Worried about the Bruins injuries piling up? w/ Mick Colageo | Pucks with Haggs - video Dailymotion

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Evan Marinofsky joins the show today to discuss all things Bruins with Joe Haggerty including Jake Debrusk's role on this team and why his production is down so much from last year. Plus, Joe and Evan answer your mailbag questions!   This episode of the Pucks with Haggs Podcast is brought to you by Fanduel Sportsbook, the exclusive wagering parter of the CLNS Media NetworkRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! So, visit https://FanDuel.com/BOSTON and kick off the NFL season. FanDuel, Official Partner of the NFL. 21+ and present in MA. Hope is here. First online real money wager only. $5 pregame moneyline wager required. First onlinereal money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. GamblingHelpLineMa.org or call (800)-327-5050 for 24/7 support. Play it smart from the start! GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234.

Transcript

00:00 They might have a stretch where they can see Swayman kind of take on a number one goalie's

00:04 workload and see how he responds to that and see if he's able to do that and how he manages that.

00:09 So I think this might be this might be helpful as far as a window goes to open up to project

00:15 what he might look like if you did go with him as your number one and you did

00:20 change the way the goalie situation is after this season.

00:28 Welcome to another edition of the Pucks with Hags podcast. As always I'm your host Joe Haggerty.

00:33 You can find my stuff at joehaggerty.substack.com. Sign up for a premium membership. You get all of

00:39 my NHL and Bruins stuff sent directly to your inbox. I also file columns after every game

00:45 at the Boston Sports Journal. So go to bostonsportsjournal.com. Check out all my

00:49 thoughts and analysis on what I was watching the night before and that's absolutely what we will

00:54 talk about today. I have as my guest here Mick Colaggio. Mick, a long time friend and colleague.

01:00 Tell them tell everybody where they can find your stuff buddy.

01:02 Rink Rap Game Nights. I do a blog it's rinkrapmc.com and I link to it on Twitter and Facebook

01:10 @mickcolaggio if you can see that on the bottom left of my screen. That's how you spell it.

01:16 Mick like Jagger and C-O-L-A-G-E-O. And I'm also contributing a weekly weekend column to

01:22 bostonhockeynow.com and the I guess Money Power issue of the hockey news just came out

01:30 and I do the Bruins bits for those seasonal issues.

01:33 Good stuff Mick. Love it. Always check out his stuff guys. Let's also thank our sponsors

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02:31 All right. Couple of, I mean, you knew this road trip was going to be difficult for the Bruins.

02:41 Starting with that, uh, that game in Tampa, I think it was like five games in nine days or

02:48 something like that. Um, very, you know, against good teams against largely playoff caliber teams,

02:56 Colorado, uh, Arizona's around the playoff structure this year, Vegas, Tampa, obviously.

03:02 Uh, so you knew this was going to be a tough stretch. You kind of know at this time of year,

03:07 you also know, um, when you're playing a lot of games and not much, not many days,

03:12 this is when you start to see the injuries happen. This is when guys get hurt, when they're really

03:16 physically getting, uh, pushed and tested hard. Um, so, you know, what we've seen in the last

03:22 couple of games is the Bruins are gritting their way through, um, a tough stretch to at least get

03:29 points in these losses. Um, but they're also losing the war of attrition right now. Brandon

03:34 Carlo goes down on Monday night with an upper body injury. Um, last night, uh, against the

03:40 coyotes, they end up getting a point out of that game. Did not play great in that game. Um, I

03:46 thought they, you know, and they didn't play particularly great in Colorado either, but they

03:51 still managed to get points in both of those games. Um, but Lena, Saul Mark goes down in overtime,

03:56 uh, you know, look lower body looked like a groin the way he went down and the way he was stretching

04:02 out to try to make that save. And Matt Potter also gets hurt, looked like a shoulder when he was

04:06 trying to make a hit. Um, so, you know, there's a high concern level right now, I think just because

