What is Jim Montgomery Doing with Matt Poitras?

CLNS Media Sports Network

Topics: -Evan and Conor are satisfied with their Christmas shopping -Montgomery benches Poitras in the third period against the Coyotes — was he right to? -If Pavel Zacha is out, who steps in? -The value of Morgan Geekie -The one area the Bruins need to be much better in

Transcript

00:00 week where Hathaway hits Luke Hughes and smashes him into the board where everyone's like, "Oh,

00:03 geez." Which, again, tough hit. The Scots seem to do 10 times that on every shift.

00:09 It's like watching a Hall of Fame safety in the NFL in the '70s. It's like you went to

00:16 the High Reel. It's not like, "Oh, man." You're like, "Jesus Christ, what the fuck was going on

00:20 back then?" Sean Taylor. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you'd be Sean Taylor. Dude would straight up

00:27 drop guys in the Pro Bowl. It's like, "Guys, I'm here bringing my family to Waikiki Beach,

00:32 and now I have to go get a CAT scan. What are we doing?"

00:36 Welcome into the Bruins Beat on CLNS Media, presented by our good friends over at FanDuel,

00:50 as well as our delicious friends over at HelloFresh. Connor, what is up?

00:56 Evan, I'm doing well. How are you doing?

00:58 Doing great. Doing great. I gotta say, Connor, I'm very excited. I'm very excited because I'm a

01:04 religious HelloFresh user. I told you this. I've been very open about this with you. Tonight,

01:11 I am cooking up... So Monday night, it will be gone by the time... It will be eaten quickly by

01:16 the time people listen to this, but it's a shepherd's pie. It takes a little longer to

01:21 make than everything else, but I've had it before, and it's very good. I'm very excited.

01:26 Can't go wrong, right? I mean, what is it? It's just mashed potatoes on top of protein.

01:30 I guess it's great. Yes, and vegetables. Yeah. I feel so healthy when I do it. I use up a lot

01:36 of plates because I use a lot and all that, but it's very fun times. I'm excited to do that.

01:43 It's also fun. You and I are reunited back on Bruins Beat. A little different than not

01:48 when Felger's on. A little different. It's a little different tone. I did see someone replied

01:53 on YouTube saying, "Man, I got on you guys for being too positive about the team, and you went

01:57 out and got Felger." So good for you guys. So yeah, I guess we did. So happy to have you back,

02:04 Connor, and talking all that. How's the holiday season going? Are you doing your shopping,

02:09 all that stuff? I think I'm mostly done now. You hit the point where I think you go above and

02:15 beyond. I probably have spent a little too much here, got a little overindulgent, got a little

02:20 carried away here. But then you hit that point in December 11th through the 18th where you're like,

02:27 "Oh, I guess I need to get something for this person." And it's like, "No, no, you're all set.

02:31 You have those kind of stretches," which I'd rather do that as second guessing than the people

02:36 who wait until the 20th, the 21st. People go shopping on Christmas Eve, psychos. Lunatics,

02:43 seven, dare I say. Crazy human beings. I feel the same way. I start my shopping around early

02:50 December, but I get really nervous because some stuff won't come in until it says December 15th

02:56 through the 28th. And I'm like, "Well, that's a big fucking difference." You get a little more

03:01 specific with that. So I get very nervous. I'm like, "Oh my God, it better come in before

03:05 Christmas. I got to have these things in, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." But I have everything.

03:09 It's actually literally to the left of me. And it's all just right up against my bedroom wall.

03:14 And there's actually a big thing of wrapping paper. And that's the most tedious thing. I have

03:20 to wrap those gifts. They are just sitting there. So at some point, I do have to take 30 minutes

03:26 to sit and wrap. That's when you put on the Grinchstill Christmas or Home Alone or something

03:32 like that and you knock it out then. A little hot cocoa. That's how you do it.

