Bruins Mailbag Heading into All-Star Break | Pucks With Haggs

Name: Bruins Mailbag Heading into All-Star Break | Pucks With Haggs
Uploaded: 2024-01-29T15:44:14+00:00
Duration: 42 min 43 s
Channel: CLNS Media Sports Network

CLNS Media Sports Network

2 years ago

In today's episode of Pucks With Haggs, Joe Haggerty hosts a solo Bruins Mailbag show as the team heads into the All-Star break. The Bruins, boasting an impressive run with six victories in their last eight games, lead the league with a stellar record of 31-9-9.

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00:00 You know, Lena Selmark I don't think is going to get moved, but who knows if a team wants to severely overpay for a goalie, maybe it could do that too.

00:06 Although I think that's something the Bruins definitely don't want to mess with and don't want to do.

00:10 But I'm just saying that, you know, there's a lot of great options for them if they avoid the temptation of chasing after the big shiny object

00:18 and they just get the smaller items in the clearance rack that are actually going to help this team.

00:24 And that's a good position to be in if you're Don Sweeney.

00:26 Welcome to another episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast.

00:35 As always, I'm your host Joe Hagerty.

00:37 You can find my work at joehagerty.substack.com.

00:42 Sign up for a premium membership and you'll get all of my Bruins and NHL content sent straight directly to your inbox via the Pucks with Hags newsletter.

00:51 Lots of good stuff there.

00:53 You can also find my work at bostonsportsjournal.com.

00:56 I file a column after every single Boston Bruins game.

00:59 There's always some good insight, good analysis going on right there.

01:03 So check that out as well.

01:05 Great stuff for all the sports, whether it's Bedard and Giardi with the Patriots, awesome Celtics and Red Sox coverage.

01:12 We got all the bases covered for you there.

01:14 So check out bostonsportsjournal.com.

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02:34 All right. Thank you, FanDuel Sportsbook.

02:36 Okay, this is the 59th episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast.

02:40 I am flying solo today.

02:41 We are going to do a mailbag episode.

02:44 I will get you quickly up to date with the latest and greatest news.

02:50 The Bruins won 6-2 over the Flyers on Saturday afternoon.

02:54 They go into the All-Star break 31-9-9.

02:57 They are the first team in the NHL to hit the 70-point mark this season.

03:02 They did that on Saturday afternoon with the win.

03:05 Really impressive. They kind of sleptwalk through the first seven or eight minutes.

03:08 And then all of a sudden, Pasta scored a goal in the first period, and they just went nuts.

03:12 They ended up going up 5-0, kind of hit coast after that, ended up winning 6-2.

03:18 7-1-2 in their last ten games going into the break.

03:22 Well ahead in the Atlantic Division.

03:24 Well ahead in the Eastern Conference.

03:27 Battling with teams like Vancouver and Winnipeg for supremacy

03:33 as far as the number one seed in the entire NHL goes.

03:38 And really, since the holiday break, since Christmas,

03:41 I think the Bruins have been playing their best hockey of the season.

03:45 Hit a higher gear offensively, where they're getting more depth and more scoring from more different places.

03:53 Obviously, Pasternak had a couple of goals today, but Van Riemsdyk scores,

03:58 Danton Heinen scores, you saw a few other players get involved.

04:03 Hampus Lindholm was a plus-five in the game today.

04:06 You know, he bounced back from a couple games ago when he had a bad pinch in the third period

04:11 that helped cost them a game.

04:13 And overall, in the month of January, I think Hampus Lindholm has been his best month this season.

04:17 So his game is turning in the right direction.

04:21 Linus Allmark was outstanding early in the game when the Bruins just didn't have it before they started scoring.

04:26 So he goes into the break feeling good about his game as well.

04:29 Jeremy Swaman, obviously his play speaks for itself

04:33 going into the NHL All-Star Weekend along with David Pasternak and Jim Montgomery.

04:40 Hard to find a lot of fault with what's going on with the Boston Bruins right now.

04:43 They're kind of in that "everything is awesome" sort of mode with the way that they're playing right now.

04:49 Just winning, piling up points, basically sustaining the lead that they had and improving on it.

04:57 I mean, they were, what, 14-1-3 back in November.

05:04 And I think everybody agreed that they weren't playing like a team that had that gaudy of a record.

05:09 They're actually playing at the level where they could have a record like that.

05:13 And they're playing at a level that befits a team that could win the President's Trophy.

