- 4 months ago
- #nhl
Bruins are 1-0! NESN/Bruins' Play-By-Play announcer Judd Sirott joins! #NHL
Does Judd Sirott
think this team could exceed expectations? Could Morgan Geekie continue his progression?!
Does Judd Sirott
think this team could exceed expectations? Could Morgan Geekie continue his progression?!
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SportsTranscript
00:00a 1-0 Bruins team, and here he is, Judd Surratt in studio. Judd, thank you for coming in. That's
00:04awesome to have you here. Well, Nikovich said that traffic was bad yesterday, so I wanted to
00:08make sure that I left a little bit early. You know, Nikovich, you know, not far from where I
00:12grew up. He's southwest side at a great city, Chicago. You know, so he went to Lincoln Way.
00:19So, but, you know, when I hear him talk about traffic, that's a guy who worked up the Stevenson
00:23for years. Time to get in a little early. All right, so you come from Walpole, too, because he's
00:27coming from way, way down there, so you want to definitely leave early. Judd Surratt will
00:33be with us every week on the Greg Hill Show. Greg Hill not in today, by the way. I'm Ken
00:36Laird. Greg is off for the first Judd appearance, unfortunately, but you guys connected last
00:40week, which is good. Well, actually, you know, coming in, I was really hoping that Sheriff
00:44Judd would do this. I actually think it would be so much better than this. No, no, no. You
00:49guys are equals, but it's got to be something with the name. Judd is brought to you by Sports
00:54Etc. Boston's best hockey shop, powered by Bauer, with the best selection of Bauer's
00:57skate sticks and goalie equipment at 1303 Mass Ave in Arlington or online at sportsetc.net.
01:03So, Judd, I know you didn't get to call the game, which is never fun because, you know,
01:07we want to hear the local call. We'd love to do every single game. But I was impressed
01:11just going in, didn't know much about this team, a lot of new faces, and I came away
01:16thinking, boy, exceeded my expectations. What did you make of their debut? I think impressed
01:21is a great word that you and I had talked about just before we came in and we had started
01:25this segment. I think one of the things to think about with this Bruins team is how quickly
01:30can they recapture the identity that they want to play with? So what you saw last night is
01:35pretty much it. Goaltending, defense, special teams. Yeah, you got to mix in your top guys.
01:40Pasternak had a terrific night, as did Elias Lindholm. You know, the power play goal, the way
01:45he played on that top unit was terrific. So that's a great sign for the Bruins. But the
01:50other thing is, now you got 81 more. Okay, you got to do it again tonight here against
01:55the Blackhawks. And then you've got to continue to do it throughout the season. But that was
01:59a really good way to start.
02:02John, how, I mean, we always know the importance of Swayman, but I think the question that I
02:08have is people talk about Pasternak. We know what he is, but they bring up Morgan Geeky,
02:12right? He had 30 plus goals last year. Is this something he can consistently do again this
02:17year? Because you're going to need another guy to give you that 30 plus goal season.
02:24Could he do that again?
02:26I think it's certainly possible. I think in the conversations that we've had with the
02:31general manager, Don Sweeney, I think, I don't know if he expects necessarily that he'll hit
02:35that number, but can you hit high 20s? Can you approach 30? I think that's definitely doable,
02:42especially playing with that group and having a conversation with Geeky before the start of the
02:46season. It's so different. Remember, this guy was a healthy scratch last year at the
02:52beginning of the season and didn't really turn it on until January. Now it's completely
02:56different. And it's not just for him, but it's for the entire team. From the moment that
03:00he stepped foot in camp, he played and practiced with Pasternak and Lindholm. So I think in many
03:07ways he has such a bigger head start than he had last season. Now you've got to be able
03:13to deliver. It's not just the contract, but the fact that you scored 33 last year. Now
03:18the expectations rise.
03:19When you look at Swayman in particular, though, and you see how great he was last night, obviously
03:24he didn't start the season opener last year. There was a lot going into Swayman going into
03:29the season. Are you seeing from being around the team, a different guy, a different energy?
