On this episode of Poke the Bear, Conor Ryan is joined by Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub. Conor and Ty react to the first look at the Boston Bruins under the leadership of interim head coach Joe Sacco. Could this be the turning point that bruins fans have been waiting for? All that, and much more!
Topics:
- What stood out in Boston’s win over Utah?
- What changes did Joe Sacco make?
- Time for more Korpisalo?
- Did the Bruins make the right call moving on from Montgomery?
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Topics:
- What stood out in Boston’s win over Utah?
- What changes did Joe Sacco make?
- Time for more Korpisalo?
- Did the Bruins make the right call moving on from Montgomery?
*************************************************
💰 Prize Picks - https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS
Download the app today and use Code CLNS when you sign up & Get $50 instantly when you play $5!
🎫 Gametime - https://gametime.co
Take the guesswork out of buying NHL tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Terms apply. What time is it? Gametime!
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SportsTranscript
00:00PokeTheBear is brought to you by PrizePix and the GameTime app.
00:07And welcome into PokeTheBear episode 280 presented by PrizePix and GameTime tickets.
00:13My name is Connor Ryan.
00:14And once again, we are joined by the esteemed Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub.
00:18Ty, how you doing?
00:20What's going on?
00:21How are we doing today?
00:22Ty, it's just one game, but I would say the vibes have improved.
00:27It has been a bit of a roller coaster of a week.
00:29Jim Montgomery out, fired on Tuesday, Joe Sacco in.
00:34I'm not ready to get the duck boats ready after one win over a sub 500 Utah hockey club.
00:41I really wish they had an actual name and not just hockey club, but I digress.
00:45But looking at the Bruins and how they responded on Thursday night at the Garden, Joe Sacco's
00:51first game, what stood out to you about that one nothing victory?
00:55I think that it was probably the most excitement we've had watching this team, uh, maybe since
01:01the Colorado game in terms of their overall commitment, the overall sort of intensity
01:08of the game.
01:09Yeah.
01:10They only score one goal, but they were creating, they were playing with pace.
01:12They had energy.
01:13Um, all the things that we've kind of sat here and said, okay, why, why don't they have
01:18more of that?
01:19You saw that on Thursday night and I think that's important.
01:22I think the results.
01:23Yeah.
01:24You listen to five, nothing win in the first game out would have been great.
01:28I don't know how realistic it is though, with this team and this roster construct.
01:31So I think they kind of got back to their basics.
01:35They got back to what has to be their identity in terms of playing physical blocking shots,
01:41um, being tight, not letting cheapies.
01:44Like I thought one thing that was super noticeable on Thursday was just like the layers and how
01:51smart they were with their sticks, where the, the, I keep wanting to say the coyotes
01:56where Utah would try, you know, they, they try to kind of go, okay, they go low to high
02:01and they want to go cross ice here, but they'd have to get through three brew and sticks
02:04to get there.
02:05And it wasn't happening for them.
02:07They were shutting it down.
02:08That hasn't been there this year for whatever reason, whether it's coaching malaise, whatever
02:14that hasn't been there.
02:15It was there on Thursday.
02:16That's gotta be there every game.
02:19And I think like, I think that's what kind of Joe Sacco is really stressing right now.
02:25Details, basics, changing your identity to what you have to be based on your current
02:29roster.
02:30Yeah, I agree.
02:31It's almost kind of like, I think we've talked about this where you look at the crossroads
02:36this team found itself in where, you know, under Montgomery, especially early on, they
02:40had a lot of scoring depth, a lot of skill.
02:42They could kind of roll with that quality over quantity approach where they can, um,
02:47control the game, you know, look for those, uh, grade A looks in the slot, all that kind
02:52of stuff, really get the puck moving, be dynamic with their breakouts.
02:55I think you're going to have to adjust with what the personnel is now.
02:59And does that maybe mean that the team has to simplify and be kind of more like the,
03:05you know, like the New York Islanders, especially the last couple of years where like, you look
03:08at that team, like, were they a high flying, super exciting product?
03:14Not really.
03:15But the results were there.
03:16They were kind of built in their system.
03:17Like they were, you know, as much as they weren't a dynamic team, they didn't lose puck
03:21battles, made the smart, simple plays, knew when to kind of fight another day or another
03:25shift rather, um, and, and really held down their end of the ice and were opportunistic.
03:31And, um, I think for the Bruins, you kind of saw a little bit of that.
03:34It's not going to be, you know, when, when Bruce Cassidy took over and after his first
03:38practice, we're like, wow, this team is really trying to change things up.
03:41I think they're just trying to simplify.
03:43And if that means, you know, prioritizing, uh, locking things down around your net.