05:17 Wouldn't that be amazing if that happens two years in a row for this Boston Bruins team?

05:22 And they do it the year after Patrice Bergeron and David Creechie retired.

05:26 So just a lot of positives with the way they finished up strong going into that All-Star Weekend,

05:33 All-Star Break Weekend, with wins over Ottawa and Philly on the road to finish it off.

05:39 And the way that they closed it out today was impressive to me.

05:42 You know, a Saturday afternoon matinee in Philly, that could have been the kind of game that a team that is in prime spot as far as the playoffs go,

05:52 they could have written it off and started thinking about catching their flights to the Bahamas or wherever else they're going.

05:58 Or Pastranak could have started thinking about what he's going to do in Toronto at NHL All-Star Weekend.

06:03 And it could have really been one of those instances where they just weren't thinking at all about what was happening on the ice and staying in the present.

06:10 Instead, Pastranak leads the way. Everybody else follows.

06:13 Pavel Zaka was outstanding in that game as well. Zaka, JVR, and Pastranak were all playing together, and they were excellent as a line.

06:22 So, you know, a lot of really impressive things that you really can't be too critical of what's going on there.

06:28 The only interesting notes. And maybe down notes coming out of that game were just the players that couldn't play in that game.

06:38 Jake DeBrusque just generally banged up, nothing specific, probably, you know, he's played a lot,

06:46 so he probably needed to give him an extra day before the NHL All-Star break.

06:52 It would it would help him. So he didn't play. Matt Potra was scratched.

06:56 That was, you know, par normal right now. I think he's going to sit and play and sort of be back and forth and they're not going to overtax him physically.

07:04 But the one that's really a concern is Derek Forbort did not play Saturday against Philly,

07:12 may have aggravated what was bothering him and what caused him to miss like a couple of months.

07:18 In an injury, they were trying to rest and let calm down so he could play again and play at a high level.

07:24 The fact that he's battling with an injury like this in the middle of the season and it's not really getting better and it's getting aggravated is a warning sign and it's trouble.

07:32 And it continues to make me believe that they need another defenseman,

07:36 another big, strong, nasty defenseman to add to the mix of what they already have.

07:41 And I say this with full acknowledgement, that Brandon Carlo is playing a little nastier on defense.

07:48 He's playing with a little more of an attitude. He's playing a little more surly.

07:52 He's really playing along with his size and his shutdown role.

07:57 He's playing with the kind of style and the kind of nastiness that can make him go to the next level.

08:04 Being a shutdown D, being a stay at home D, being a guy that prides himself on blocking shots, killing penalties, stopping plays, all that stuff.

08:12 If he adds a little mean at six foot five, 220 pounds or whatever he is around the net, that makes him even more valuable to the Boston Bruins.

08:23 And, you know, who he is in the team, the role that he plays and his role and his importance in the playoffs.

08:30 It lessens a little bit their need to go out and get a guy like that, but I think given four boards general question marks physically right now with his health,

08:38 I think that just adds to you having to add another player like that can kill penalties, block shots, be a six foot four, six foot five deterrence.

08:47 Maybe the guy that drops the gloves a little bit, certainly a guy that the other team is going to have to worry about when they try to go to your net.

08:53 I think they need another defensive element like that.

08:55 You know, Jacob Middleton's a name that I know has been thrown around a lot and he got moved a couple of years ago and he would have been a nice fit for the Bruins.

09:01 Radko Goudis is another name you've heard a little bit.

09:04 And it's going to be interesting to see what Anaheim does as far as trades go and as far as potentially moving anybody.

09:11 But somebody in that mold, I think when push comes to shove with the trade deadline, they're going to have to find somebody like that.

09:18 But that's that's about it as to what's going on right now.

09:21 The Bruins are scattering to the four corners of the world, most of them going on break.

09:27 Patrick Brown got the lucky winning lottery ticket.

09:30 He got called up because of the injuries right before the NHL All-Star break.

09:33 So I believe he does not have to go to Providence with the NHL All-Star break and he'll get to enjoy his vacation along with everybody else.

09:42 But they're going away. The Bruins will not be practicing for, you know, the next the next short term while they get ready for the NHL All-Star game.

09:53 And everybody's going to start focusing on Toronto and the NHL All-Star weekend and the new skills challenge.

09:59 And, you know, it'll it'll it'll be fun because I think David Pasternak and Jeremy Swainman are very charismatic, likable, like fun loving players.

