- 2 days ago
What is this Boston team's identity?? Voices of Bruins
Billy Jaffe and Judd Sirott join! "The Bruins have to be able to defend and be a hard out"
Billy Jaffe and Judd Sirott join! "The Bruins have to be able to defend and be a hard out"
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00:00at WEEI. Please welcome, I would call them not only the voices, but the faces of Bruins hockey
00:06here in New England, Judd Surratt and Billy Jaffe. Guys, thanks for being here. Thanks for
00:11having us. How are we doing? It's an honor. How are we doing today? All good. All right. Awesome.
00:15Awesome weather out. It's hockey weather now. It is hockey weather. Sorry, Wiggy, a little chilly.
00:21You're a hockey guy. I am a hockey guy, but I'd rather live in Florida. I take the heat over
00:26this any day. We are hoping that it remains baseball weather for just a little, a little
00:31longer. Hello, Connelly, early. Let's go. Yeah, right. We need him. We need him to step up
00:36big. We need him to step up big. So we have a couple of things going on, which we're really
00:42excited about with you guys, which I want to talk about in a minute here at the radio station.
00:46But I did want to get you both on record at what, because I've been going back and forth
00:50on this in my head a million times. What is, in your mind, a reasonable expectation for
00:57this Bruins team heading into the season? You want to give it a start? Sure. Do I think
01:02that they can battle for the playoffs? I think that they have to grind. It's going to be a
01:09grind season in the sense of as they reset, remodel a little bit their team, their systems,
01:14their structure, their culture a little bit, because you're talking a whole new group of
01:18players and a whole new group, not just new, but new positions for players that are returning,
01:24i.e. leadership roles, the McAvoy's, the Pastas, et cetera, and others. I think reasonable
01:30expectations are battling for that, you know, 7-8-9 spot. And the reality is, though, it's
01:37going to be grind fest this season, in my take. I'll let Judd speak in a sec. It's a grind
01:42fest. It's a different system. You'll see a different neutral zone play, which has to be
01:46better. Their structure in their own zone has to be better. And then if you want to
01:49get the individuals, we don't have time for that. But we know many players that are in
01:53key positions have to be better than they were last year. Last year's done. Get it out
01:57of your system. Now reset. But it's going to be a grind. And I think, you know, you're
02:01talking, give or take, plus minus the eight spot. I think two things can be true. If all
02:06of a sudden you're pulling up to the gas station and you run into Don Sweeney and you ask him
02:10while he's filling up his tank, well, what do you think about the team? I think he would admit
02:14to you two things. We're going to be a work in progress, but at the same time, if the Bruins
02:18can get back to their identity, if they can defend every night, you know, so can Swayman
02:24respond? Can he come back to the form that we saw maybe two seasons ago in the playoffs
02:28against Toronto and Florida? What sort of impact does Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy
02:33coming back have on the team as a whole? Is the penalty killing back? Then I think, then
02:39Billy's exactly right. Hold on. I want to get, because his nickname is Jack, by the
02:43way, we'll get to that story here in a second. For me, it's Jack, but if they can defend
02:48they're in every game, every single night, and then they have a chance to compete for
02:53a playoff spot. It's a high bar, but it is achievable. Besides pasta and geeky, where
03:00do the goals come from though? Well, they manufacture more. There's no question. They're
03:03going to have to manufacture more. You're, you're hoping that you get more input from
03:06your back end. You hope that the McAvoys, the Lindholmes help push points from the
03:11back end, and you're going to have to find that secondary scoring. And you know
03:17what, Greg, you might see a lot more in, in theory or in reality, two, one games
03:22for this year. I think you almost, when I say you hope that because you've got to
03:27figure out more sec, more scoring, there's no question about it, but you, you
03:31have to get back to defending better structure better. You have to, is it going
03:36to be the, the sexiest hockey, so to speak, wide open fire wagon hockey? No, it's not.
03:42But, but you have to get, last year was so porous at times and so different than what
03:49we're used to seeing right around here that you have to take that year to reset.
03:52You have to, and restructure. And that's what it is. And it's a big year. Don't let,
03:57don't get me wrong. I'm not saying, oh, it's an easy thing. No, it's a big year to redo
04:00all those things. And so then you got to find your goals to your point. You hope
04:04that, you know, you're hoping that Pavel Zaka can elevate his game from last year,
04:10whether it's, uh, the Mate Blumel, the kid that from the American league that
04:14they're seemingly putting in, you know, the lineup to create some goals.
04:18A potter makes the team. A potter. Yeah. But you're, you're hoping to be seen.