03:33Was that all just because the holdout going into the season last year, or is it just him building
03:38upon himself? I think there's a lot of different things at play there. When I had a conversation
03:43with him just before the team had left for Washington, and basically the question to him
03:48was, how different is your headspace now than where it was a year ago? He said a year ago
03:54at this time, and remember, he didn't sign and jump on the plane until the Bruins boarded
03:59to go to Florida. He said, I was in the mountains of New Hampshire at this point. Now he's had an
04:04entire training camp to go through to get up to game speed, but I think the most important
04:08thing for him, Courtney, to your question was to be around the guys, to build that camaraderie.
04:13You know, we're talking about identity. We're also talking about leadership. That's sort of
04:17the overarching thing. So how does this function? Again, I don't think it's uncommon throughout
04:24the National Hockey League for teams not to have a captain, but how does this leadership
04:29group function with Pasternak, McAvoy, Lynn Holm is wearing an A, Jeremy Swayman is signed
04:34long-term, and some of the other guys who are long-term. How does this function? That's a great
04:39start for him. The way he played in net technically, it was quiet. It was simple. And the guys in front,
04:45if you remember, you know, watching the game last night, it was one and done. There weren't a whole
04:49lot of chances, and five on five, fairly even. Was Hampus, Pasta, and McAvoy your guess as
04:55captains going into this? I don't know if I necessarily had a guess. You know, I know we
05:00joke with Razor all the time that goalies can't wear a C, you know, and, you know, ask him, actually
05:06ask him a story. When he was with Vancouver, Roberto Luongo was the captain, and I think it
05:12was kind of a gong show. But, you know, he's probably, you know, I would think that makes
05:18sense for a guy like Lynn Holm. You know, I think there's a couple of guys that you probably could
05:22have thought about giving it to. Older guy, veteran guy, leader, you know, a guy that you're
05:28going to rely on. One of the things you talk about, Judd, is you talk about the special teams.
05:34And last year, the Bruins were, when it comes to penalties, they were one of the most penalized
05:40teams in the NHL. Last night, Washington has five power play opportunities. How can you keep putting
05:48that much pressure? And how do they clean that up? Because if not, you're putting all this pressure
05:52on Swayman to make sure he makes stops against the opponent's power play. How do they clean that up?
05:58You got to check with your feet, especially early in the season. I didn't love all the calls that
06:03came against him. You know, and that goes actually, you know, for some of the calls, I actually think
06:08the refs got the call right on John Carlson, giving the Bruins that power play, which eventually
06:13triggered the game winner last night. But you have to be able to check with your feet, because
06:17anytime that referees see you're reaching to check, or you use an open hand to grab a guy,
06:26that's usually an automatic. But for the Bruins, it's a great point. They were in the box way too
06:33much as a team last year. They were among the league leaders in minor penalties. You had the
06:39league's penalty minute leader in Nikita Zdorov, who, by the way, played a terrific game last night.
06:43If you look just as a quick sidebar, Zdorov was second to Charlie McAvoy in ice time on the Bruins
06:50last night. And that's how valuable he was, especially to your penalty killing unit. They
06:55have to be able to curtail that. They have to be able to check with their feet, because it's going
07:00to be hard for the Bruins to outscore their problems the way that they're built.
07:04Judd, so Greg Wyshynski compared David Pasternak to Ilya Kovalchuk on the Thrashers.
07:10No. Do you think that's a fair comparison, or do you think that this is the Cam Neely
07:16tough defensive strategy is far more sustainable over an 82-game season?
07:20With all due respect to the old puck daddy, I had a chance to see Ilya Kovalchuk for years
07:26when I was in the minors and we were affiliated with the Atlanta Thrashers. He was a goal scorer.
07:32I can see some of those similarities. He was not the playmaker that Pasternak is. Last year,
07:38David Pasternak tied his career high. I think he had 63 helpers, which was among the league
07:43leaders. That was never really a number that Kobe put up.