03:48I think, uh, Utah only had two high danger scoring chances at five and five play on Thursday.
03:54So step in the right direction there.
03:56Um, you didn't have, as you said, puck support was there.
03:58You didn't have a lot of odd man rushes or, or situations where you're relying heavily
04:03on corporate solo to bail you out, which was encouraging.
04:06And again, he had a great performance as well.
04:08Um, but I also think like offensively you started, especially I think on the power play.
04:13Um, but if they get back to maybe what they were a few years ago, where it's shot volume,
04:19uh, if there's ever opportunity to put a puck on net, because this team doesn't have the
04:23finishing ability to, I think, be selective, right.
04:27It's going to be, I think a lot of, when you look at how many big boys you have down low,
04:31get pucks on net, get rebounds, get tips, get those greasy goals.
04:35And if you stick to that and your offense that's finding a little bit momentum, um,
04:39as long as you can lean on your, your goaltending, which is going to be a big part of it in your
04:42defense, you're going to be in a lot of games, which is like, I think for the Bruins, I think
04:47you'd rather be in some of these white knuckle two, one, three, two games and simplify and
04:53maybe being a little bit more boring as opposed to swimming against the tide and you lose
04:58seven, two against good teams.
04:59Right.
05:00I think, I think that's the mentality and kind of baby steps they need to take moving
05:04forward.
05:05Yeah.
05:06And it's, it's stuff that we've talked about before.
05:08You know, I think even going back to the summer, we, we acknowledge that when you make the
05:13moves they made and the investments they made in goal on the backend and signing, you know,
05:21the best two way center available, a guy that you would hope would put up 70 points, but
05:25is more known for being a stabilizing presence down the middle than say, you know, a high
05:29flying score.
05:30Like they were, they were building a team that was designed to win games two to one,
05:34three to two, all of that.
05:36Like, like they're not going to win a six, five shootout with the Dallas stars.
05:41Like they, they might every now and then, but like, it's going to be exceedingly rare
05:45for this team to win that kind of, that kind of game this year.
05:49And so, yeah, like they got to play more to what they're designed to be.
05:52And do we wish that they went out and added a legit score?
05:56Yes.
05:57Yeah.
05:58100%.
05:59Yeah.
06:00And that's why, ironically enough, you know, like Corpus Allo, I was saying like, no, don't
06:03do that.
06:04Don't do that.
06:05It's not because of the goalie as much as the investment 3 million behind your 8 million
06:08guy is not a great investment in my opinion, but that's done.
06:13That's not an over with, this is what they have.
06:14So you need to play to that identity.
06:17And I think what you're talking about, what we're talking about, that is that identity.
06:21Their identity is not going to be the high flying end to end, you know, uh, the Pittsburgh
06:26penguins of eight years ago.
06:28Like I'd love them to be like, that's not.
06:30That's not who they are.
06:31So they have to win ugly.
06:32It's going to be ugly.
06:33It's going to be a little boring.
06:34But I think the biggest thing you can say is that last night was not boring.
06:37They had heart, they had energy, they had jump.
06:40They haven't had that for long stretches this year.
06:43You know, I would say that now, again, that was most exciting game in weeks.
06:47It was the most connected they looked in weeks as well.
06:50Um, we'll see if it's more than just, you know, the, the, the, the last gasp, so to
06:55speak of, you know, you make the coaching change and you get a slight bump and then
06:58you go back to your old ways.
07:00But I think that was telling if, if they had given up a goal with two minutes left from
07:05that game and went to overtime and lost or one in the shootout, you would not feel good
07:09today.
07:10You'd be like, that is a, that is a familiar problem.
07:13That is just, it's a different version of what you've dealt with for 20 games now.
07:16Um, so I think to, to react the way they did and to, to sort of hone in on what a lot of
07:22us think their identity has to be, I think that's, that's promising.
07:25Now they're going to build on it.
07:26That's been the hardest part.
07:27Yeah.
07:28Building on it.
07:29They've had some good wins, but as we talked about last week, they get their asses kicked
07:32the next game out.
07:33So now that's where they got to buck the trend.
07:35That's the next step for them.
07:36Yeah.
07:37And when I say also like looking at the Islanders and like being boring, like I also don't mean
07:41like they're going into a deep bouche a one, three, one, holy shit.
07:45Like it's going to really drag things out.
07:48But um, even if they're not as maybe dynamic as they were, like, I agree, like you look
07:53at this, this Bruins fandom that has watched weeks of just guys fumbling the pucks, like
07:58hand grenades, uh, disjointed plays, not shooting the puck, um, you know, not, you know, looking
08:04for someone to step up when no one's really doing it.