04:22Watch tonight if you get a chance. Yeah. It's all, it's all that. It's, it's all
04:25that. And you don't hide from it, but you say, I don't, you know, are you going to
04:29see a team scoring three plus goals a year on average? Probably not. There's going to
04:32be a greater emphasis, I think on the power plan and the power play last year, I think
04:37it was like 26th or 27th in the league. Um, if they can even just get to average, um, you
04:44know, where it's halfway, you know, right in the middle of the league, it's six. And that's
04:47why they brought in Steve spot. That's going to make a significant difference. Um, I think
04:52another guy who's going to provide a little bit more production this year, who is healthy,
04:55at least at this point, as we start the season as Elias Lindholm last year, I think that back
04:59injury was a lot more serious than we really thought in training camp. And the other thing
05:04that you have to remember with the way that he started and the way that David Pasternak
05:07started pasta did not get off to a good start at all. Um, and when you ask those two guys
05:12in pasta in particular, like, why didn't it work? Why didn't it work with you and Elias
05:16Lindholm at the beginning of the season? He's like, I wasn't very good. I was coming off
05:19of an injury. Obviously he's dealing with stuff. This is his first team. He had a serious
05:24back injury to the point where they, they actually thought about shutting him down, but he preferred
05:29to rehab it. He got better in December. Those two guys were put back together after the trade
05:33deadline and it clicked. I think his production will be better. And if they can just get that
05:37production up on the man advantage and just a little bit overall, right. Better five on five
05:43and defend again, we're talking about a lot of ifs, but if they're able to do it, right.
05:47I mean, I think they can compete. The Swayman thing to me is the biggest because
05:51right up, you know, um, is he, uh, is he a legit number one? Cause there's really nobody
05:56else. And then can he carry that workload for a full season? I think so, but we have
06:02to see it. We have to see it this year. I do. I think so. I think to judge point about
06:05the playoffs two seasons ago where he showed himself, um, I think, and I sure hope that
06:12that's the real Swayman because that's what we all saw developing. I think that's what
06:16we all expected and signed the contract. Razor Raycroft, you know, when he comes in, he,
06:22he can talk about it much better than either of us being a former NHL goalie. He always
06:26talks about the going from kind of the guy to being the guy. And no matter what you're
06:32being paid, there's always a transition part of that, of that process. And I think last
06:37year was, I mean, last year was such a whacked out year for Jeremy between the contract and
06:42the expectation, blah, blah, blah, all that. But you know what? You got to go through it
06:45now. Let's hope that he's through it.
06:47But if you're saying they got to manufacture goals because maybe they don't have the elite
06:52high end talent, aren't you basically relying on him to carry this team?
06:58Absolutely. Absolutely. And what do you say as McAvoy can stay healthy for a full season?
07:03But what do you say to fans that say, well, wait a minute. What if Linus was maybe a key
07:08to Jeremy being so good two seasons ago? And that's why we saw such a dip last season.
07:13Well, but Courtney, I do think that there's a lot of truth to that, but with the way that
07:16Swayman played in the playoffs versus the way Linus Olmar played in the playoffs, it really
07:20sort of forced your hand at that point. I think what they're hoping is, is that Jonas
07:24Corpusel will get more of an opportunity to play if he earns that opportunity to be able
07:29to push Jeremy Swayman. Even Don Sweeney had mentioned, we talk about the goaltending
07:33excellence department. It didn't have quite the excellence that I really wanted last
07:38season. So I think that that's going to definitely help with the Bruins. But if you look at last
07:43season, it was off the rails before it started. This was a team that talked about a disjointed
07:49training camp, a disjointed preseason. They played way too many preseason games. Remember
07:54this club had to go up and play a game in Quebec City and then come back. It never really
07:59got on track. I think one of the bellwethers here early in the season, all right, how does
08:03Swayman play? How do the Bruins defend? How do they get through October? Because they've
08:07got some tough games.
08:07Well, one of the things you said, Judd, was identity. What is the identity? Because it's
08:14not the identity that we all have known and come to love, the big, bad Bruins. And it's
08:18not the identity of the new hockey in really 2025 where you got elite scorers. And other than
08:24Postonac, I mean, you look at where are your elite scorers, where are your elite skilled
08:28players? I don't know. So what is their identity?
08:33I think it's two things specifically. The Bruins have to be able to defend and be a stingy team
08:39and be a hard out. I don't think there's any question from the top on down that they were
08:44bothered, not only the fact that they were losing games, but how they were losing games
08:48last year.