04:13 of the guys that are injured, uh, the stretch that they're in and they're really pushing themselves

04:19 hard now to get points. And I feel like this is when we start to see this team go into one of

04:25 those funks is when they're pushed this hard. And then all of a sudden we start to see them not

04:29 having anything in the tank and they need a lot in the tank to compete and win in the NHL. Um,

04:34 and I think we may be on the precipice of seeing another stretch like that, just based on all the

04:39 circumstances we're seeing here. Yeah. I don't think we're going to see them bad habit their

04:44 way into some lopsided losses, famous last words going into Vegas. But, um, I think that they, uh,

04:56 the game in Colorado, my impressions of that was, is that they were trying to play at a higher

05:02 temple because they knew that's how the avalanche play. So they were consciously trying to do

05:07 everything fast beyond, it was stepping all over the edge of their fastest. And as a result,

05:14 they were somewhat sloppy irrespective of anything Colorado did. Uh, it just seemed like they were

05:21 hurried about everything they did. It's just looked to me like there was a, a subconscious,

05:26 if not conscious effort for them to increase their temple beyond what they truly are. Um,

05:32 in the short minutes that I was able to see the end of last night's game, I could not believe

05:41 how many chances they left on the table. And I agree. I understand that both my Shan and most

05:49 recently Pasternak our league goal scores in, in the world. And they have a tendency to look like

06:00 they're not trying when things don't go the way they want them to go. Well, no, nothing will ever

06:06 look as much like that as Pasternak shootout attempt in Colorado, which was, I understand what

06:12 he was doing. He's trying to look nonchalant and sort of fake the goalie lull them into like opening

06:18 up the five hole and, you know, being concerned about everything else. And I get what he's doing,

06:23 but when you do something like that and it doesn't work, it looks horrible. It looks terrible.

06:29 That'll go down as like the worst shootout attempt that Pasternak will ever have in the history

06:34 of, of his NHL career, unless he does what Marcian didn't Philly that time and just misses the puck

06:41 and grace as he's going to try to shoot it. But, but you're right. I'm thinking, look,

06:47 especially pasta, he can look very nonchalant sometimes, or look like he's not, you know,

06:52 not, not giving it everything he's got when he's doing these things. And I think that is just like

06:59 sort of, you know, a fake or a, some kind of an attempt. I think that's what he's trying to do,

07:04 but it doesn't always work. And it looks bad when it doesn't work.

07:06 Yeah. It goes with the territory. I accept it. But man, is it hard on the eyes?

07:15 Felt like there was so many, and it was nice to see them bear down on a couple of those,

07:21 maybe to get out of there with two points, you know, but it just wasn't there. And I'm looking

07:27 at some of the minuses here as a result, it seems like a, you know, the work in this sells into a

07:32 corner where they can only score in power plays. And, and if you do that, then everybody comes up

07:37 with minuses. Even if you win, well, in this case, they didn't. Well, that's Mick that, that is what

07:44 we've seen when like they schedule starts to catch, catch up to them. And when they start

07:50 to struggle is they rely too much on the goalies. They get a little lax defensively and allow

07:56 odd man rushes and really good chances for the other team. They can't score five on five. They

08:02 have a hard time scoring five on five. They become much too reliant on the power play and on posture

08:07 and that can Marsha for everything that they're doing offensively. And like I said, I see that,

08:14 you know, I feel like I'm seeing that trend going in that direction again. And I think it's just a

08:21 vibe, you know, people, fans, I think don't understand or don't appreciate how hard the

08:27 travel is, how difficult it is to play a lot of games in a short amount of time. You know,

08:33 those pockets of the NHL schedule where it becomes really hard for them, how much that impacts what

08:39 we see on the ice, the level of play that they're able to bring. And especially a team like this,

08:43 where, you know, I wouldn't say they're super talented. And I think a lot of it is, you know,

08:48 work and effort and energy that they're putting into it. That's allowing them to win these games.