08:07Like I just said, a one nothing game, but the energy in that building.
08:11And I think Bruins fans saw some sort of identity of like, you can, all right, like maybe that
08:17that wasn't, you're not, uh, ripping up the playbook or anything like that.
08:21But we saw an identity there that like our team that we support wasn't getting outworked.
08:27They were winning puck battles.
08:28They were buying in, uh, even you look on the power play, right.
08:31They, they get their only goal off of, uh, an Elias Lindholm, uh, a tally there.
08:36But I think the power play looked remarkably better in terms of just, again, uh, moving
08:41guys around Martians back down at the goal line at the net front.
08:44Um, I think they had what 18 total shots on goal granted Utah took seven penalties.
08:49So that helps you out a little bit.
08:51Especially the power play.
08:53I think you just saw a lot more of that urgency and something that I think we've talked about
08:57that Joe Sacco mentioned is unpredictability.
09:00Like you need to get back to that.
09:01That's when that team was so effective on the power play.
09:04When you have the personnel you still have there, if you switch things up and are just
09:08more frantic, you have the guys that can buy in on those chances down low.
09:13Yeah.
09:13And, and I think one of the things that I noticed with the power play and actually it
09:16was sort of what, what, what led to the Lindholm goal, but it was a constant throughout.
09:21Is that they were taking more pucks to the net and relying on sort of the chaos that
09:25typically follows.
09:27If a goalie doesn't swallow it up now, now some goalies, they have great gloves, you
09:31know, like they're going to be able to smother it up before that happens.
09:33But if you don't, and now it's a, you know, it's a seven body pile up in front of your
09:37goal.
09:38And that puck is careening outwards to posture knock or to McEvoy or, you know,
09:43whoever, like they got the chance to hammer it home.
09:45Right.
09:46And I think I like that strategy more because I think there's less predictability
09:51there.
09:52I think the biggest thing that, you know, when we've harped on the Bruins power play
09:55this year, it's that it's predictable.
09:57They hold onto pucks for too long and that allows teams to sort of get set and take
10:01away their lanes.
10:02And now they have to make a perfect as hell play to avoid it getting, you know,
10:07snuffed out.
10:07And I think that's been sort of a thing that, that I didn't notice as much last
10:11night.
10:12They were not as predictable as they were because they had options.
10:15And when you have options, you're going to have a better power play clearly.
10:19And I think that's, that's a step forward.
10:21I like, yeah.
10:21One for five or one for six, whatever it was by the night's end.
10:25I understand.
10:25Not a great number, but I think that they should have had more show for their power
10:31play, to be honest with you.
10:32She's finishing and that, that could get better.
10:34That's been, that's kind of been there.
10:36Their bugaboo all year is finishing as has not been there.
10:39Don Sweeney alluded to that at his press conference earlier this week.
10:43But like, I, I, I like, I like the mentality of this power play versus what
10:49we've seen for the first 20 games.
10:51I felt.
10:51Yeah, absolutely.
10:52And I think for the Bruins, the most important thing is just building that
10:55momentum going forward on Saturday against a Detroit team that is also really
10:59struggling right now.
11:00Um, and before we kind of dive into that one and looking at especially the gold
11:04ending situation moving forward, which I think is now becoming a legit storyline,
11:10as this team tries to kind of write the ship and get a little bit of traction.
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12:48All right, Ty, looking ahead now at that game
12:51on the road against a struggling Detroit team chance for the Bruins
12:55to build a bit of momentum here.
12:57I think the biggest key is going to be who's going to be your guy in net
13:01moving forward into that game.
13:03Speaking on Friday, Joe Sacco mentions that the Bruins are leaning towards
13:07Jeremy Swayman in net for that game.
13:09But when asked if the, you know, the the workhorse mentality
13:14or the allocation of reps to Swayman moving forward,
13:16is that going to stay in place?
13:18He said they might start making some adjustments.
13:20It might be more of a day to day basis in terms of looking at where exactly
13:24they're going to allocate those sources moving forward
13:27with both Swayman and Corporasolo.
13:30Ty, for you, would you go with Swayman on Saturday
13:34or would you ride the hot hand with a guy like Corporasolo?
13:36I go with Swayman on Saturday
13:40and then I go right back to Corporasolo for the next game.
13:42I think that the way that they are currently positioned
13:47and I've said this, I think I said this to you last night.
13:49I go with a strict rotation
13:52because they deserve it.
13:53And you can read into that how you want right now.
13:56But I think you go with a strict rotation until either
14:00Corporasolo's game falls off or Swayman gets his game together.
14:04I think that's how you have to kind of look at it.
14:06It has to be merit based.