08:49Billy brought up culture. And I think it's interesting when you look at Marco Sturm, what
08:53type of culture do you think he can put in place for these guys?
08:56I loved his communication. I've loved his, right? We know that it's more important maybe
09:02to know what you, you know, aren't than what you are. And he's, he's working on stuff that
09:07he says, look to Judd's went about a hard out. Like we got to be tougher in the neutral
09:11zone. And I'm talking about me, I'm watching it and like the neutral zone, the neutral zone,
09:15the neutral zone, they're working on that. Because if you give up the neutral zone and give
09:18it your own blue line, you're backing in, et cetera. Next thing you know, you're running
09:21around your own zone. Okay. And then the current protecting the middle of the ice last year
09:24was, it wasn't there. It just wasn't. So now they're working on that too. So, so what
09:30do they, you know, culture wise, let's be tougher to play against. Okay. It's kind of
09:34cliche, but it's true. You have to be, let's understand that we have to take advantage of
09:39the offense that we get. But if we're thinking that we're just shooting the zone and we're,
09:43we're trying to do to Wiggy's point, not having those high flying offensive guys all
09:47throughout the lineup, we have to be responsible wherever we are. It's just this mentality.
09:51Marco's, Marco's brought up a ton of energy to these, these preseason, this training camp,
09:58these preseason games. I love it because he's, I find him in that sweet spot of age, like
10:02mid, what is he like? 46, 47. He's, and he played about a thousand games in the league.
10:07So he has all this street cred to where the vets look at him and they're like, we know Marco,
10:12he was beloved by everybody that he played with. He was one of those guys, right?
10:14Cause that's how he played. He played how he wants the team to play. Smart, hard, determined
10:19effort, et cetera. But the young guys also look and say, he's not that old. He's not like a
10:2360 something year old coach. And you know, he can relate to us as well. And he's really
10:27brought the energy. He's yelled at him a bit. I mean, legit yell, not, not coach yell, not
10:31fake coach yell. I mean, he's yelled at him, given him, and he lost his voice during camp.
10:35He did. Yeah. It's so far, it's been good. Court doesn't mean it's going to be great all season.
10:40Again, I keep using the term rebuild, retool. This is not a, or not rebuild,
10:44rebuild, retool, reset. This is not a full tear down. Like we're not doing that. You
10:49got to be careful. If you do that, you become Buffalo. Anybody show enough energy to be an
10:53actual captain on this team yet? I mean, I mean, to me, it's yeah. No pasta, I think
10:58has been phenomenal. It's just weird to me. Like you, you're going into the season without
11:02a captain. It doesn't bother me. Well, it doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me. Does
11:07it bother you? No, not necessarily. I, it's not, it's not that, that uncommon around the
11:11league. I know it hasn't happened here in Boston since Jason Allison left for the LA
11:15Kings back in 2001. You know, I, I think if you talk to the Bruins, one of the things
11:20that they'll bring up is, okay, who was, who wore the sea in 70 and 72? And the Bruins
11:25didn't have a captain per se between 67 and 73. I think that at some point, a captain will
11:33develop out of this group. I understand very different group, you know, and some of that
11:37had to do with Harry Sinden way back in the day coming in. But Wiggy and Courtney, to
11:42your point, how the culture develops, we can talk about identity, how they defend, how hard
11:47they are to play against. But the big picture is how does this function? Because if you look
11:52at the Bruins here in the last 20 years, they probably haven't been in this spot really
11:56since around the time that Chara got here in 2006. So what is it going to look like?
12:01If you talk with Poster, Charlie McAvoy, or Hampus Lindholm, or some of the other veterans,
12:07how is this leadership group going to function in the room to create the culture that you
12:11need to be successful?
12:13Well, I appreciate you guys coming by this morning. And a couple things that we that we
12:17want to announce. Number one is, Judd, you're going to join us every Thursday during the
12:21season.
12:22Look forward to it.
12:23And we will talk hockey with you every Thursday. And then on Saturday mornings, as I believe
12:30a lead in to the Ken and Curtis show, Curtis and Len show, eight o'clock, morning brew,
12:38morning brew with Jaffe and Razor, Jaffe and Razor. And I believe we can announce, we can
12:44announce now sitting in the third seat. Dale here. So what's up, Dale?
12:51Yeah. I am very, I'm very excited about this. Yeah, we are too.
12:55Wow. Big news. That'll be an awkward crossover.
12:59I think the question on everybody's mind Thursday and Saturday mornings, or at least for me that
13:04I'll be banging all year long is the $20 million question. What do the Bruins need to do to get
13:10Connor McDavid? Because it doesn't look like he's going to re-sign with Edmonton.