10:08 I think that's something the the media will pick up on while they're there.

10:12 And this really could be maybe Jeremy Swainman's coming out party as far as the entire league goes as to, you know, what kind of a marketable player he can be.

10:21 What kind of a star player he can be. How much he's a guy that I think his profile is going to get raised nationally as a really like fun loving goalie.

10:31 That's good and is a kind of a good soundbite and certainly an interesting story coming from Alaska.

10:37 And I think this really could be one of those weekends that we look back on as people view Jeremy Swainman a little bit differently coming out of NHL All-Star weekend as they did going in.

10:47 You know, he has the potential, I think, to to sort of ride that hype train a little bit.

10:52 Now, the NHL All-Star weekends are never built for goalies.

10:55 It's never a goalie showcase. They kind of take a backseat to everything and just hanging on for dear life for the most part.

11:01 But I think he's the kind of guy that may be able to, you know, maximize this experience as he does with everything.

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11:47 All right. So this is a mailbag episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast.

11:51 We're going to answer some of your questions, as always, hit my Twitter account, Hacks with Hags, and use the hashtag Pucks with Hags.

12:00 If you ever want to ask me a question or have it in the mailbag, because I do these maybe once a month or so,

12:07 I want to answer all your questions. Sometimes I grab Facebook comments that I think would be cool questions.

12:12 I certainly get plenty of Facebook on my Facebook fan page, which is also Pucks with Hags.

12:17 I get longer form questions that I'll also include in here.

12:21 So let's start off with the first one. This is from Ryan J7800 on Twitter.

12:27 Could you see Sweeney trading Patra for Elias Lindholm?

12:30 Swayman is obviously going to get a massive contract, 6.5 plus AAV.

12:35 This offseason, will it be with the Bruins or another team?

12:38 Swayman is not going to go to another team. He is still a restricted free agent.

12:43 I think he is going to get signed. I think he is going to get paid and he's going to get the money that he's looking for.

12:48 And I think somewhere in the five to six range, I think is is definitely realistic.

12:55 And I think it's definitely somewhere in that neighborhood, maybe a little bit more.

13:00 I don't know if it's going to be too much more than that, given this is just, you know,

13:03 this is one season that he's having right now and there's still a limit as to how many games he's going to play with Linus Elmark around.

13:09 You know, he's not going to hit 60 plus games that he's going to play this season.

13:15 So there's still going to be some things I think he's going to have to prove as far as sustaining it over a long period of time,

13:22 proving that he can do it with everything on his shoulders, which it would be much more on his shoulders

13:27 if he had a guy like Brandon Bussey backing him up instead of Linus Elmark sharing the workload with him.

13:32 So I think all these things will play into it being a little less than you would expect.

13:39 He's not going to get paid like, you know, a Vezina Trophy winning franchise goalie that's been playing 65 games a season.

13:46 That's just not going to happen because he doesn't have that resume yet.

13:48 But he will obviously is going to get as much as he can and he should.

13:53 I think he realized it's now a business after going through arbitration and that he should get what his worth is.

13:59 And I think he will get it. And I think it's going to be with the Bruins.

14:02 I don't think they want him to go anywhere. And I don't think he wants to go anywhere.

14:05 Just listen to how much he loves being a part of the team as much as he knows it's a business as well.

14:09 I think they'll figure it out when push comes to shove.

14:14 Could I see Tweeny trading Potcher for Elias Lindholm?

14:18 No. I don't think they need Elias Lindholm. Watch this team right now.

14:24 Do you really feel like they need a center? Charlie coils on a pace for like 30 goals, 65 points.

14:31 They put it this way. Do I think they need a top line center?

14:34 No, I don't think they need a number one C because of the way Charlie Coil has played the way he stepped in.

14:42 He's putting up Bergeron ask numbers offensively in a number one center role.

14:47 He's playing in all situations. He's doing it a little differently than Batoris.

14:50 Pretty treats Bergeron did, but he's doing it in a much more consistent way than he ever had before.

14:56 And is a huge factor in everything that's gone down for the Bruins this season, how good they've been.

15:02 And I know I'm beginning to get tired of hearing Elias Lindholm's name because I think we might have a better player in Charlie Coil here right now, the way that he's playing.

15:12 And I just don't think that's a need. I think one thing they do need, and we'll get to it a little bit later on, is they they certainly might need a center,

15:23 maybe some kind of a bottom six center, fourth line center type guy that can win faceoffs.