03:37 I agree. Speaking of Grinch, have you seen those videos of people to dress up as the Grinch

03:44 and crash their Christmas party? I cannot wait. Someday when I have children,

03:48 I cannot wait to do that to them and potentially scar them for life. But it'll be good for the

03:54 internet cloud, which is all really matters. For the content, which is the most important

03:57 thing. Who cares about the kids and how they internally get traumatized by Christmas every

04:04 year. But the ones where it scares the kids is funny. I saw one where it's a bunch of 25-year-olds

04:10 and the guy comes in and it's a fully decorated tree and just grabs it and lifts it and carries

04:15 it out. And what if it smashed everywhere? I'd be pissed there. The videos of when it's a cat

04:20 that jumps and knocks a tree down. I got a lot of knickknacks, a lot of different stuff on my

04:25 Christmas tree. If someone destroyed my tree, I'd be pretty heated. I would laugh. And then

04:30 afterwards, I'd grab it and say, "Hey, that was really fucked up. You owe me $400 worth of

04:35 Christmas ornaments." You also need to clean all this up right now.

04:39 Yes, exactly. You don't want to be like Mav when he's stepping on the glass ornaments and

04:44 they're breaking. You don't want that. That was such a chest level thing by Kevin,

04:50 to have all those ornaments there to just step on. That is such galaxy brain level thinking.

04:55 How would a kid his age figure that? That is just diabolical.

04:59 He's skilled in guerrilla warfare. Who knew Kevin McAllister? He got nails in the

05:05 staircases. Really went above and beyond. Again, it takes me about 20 minutes to bring in the trash

05:11 and selfie. That man built an entire buoy trap in 11 minutes. It's impressive.

05:17 And he still had time to have his macaroni and cheese. I think that's one of those underrated-

05:21 He didn't enjoy it, unfortunately, but it's the effort that counts.

05:24 It was right there. It was right there. But I agree, the holiday season is a good time.

05:29 I agree. It's gone too fast and we're moving right along through December.

05:36 But anyway, the Bruins stuff continues. There's a lot for December, I feel like.

05:43 And chief among them is Matt Potra, who was benched in the third period in Saturday's game

05:49 in the 5-3 win over the Coyotes, who, by the way, Arizona Coyotes, not a bad team. Pretty good.

05:54 They're not too bad. And my favorite take you've ever given in all of our podcasting,

06:01 I like this take the most. And it's not surprising when you consider the roots,

06:07 but it's the Clayton Keller should one day be a Boston Bruin. And a long-term Boston Bruin.

06:12 I've always liked that take. It's always been your take. And when I saw them play on Saturday

06:17 and he scored that goal, I was like, "Man, he'd look good in black and gold. He would look good."

06:22 Those classic BU guys. I honestly didn't expect them to play that well this year.

06:28 If they really tanked again, then they would be like, "All right, when are they going to

06:32 move that contract before they find another place to actually play in the years ahead?"

06:36 Definitely a guy worth keeping tabs on, especially if that team continues to

06:40 kind of go up and down in the standings. Yeah. And I agree with you. I think he would fit.

06:46 And the Arizona situation is so weird. I did see the other day though, their Twitter account

06:51 tweeted out something like, "New arena?" Eye emojis. And I'm like, I didn't follow up on it

06:57 at all. I can't imagine it was anything. I can't imagine it was anything. No. It was probably like

07:01 they had a little bump. They showed a video of a bubble hockey. They went to the Quincy Youth

07:06 Rink and took a video of the bubble hockey. And that was their arena they're working on. It was

07:10 like a joke. Getting that funny engagement. I love when Twitter accounts are really zany.

07:15 It's nice. Truckle it too. Yeah. That's exactly what I did.

07:19 So funny guys. Anyways, Matt Potts didn't play in the third period. This is what everybody's

07:25 talking about. And let me pull up the quote from Jim Montgomery. After the game, when he was asked

07:31 about it, he said, "It's valuing game management." It's something that we talked to him about.

07:34 And it's still lacking in his game right now. We're paid to win hockey games. And I'm going

07:38 to go with the guys that I think are going to win us a hockey game. So my whole thing with that,

07:43 and we've been very consistent with how we've evaluated these younger players throughout the

07:48 year. And my whole thing with it is I get it against Toronto. I get it against Dallas. I

07:55 understand that. Those are big time games with big time opponents. And those are two points you

08:00 need to have. And I agree. You need those two points against Arizona. You're not a rebuilding

08:04 hockey team. You are in it. You are tied for the best record in the league. You 100% should be

08:10 going all in. But a Saturday matinee game against the Arizona Coyotes in December, one game after

08:16 him being healthy scratched, you're really going to bench him for the third period when you are

08:22 also missing Pavel Zaka? And the other thing I'll add, and I know you'll agree with me on this.

