestad, Minton, Husand can play the middle, Potra, obviously Corali, Castelick, Johnny Beecher, like you go on and on and on. They have so many guys that can play center right now. And, you know, you don’t need to rush this kid. And I think that, you know, it’s important for James, I think, to still try to accomplish what he wants to accomplish over at BC. Um, they didn’t win the Bean Pot. They did not win Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right? We’re all aware. I’m not even a BC guy, but I’m I’m surrounded by BEu freaks and mutants, and I’m so tired of you guys. Go Middle Sex Community College, baby. Um, no, but um, you know, I I think that um, you know, he wants to win a Bean Pot. He wants to win a national title. And, and if you look at BC’s year last year, like it they didn’t accomplish those things obviously. And they really weren’t all that close. You know what I mean? Like like you lose the Bean Pod. I know it’s a four team tournament, but like you lose that and then you’re out in the regionals. You don’t even get to the Frozen 4. That was a great BC team, right? And so Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It unbelievable. And they were I would say and listen, Denver is a really good program, but that third period, it felt almost non-competitive the way that they they went out. They didn’t go out with a bang, you know, and and so you allow him to kind of try to accomplish that, see if he can lead the team, see if he can impact uh the game more. it’s probably closer now to his peers, you know, his age group now as a sophomore. Uh he was 17 when his year began last year at BC, which is crazy to me. Um but if he can dominate, it’s like you’re feeling a lot better, right? And and and so I just think that’s a good spot for him, right? And and I’m wondering too, does he play with another Bruins prospect? Do they give him Andre Gassau on a line? Do they give him Oscar Jelvic, uh Dean Lato? like like what do they do there to maybe put him with somebody that he could he could be playing with at the NHL level. Um so when I look at it from that scope as well, I’m happy he’s going back to BC. Imagine if you can develop a linemate while you’re in the college game. Like that would be really awesome. You know, like if he’s as good as if if he’s as good as you hope he is. Can he elevate an Andre Gassau who’s a seventh round pick or a Jelvic who was what a fourth or a fifth round pick? Fourth or fifth? Yeah, that’d be perfect. That’d be perfect if that’s if that’s what can happen. And so I like it for that reason as well. Uh speaking selfishly as a you know as a Bruins observer, someone who follows his team like if you can start building that chemistry in college. Oh that that’s I love that idea. It’s almost like if again this is the the extreme optimist but again if you find a guy that just strikes gold with them and it becomes to what geeky and postnoc are and it’s your second line, you’ll take it, right? And it I think shows like obviously not every prospect’s going to pan out, but how much it changes the complexion of your like I think overview of your prospect pipeline. One, you have a blue chip talent like Hagens, right? Which I think the optimism is there, but even like a guy like Wash Melis, right, of like all a sudden this guy kind of comes out of nowhere and all a sudden looks like a guy that he could be playing in the NHL this season, right? And so if all of a sudden you look at Hagens and what he can do, but the amount of guys at BC and all a sudden a guy like Gassau looks like he could be like a contributor at the NHL level or Jelvic who Jelvic got hurt. I think it was right before the bean pot or maybe it was the first game of the bean pot and didn’t play the rest of the year. That’s kind of when their like slide like started because BC was great the whole first half of the year and then they kind of miss one key piece who’s been in like the top six for BC for a couple years now and it all kind of falls apart when you don’t have just that extra player in place. So, um you know it’s the same with like it’s funny like Greg Brown has multiple options he can work with in terms of finding guys that Bruins prospects who can slot in next to James Hagens. But um that would be huge for this team and it’s you know even like I know Lerno is a center but if all of a sudden he fits more into like a power forward role or he he does something like that like you’ll take anything right if it means you have another player beyond Hagens. I know obviously um uh there Will Will Will Moore is going to be a center so I think you leave him alone and see what he can do as well but um if you’re able to get another player that you know not saying he’s going to be a top six stalwart or anything but he looks like someone who could be contributing in the near future for the team you’ll take that as well. Yeah, you need that. I I I just think that you are at, you know, you’re at the ground floor here. I I think of rebuilding your pipeline, right? And I think the deadline was a great start. I I think that the draft was a really good draft for them. Um and talking to player personnel people in other organizations, they agree. They think the Bruins did a great job. And it was funny. I was talking to one player personnel person who told me they nailed this draft because they had to. And and he’s like they they had to take chances. they had to go for the talent over the safer floor because they just have no one in their pipeline that projects as somebody that is like, “Oh, cool. You can put them in your top six, you know, and so now that they have those guys and they’re getting those guys, like this is the ground floor, right?” And so you just kind of you have to watch how you’re developing players now at the college level. And you know, if if Hagen’s going to be a guy who makes his linemates better, that is perfect because that is what is the the calling card of every top line center, every top six center in