15:28 They need somebody that can come in here and be a guy that can go in and get defensive zone draws when you need to win the puck and get it out of the zone,

15:37 win an offensive zone faceoff when it's desperation time and you're trying to score a goal at the end of games.

15:45 Somebody, you know, Patrice Bergeron taking 28 faceoffs a game out there to take draws in all situations,

15:52 then he would go hop off the boards when he got a chance and the other center would go on.

15:56 That kind of a specialist sort of thing. They need that kind of a guy.

16:02 And I don't necessarily think that means it's the number one center. It's Elias Lindholm.

16:06 I think they can find somebody else that's a lot cheaper than that to play that kind of role and be that kind of guy.

16:13 But I just at this point, and I've been very consistent about this this year.

16:18 I don't see Elias Lindholm is a big time need on this team as much as I thought he was at the beginning of the year.

16:25 I don't see needing a number one center given the way that Charlie Coyle is played.

16:30 I just don't think it's it's necessary. I don't think it's something they have to have.

16:36 I don't think it's you know, they prove they can win without it.

16:39 I mean, obviously it's a different animal come playoff time, but I think what you see is a team that needs another defenseman,

16:47 that needs another frontline guy, that needs another guy that could be a mean, nasty shutdown guy and play top four minutes and,

16:56 you know, be somebody that other teams have to worry about in the D zone come playoff time and are afraid to, you know, go into a dark alley with that kind of a guy.

17:05 I think the Bruins could use one of those. And Dmitry Orlov was kind of one of those guys while also having the puck moving aspect of it last year.

17:13 But he, you know, I remember him taking out Kevin Miller in the playoffs a few years back when the Bruins and Capitals played with a massive hit in the neutral zone.

17:22 Clean, open ice hit where he just demolished Kevin Miller. You need somebody like that.

17:28 You know, you need somebody that's going to put the fear in the other team and is a good enough defenseman that they can play 20 plus minutes a night.

17:35 That's kind of a tall order as far as checking all those boxes.

17:39 But I think it's also a more doable trade from an asset perspective, from an execution perspective of actually getting the player,

17:48 than trying to get a guy like Elias Lindholm that is going to be probably the top center on the market,

17:54 the most expensive piece you could go out and get from a seller like Calgary, and somebody that some other team is going to massively overpay for.

18:02 I'm just not sure also that Elias Lindholm would factor into Bruins future plans beyond this season.

18:08 And I think if they're going to bring somebody in and they're going to give up good assets for them,

18:12 I think it's somebody that they're going to want beyond this current season.

18:16 It's just not going to be a stopgap thing. So I know I'm not going to trade a future top six,

18:24 top nine center in Matt Potra that's going to be able to do the job for you for a long time and be an affordable asset and be a very good player for you that you draft and developed for a guy like Lindholm that you don't necessarily need.

18:36 I just I don't think the Bruins are in such a good place right now.

18:40 Don't trade future assets anymore, especially this season, to try to go all in continuously every single year.

18:47 You've got to replenish sometimes. I think this is a year that even though they're in the number one spot, even though it looks like the East is kind of wide open,

18:54 I think they need to avoid that temptation to trade their top prospects, to trade future first round picks, second round picks for assets they don't necessarily need.

19:04 You went overall in last year, didn't work. I think you should ride the team that you have, fix a couple of areas, specific spots that aren't going to be huge cost additions.

19:17 Fourth line guy, top four defenseman that's more of a stay at home guy that's going to help you in the playoffs.

19:23 Those kind of things aren't going to cost you as much as Elias Lindholm would.

19:28 All right, let's get to the next one. And this is a good throwback one.

19:32 I like this. In the Bruins' centennial year, I like us walking down memory lane a little bit here.

19:38 Joe Thornton having, and this is a little bit dated, this came out of my Facebook inbox, so this might have been sent a few weeks ago.

19:45 Joe Thornton having his number retired by San Jose brings back memories of what I thought was the stupidest trade in NHL history.

19:52 As I recall, Mike O'Connell was the GM. Yes, you recall correctly.

19:56 I remember the B's giving up their young superstar. It was an out of nowhere trade.

20:00 I recall how absurd the minimal value of the B's got back was.

20:04 As one league GM put it, when you trade a young talent like that, you might want to let the rest of the league know and see who gives you the best trade package.

20:11 Mike O'Connell was an absolute disaster as a general manager.