14:08And right now, Corporasolo is giving you more than Swayman.
14:12That said, I do want to give Swayman a chance to get his confidence back.
14:17And I think that you look at the schedule right now, the way that
14:21they have a lot of games in a pretty condensed window here coming up.
14:24I think a rotation is how you do this.
14:25I think it's I think it's rotation until proven otherwise.
14:29And, you know, if we look historically, a rotation
14:32is when you've gotten the best out of Swayman.
14:35Now, let's say you use the rotation and he gets his game back.
14:38OK, now you can lean on him for two and three and revisit that.
14:41But right now, the two and threes haven't been kind to him.
14:44As I as we've talked about, you know, in the past on this podcast, like.
14:48So I think until one guy drops off or one guy, you know, rises to the occasion,
14:55I think you go with the 50 50 split and you embrace the idea of,
14:59well, all right, we got two goalies.
15:00We're paying $11 million plus for for this tandem.
15:04Let's make it work. Right.
15:05And I think that's that's how you got to do it in the now, personally,
15:08because I don't want to I don't think you want to totally maroon Swayman.
15:12You know what I mean?
15:13And put him on a situation where he's been sitting for too long.
15:17And then the game he does get, he doesn't win.
15:20OK, now he's back to the bench.
15:21Like, that's not a long term plan for success for the Bruins.
15:24Yeah, I think it all comes down to, I think, in the immediate future,
15:27just shifting your expectations a little bit.
15:29As you said, I don't think it's like
15:30I got to put Koppersolo until he loses.
15:32You don't want that, obviously. Right.
15:34Because also you don't want to tax the guy that has
15:36been one of the few bright spots for your team.
15:38But yeah, as you said, if you shifted a little bit instead of,
15:41you know, giving most of the reps to Swayman, if it's a rotation
15:46for the time being that changes things for Swayman, kind of
15:50ramps up the urgency towards him.
15:53But also it's not something where you're again, as you said,
15:56or you're banishing him to the Gulag in terms of him.
15:59You know, he hasn't played well to start the year.
16:01He's not up to his standard, but he's well aware of that.
16:05This is a guy that, again, as I think there's been a lot of
16:09talk about Swayman in terms of, I think, the more big picture
16:12criticism of him the last couple of days as it pertains to
16:16where the Bruins have struggled this year.
16:19I think the Bruins are still very high in terms of his ceiling, what he can be.
16:23I don't think there's any bias, remorse or anything like that.
16:26Like this is a blip that we haven't seen from Swayman
16:29because the Bruins have had a situation for three years now
16:33where you don't have to try to help the guy when he's struggling to find his game.
16:37Like you've had the luxury of doing that.
16:39This is kind of uncharted territory for him, but it's still a spot
16:43where he should be fine.
16:44Like this is still a guy that has shown that he can do that in the past.
16:48But for right now, yeah, like it's not going to be a 70-30 split
16:52Corpora Sala's way, but where Corpora Sala has at least shown
16:55that he's been more of a steadying presence than we all probably expected.
16:59I go back and forth for right now and see if that kind of motivates Swayman
17:02to kind of find his game while also not overtaxing him, you know,
17:05in terms of easing him back into the swing of things, because,
17:10you know, Corpora Sala has been great, but you're going to need both those guys,
17:13especially as this team, if they're going to be winning a lot of 1-0, 2-1 games,
17:17you need both your goalies to be playing at a high level.
17:19Yeah. And and listen, I can tell you talking to players that the idea
17:23that there's resentment for Jeremy Swayman
17:26and they're not playing as hard for him is just complete bullshit.
17:29Like it's it's listen, it's
17:33I understand we sometimes want drama to be true.
17:37We want, you know, the spiciness of that or whatever.
17:41But you know how hard it would be?
17:44This is something that somebody said to me.
17:46You know how hard it would be to dog it or to to make it look like,
17:50you know, we're not trying as hard.
17:52You know how hard it would be for that to not be completely obvious?
17:55Like these are guys are out there skating almost 20 miles an hour.
17:59Now you're going to stop playing.
18:01Like, you know how hard that would be to make it look like you're just not
18:04like you're actually like shoeless Joe Jackson out there throwing throwing a game
18:08like it's not as easy as people think.
18:10And I just think that personally, like
18:14it's a very simple and very boring way of of what's going on here.
18:18They're playing like garbage in front of both guys, or they were for 20 games.
18:21Yeah, the only difference is that Corpus Aulos has made more saves in Sweden.
18:25That is the only difference.
18:26If you want to go in and look at the charts, the graphs,
18:30the amount of high danger looks are giving up.
18:32They're basically the same.
18:34It's just that Corpus Aulos is making more saves.