the NHL is that they make their wingers better. They elevate the guys around them, right? And so I do want to see that, you know, I do want to see that happen for Hagens. You know, I think he was very fortunate a year ago to be playing with Gabe Perau and Ryan Leonard, two NHLers. Um, but now it’s on him. And I think he I think that’s a big reason why he’s going back there as well is that he’s seeing the opportunity to lead his team. He’s not going to be a captain, but he is going to be a go-to player for them. He is going to be their best player on a night innight basis if they’re going to achieve their goals. And I think that itself is also a challenge for him. And so it’s just making guys better and finding out what you have in your and what you need to complement those guys. Like if he thrives with someone who isn’t in your pipeline, but you identify the player type that he’s good he’s good at playing with, you’re like, “All right, now we got to go and find that next prospect, right? Like we got to find that. We got to find our version of Teddy Stigga, you know, like something like that. That might be what they have to do.” Yep. Absolutely. So, I think all eyes will be on Hagens and a lot of focus will be on BC throughout this upcoming season, even if you’re a diehard Bruins fan. Uh, Ty, before we let you go, where can we read your stuff? Where can we hear you on the airwaves? all that good stuff. Uh you can find me at 985portsub.com. Uh also the podcast is Sportsub Underground, myself and Matt Dolph. Uh I will be on the air on Labor Day, I believe. Uh yeah, I think. Yeah, I think it’s Labor Day. Um so I’ll be doing that. We’re actually going to be bringing the hockey show back a little bit earlier uh this year. Uh that’s going to be I don’t have an exact date for you, but it will be debuting in September, I believe, versus the October that it has previously debuted uh in. So, uh, we will we will be talking hockey and talking Bruins real soon with the with the masses. Uh, how about yourself? Are you going to Gillette for another, uh, nightmarish, uh, preseason game? Dude, that that preseason game on Thursday night was painful. It was awful. How long did it take you to get there? Oh my god, that one way back Oh, that was awful, dude. It was absolutely dreadful. It I I dread every single time when it if it’s like a one o’clock game, like that’s fine. like I can wake up early and like I’d rather get up early and avoid the traffic. When it’s like a Thursday night football game or Sunday night football game, there’s no rhyme or reason. Like whatever you want to map out, you’re losing. Like you either get in there at like 2 p.m. for an 8:00 game. It’s It’s not great. I I much prefer my usual commute of going over to Warrior or TD Garden. A lot easier that way. I’ll take the tea and going to the city more than driving out to Gillette. Oh yeah. No, I I hard agree. Hard agree on that one. Especially cuz like you really only you really only have one way of getting there. You know, you could take you could take the commuter rail, but you really can’t, you know? It’s a nice idea, but you really you can’t do it. A fan can do it, but like media like no, you like, “Cool, I got to leave and it’s the third quarter. I guess I’ll see y’all later, you know.” Exactly. No, nothing’s going to happen from now. Yeah. Um, so, uh, yeah, I think I told the story last time, but like when I worked for EI, EI did not have like limitless parking passes like Beasley did because Beasley, you know, Patriots home, we we got more than just one person covering that game. And so, um, at the time he ended up becoming a producer and now he works, um, in education. Kyle Kyle Doo or Duz I I’m I I was never certain how to say it. Regardless, we had to meet at the Big Y like two towns over and we had to because we had to park there and then we had to like carpool over because we didn’t have a parking pass. Yes. And we were like so late to a game and it was like a Thursday night game because like it was just it just wasn’t moving. Didn’t matter. Didn’t matter the angle you you approached it. It wasn’t moving. It was crazy. And so that’s that’s my that’s my that’s I think that I that was one of many games I covered. But I think that was like my intro to it. And I was like, “Oh, this Oh, this sucks. This is not I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.” Not even the steak tips can save you from that from that commute. More demoralizing than a long commute. I also gained like 35 lbs by covering the dangerous. I’m kind of happy I don’t anymore. The little victory I had last time I was I didn’t have the apple crisp cuz every time I see it, I get a little whiff of that cinnamon air and I’m like, “Can’t do it. Can’t do it. No, can’t do it.” But but yes, uh beyond uh me being stuck in traffic over on Route One. Yes, you can find me over at Boston Globe and Boston.com where I have you covered every step of the way this brewing season over on those two sites. Again, follow me over there. We have you covered every step of the way. And if you want to follow me on Twitter, X, whatever it’s called, you can do that over at Connor Ryan_93. Ty, thank you once again for joining us. Uh, this was episode 354 of Poke the Bear. Again, sponsored by the CLNS Media Network and Prize Pix North America’s number one daily fantasy sports app. Again, download today and use code cls to get $50 when you play just five bucks. Again, this was episode 354 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 odds of the Bruins actually being underrated this season, the confidence in a Jeremy Swayman bounce-back, and Ty’s interview with James Hagens. 

0:00 ⏰EPISODE TIMELINE⏰
4:21 Are the Bruins being underrated?
20:48 PrizePicks
22:35 Can Jeremy Swayman bounce back this season?
31:00 Subscribe to Bruins Rinkside!
32:34 James Hagens officially returning to Boston College for sophomore season
39:35 Thanks for watching!

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