08:27 So after that little mishap that Arizona scored their second goal on, that Patra kind of turned

08:32 it over in the neutral zone for, which by the way, Shattenkirk activated and was over the red line.

08:38 That's why it was a two on one, because Shattenkirk activated and was over the red line. So you can

08:43 either blame Shattenkirk for that, or you can blame the system. But then he makes up for it

08:48 with the goal for Heinen, with the play in the neutral zone to get to Heinen the goal. So I don't

08:53 see this. I don't understand why so strict on this. What do you think? Yeah, I do think it's

09:00 very much a situational thing where I agree with Toronto. In Toronto, with that firepower,

09:07 with the stakes involved, one goal game, then goes Hockey Night in Canada. You want to minimize the

09:12 risk there. And I think Montgomery kind of said the quiet part out loud in his post-game presser

09:17 against Arizona. It's like, we're paid to win hockey games. And I think we've touched on this

09:20 before that as much as you want to talk about coaches embracing the youth movement, guys being

09:26 better to deal with younger players. These teams want to win at the end of the day. And unless

09:30 you're a team like Columbus or San Jose, where you're not anywhere close to contending, you're

09:36 not going to trot out a rookie for 20, 22 minutes a night and feed them to the wolves for the sake

09:42 of getting them to learn when you are not trying to fight for anything other than development and

09:48 success in the years ahead. If you're the Bruins, where you're atop the Atlantic and you're a really

09:52 competitive team right now, you want to minimize that risk while also helping these guys along.

09:56 So I can see the Toronto game, but as you said, against Arizona, where Potter already had a day

10:02 off on Thursday, there's minutes up for grabs with Zaka not playing. And when you look at

10:07 Potter's game, the one thing that Montgomery's always preached about him as to why he's been

10:11 so successful is when he has a bad shift or a bad turnover, he rebounds in a hurry. And usually it's

10:17 like, all right, maybe it's a bad game, bounces back. That was a situation where he has a bad

10:21 turnover in the second period. Four minutes later, he gets that turnover, pushes the puck ahead,

10:27 but Dan Hyneman has a goal, right? It rebounded in the stretch of five minutes. So you would think

10:33 when you look at just the lack of Zaka being out there, the fact that he already kind of responded

10:40 to hitting a wall in that game, it seemed like the perfect situation to roll Potter out there a

10:45 little bit longer. Again, on Monday, Montgomery preached about really staying positive, had a

10:50 one-on-one meeting with Potra, saying all the right things. But it is a definite tough situation

10:57 in terms of towing the line there, because if you have one game against Toronto with the stakes

11:02 involved, okay, if you're a rookie, you can see that. If you have your first season in the NHL,

11:08 you're not used to an 82-game schedule, I can see sitting out for a game and resting your legs.

11:12 That makes sense. If it becomes a trend of like he's sitting out in third periods, that's when

11:16 you start kind of the slippery slope where a guy like Potra, who's a really confident, offensive-minded

11:23 rookie, you keep on getting bent. That's when it starts getting in your head. You start overthinking

11:27 things. You're worrying about making mistakes. This sounds like a situation we've heard before

11:31 with another Bruins coach. Like that's not to say that every rookie's cut from the same cloth,

11:36 but if it becomes a habit of him being the guy that lands in the doghouse in these situations,

11:41 those things can kind of add up for a young player trying to find their footing in the NHL.

11:46 And again, it goes back to what we talked about preseason. Remember when we sat here and people

11:50 were like, "Oh, you guys don't think you should be going right to the NHL?" And it's like, "No,

11:54 we were cautious because he couldn't go to Providence." And again, you're sacrificing

11:58 valuable development time. Now, he's developed quite a bit at the NHL level. He's played a lot

12:03 and he's produced. And again, I think he's been overall really good for what you should expect

12:09 from a 19-year-old kid in the NHL. But as you said, when things start to build like this and

12:15 you are getting benched and you are getting scratched, that's development time. And that

12:20 hurts confidence. And I get it. The Bruins are not a team that's going to rebuild, maybe ever.

12:26 I mean, you look at, remember the Jacobs comments last year when they brought in Jim Montgomery and

12:32 they were asked, "Are you headed for a rebuild?" And they said, "No, we want to win hockey games."

