Bruins legend Mike Milbury joins! Should the Bruins "retool"?

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Bruins legend Mike Milbury joins! Should the Bruins "retool"? #NHL Milbury addresses comments from Bruins' management!

Transcript

00:00Good morning, Mike.

00:01Good morning.

00:02I want to talk about books a little bit because I've been listening to you guys.

00:05I mean, I like to read and, um, you know, I talked to my hairdresser down here in

00:11Massachusetts and she, she recommended this book.

00:14Her name was Jackie.

00:16And I found out that this book was just, just North of soft porn.

00:20The whole thing was about some woman getting excited or a trollop wait until I

00:25see you the next time I need my haircut.

00:28And the other thing is wiggy.

00:30If I was the judge about the room selection thing, guilty, you'd be guilty.

00:35He would be guilty.

00:36Yeah, absolutely.

00:37Some, some somebody on, I think it was a text line or maybe in the Twitch chat

00:43said the actual douche move is Courtney putting her luggage in a room before

00:49anybody else gets there.

00:52No, no, no.

00:52It's just me.

00:52You want to, I have no problem.

00:54You should pick the room.

00:55You are the, it's, I said it before it's chivalry.

00:59No, it's 2025.

01:00We make fun of Greg a lot.

01:02Greg got there, said what room's available and just walked down into it.

01:05Yeah.

01:06I'm no fuss.

01:07I really am honestly just the I'll sleep on the couch.

01:10I treat Courtney just like I would treat anybody else sleep on the air mattress,

01:14but it doesn't stay inflated.

01:16But yeah.

01:17Um, all right.

01:18Listen, they strung a couple of wins together here.

01:20Mike Milbury.

01:21They were very improbable wins actually.

01:24I mean, Swayman was incredible in Florida.

01:28They, they made 107 shot attempts, uh, in that game, which is ridiculous.

01:35And most of the game was played in there.

01:37And I think they, in both the Tampa and the Florida game, they iced it

01:41about a dozen times in each game.

01:43It was, it was really hanging on.

01:45Swayman again was brilliant against Tampa.

01:47Tampa sort of tripped coming out of the gate and gave him the win.

01:51I saw the comments by Cam and Charlie Jacobs about they're going to make a

01:55decision, uh, at the trading deadline or what to do while they can't be serious

02:02about that, I mean, their, their power play penalty kill ratio is terrible.

02:07Their, their goal differential in the Eastern conference is the second worst.

02:11Only Pittsburgh's is worst in the conference.

02:14They're hanging on with the game.

02:15Other teams have games in hand.

02:17They could very well fall out of the playoff position.

02:20They should be, if anything, they should be thinking we're going to accumulate

02:23draft picks and then put some pressure on the scouting staff or expanded.

02:26If you have to, they need to find some gems in the third and fourth round

02:30that they, they, they didn't expect to pick up because they need to fill the

02:34holes in the middle of the ice.

02:36And, and that's the only way you're going to do it.

02:38You're not going to be able to go out and buy it.

02:39We've just found that out by the, that the attempted free agent

02:42signing of Lindholm, who's a serviceable player.

02:46But when I look at the roster, there's goaltending, which is now come coming

02:50back to where we thought it would be a little disappointed in McAvoy.

02:53And Lindholm hasn't played much, but that should be, they

02:56should be a pretty good unit.

02:58And then they have a couple of quality players, Martian and Postenek upfront,

03:02and they got to be productive.

03:04If this team's going to win, they have to be productive because beyond that, you

03:08have serviceable players, but not players of excellence, let's face it.

03:12So they have to find some players of excellence to compete.

03:15I mean, you take a look at the Western conference and a team like Edmonton

03:19with McDavid and dry saddle, there's no way they're in the same.

03:23They're in the same boat as them.

03:24They have to find quality elite level players if they want to get back to where

03:29they think they want to get back.

03:31And then everybody knows their intentions are good.