13:14I'll bet you he does.
13:15You think so?
13:16I bet you he signs a three or four-year deal.
13:18Short-term big money.
13:19That's cool? Yeah. After what the kid from Minnesota just got, though?
13:22Yeah, well, he'll get 18 to 20 a year.
13:24Short-term big-time money.
13:25Yeah, really?
13:25He'll get 20 a year in everything.
13:26You don't want Jack Eichel here?
13:28No, I like Connor McDavid here.
13:30Wiggy also wants Shohei to sign with the Bruins.
13:33I mean, but isn't that what he can play?
13:35Wiggy thought we were getting Juan Soto.
13:37Yeah, I want all those guys.
13:38He's ever hopeful. He's ever hopeful.
13:41I think the Pats can trade for Mahomes.
13:43But isn't that what the NHL needs to get Connor McDavid out of Edmonton, where you can never see him play, put him on the East Coast, one of the, you know, original six teams, right?
13:56Isn't that what the NHL wants?
13:57Because people don't realize how good he is because we never get to see him play.
14:01Let's keep feeding the fire.
14:03If Wayne Gretzky can get traded, Connor McDavid can.
14:06Yes, it can happen.
14:07All right, guys.
14:08Thank you very much.
14:09We're looking forward to it.
14:10Which one is this Saturday?
14:11This Saturday, 8 a.m.?
14:128 to 9, full hour.
14:14Okay.
14:14Morning Bruce Saturdays, we're calling it.
14:16The pod that Razor and I have been doing for five, six years now.
14:19Okay.
14:19Bringing it to the air.
14:21Take calls?
14:22I think we'll have a short segment of that.
14:25Absolutely.
14:25Yeah, it's been great.
14:26So we're looking forward to it.
14:26I was hoping to still get a Craig Stadler story.
14:29What's that?
14:29I was still hoping to get a Craig Stadler story.
14:31You, Brick, and Craig Stadler?
14:34At Jay Miller's wedding?
14:35Oh, yes.
14:36We had a marvelous time, me and Brick.
14:39And I remember it.
14:42How was the walrus?
14:44And Craig Stadler.
14:45I mean, he looks great for his age.
14:47I mean, I think he's a little long in the tooth at this point.
14:50But aren't we all, really?
14:51You just say he looks great.
14:52You don't need to say for his age.
14:53You don't have to say for his age.
14:55I mean, he doesn't look anything like he did when he was playing.
14:58That's good.
15:00That's good.
15:00It's really, I don't know if it is.
15:02You'll have to see him.
15:03Oh, really?
15:03He might look better now than he was back then.
15:06Ozempic?
15:06I got to give it to the man.
15:09That works.
15:09He still enjoys a good glass of wine, Craig Stadler.
15:14I must say, what a perfect nickname.
15:17He looks just like a walrus.
15:19He does, doesn't he?
15:20Yes, he does.
15:21Holy cow.
15:21Oh, you're just looking at it now.
15:23Yeah.
15:23My lord.
15:24Yeah.
15:24But Brick is, you like working.
15:26Brick is the best.
15:27I love Brick.
15:28He's awesome.
15:28So fortunate.
15:28Known him for 30 years.
15:30He and Beersy were still playing.
15:31Yeah, and he loves his golf, Brick.
15:33Loves.
15:34Loves his golf.
15:35All right, guys.
15:36We're looking forward to it.
15:36Before he goes, a lot of people on Twitch asking where Jaffe got his sweatshirt.
15:39Oh.
15:40This came from the, it's Boston Warriors hockey.
15:45They sent it to us, but they're veterans that play.
15:48And I used to be involved with another group that morphed into this group.
15:52And so they sent it to us last year.
15:53So go check out.
15:54I think it's bostonwarriors.org.
15:55But don't quote me on it.
15:57They're great guys.
15:57That is sweet.
15:58Yeah, they have hats and sweatshirts, and they sent it to us, and anything we can do
16:02to help support.
16:03Yeah.
16:03Double X, maybe, if they had to.
16:05If they're listening, they will send you one.
16:08Yeah.
16:09Yeah, Walrus.
16:10Yeah.
16:10That word.
16:11You nailed it.
16:11Yeah, they're great people.
16:13And I used to do a big thing with called Skate for the 22, which was for suicide prevention
16:17for veterans and stuff.
16:19And that group, a lot of them went into this group.
16:22And so always happy to rep.
16:24It's a good one.
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