20:15 And that's from Kevin Cassidy via the Facebook fan page. First of all, I like the old school rant.

20:24 It brings me back to my early days covering the team when everybody was just like going after Harrison and Mike O'Connell and,

20:31 you know, killing them for being too cheap at times to get the players that the Bruins needed.

20:37 And even after that wasn't the case anymore and they were spent into the cap, the Bruins still had that reputation.

20:43 So it takes you back to your younger days as somebody around the Bruins, even before I covered the team, sort of what the typical fangripe was for that team.

20:53 So thank you, Kevin. Thank you for walking us down memory lane.

20:57 I agree. I think first of all, I think in hindsight, it was the right move.

21:05 Trading Joe Thornton, they decided when they traded Joe Thornton that they were going to build around Patrice Bergeron as their franchise center, as their number one guy.

21:14 They believed in him as a young player.

21:16 They felt like he was the guy that they wanted to build around, that they could win a Stanley Cup with him as their franchise center.

21:23 As it turns out, they were correct. Now, neither one was here in a, you know, in their supervisory managerial role.

21:31 Obviously, Harrison is still an advisor, but neither one of them was in their front office role when they won the Cup and when they finally that decision bore fruit.

21:42 But it was the right decision, and Joe Thornton never won a Cup with anybody.

21:47 So they were proven right as far as that goes.

21:50 The problem is, and I had the same problem with the Tyler Sagan trade.

21:54 Problem is when you trade a high first round pick star type player that is, you know, got an all star reputation in the league or better.

22:06 Not only do you need to shop them around a little bit to get the best offer, you need to get first, second round picks.

22:13 You need to get high draft picks where you can draft your own players, decide who you want, target those players and bring them in.

22:21 And they didn't do that with the Joe Thornton trade.

22:24 They didn't do that with the Tyler Sagan trade.

22:26 They said they got prospects or NHL players that were already in the organization that they traded with no futures as far as draft picks go.

22:36 And as much as I love Marco Sturm and I cherish the Marco Sturm face while it was going on here in Boston, they didn't get enough from San Jose.

22:45 They should have shopped around to a few teams, saw what they could get for Joe Thornton, a guy that ended up winning the Hart Trophy that year and is a Hall of Fame player.

22:53 They could have gotten more and they should have gotten at least a first round pick or two for Joe Thornton.

22:57 Same thing. Absolutely. 100 percent without question for Tyler Sagan.

23:02 Yes, they got a decent player in Riley Smith that they ended up trading, you know, and they got some prospects, even though they didn't get the prospects they really wanted.

23:12 They got some prospects in that deal. Didn't necessarily pan out.

23:18 And that's why I think you've got to get your first round pick so you can get your scouts in there and you can make your own selections rather than picking players from another organization,

23:26 especially if you're holding on for certain players that you want.

23:30 Like Alex Chastain was a guy they really wanted from the Dallas Stars and they didn't get him in that trade.

23:35 I think Matt Fraser was his name, I think was the guy they got instead, who was a good AHL talent, but didn't translate to the NHL.

23:42 So if you make a trade like that, A, you got to make it known around the league and that can make it troublesome if word gets out that you're shopping a player.

23:51 So I understand sometimes why you want to do it quickly, but you got to at least shop them a little bit to make sure you're getting the best offer.

23:58 And you also got to get first round picks when it's like franchise type players like that.

24:03 What happened to Johnny Beecher? I thought he was doing pretty good as 4C. That's from Peter Larley on Twitter.

24:11 This is an interesting one. So Johnny Beecher got sent down a week ago or so, 10 days ago, 2 weeks ago.

24:21 Jesper Boquist got brought up. It kind of raised eyebrows that Boquist stuck around and he's been doing the job lately.

24:31 While Beecher went down to Providence, because Beecher had shown like he's a pretty good face-off guy.

24:35 He had shown that he could kill penalties. He popped in a couple of goals. He'd been decent.

24:42 But I think the problem became, well, it's twofold.

24:47 Jim Montgomery mentioned a few weeks ago how he wasn't playing the fourth line much because there were players that,

25:00 according to their numbers, according to everything that they have with their entire staff,

25:07 they keep track of when players, their play starts to drop off when they get up to certain amounts of minutes.

25:14 And I've got to believe that Johnny Beecher was one of those players.

25:17 When the minutes went up, the level of play went down and the endurance just wasn't there.