12:35 So, again, that's a hard thing for Montgomery and Sweeney to operate under where it's like,

12:42 "You've got to win. You've got to win or you'll lose your job." And I think that's the big thing

12:46 there. And it's good that it's like that. You do want to have a winning culture and the Bruins do

12:50 have a winning culture. You're not going to be one of the sucky franchises like the Coyotes or

12:55 the Blackhawks right now where you're going to bottom out for a while. It's good that they're

13:01 good and they're in it every year and this and that. But at the same time, that doesn't always

13:06 allow for full development for guys like Patra or a Lowry where Lowry is raw. Lowry is, we've said

13:14 this, really raw player, some defensive inefficiencies, but really good offensively and

13:18 has a lot of promise. And Patra has a ton of promise and a high ceiling and all those things,

13:22 but both of them are going to make mistakes. So, it's hard to put them out there constantly

13:29 for a really, really, really good team. Now, at least with Lowry, they can send down to Providence.

13:33 Patra, they can't. And the more I think about this, the more I think like,

13:36 I think Patra's proved at the NHL level. I think he has all the intangibles to be a good NHL center.

13:42 I think he's earned his time up here. But the more I see things, if this continues to happen,

13:47 because it's starting to not like, it's not snowball, good pun intended, the winter and

13:55 everything, not snowball, but it could, like, that's what I think of Providence would be perfect

14:00 for him, but they can't move him down. So, you have that dilemma, which I think doesn't really

14:07 help things. What have you thought of Patra's overall game this year so far? I feel like we

14:10 haven't talked about him in a little while. Yeah, I mean, I think he's been solid. There's,

14:14 as expected for a guy that's 19, there's going to be those lulls in games where maybe he's not that

14:18 impactful. But I think even in games where he's not scoring, there's at least one or two shifts

14:23 where it stands out where he's holding onto the puck, being assertive and giving this team energy.

14:27 And that's one thing that I think has occasionally been missing for this team offensively. You can

14:32 look at the systems, you can look at the four checking, all those things. But in terms of just

14:36 generating energy, when he's really holding onto the puck and really asserted with it and generating

14:41 high danger chances, like that's where that talent really shines. And something that Montgomery even

14:46 mentioned on Monday, that he's a young, enthusiastic player and guys feed off that

14:51 on this team. And even in games where maybe he has zero points and he's not really impacting the game

14:57 in terms of the tangible stat line, he still brings those kind of smaller things that can go a long

15:02 way towards really pushing across a forward group that's still really in transition and has a lot of

15:09 overhaul on it. So as a whole, I think he's been solid. And I think what has stood out to me is

15:13 just his ability to bounce back and stuff. That's why I was kind of confused by him sitting the

15:18 third period on Saturday where yes, wasn't a great turnover neutral zone. Three minutes later has a

15:25 primary assist, like makes a smart play there. That's a pretty special player to go through a

15:31 setback, hit a wall, and then in the same game minutes later, bounce back, make the most of it,

15:36 have a short memory and capitalize. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, I agree. And I want to get into

15:41 your depth at center because obviously the Pavel Zaka news. But first, Connor, quick word from our

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16:26 So, uh, Pavel Zaka taken out in the first period. Uh, Montgomery said on Monday day to day. So they

16:37 don't quite know if he's going to be good to go against New Jersey on Wednesday, which is a

16:41 primetime game, by the way, TNT big game. That's a big stage. New Jersey is underperformed this

16:46 year. So it's a little, it could be a big game for them. Well, something there. Uh, but if Pavel

16:51 Zaka doesn't play, doesn't get to rub it in the faces of, um, New Jersey fans, which I think would

16:55 have been, would have been fun. Um, but if he's out, which again, if, if this is out and, and he

17:02 is in, um, or if this store, if this podcast comes out and he is announced in, which I don't know how

17:07 that would happen by the time this is out, but if that does happen, I think depth at center is still

17:12 an interesting conversation to have. Uh, but if Zaka is out guys like geeky, Frederick saw a little

17:19 time at center, uh, on Saturday. Um, I've seen some saying potentially like a Merkel off. I know

17:25 he had a five point night the other night. Don't quite know if they're there yet with him. Cause

17:30 if you're, if you're not happy with some of Patra's issues, uh, that's going to be a roller

17:36 coaster of an adventure. Uh, what do you think the Bruins do if, uh, if Zaka is out on Wednesday?