03:33They spend enough money, but it's, it's just the execution.

03:37And they fell into a hole when Crutchie and Bergeron left and they're

03:41crawling out of it right now.

03:42Well, Mike, Cam Neely's exact words were that there's two paths and they're going

03:47to figure out if they're buyers or if they're going to retool, can you explain

03:51to me what he means by retooling and what that would actually entail with this team?

03:57I don't know what it means to him, but for me, retooling would be selling.

04:04I mean, it's either buying or selling.

04:05I mean, retooling, you can shuffle the deck, but in my mind, um, they need,

04:11they gave up all these draft picks over the last few years.

04:13They've got to get some of them back.

04:15Even if they're not first round picks, there are a lot

04:17of gems in later rounds.

04:19We've seen that.

04:20I mean, Marshawn's not a first round pick.

04:21There are a lot of guys that aren't first round picks.

04:24I mean, it's just, you, you gotta be good and you gotta be lucky and you gotta have

04:29enough patience to let some of these guys that are, that are going to be

04:32drafted, uh, developed for a year or two.

04:34It's going to be a process before they get back to the elite level.

04:38But it sounds like to me, your, your opinion is on January 16th that they

04:43should, they need to be sellers like this one, it's not happening right now.

04:47It's it's not happening.

04:49I mean, they had a six game losing streak.

04:51They won two games in an improbable fashion.

04:54And, and it really is part of the whole equation.

04:57Now, as I mentioned, goaltending defense, which has been, you know, somewhat

05:02suspect lately, but hopefully when McEvoy and Lindholm get back, it'll, it'll button

05:06down and then they're going to have to spice up their special teams, which

05:09are, have been dreadful all year long.

05:12But if you're looking at that formula as a formula for winning a

05:15Stanley cup, I, I beg to differ.

05:18I mean, one bright light.

05:19I like seeing Frederick go after Lilleberg on Tuesday night.

05:24I, I, I don't question their courage.

05:26I don't question their, their attitude or their willingness to go after it.

05:29Or just question the, the, the amount of talent that they possess and that, you

05:35know, we've seen it, we've seen it all over the place.

05:38You can see it as a new England Patriots.

05:39If you don't have the talent, you're not going to go very far.

05:42I mean, this team has enough talent to be in the right where they

05:46are in the middle of the pack.

05:47I think there's seventh in the conference and a danger of going

05:50down as well as going up, but it's, it's, it's not a team that you feel

05:55comfortable that they're definitely going to be in the playoffs and they're

05:58definitely going to win at least around.

06:00It's just not that type of team.

06:01So for me, you're either buying or you're selling, I don't know what

06:05cam means by retooling may have a way to define that, but for me,

06:10retooling means setting up for another draft that, that hopefully your guys

06:15can come up big and, and, and you can pluck somebody at certainly the center

06:19position, which needs shoring up.

06:21Mike, uh, hypothetically speaking, you would be the best person

06:25possibly to ask this question.

06:27If you were the general manager of a hockey team and two players, which

06:33used to be best friends turned into frenemies, would you be aware of it?

06:40I would, I would hope so.

06:42I would, I'd like to think so.

06:43I mean, I certainly, if I were, if I were coach, I would be aware of it.

06:47Um, you're, you know, you're a player and so you're, you're right at the

06:51level of everybody else in the room.

06:53Then you're the coach, you're one step removed.

06:55The manager is a step removed further from that.

06:58Um, but you would think there'd be enough intelligence and cooperation in the room

07:04to, to let people know that there was a potential problem.

07:07I have no idea if there's any problem or not.

07:09I mean, certainly they've tried to douse it with water, but, uh, as far as

07:14awareness is concerned, I would say certainly if I were coaching, I'd, I'd

07:18be aware of it and certainly if, if I'm a general manager, I'd expect my coach

07:21to share that with me if I didn't know it already, Mike, how do you sell to a

07:27passionate Bruins fan base that you're a team that you're probably going to be

07:34sellers and you have guys like pasta, Masha and, uh, McAvoy, Linda, like

07:42you're a team with a good veteran core.