25:22 The cardio ability to maintain performance wasn't there when they got above 10 minutes,

25:28 when they got into the 11, 12, 13 minute range.

25:30 And this is probably part of the reason that Jacob Lauko was always stuck at eight or nine minutes.

25:34 And Oscar Steen was always stuck at eight or nine minutes because they had them with Beecher

25:38 and the three of them were not getting over 10 minutes of ice time.

25:41 And it was really starting to put a strain as far as the ice time goes on all the other players.

25:47 You know, Pasternak is playing sometimes 23, 24 minutes a night.

25:51 Brad Marchand at 35 years old going over 20 minutes of ice time a night.

25:55 Vizaca, Coyle, players like that really putting in a taxing amount of ice time,

26:03 especially in these dark days of January and February, where if you're riding your horses too hard now,

26:09 that's going to take juice out of their tank come playoff time in April, May, June.

26:13 So I think you got to be very careful about how hard you're riding some players as far as ice time goes right now.

26:21 And as we've seen since Boquist came up and they've sort of mixed around the third and fourth line

26:26 and taken pieces and mixed and matched and gotten really good results, actually,

26:31 you've seen Lauko go over 10 minutes like in that game against the game against Philly.

26:37 He was well over 10 minutes and Oscar Steen was well over 10 minutes and Boquist was well over 10 minutes.

26:42 And like all those guys, Dan Heinen, Trent Frederick.

26:45 So I think what you're seeing now is there's a little more balance and there's a little more of a trust to play the fourth line more that you're getting good performance out of it.

26:57 And I don't know that that was there with Beecher and I think it really started to affect them.

27:00 And I think that probably factored in to him going down to Providence as he wasn't quite ready to play 12 minutes a night at the NHL level.

27:10 With the speed, intensity and everything else, and they need to work him up to get to that point.

27:16 And, you know, that's me reading into the situation.

27:20 That's me reading from what Jim Montgomery said, and that's me reading the Bruins actions of what they've done.

27:26 Nobody word for word told me Johnny Beecher was sent down because X, Y and Z.

27:31 I'm just connecting all the dots here and, you know, coming up with the picture based on the information that we had.

27:39 And I, you know, I think it would may have been the right move.

27:44 Fourth line center is a really tough thing to be a rookie in the NHL and be a fourth line center.

27:50 I think you've got to be a smart player. You've got to be a player that the team's going to trust in key situations.

27:55 You've got to be experienced player to be able to deal with certain things when you're killing penalties and taking face offs.

28:01 And I'm just not sure that trust is there. This plays into them, I think, needing to trade for a fourth line veteran center that can win face offs.

28:10 And there's a little more comfortable in all these things and experience in all these areas.

28:14 And maybe that's going to be a need come trade deadline based on this move.

28:19 You know, I think still think Johnny Beecher has got a good future in front of him.

28:24 I think he could even be a third line center more than a fourth line center, just if he can up the offense a little bit.

28:29 But just based on his athleticism, based on his speed and size and the way he plays the game, I think he could project to eventually be in the top nine.

28:39 But I think he needs to still work on some things in Providence and a half a year in the NHL in Boston.

28:44 I think they kind of figured that out. So there's no shame in him going down.

28:48 I don't think people should be upset about it. I think it's just part of his development track and they're getting better play.

28:54 Let's face it out of Boquist right now. And I think it's helped strengthen the third and the fourth line making that move.

29:00 As we've seen them be able to play those lines more since they sent Beecher down since the Boquist has kind of taken over.

29:07 So I understand the fans love the prospects and you're going to ask questions.

29:13 You think a guy was playing well, why is he sent down? I just think there was some real reasons behind why they did it.

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30:40 All right. Remember when Bruins fans hated and this is Brandon Carlo they were referencing when his biggest issue was his defensive partner.

30:48 I like Krug and Grizz, but both are kind of bad in their own end. Grizz has slowed the last couple of years.

30:53 His skating was his biggest attribute. Now that is starting to disappear.

30:57 Krug was unbelievably talented offensively, but was never super fast and would get bodied easily.

31:02 I'd love to see Carlo get a guy like Jacob Middleton as a D partner.

31:08 I agree. I first of all, I sung I sang the praises of Brandon Carlo earlier.

31:14 I think he's playing more physical. He's playing nastier. He took a nasty puck to the face.

31:18 His cheek was all swollen after the game was over. He had a big cut, but he finished off his shift and he came back and finished the game.