17:42 Yeah, I was going to say with Mark, you love, uh, that's not really an easy matchup to against

17:46 Jack Hughes and the way the devil's way I said, kind of underwhelming. So this year, but how

17:51 quick they are, how dynamic they can be. I wouldn't throw market up to the wolves there,

17:55 but obviously I think one situation is, uh, giving a watch for more time, which would help out.

18:01 But, uh, beyond that, uh, I do think a guy like he could step into a larger role there.

18:07 It's kind of been an interesting season for him where he's kind of been all over the lineup. He

18:11 was a guy that I think we expected as being a third line center going into the air, get shifted

18:16 to Wayne played pretty well with Patra and kind of that, I guess, de facto third line spot. But

18:21 then over the last couple of weeks, he's been more of a fourth line guy and I think he's been solid

18:25 in that spot, but still hasn't found a lot of consistency. Um, but I thought he was really

18:29 good actually in that, in that game against Arizona in the second and third period has over

18:34 17 minutes of ice time has the primary system, impossible next second goal, I believe. And I

18:39 think the one thing that's always stuck out to me about geeky is, um, he's not the biggest guy out

18:44 there. He's six three, but not like a, a power forward or anything like that, but he's always

18:48 seems to carry the puck in and around the net. And I think if he's, you know, getting more minutes

18:52 and it's with guys like posture knock or Jake to breast, we played quite a bit with, uh, in the

18:57 last game, he's bringing the puck down low, holding onto it. And you have guys that can finish

19:02 better. Maybe you can't get something out of it. I don't know if this is the situation where

19:06 I'm saying geeky needs to step into a larger role if soccer is back, but if you're looking for a

19:13 contingency plan for a couple of games a week or so, I think he can step into that spot and give

19:18 you a little bit more than maybe what you've seen so far. Yeah, I'm fine with Kiki stepping in.

19:22 And again, that's a guy that was sort of finding his footing, I think pre-injury, which hurt them

19:29 and hurt him, but I think getting him back in the lineup, um, and playing to get this in spot,

19:34 if soccer is out for any length of time, I think is a good thing. Um, Frederick's an interesting

19:38 one. I'm curious what they do there. Um, again, I like his game on the wing, but again, he came

19:44 up as a natural center. So you do wonder if there's anything there. Um, but yeah, I mean,

19:50 I, I would be happy. I agree with you. Merkuloff against the devils. Nah, but again,

19:56 Patra, like you've got the guy like let him cook. Try it. You know what I mean? Like I,

20:02 again, it's a big game. It's a big stage. These are points you want to have. I agree. We're

20:06 consistent on that, but if Zaka is going to be out, the guy with the offensive upside, similar

20:12 to a Zaka is Patra. So I would like Patra in there. Um, I think a lot of people would. Um,

20:18 and again, I think this is, this is one of Montgomery's first real big tests because,

20:24 you know, he was brought in as a guy who can win games, but also develop talent and having a guy

20:31 like Patra, who is, who has the upside that he does is the age that he is. I think it's important

20:37 that he handles this well. So I am curious to see how he handles this going forward, what his role

20:41 is, um, on Wednesday night, if Zaka is out of that game. Um, I will tell you though, uh, before

20:49 the game I got a Wednesday, I've got to be doing some HelloFresh, uh, which actually brings us

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22:25 show. So back to the show, yes. Your colleague at the Boston Globe, Kevin Paul Dupont, had a very

22:32 interesting column on Sunday about the lack of hitting, especially by the Bruins' back end. You

22:38 know, you're missing Derek Forbert right now. Lots has been made of Charlie McAvoy since his

22:42 four-game suspension after that hit on Oliver Ekman-Larsen. And I think it was in that dud of

22:48 a game against the Sabres on Thursday that I think one Bruin had a hit. One defenseman had one hit.

22:54 It was Lindholm. Had one hit. Everybody else, zero hits. And again, hitting's not everything.

23:01 Typically, when you're hitting someone, it means you do not have the puck. And the Bruins are a

23:04 puck possession team. You want to have the puck. So maybe being number one in hits is not something

23:08 you really want to be. But they don't have that edge. And they haven't, by the way, they have not

23:14 had that hit, you know, that physical edge in a long time. Even against the Panthers last season.