08:54 I don't think they're just like blowing teams away by sheer talent of what they're putting on the

08:58 ice. I think there's more to it than that. And when they can't bring all of that, I think it

09:02 really levels things off as far as the playing field goes and sometimes puts them at a disadvantage.

09:08 So like I give them credit for getting points in the last couple of games. And I think what you

09:14 said about Colorado is true. And I think that's natural. I think anytime you're going to play like

09:19 guy, a guy like Nathan McKinnon, you're going to up your speed game and you're going to feel like

09:24 you have to up the tempo and kind of match what he's doing. And, you know, when you watch Nathan

09:29 McKinnon out on the ice, the Boston Bruins are not going to be able to match what he's doing out

09:32 there. Like he's just, he had his good legs the other night when the Bruins were playing Colorado

09:37 and he was flying all over the place. - Sometimes he's coming straight at you.

09:41 He plays through the game. That's why he's such a joy to watch. McKinnon's a special player. He's

09:46 really fun. - He is. And he had the good stuff.

09:51 - And Ranton is a beast. - He is.

09:53 - He has like a modern Daniari Curry. - Yeah. I mean, they've got talent.

09:57 There's no question about it. You know, they're a playoff team and that was a tough game for them.

10:02 And the altitude plays into it as well. I think that's a challenge for them too.

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10:46 How high is your concern level? Just the injuries. Obviously, Allmark, they're going to miss

10:54 if he's out for a period of time, but they have Swayman. He can step up. I think he's ready to

11:01 handle more of a workload. The problem is if he's playing every game, you're going to start to see

11:06 the schedule wear down on him too. And I wonder how that's going to affect him. I think that's

11:11 going to be interesting to watch. And I actually think that's a good thing in some ways for the

11:15 Bruins that they might have a stretch where they can see Swayman kind of take on a number one

11:21 goalie's workload and see how he responds to that and see if he's able to do that and how he manages

11:26 that. So I think this might be helpful as far as a window goes to open up to project what he might

11:33 look like if you did go with him as your number one and you did change the way the goalie situation

11:39 is after this season. So that might be like a positive or something they can take some information

11:46 from over the next few weeks if indeed Allmark is banged up and can't play. And you're going to

11:53 expect he's legit injured if he's coming out of an overtime game and he had to be helped off the

11:58 ice. And the other one is Brandon Carlo. Workhorse, plays top four minutes, plays 20 minutes a night,

12:08 a warrior on the penalty kill. If he goes out and he's missing a long period of time,

12:14 all of a sudden you start to see the minutes go up for Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm

12:19 consistently. And it's not just 25 here, 26 there, then they're back down in the mid-20s or the

12:25 low-20s. You're seeing them consistently 25 to 30 minutes every night now with Carlo out. And

12:33 I think it's going to be like that until he comes back. And now, this is the other, and I've harped

12:39 on this a lot, you know, they're getting points and they're competing, but like they're riding

12:44 some of their horses really hard right now. Pasternak had like 27 minutes of ice time last

12:48 night. He was- - Yeah, now let's assume that four and a half of that was in overtime. Still.

12:54 - Still, that's a lot. You know, that's 23 minutes in regular age. - This is kind of a trend around

12:58 the league and it's been going on not as much with the Bruins until really recently, but maybe about

13:04 a month ago when the playoff picture became apparent post Thanksgiving, post American

13:11 Thanksgiving. And a lot of teams will play in these, their stars, their forwards, defensemen

13:20 like minutes or defensemen playoff game like minutes. And just going outside the box, it's

13:26 almost like the latest coaching trend that Patrick Wise ushered in the trend of pulling the goalie

13:32 before you get down to a minute and 15. And now we get coaches, I don't know who this first was

13:40 to really start going crazy like this, but the trend became obvious this year that everybody's

13:46 on this bandwagon where we all have to play our stars like we're a basketball team. And this is,

13:55 they can take it. We're not practicing that much. Get good rest. There'll be professionals.