31:26 After he was done checking to make sure all the chicklets were there and they got whatever bleeding was going on inside his mouth taken care of.

31:33 But I like him. I like Brandon Carlo a lot. I think he is a huge part of this team. I think he's a huge leader in that room.

31:40 I think he's really evolved into who and what he is. And I think he's more comfortable with who he is as an NHL player now than he's ever been in his career.

31:49 I think he's kind of reached that point of maturity and as an NHL player where he realizes he belongs and he realizes that, you know, he adds a lot of value and he can have a lot of impact in games when he plays a certain way.

32:03 And I think he's starting to understand the way the Bruins need him to play as far as being a little bit nastier a customer in the D zone and around the net.

32:11 And he's he gets that. And I think he understands that they're going to need that come playoff time.

32:16 I would love to see him play with a guy like Jacob Middleton. I think there's a bunch of defensemen that I would love to see him play with where they could just go out there and be a shutdown pair that just kick the crap out of the other team's skill players and just wear them down around the net and just bang bodies and get them out.

32:32 And I know you can't play the way Darian Hatcher used to killing people in front of the net and just being this massive dude that was just being a nasty.

32:40 But I still think you have to play that way to a degree. It's still hockey. If you're going to play defenseman, you still have to have a lot of that element.

32:47 And I think that helps them close out teams in the third period that helps them win one goal games. That's going to help them win in the playoffs is not only having Brandon Carlo be more of that guy, but bringing in somebody else, especially if Derek Forbert is a physical question mark.

33:04 So I do think, yes, you're on the right track with the defenseman that you like. I do think at times maybe Brandon Carlo has taken criticism that's probably been more appropriately aimed at the partners he was with because they would always put him with a smaller defenseman that moved the puck and a lot of the defensive stuff would fall on his shoulders.

33:26 And he would also kind of leave the offense to them and not really fill in as much and be the fifth attacker in that trailer and a guy that was looking to create offense.

33:38 He does that a little bit more now, and I think it's a nice balance that he has. So they should keep that going. It's tough. Matt Griswick's a tough. It's a tough example right now of where do you put him?

33:53 I've never been a fan of McAvoy and Griswick as a pairing. I just don't want to see Griswick. If McAvoy is going to get paired up against the other team's top players and paired up in tough defensive situations, Matt Griswick's not a guy I want to see in those kind of situations.

34:10 I think Carlo would be more effective if you put him with a bigger, stronger guy that was kind of mobile, too. But in a third pairing, do you put Matt Griswick with Derek Forbort? Potentially.

34:27 But I think also, you know, Witherspoon, I think, factors into all of this now. I think Parker Witherspoon has played himself into a role on this team. Could Parker Witherspoon be the guy that plays with Brandon Carlo and they become some kind of shutdown D? Maybe.

34:42 It's going to be interesting to see how this whole thing develops, and I think they're going to need some more time with Witherspoon to see what they really have.

34:49 And it's a good thing they've got a few weeks before the trade deadline because they can factor all this stuff in. But I do think regardless of how well Witherspoon plays and what's going on here, they need another defenseman and they're going to make that move at the deadline to get one.

35:04 Bruins need a center that can win a faceoff late in the game. They're horrible late in games. That's from Happy Hour Healy. We kind of already covered this one.

35:14 I think we have seen times where the Bruins have lost big faceoffs late in games. Part of the issue when they were giving up goals late in the third period to go to overtime was they were losing faceoffs in the D zone that Patrice Bergeron would win over the years.

35:29 And if Patrice Bergeron won the faceoff and they got the puck out of the zone, that would automatically already avoid the situation that they found themselves in because they lost the faceoff and because the puck was in their zone.

35:40 And that compounded the lack of personnel, lack of experienced personnel that they had protecting those one goal leads.

35:48 So I agree. I think that there are several guys out there you could go after like that that are fourth line types that are really good on faceoffs.

36:00 It's just a matter of targeting who you like, who's a good fit, who's on the market and going out and getting them.

36:06 But I think that, you know, I my opinion, I think the Bruins actually have an easy to do list at this trade deadline.

36:15 I don't think this is going to be difficult for them. They don't have to chase after big ticket items.

36:20 They're not going to have to give up a ton of stuff if they don't want to.

36:23 They can even trade some players if they want to and get some assets back, whether it's Matt Grizzley, maybe Jake Dubrusk, you know, Lena Selmark.