23:20 You know, they even went out, they went out, got Hathaway, they got Bertuzzi. Didn't really make

23:25 a heck of a lot of difference. And this year, you know, you had Lou Cheech. Now, that's a whole

23:30 'nother situation. So that's off the table. You know, and you know, forwards on the LTIR.

23:37 But I think they do need to be more physical. I know Montgomery at practice recently has been

23:43 kind of preaching that. But I agree with Kevin. They've got to be more physical on the back end.

23:48 And I think throughout the whole lineup. Yeah, I think definitely throughout the whole lineup.

23:51 I think there's a way to inject that physicality where I think when people hear the discourse

23:57 about, you know, physicality and grit, they automatically think it's like just dropping

24:01 the gloves or being the 2010-2011 Bruins. It's not the case anymore. You can't have a team like that.

24:06 That being said, you can inject physicality into the hallmarks and strengths of your game. And as,

24:12 you know, a key piece of your system. Like, I think you look at the Florida Panthers,

24:16 the Carolina Hurricanes, all these teams that go very far in the playoffs, suffocating for check,

24:22 they wear you down. They, you know, come in waves. They make you turn over the puck,

24:27 make bad decisions with the puck, you know, put you under duress night in, night out,

24:32 every single shift. And that can go a long way when you're playing in a seven-game series,

24:37 especially when, all right, you're the Bruins. Let's say you get past Florida, you got Carolina,

24:43 you got the Rangers, who I think have really upped their forward checking pressure.

24:47 So when you look at the forward check like that, when you look at the defense, and again,

24:51 it's not like you need guys that are just going to be pummeling guys, dropping the gloves,

24:56 what have you, but physicality in terms of, you know, pushing guys out of the great AIs,

25:00 you know, making it, making guys retrieving pucks, you know, second guess, or look over

25:05 their shoulder. It's things like that, that I think in today's NHL, when you talk about

25:10 physicality and hitting, it's a means to, it's part of the process, right? It's not a means to

25:16 an end of like, I'm going to beat the living shit out of you and just pummel you.

25:20 It's like Nicholas Cronwall just killing guys on the wall.

25:24 It is different how you can kind of identify it, but if it's a part of your system and a way to

25:32 wear teams down, make things, I think it's all comes down to the Bruins this year, have not done

25:37 enough to make things hotter on their opponents, right? Like it's something where it's over a

25:42 seven-game series, by game six or seven, you need that entire, you know, opposition, have quite a

25:47 few welts, have second guesses about, you know, retrieving pucks, making sound plays, you know,

25:53 it's all about, you know, I think the best way to describe the Stanley Cup playoffs, it's like

25:57 that Mike Tyson quote of everyone's got to play until they get punched in the mouth. Be the,

26:01 be the, be the team that lands that punch, right? And have guys second guessing, throwing them off

26:06 their game. And I think you're not seeing that enough in the Bruins so far. Again, you can tweak

26:10 that. You can think some of it's a mindset, like whether it's the personnel, whether it's just guys,

26:16 you know, adhering to that more, that needs to change more than just like, I think people view

26:21 physicality hitting as just a scene from slap shot or anything like that. There's a way to apply that

26:27 practically in today's NHL that you're just not seeing enough from the Bruins so far this year.

26:32 And you mentioned it, four check, A, that's the number one area where like, you don't have to

26:36 have the puck on, you do not have the puck on the four check, you're dumping it in, or, you know,

26:41 the other teams going back to break it out, being physical, that's like number one. And number two

26:45 is just in your own zone, hitting guys, making life difficult when guys try to get to interior ice,

26:51 you know, along, even along the perimeter, things that I know they play zone defense and all those

26:56 things, but guys in your zone, you know, stick to stick, step up and hit them. I mean, again,

27:00 it's not all like, you know, Johnny Boychuck laying guys out in open ice type stuff. It's just,

27:07 you know, physicality along the wall and things like that. I think make a big difference in the

27:12 long term, you know, and especially, especially in a playoff series where, you know, you you're

27:18 going against the same guys, you know, you want guys to think twice before cutting in or going to

27:24 the net or going to certain areas. And I agree, the Bruins have not been the ones punching teams

27:30 in the mouth, which is off brand for them. And it's been that way for a couple of years now,

27:34 where they've had it. So again, we go back to it's not like, you know, hey, the Bruins need

27:38 to bring Scott Stevens out of retirement and have them, you know, lining guys up left and right.