13:59 It takes its toll. - Yeah. That's the concern is like,

14:05 you can do it, but like, is that going to affect how much they have in the tank down the stretch

14:11 going into the playoffs? I think so. I think you've got to be smart about managing the minutes.

14:16 And like that, obviously there's situations where you can let the horses go. Like, you know,

14:21 if you've got a game and you've got like three off days after that or something like that, or

14:25 you're heading into Christmas break in a couple of days and like, that's fine. Like I get that.

14:30 But when you're start doing this in the dog days of January and February,

14:35 you know, when guys are getting tired anyway, that's when I think my concern level goes up

14:41 about how much they're playing every single night, all of these players and how much they're working,

14:48 how hard they're working during trudging through the regular season,

14:52 vis-a-vis how much they're going to have when they get to the post season. So, you know,

14:57 of those injuries, Allmark, Patra, Carlo, which are you most concerned about? And just in general,

15:04 the injury situation, what do you make of it? - Well, I think the Carlo one mostly, and no

15:11 offense to Kevin Shattenkirk, but he's your next right shot. And he doesn't have the range

15:18 or the physicality to match up the way Carlo can against top six forwards. So unless you're

15:26 going to double shift Charlie McAvoy against all top six and play him five minutes in chunks,

15:36 which you're not going to do, because it's not the end of a playoff game, every night, all night,

15:41 then you're moving Watherspoon over to take shifts as a left shot playing right side, which

15:52 no coach in the 21st century likes to play that way. They might weave at even strength going into

16:01 the attacking zone to get the sticks inside for the slap shots, but they're always defending with

16:08 a stick outside. So this is how they play. Carlo, you know, some people don't care for his game

16:18 because, I don't know, maybe he leaves them wanting more, you know, maybe it's a Jim Kite thing,

16:24 I don't know. But I look at him and say, wow, what a perfect compliment on the right side to

16:31 Charlie McAvoy. If he goes out, that's a devastating injury to the Bruins. And so I'm

16:41 looking at what do you got to do? What can you do about this? What do you have coming back?

16:47 You don't have any physicality because you don't have Connick Lifton anymore.

16:50 Watherspoon, come bring some of that over from the left side.

16:57 Well, Jakob Zaborow, who still plays for the Providence Bruins, you had a recall here,

17:03 considering that he played some right side when he was in the NHL, he always left shot. So that's

17:12 another thing we got to look at here and figure out what are they thinking right now? What's the

17:18 depth? Is there going to be a depth move? Is it worth trying to get a guy who projects as a third

17:24 pairing player because he has physical attributes that might sub in for Carlo on a short term?

17:31 I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I think they need to get a defenseman anyway. So like,

17:37 if they could go out and get a defenseman, they should. But if you get a really where,

17:42 you know, Carlos got an injury history to, you know, like, I think you should have some kind

17:46 of insurance in case this happens again. I left shot, though. They do address this.

17:54 They need both. Like, that's my point being, if Carlo gets hurt, you know, you need to look

18:02 seriously at that either a left that can, you know, plays right a lot of the time or right.

18:07 Well, maybe let's get to the Waterspoon question. What do you think of his game?

18:11 I mean, you know, when you mentioned him, I did want to talk about him a little bit because I like

18:15 him. I think he's been pretty good by 21, 28 last night. He came up even.

18:20 And he's been and he's been playing 20 like he played 20 against Colorado to, I believe,

18:25 20 plus. So like, I like him and I think he's been OK. And I think he's a competitor and,

18:33 you know, he's not flashy, obviously, but I think he comes in and has been doing the job.

18:37 So is aggressive. Yes, that's good to see now. And do I think that guy is the answer to like

18:45 the issues that I've had with the back end? Probably not. But I think he's a good depth

18:51 player for them. And he's certainly somebody that has stepped in and, you know, I think showed them

18:57 something. And he certainly has earned Jim Montgomery's trust and the trust of the coaching

19:01 staff. I don't think there's any question about that. Just watch the placeholder for sure. Yeah.