36:31 I don't think is going to get moved. But who knows if a team wants to severely overpay for a goalie, maybe you could do that, too.

36:37 Although I think that's something the Bruins definitely don't want to mess with and don't want to do.

36:41 But I'm just saying that, you know, there's a lot of great options for them if they avoid the temptation of chasing after the big, shiny object.

36:49 And they just get the smaller items in the clearance rack that are actually going to help this team.

36:55 And that's a good position to be in if you're Don Sweeney.

36:58 All right. Last question. They should have sold high on Omar in the offseason.

37:02 Now he's regressed, like most of us expected, and has a much lower value.

37:06 And that's from Joseph Isidoro on the Facebook fan page.

37:10 Do you really think Omar has a much lower value than he did before?

37:14 Played a great game in Philly today. They don't win that game if he's not on his game and outstanding early in the game.

37:20 His numbers are fine. I think it would save percentage, like 918, 917.

37:25 His goals against are like 2.8 range.

37:28 He's not playing at the Vezina level he did last year, but he's still like well above average and, you know, the highest quarter percentile of goalies around the NHL.

37:40 And once you win the Vezina trophy, that's always on your resume. It's not like it goes away.

37:44 He's still an all-star Vezina trophy winning goaltender.

37:47 The problem with Linus Elmark is the playoff thing now. There's two problems.

37:54 The playoff reputation is growing that he can't do it in the playoffs after the way he's performed the last couple of years.

37:59 And that's not going to change until he actually does it in the playoffs and, you know, proves people wrong.

38:05 And the endurance, the durability thing, the ability to, you know, play more than 50 games in a year and be effective.

38:12 I think there are question marks about him physically and mentally being able to, you know, carry a load that's more than 45 to 55 games or not even 55, 45 to 50 games.

38:23 You know, for him to be able to have to, you know, get up, could he get up into the 60-65 game range in a regular season and be a goalie that, you know, that team is going to pace 5 million a year for that's going to be the number one guys and have all that stuff be on their shoulders.

38:39 That's the stuff that's going to affect his value, not his performance this year. I think it's been perfectly fine.

38:44 If they decided to trade him, I'm sure they would find takers.

38:48 I think what the problem is, is the goalie trade market is never as good as you think it's going to be.

38:53 You never get big value for goalies around the league because everybody thinks they can pick up a goalie off, you know, in their organization.

39:00 If you put them in the right spot at the right time, they're going to perform for you.

39:04 The kind of the Aiden Hill phenomenon.

39:06 Everybody thinks they have an Aiden Hill or they can get an Aiden Hill pretty cheaply that could come in and do that if push came to shove rather than overpay for a guy like Linus Olmark.

39:15 Even though he's obviously got the credentials.

39:19 So.

39:21 I.

39:23 I differ and I disagree with the overall notion of this email and of this question.

39:30 I still think they're going to look to trade him in the summertime.

39:34 I think they'll, you know, they should get decent value for him.

39:39 But I think if they want to sign Jeremy Swainman, if they want to give Brandon Bussey a shot, if they want to do a lot of these different things, it starts with Linus Olmark getting traded and them getting some value back.

39:48 They do need to get trade some players away and bring back some assets prospect and draft pick wise to replenish some of what they've traded over the last couple of years.

39:58 And it's going to be painful to trade some of these players away because a lot of them have been fun over the years.

40:05 If the Bruins trade Olmark, the goalie hug is gone.

40:09 And that's become such a marketable fun thing.

40:11 And it gives it gets the biggest pop from the crowd at the garden when they win at home.

40:15 It really does.

40:16 People love it.

40:17 So that stuff is tough to trade away.

40:19 Same with Jake Dubrowski.

40:20 If you traded him away or Matt Grizzly or, you know, a lot of these players, you know, if they've been here a long time, fans are connected to them and they don't want to see them go.

40:28 And I totally understand that.

40:29 They're good people.

40:30 You know, nobody wants to see them go.

40:32 But I do think, you know, you have to look long and hard at it if you want to recoup some of your assets.

40:38 All right.

40:39 That is another edition of the Pucks with Hags podcast in the books.

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42:08 All right.

42:09 Thanks a lot for sending in all your mailbag questions this week.

42:12 We'll be back next week with the guests for the pucks with eggs podcast will will break down the pre All-Star break NHL season in the brewing season and talk about what's to come.

42:24 As always, thanks for listening to the pucks with had tags podcast, we'll see you at the rink.

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