18:36That that is the biggest difference right now.
18:38And yeah, so Swayman doesn't have his game in order.
18:40I think missing a training camp did hurt him.
18:43I think it hurt him in terms of timing, understanding NHL shots.
18:47Like like I've said this before, but you could work at BU.
18:50You could work, you know, with with with professional goalie coaches.
18:53But nothing is going to
18:56accurately replicate NHL games, NHL quality shots.
18:59Like you need to be in the games.
19:01And so I think that has hurt him.
19:04I thought the Dallas game was kind of the biggest stinker that he's had.
19:07Like I didn't know to that point.
19:09There wasn't a game where I was like, oh, man, he's been horrible.
19:12The Dallas game was that game where I was like, this is not not good enough.
19:16And so he's going to have to get it together.
19:19But but I it's him.
19:21It's not the team.
19:22It's not lingering resentment.
19:24Like, no, it's it's it's him.
19:26He's got to get that in order.
19:27And, you know, he said he said it after the after his last loss, where he said,
19:31like, I, I got to pick it up and I'm going to beginning right now.
19:35And so now he's going to get that chance to prove it.
19:37And then we go from there.
19:39Yeah, I think people watch too much of me.
19:41Like, remember the Titans or something where they're like,
19:43are all the guys huddled in the locker room swimming is the first one.
19:46It's like, all right, guys, let's like it's literally controlled
19:49chaos out there on the ice.
19:50As you said, guys skate 20 miles per hour.
19:52Like you can't
19:54go in with a game plan as to, you know, letting pucks sail through
19:58to swimming in that spot, just not how not to operate some real life. Right.
20:02It's a little bit of a theatrical approach.
20:04But but no, I agree.
20:06Like for him, it's all about just finding his own game.
20:09And the the numbers aren't very different
20:13in terms of like who's playing better in front of him.
20:15Like I remember it's like two years ago or maybe it was even three,
20:19like during Omar's first year where it felt like they were a lot tighter
20:23in front of swimming.
20:23But that's also just the unpredictable unpredictability chaos of hockey
20:28where sometimes those things just happen.
20:30There's not a team wide conspiracy or anything like that in terms of the.
20:34And again, like you can have be like, all right, man, like,
20:37we should sign the contract like, you know, those kind of things.
20:40That doesn't mean you lay your teammate, the guy you've gone to war
20:43with the last couple of years out to dry in those spots.
20:45Like there is a there's a big gap between those two kinds of things
20:48that I think people need to realize in an actual game setting
20:52where these guys take a lot of pride in their own games.
20:55You also don't want to make yourself look like shit.
20:57If you're if you're on the ice, giving up these goals like, well,
21:01you're trying to make a statement there like you want to be a bad teammate.
21:05OK, have that label follow you around.
21:07You can be Mike Hoffman. That's great.
21:08Where is he working right now?
21:10Anywhere like like that, like if you have that bad teammate label
21:14and you do things out of spite, you know, because of this or that,
21:18like you get blacklisted in this league pretty, pretty quick, I would say.
21:22And so I don't see anybody doing that.
21:24And it has been funny asking people about it and just the reaction
21:27they that they're like, what's like?
21:29They like they don't even understand.
21:30They're like, what does it even mean?
21:31Like, what would that even mean?
21:32I'm like, I don't know.
21:33That's what the people think, man.
21:35That's what the streets are saying.
21:37Ty, we will shift now looking a little bit
21:40at the past now with the Bruins decision to move on from Jim Montgomery.
21:43But before we do that,
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23:32Ty, looking back at what has all gone down
23:36the last couple of days with the Bruins,
23:39we haven't really talked, I guess, on this podcast
23:41since the Bruins let Jim Montgomery go.
23:44Now having a couple of days to digest things,
23:48what's just your overall sentiment as to the decision,
23:52whether it was time to move on, all that kind of stuff?
23:55I know it's a very deep, thorough question there, but what's your sentiment?
24:01I mean, I think that ultimately he took the fall for problems
24:05that are probably more roster contract based than anything he was coaching.
24:09But I'm also not heartbroken, heartbroken over the sense
24:12that I don't think that he was the make or break difference
24:16between the Bruins winning and losing a Stanley Cup.
24:18I think that you can be a great coach
24:21while also having some potentially
24:25calamitous shortcomings.
24:26I feel like that's kind of, you know, I felt like we were always trending
24:29towards calamity with him in the playoffs.
24:32I mean, Jesus, man, he's he was a hamper slid home away
24:36from being the first coach in pro sports history
24:39to blow 3-1 series leads in back-to-back postseasons.
24:42I mean, that's just that's just unbelievable, right?
24:45You think about that.