27:42 A lot of Scott Stevens has hits. If you go back and watch them, we're so egregiously dirty.

27:48 It's like when you play, have you played an NHL, like in the video game where it's like a three

27:55 stick arcade style and there's no interference. So you can just, you can build a guy who's like

27:59 six, nine, who just freaking trashes people. That was Scott Stevens. Like guys would be like

28:05 pass the puck turn and Stevens would just like, take them out within like, you know,

28:09 five seconds after passing the puck. It's like that, uh, that video, I think was what last week

28:14 where Hathaway hits Luke Hughes and smashes him into the board where everyone's like, Oh, geez.

28:18 Which like, yeah, tough hit. Like Scott seems to do 10 times that on like every shift. Like

28:23 it's a highly, it's like watching like a, a, a hall of fame safety in the NFL in like the seventies.

28:29 It's like, you have to highly real. It's not like, Oh man, you're like, Jesus Christ. Like

28:33 what the fuck was going on back then? Sean Taylor. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like John Taylor

28:39 dude. Like, would you like straight up, like drop guys in the pro bowl? It's like, guys,

28:43 bringing my family to Waikiki beach and now I have to go like, go, go get like a cat scan.

28:49 Like what are we doing here? But that's the thing. And like, that's gone. You know, you don't have

28:53 that anymore. Like Scott Stevens would like pull the gun on Luke Hughes or something, you know,

28:57 except along those lines. Uh, but yeah, I agree. I'd like to see that, uh, department of player

29:03 safety video. It's like, this is a fire. Like with the, with the, like the music in the background.

29:09 Um, but yeah, I, I agree. I think that, you know, again, it doesn't have, it's not the open ice

29:14 hits. It's not the hits that you and I like to tweet out. It's just, you know, pinning guys along

29:20 the wall and, and, and just doing that stuff, which, you know, shoulder to shoulder X's and O's

29:26 kind of hitting, you know, the, the good kind. Uh, so I think you need more of that. And they

29:31 had it at the beginning of the year, like that fourth line of Lauco, Luchich, Beecher did have

29:36 a little bit of that DNA, uh, at the beginning of the year. I know it's obviously been a while.

29:41 You don't have Luchich in the equation anymore, but you had some of that identity and it's fallen

29:46 off. You've looked at McAvoy, like since that hit on Oliver Ekman-Larsen, he's kind of seems to be

29:51 worried about getting another one of those hits. Now, again, I said it to you before, like that

29:55 hit was so weird and so dumb and so like went out of his way to do that, that I think, you know,

30:02 an O regular open ice shoulder to shoulder hit or shoulder to chest or something like that.

30:08 You know, but again, I don't know. I mean, it's just, I think he's, I think it's sort of just

30:13 one of those things where he's sort of scared to, you know, run a guy and then get a five or six

30:18 game or more suspension, which I get. But again, I go back to like that Ekman-Larsen hit was

30:23 like, that was intentional. I don't know. That wasn't just like a, you know, spur of the moment

30:28 thing that was just dumb. So I don't know. We'll see what happens. I'm curious to see if they end

30:34 up, if that identity shifts. I know, I think someone like practiced last week, Montgomery was

30:40 kind of screaming at guys, getting them to try to be tougher in front of the net, which he's right.

30:44 You do need to be tougher in front of your own net. It's crazy how that's the case, but you do

30:49 need to be tougher in front of your own net. Connor, what can people look forward to from you

30:53 over at the Globe and Boston.com? Yeah, we're going to have you covered throughout this season,

30:57 whether it's game recaps, features, columns, breakdowns, all that good stuff over there.

31:02 So please read all my stuff over there at Boston.com. And if you want to follow me on Twitter,

31:06 you can @ConnorRyan_93. Go do all that. That's Connor Ryan. I'm Evan Marinovsky. We're presented

31:13 by FanDuel and HelloFresh. You BrewersBeat listeners have a great rest of your week.

31:30 (upbeat music)

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