19:06 And just watch him going to a position, even though he's a left shot, that's where he's going

19:11 to that's where he's going to defend. Yeah, let's decide to play Grizz there since Gris has moved

19:17 over in his career as well. You know that that that that's not out of the question, but I mean,

19:25 the way you are right now, you know, you're down to two stalwarts and and now you got to have Grizz

19:36 and Wotherspoon pick up the slack. And you've lost a guy that is hard to play against is a good in

19:44 the D zone is good around the net is good on the penalty kill when you were those were not your,

19:51 you know, particular strengths most of the season anyway. So I think that in general is also going

19:57 to continue to make it problematic for them when they're trying to close out games while he's out.

20:03 In addition, yeah, good point. Because you already don't have for Bart, who's a long stick on the

20:08 other side. We love that. By the way, when was the last time we had an update on forward?

20:13 It's been a while. No, it's an LTIR. And, you know, we'll see you when we see it. Yeah. Which

20:23 which I wonder about, you know, the fact that there's like nothing happening there. And there's

20:28 no updates and there's nothing. Well, this supposedly was a nagging injury from last year

20:34 that they were hoping they could play his way out of. And and then they decided that, no,

20:38 this is not happening. We're going to have to go get this thing fixed the right way.

20:42 And I guess that means time away from the rink. So. A lot of time away from the rink.

20:50 That may be a question to ask the next time I talk to Jim Montgomery, because I meant to do that

20:57 the last time they were here in Boston when we're a practice and I forgot to do it. But like,

21:02 I think everybody's maybe it's time for me to peruse the Providence Bruins.

21:07 Defense and see what we got for.

21:13 It would be interesting to see some more of his moral up. And I think, you know, it would be good

21:23 for him, I think, to throw him a bone and have him come up and play some games. I just having

21:31 watched him up last year with the Bruins, I don't think Jim Montgomery trusts him, unfortunately.

21:38 You know, I just think. You know, he he made a mistake behind the net right before Thanksgiving

21:45 against Florida last year where he kind of froze up with the puck, got it taken from him and turned

21:51 into a goal. And it really changed the fortunes of that game. And he didn't play again for three

21:56 or four months after that. And I think he just Montgomery just did not trust him to put him in

22:01 there. And once that happens, as you know, make that big that can that can become big trouble for

22:07 a player if the coaches don't, you know, trust you, don't want to use you. And so now he gets

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23:33 up seal of approval. Let's go to the Twitter question of the day, Mick. See if I can find it.

23:43 Here it is. This is from Ken Richard and we'll go. This ties into the news a little bit that

23:51 a David Pasternak was named an all star. We'll be going to All-Star Weekend in Toronto

23:58 coming up next month. And right now, Jeremy Swainman is at the towards the top of the fan

24:08 voting and they're going to vote in. I think it's eight skaters and four goalies to add to the team

24:13 beyond what the league picked. And it looks like Swainman will get in and could be a first time

24:19 all star based on the fan voting. He's in the top four. Just outside of the top four is Linus

24:26 Allmark. So before this injury happened, there actually could have been a possibility that both

24:32 Linus Allmark and Jeremy Swainman were named all stars and both going to NHL All-Star Weekend. And

24:40 you know, since you're such a historian fan of the game, Mick, I would ask you, do you ever remember

24:48 both goalies from a goalie tandem ever being all stars at the same time in the same season?

24:55 I don't. I don't think that's ever happened in NHL history.