07:48You it's just take a look at the standings.

07:52Take a look at the way they've played throughout the course of the season.

07:56Take a look at, at, you know, the lack of, of centers that are

08:01of quality offensive production.

08:03The it's just not there at take a look at the, take a look at the gold

08:07differential, take a look at the special teams, it's just, you know, take a look

08:11at the, uh, you know, the statistics and goals down the line besides Marshan

08:16and Boston markets, it's not very pretty, but you're, you're not saying

08:20that they're underachieving, you're saying they don't have the talent.

08:23Yeah, that's right.

08:24I'm saying they're right.

08:25Spot on where they should be.

08:26They're a bubble team.

08:28And, uh, they'll, and the statistics will tell me that, but

08:31my eyeballs tell me that too.

08:33When you, you guys watch the games against Florida, Florida was all over them.

08:38The possession, the possession of the puck was lopsided.

08:41They got a good start against Tampa and then they fell back and, and Tampa

08:45made a run at them and they wound up getting a couple of empty netters.

08:49But it was, it was not a resounding win.

08:52It was a much needed one in both cases, but it was not like, wow,

08:56they've got it figured out.

08:57So how do you go from a couple of years ago being, you know, set in NHL records

09:04to now you're a team that's sellers on the bubble, not even like you're on,

09:10you're not even on the bubble because you could potentially be out, but you're,

09:14you've turned into with relatively the same guys, a team that is now retooling

09:21or rebuilding, whatever the hell, uh, word that cam wants to use.

09:26Yeah.

09:26Um, well from that team, you know, Taylor hall was on it, I guess for a while.

09:32He's gone.

09:33All the free agents, and you lost Bertram and crazy.

09:38So there was like a, there's like a half dozen impactful players.

09:43I'm not saying all of that group was, you know, over the top all-star, but

09:47there was a lot of loss of talent and, and, and the guys that we know,

09:51Bergeron and crazy who are just picked on the all quarter century team or

09:56whatever the hell it is, which makes no sense to me to make quarter century

10:01teams, love, love, love them or hate them.

10:02You got rid of the brusque.

10:04That's right.

10:05I mean, there's, there's, there's been a sub subtract subs.

10:08No, I know that there's been guys that have left, but I think at the time when

10:13we talked about a lot of these guys, people were ready to move the brusque

10:17out of here, people were ready to move Taylor hall out of it.

10:20I'm just saying that it's a, it's a massive fall because I

10:24guess you added some plays, but it's just a massive fall for this team

10:27that you go from potentially cup contender to now retooling.

10:32The hope was that Lindholm would become a top line center.

10:36And we've talked about this.

10:37He played with some awfully good players in Calgary to get his points.

10:41He's not a bad player, but he's not a great player and he's not a top line

10:45center and is a door off is he's a useful player is he, you know, whatever

10:51they paid him 6 million bucks a year.

10:53Is he that level?

10:54I don't know.

10:55He's sort of lumbering out there most of the time.

10:58And he's not a big offensive threat.

11:00He, he, he had some guys pretty hard cause he's huge, but you know, did he

11:05make a big difference in their defensive structure?

11:08I don't think so.

11:09Yeah.

11:10All right, Mike, by the way, we are moving closer to the North shore road

11:15show at your sister's restaurant night before, and you found us a spot up there,

11:20which I think we're going to try to make happen.

11:22So great.

11:23I'm going to go on a scouting trip this week to see it.

11:25And I believe you said that you're going to be behind the bar at your sister's

11:29restaurant and you do the night.

11:31That's where you want me to be.

11:32I'll be there, Greg.

11:34All right.

11:35The great Mike Milbury.

11:36Have a great weekend.

11:36We'll talk to you next week.

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