24:46And, you know, I wonder, like, if if if the Leafs
24:49have to play Joseph Wohl in game seven instead of Ilya Samsonov, like,
24:54does he survive? Does he make it out of that game?
24:56It's a legit question, right?
24:57And and I think that I think
25:02we talked about it, right?
25:03But I think we all felt like this was going to happen
25:06at some point this year, like whether it was in the playoffs
25:10in November, February, like wherever, like we all kind of felt
25:15like not sure he makes it through the year. Right.
25:18And I think, you know, he presses so many buttons so early.
25:22You know, he benches Pasternak, rightfully so.
25:25It was a bad game for Pasternak.
25:27He screaming at Martian.
25:29Martian's OK with that. OK, that's fine.
25:31Switches the lines 50,000 times over over 20 games.
25:35Like, OK, what more can you do?
25:37He has the press conferences that are getting shorter and shorter
25:40and they're getting more, you know, tense.
25:43And you guys figure it out.
25:45It's like, OK, we'll try.
25:48Like, it just felt like he was out of buttons to press.
25:50And the team was getting worse.
25:52They were getting worse.
25:52I mean, you know, you can you can stomach losing to
25:58Carolina and Dallas.
26:00Those are really good teams.
26:01But when you're non-competitive against the Columbus Blue Jackets,
26:06I don't know how you I don't know how anyone survives that.
26:08And if you're, you know, if you're now under 500 and it just
26:13so it felt like it was time in a weird way.
26:16Yeah. And even going off of that sentiment in terms of it being time.
26:20And again, like we've already covered this, I think, on multiple podcasts
26:24and both of our websites about the blame game.
26:28And obviously the players have a sizable
26:32role in that as to where the Bruins are right now.
26:34You can also point to the roster construction, all that stuff.
26:37We've all established that.
26:39But yeah, I do think when you look at just the situation,
26:42but the Bruins and Montgomery both found themselves in like going into the year
26:47without a contract, like you knew this was going to be a narrative.
26:50Even if this team was ten and three to stop the air, you're still like,
26:53all right, are you going to sign Montgomery now?
26:54Like there was still going to be this lingering thing.
26:57Even you saw, I think it was Elliott Freeman on his 32 thoughts
27:01was mentioning that, like from Montgomery's perspective, like he wasn't sure.
27:05Like looking at the contract negotiations,
27:07Freeman noted that Montgomery wasn't sure if he wanted to be here long term.
27:10So like when you have this kind of weird kind of dynamic here,
27:15you have this situation lingering over.
27:17You wonder if like both sides or at least one of them go into the air like,
27:22yeah, we'll see where this goes.
27:23But, you know, first sign of trouble.
27:26Like it kind of felt like that was all but inevitable,
27:28especially once he stopped the year, regardless of the results,
27:31regardless of getting smoked by Florida in that first game
27:33where they weren't ready to go, and that kind of set the tone.
27:36It just felt like there was some air of an inevitability
27:40to where the Bruins reached this decision on Tuesday.
27:44Yeah. And going off that real quick, I do want to say that
27:49a source has confirmed to me that the Bruins made multiple contract
27:54offers to Montgomery and they were all denied,
27:58which speaks to Elliott Freeman's point of maybe he wasn't certain.
28:02I think internally my sense is that the Bruins were a little bit worried
28:07that he was going to.
28:10Let's say full on Barry Trotts, a situation
28:13where he would roll out the contract year
28:16and then he'd leave him high and dry, or he'd want a massive,
28:19massive bag that maybe they weren't willing to pay.
28:23His current his his his contract with the Bruins was for two mil per year.
28:28That is not exactly top of the market.
28:30It was mid tier.
28:32I think he wants to be top of the market.
28:34And if you're the Bruins, you're like, well, OK, well, first of all,
28:38you've won one playoff round.
28:39You had a super team that you helped gag away.
28:43You know, we built you this ninety two million dollar team
28:47with an eighty two million dollar cap and we lost in seven games.
28:49So piss off. We're not doing that.
28:53But I think also internally, I think that there is a feeling
28:56among the Bruins that Joe Sacco has been close before.
29:02They thought he was going to get the job in Anaheim
29:03when that opened up a little while ago.
29:06You didn't get it.
29:07And they I think they're OK.
29:09Well, if Montgomery is not going to resign or he's going to want a bag
29:13that we're not comfortable paying and the team is bad,
29:17why don't we get a look at Joe Sacco before we lose him to,
29:19you know, insert team here that hires him in a year or two?
29:23Like, I think that was a legit thing for them.
29:25And when the team is eight, nine and three, it's like, OK,
29:29that makes the decision a lot easier.