24:58 Yeah. And in the tandem era, I mean, I think of the great tandems. I think of

25:03 Jokerman and Villamur in New York, Chevers and Johnston in Boston,

25:07 Chevers and Gilbert later when Chevers returned from the WHA. Edmonton had Fury and Moog

25:17 at the same time. Later, they had Fury and Ranford at the same time when Ranford was

25:24 was peaking as an oiler. Yeah. So. But all star game? No, it's always good. It's always a guy

25:36 who plays a ton of games. It's a Tony Esposito type. It's a Martin Brodeur type. Yep. You know,

25:42 so. So I think, you know, it's too bad this injury is happening now when it is for that reason,

25:48 too, because I thought it would have been really cool and interesting if both of those goalies

25:54 could have ended up making it in the fan voting and both of what would have gone to All-Star

25:58 Weekend. And it would have been, you know, Goalie Hug Central from the NHL. They would have hyped

26:05 up the goalie hugs like you wouldn't believe to have them as a part of NHL All-Star Weekend.

26:09 I hope it can still happen, but I don't know if it's going to happen now with this injury,

26:13 obviously. But that leads to this Twitter question or this Twitter statement, I should say,

26:19 this is from Ken Richard, @UM5Ken on Twitter. And this was a reaction when I mentioned something

26:26 about Swayman maybe making the NHL All-Star Weekend. The worst punishment a goalie can have

26:31 would be to play in an NHL All-Star Game. And, you know, this is true. I think Swayman would

26:38 have some fun with it, but those events are absolutely not made for the goaltenders,

26:43 aside from, I guess, Omar last year down in Florida showing off during the skills challenge,

26:48 showing off his puck handling and his ability to shoot pucks long distance down the ice.

26:54 Yeah, I agree. In general, I think Andrew Raycroft could tell a great story about that.

27:02 When the NHL went on lockout in 2004, he joined what was then known as the Original Stars Hockey

27:09 League, which was a bunch of guys who didn't want to travel to Europe to play in those leagues,

27:14 decided to play some, put some ice time together, play in small rinks for fans.

27:20 Like barnstorming kind of thing?

27:22 Well, Raycroft's in that and the scores of the games like 17 to 15 and crazy stuff like that. I

27:29 mean, you know, coming off NHL Rookie of the Year, this was his winter until he finally said,

27:35 all right, enough of this. He went to Finland, wound up being a backup, played a few games,

27:40 comes back without a contract because he's RFA, him and Nick Boynton together.

27:45 I remember that.

27:45 I think of the two youngest players of that era 20 years ago, who were impact ruins. When they

27:52 arrived in the NHL permanently, they were impact players to a high degree. Boynton was really the

27:59 number one defenseman. And neither guy had a contract when the Bruins botched their post-lockout

28:09 player gathering strategy because they didn't know that the rollback that the player that the

28:16 union had offered would be absorbed into the new deal by the NHL. And that allowed all the

28:21 Detroit's and Rangers of the world to keep their players. And the Bruins theory was scrambled.

28:28 And now they're like Super Bowl Sunday and you're in the grocery store looking for stuff at 630 at

28:34 night and there's nothing on the shelves.

28:37 That was the very end of the Syndon O'Connell era. That was like,

28:42 you know, one of the last chapters of that.

28:45 It was the beginning of the end of the OC. Yeah, because now what happens is, is you've got a

28:54 situation here where OC has to tell Raycroft and Boynton, "Look, I want to give you contracts,

29:02 but I can't do anything right now. I can't. We got a salary cap and I have to see how much

29:08 money I have left. So these guys don't really have a good training camp."

29:12 Their careers were never the same. They were both thrown off the rails by this and a career

29:19 impact. It was tragic, both cases.

29:23 It was. It ended up happy ending for the Bruins, obviously, with Raycroft

29:29 because they were able to turn that into Tucker Rask.

29:32 Then that turned into a deal that helped. One of the deals that had helped set them up for

29:40 the next 10 to 15 years.

29:41 Boynton became Paul Mara, who became Aaron Ward, who became Derek Morris,

29:47 who became Dennis Seidenberg.

29:51 Yes, there was a long wait for the payoff on that one, but it eventually got there.

29:56 Admittedly, he broke a promise to Derek Morris that he wouldn't trade him when he got him.

30:02 He wanted to make sure that Z had the right shutdown partner.

30:09 Yep. That helped them win the Cup.

30:12 That was one of the turning points in that Stanley Cup run, was Chara and

30:19 Seidenberg getting together as a pairing.

30:21 Mick, anything else on your mind as you've watched this team the last week or so

30:28 that you want to throw out there? Anything you've observed? Anything of interest?

30:33 Aside from, I would just say, it's nice over the last stretch of a few games.

30:40 It's interesting, they're starting to get into a rhythm of rotating guys on the fourth line and

30:46 having a bunch of pieces that are coming in and out. This is actually the first time I've really

30:52 seen Jesper Bokvist, and I'm not just saying this because he scored a goal last night.

30:57 I felt like the last few times he had played, you noticed him, he'd been an impactful player.

31:02 He looked like a good fit on the fourth line. He looks like it's finally taking for him

31:07 with the Bruins in this latest stint for them.

31:10 Tremendous speed. But now, unlike the very beginning of the season, he's putting it to use.

31:17 He's become a good disruptor. He's using his speed to break up, to forecheck, to interrupt,

31:26 to disrupt flow of other teams. He's gotten to get a pro game assembled there. Nice to see the

31:33 puck go in for him. So now, he feels like he's playing both sides and he's contributing. So,

31:40 good for him. It adds another player that they had put value to in the offseason, decided,

31:48 "Hey, let's check this guy out." And right now, from what looked like, "Well, I don't know why

31:54 they're bothering getting that on," to suddenly, he's probably the best of that bunch. So, I want

32:05 more Geeky, more Freddie. I want to see more minutes from those guys. We started out by

32:14 talking about how the minutes are going up crazy high. Geeky is the second leading scorer, Mick,

32:23 on the Bruins this month, right behind Pasternak. I agree. And he only played 13 or 14 minutes last

32:30 night. I agree. 14, 49, yeah. And that includes 342 on the power play. It doesn't kill penalties.

32:37 So, he is playing 10 minutes at even strength in this hockey game. Why? Why aren't we seeing more

32:47 Geeky? Yep, I agree. I think that's a good point. And I was surprised, actually, when I looked at

32:53 the minutes, because he finished with two assists last night. He's heavily involved in some good

32:58 plays for the Bruins. I thought he played well. I didn't see any injury issues while he wasn't

33:04 playing. So, I think 13 minutes in an overtime game, 13 plus minutes just isn't enough ice time

33:10 for him, especially if he's playing in a prominent role where he's centering a couple of big-time

33:16 players, or he's centering in a top-six fashion. He should be playing a little bit more.

33:23 Freddie played 14, 14, 42 seconds, in which he was short-handed.

33:28 You're talking about Freddie? Yeah, now I'm going. He was also in the box.

33:32 He's got like 13 and a half. He was in the box for five minutes, though. So, that probably factored

33:38 into it a little bit for him. Yeah, but 14, 14, I like to see him more on 17. Geeky, I don't get

33:48 10 minutes a game even straight. I don't get that one. I want more geeky plays.

33:53 More geeky, maybe a little less pasta. You don't have to play him 27 minutes.

34:00 I don't want pasta to get tired mentally when it's time to win the game.

34:05 Yeah, no, I don't. Put it this way. I don't want them to be paying a price in April and May,

34:15 price coming due in April and May, for stuff that they did in January and February to grind

34:21 out a point in Mullet Arena on a Tuesday night in Arizona. You know what I mean?

34:26 I don't feel like getting that point last night was of that vital importance that you're going to,

34:33 I just think in general, he needs, Jim Montgomery needs to find a way to trust the fourth line to

34:40 play that more. You know? MR. MCMANUS Well it's making you wonder also if some of this is

34:47 driven by their cap hits. MR. STOLAR So the amount of money they're making you're saying?

34:56 MR. MCMANUS Yeah. MR. STOLAR Yeah maybe. But that's not going to help them come playoff time.