29:30And I think that's where it was.
29:31So the Bruins did offer him multiple contracts.
29:34They were all turned down.
29:36It felt like Montgomery was kind of.
29:39Banking on himself, you know, betting on himself to a degree,
29:44which is fine, that's his right, but the team's not playing well enough
29:48and you got a guy that you've always been kind of curious deep down
29:50to see if he'd be a head coach again.
29:53Eight, nine and three is not a bad time to pull the,
29:55you know, pull the chute and see what you got there.
29:57Yeah, and I think you also just look at the way the identity of,
30:00I think, this team and the way they needed to play.
30:03And people can also like look at like.
30:06How the Bruins approach this offseason of getting bigger,
30:09getting bigger bodies up front and being like, well, how is Montgomery
30:12supposed to succeed with this group when like he's all about
30:15moving the puck quickly, going quality over quantity?
30:19Shout out to behind the B for, you know, during the offseason
30:22when they went through all these things.
30:24Montgomery was in during those like free agent meetings
30:26and signed off on the roster.
30:28Like it's not like much better.
30:30It's not like Jim Montgomery was out fishing
30:32and then he like checks his phone three hours later.
30:33He's like, holy, what the shit?
30:34Like what's happened with the previous coach, by the way?
30:37Yeah, it was something like that with the previous coach.
30:39He was like, what am I going to do with that guy?
30:42Exactly.
30:43So like, again, going into again,
30:46maybe preconceived narratives or notions as to how these things operate,
30:51knowing full well how things went a few off seasons ago.
30:54But with Montgomery, like, yeah, like the head coach
30:57should have an active role in terms of identifying players,
31:01how they want to play.
31:02And when you have this group that is probably going to have to be a simple,
31:06hard nose, kind of grinded out kind of system
31:09and how that meshes with what Montgomery wants to do.
31:13It kind of felt like it was a rock in a hard place anyway going into it.
31:16And when you add in, as you said, like the questions over
31:19the recent playoff runs, all those kinds of things like again, like
31:23I feel like this is like pile on Monty.
31:25Like, no, like again, a lot of a lot of factors are in play here
31:29as to why the Bruins are where they are right now.
31:32But I do think for the Bruins at some point, it's like, all right,
31:36things aren't working.
31:37We need a fresh voice in there, but also someone that.
31:40Is more attuned to how they need to play games,
31:42and I think, as you said, leading off the show,
31:45Sacco, that simplistic hard nosed effort is kind of,
31:49I think, just what you need, at least at the very least right now
31:52just to get your game rolling here, like, as you said before, like
31:56with right now where you have this lighter part of your schedule,
31:59it's all about stacking up wins.
32:00And even if your offense isn't clicking, your power play
32:03still has a lot to be desired.
32:05If you're going to outwork teams, you're going to protect your net front.
32:08You're going to be in these games more often than not,
32:10and most likely on the right side of the score sheet.
32:12So I think that's the biggest thing for the Bruins
32:15is identifying probably at some point here, like Montgomery
32:18wasn't the guy we needed for this team right now
32:20as they're kind of taking that next step forward.
32:23Yeah. And let's just you mentioned the schedule.
32:26Let's just look at it real quick here.
32:28They had a stretch here where they were playing St.
32:30Louis, Columbus, Utah, Detroit, Vancouver, the Islanders,
32:34the Penguins, the Canadiens, the Red Wings, the Blackhawks,
32:37and then the Flyers before they play the Winnipeg Jets.
32:40Look at that segment there.
32:41You should go.
32:43I don't know how many games that is exactly.
32:45Quick math here.
32:4610, 11 games.
32:48You should go eight and three, eight and three.
32:50I think that's a fair expectation.
32:52Seven and four, somewhere around there.
32:55They started off that stretch.
32:56Oh, one and one.
32:59There was really this.
33:01And this is why I think the 20 game mark was interesting,
33:04because there was a legit possibility here that the Bruins
33:07are going to be a team competing for Atlantic three or a wild card spot.
33:12OK, if that's the case, could you really afford to go five and five
33:17during that stretch that makes your that makes March
33:20you have a much more difficult life than than maybe you'd like to.
33:25And so that's where I think it made a lot of sense
33:27for the Bruins in that scope.
33:29Yes, I don't want to I'm with you.
33:31I don't want to pile on Jim Montgomery, who by all accounts is a great guy.
33:34I don't really know.
33:35We didn't really know much about him.
33:36Like he was kind of guarded, I feel like, which is fine.
33:39I don't know if he was guarded as much as like he wasn't Bruce Cassidy,
33:43who would tell you everything about his life and then some.
33:47But we didn't know him a ton.