35:02 MR. MCMANUS The correlation is unavoidable. But it also, it makes you wonder how many voices are in

35:10 the room and saying what. MR. STOLAR Yeah. Yep. But in general, I would like to see

35:16 others playing more minutes to take the load off of some of the players that are playing too much

35:24 right now. And I think it's more difficult to do on the back end right now because of the

35:29 circumstance, because of Carlo getting injured. But I think up front, I think you should not be

35:35 playing Marchand and Pasternak over 20 minutes every single night. And especially you shouldn't

35:41 be getting up into the 25, 27 range with Pasternak in any of these situations. MR. MCMANUS Half the

35:46 game you get Pasternak on right wing. MR. STOLAR Yeah. I think that's asking for a little money.

35:52 MR. MCMANUS That's not the best version of Pasternak. MR. STOLAR Maybe he was out there the

35:53 entire overtime. Like who knows? But Mick, thank you very much for playing Hurd today. Mick's got

36:00 a little bit of a comment. MR. MCMANUS Speaking of playing Hurd, I just want to say that,

36:04 and I didn't get this out earlier, but Linus, when he went down, the first thing I thought

36:09 of was the injury at the end of the regular season last year. I thought it was the same one.

36:14 I'm wondering if this is the same one. And I'm wondering if this is going to

36:18 haunt him through his career. Because it looked like he was like, the puck's going right,

36:24 the puck's going left. No, it's going right. And it's like in the midst of all of that,

36:28 as he's going into the A, there's an internal strain somewhere up there that there's something

36:34 that got ripped up. And this time it seemed worse. So I expect this not to be, oh, day to day, and,

36:43 oh, here we go again, like the playoffs. No, I think this is going to be, he's going to be out

36:47 here. MR. STOLAR Yeah. And I think, you know, he should be if they need him to rest. And I think

36:52 goaltending, like I said before, I think that's a situation or an area where they can afford

36:58 the injury. They're going to miss him, obviously. But I think it allows them an opportunity to look

37:02 at Swayman in a little bit of a different perspective and a little bit of a different role

37:06 and make some evaluations. You know, contract time is coming up for him. There had been some

37:14 hubbub about a potential extension coming for him at some point during the season. And I think this

37:22 just allows the Bruins to get more information and to get a better read on how he would react

37:28 to having a much bigger workload and being more of a traditional number one.

37:33 I think he's ready for it. And I think he could run with the ball if it's given to him.

37:40 And I think this could be the last sort of push for him to really sort of take over this situation

37:45 a little bit more and have more ownership of it, you know, next season and beyond. And I think

37:51 that's a good thing. Like, I think this creates an opportunity for him where he could really

37:55 flourish. And it could turn into what I've talked a lot about with him is hoping he gets a chance to

38:02 be, you know, the starting goalie game one of the playoffs, because I think he's starting to earn it

38:06 with the things that he's doing and the way that he's playing. And also being voted into

38:11 NHL All-Star weekend would play into that as well. I think the respect that he's getting around the

38:16 league, that he's getting from fans, his profile, all this stuff is going up. And I think this might

38:21 be a stretch here where he could earn some of that more himself by the way that he plays. But that we

38:27 will talk and closely track over the next few weeks. We'll see how the Bruins do with these

38:31 injuries. I want to thank Mick for joining us today, playing hurt as I said. Always appreciate

38:38 it. I also want to thank our sponsors. FanDuel Sportsbook, get $150 in bonus bets with any

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39:02 pop them in the micro, leave the plastic on, the steam does the rest. Head to factormeals.com/hags50

39:09 and use code hags50 to get 50% off of your first box. Mick Colaggio, thank you very much for joining

39:15 us today. I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better my friend. I am, thank you very much.

39:20 Very good. All right, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you at the rink.

39:29 [Music]

Worried about the Bruins injuries piling up? w/ Mick Colageo | Pucks with Haggs

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