33:49But yeah, I don't want to pile on him.
33:51But like, OK, let's look at it this way.
33:54Did you ever have faith that he could outfox Paul Maurice?
33:59He was over two against him.
34:01John Cooper, one of his closest friends, we all know, but really good coach.
34:05Unbelievable coach.
34:06Yes. And now Craig Berube in in Toronto.
34:10Like it's a hard path, man.
34:12Those are those that know how to play the play, the ref
34:16postgame commentary thing.
34:18We've seen it.
34:19It's five Stanley Cup champions.
34:21You know, you count all their rings
34:24that he has to outfox every year based on the playoff format.
34:27Like that's I don't I didn't love the odds there.
34:29So for me, I'm going, yeah, try something new.
34:31I don't know.
34:32Like it's still a it's still a talent issue at the end of the day
34:35as to why they probably will not win a Stanley Cup this year or the year after.
34:40They got to get more talent in here.
34:41But I think if you don't have the talent, you've got to be
34:45you have to be cunning.
34:45You have to you have to outfox a guy.
34:48And I don't think that he was going to outfox these guys
34:50that we're talking about right now.
34:51I just that's my own personal feeling on it.
34:53The Bruins clearly felt differently.
34:54They offered him contracts.
34:56He said no.
34:57But that that kind of speaks to what I'm thinking about.
34:59Maybe maybe there's a disconnect here in terms of how good he thinks he is
35:03versus how the how good the Bruins think he is.
35:06And maybe that's what accelerated this exit between the parties.
35:10Yep. And here are the Bruins now going into Saturday's
35:13game against Detroit, see how they can build off.
35:15Hopefully if they can get a little bit of a momentum here
35:19moving forward with Thursday's game.
35:22Yeah. And I think just to touch on this real quick, I also think that with Jim.
35:27This isn't a negative, like this is not like an indictment
35:29against him as a person.
35:31I never thought that he understood the culture here.
35:35And he's not from here.
35:37You know, he he's a Quebec guy and he lives in St. Louis.
35:40He was in Denver, obviously, for a while coaching that program.
35:44But like Bruce Cassidy knew Boston, he was from Ottawa,
35:48but he grew up a Bruins fan.
35:50He spent he rehabbed his image as a coach in the A.H.L.
35:54and then came up to the Bruins like he got it right.
35:59And I think that was something that I don't think Montgomery ever got.
36:03And it doesn't make him a bad coach is make a bad guy.
36:07It's just Boston is a very.
36:10It's a very insular place, you know, like it like it's very
36:14it's very local.
36:15And I feel like he never quite connected the way that Bruce could,
36:21the way that Claude even could by the end of it and the way that
36:27the way that Sacco naturally can as a Medford native,
36:29a guy who's been in the organization for 10 years, knows Boston.
36:33I think I think his brother's a cop.
36:35I'm going to say in Medford, something like that, like like he gets it right.
36:38And I feel like that's something that you can use your advantage.
36:43And I never felt that Montgomery ever quite used his advantage
36:46when he was head coach of the Bruins.
36:48Yeah, we will see what's next for the Bruins going into Saturday's game
36:51against Detroit.
36:52Ty, before we let you go, where can we read your stuff?
36:55Where can we hear you on the radio airwaves?
36:57Yeah, I can hear me on 985 Sports Sub every Saturday morning
37:01hosting the hockey show tomorrow.
37:03I'm solo, I think.
37:05Yeah, because they're all in Detroit tomorrow.
37:07Literally all of them are in Detroit.
37:09Ryan's in Detroit.
37:11Beer's in Detroit.
37:12Obviously, they're broadcasting the game.
37:13And Billy Jaffe, who calls in and sometimes hosts
37:17when those guys are out of town, is actually in Detroit as well.
37:20He's doing he's doing the Raycroft gig that that Raycroft
37:24when predicted the prince of a comeback in St. Louis. So.
37:29So I'm solo dolo tomorrow.
37:30Nine to eleven. You can hear me there.
37:32Follow me. Find me online at underscore Ty Anderson.
37:35I'm on the Blue Sky app now as well.
37:37That is not underscore.
37:38They don't let underscores happen over there.
37:40That is Ty Anderson.
37:43So you can find me there as well.
37:45How about yourself?
37:46Yes, you can find my stuff over at Boston dot com in the Boston Globe.
37:49We have covered every step of the way with recaps, features, columns,
37:52breakdowns, all that good stuff.
37:54And you can find me on Twitter at Conor Ryan underscore and ninety three.
37:58This is Episode 280 of Poke the Bear.
38:01I'm Conor Ryan. That is Ty Anderson.
38:03You fans have a great rest of your week.