07:48Nesson's play-by-play voice, Judd Surratt, joining us in studio here on the Greg Hill Show,
07:51and he'll be with us every Thursday at 820 on our Bruins Thursday. All the goals last night
07:56came from the top-line guys, even though one of them was a great power play goal. Where does
08:00the secondary scoring come from? That's still the worry, right?
08:03Well, I think they're going to have to be able to do it by committee. Just to kind of go back
08:07to the last preseason game, and obviously preseason doesn't count, but the way that they scored
08:12in that game, whether it was defense, your middle six being able to chip in, that's what they're
08:21going to have to be able to do. Those top guys, as you talked about with Geeky Pasternak
08:25and Lindholm, they're going to be expected and they're going to be leaned on to be consistent
08:30scores all season long, but what can you get beyond that? I think the Bruins as a team,
08:36I think that there's a lot more offense that they can tease out of the blue line, especially
08:40from guys like McAvoy, Lindholm, Zdorov. He had a 14-goal season a couple years ago. I don't
08:45think anybody expects that he's going to get double digits, but he's a guy who can handle
08:49the puck and he has some skill offensively. I think you can tease more goals out of that,
08:55but what can you kind of get out of the middle six to bolster your offense?
09:00Like Arvidsson had some chances last night, just didn't finish.
09:03He did. He did, which is encouraging. Pavel Zaka made that, you know, this was, you know,
09:09obviously in the power play, the indirect off the wall, just as you execute it, you know,
09:13you see the addition of Steve Spot, who's on the coaching staff for a couple reasons,
09:18primarily because he can run the power play. He's done it for years in the National Hockey League,
09:23and he's a veteran assistant coach who's been around some really good coaches during his
09:28coaching tenure. So a guy like Marco Sturm can lean on a guy like that. What can you get out
09:34of Pasternak? What can you get out of that second line? You saw him in fits and starts there last
09:38night, but if they're able to kick in a little production, that really bodes well for the team.
09:43If they want to perform above the expectations that we kind of set for them,
09:53is Swayman going to have to play at a Vesna type level where he's one of those guys that you could
10:00be looking at as somebody who could potentially win that because you talk about their inability to
10:05score goals other really than Pasternak? He's going to have to be really good, you know,
10:12and I think tonight, by the way, we're going to see Jonas Corpocello. I think that's the other
10:16thing. It's not just that Swayman has to be really good. Corpocello has to be really good.
10:20You're going to see him a lot more often. The schedule is a little bit more compressed this year
10:24because it's an Olympic year. You're going to see a lot of back-to-backs, three and fours,
10:28four and sixes. So that means that your tandem is going to have to produce. But I think for a guy
10:35like Jeremy Swayman, you know, when it comes to numbers, Wiggy, you know, a lot of people obviously
10:41want to focus on save percentage or high danger saves or goals against average. The most important
10:45stat for any goaltender is wins. Does he give you an opportunity to win every single night? And if
10:52you think about last night, it wasn't just that he was making great saves, but he was making key
10:58saves at key times that preserve that victory. Can I ask a non-Bruins question for you? Because
11:03last time that you and Billy were here, Wiggy was talking a lot about McDavid. And so now you look at
11:10that two-year extension, we were surprised by the number and I brought up the fact that maybe it was
11:14so team-friendly because they could trade him. I hope, I wish. I don't think it's going to happen.
11:23I'm not surprised because we had talked about it that Conor McDavid signed a short-term deal. I think
11:29what a lot of people were shocked at, you know, in fact, even Elliott Friedman over at Sportsnet said,
11:34I actually had to dig in and make sure that the number was right as far as the salary,
11:39because he's making like, you know, 12, 12 and a half. I thought it was a misprint. I thought it
11:44was two years at 25 million per year. I thought it was two years at 50 million. I could not believe
11:50it. So, you know, there's been a lot of reaction around the National Hockey League. I think one of
11:54them is respect that, that he, listen, he's dug his feet in and he said, I want to bring a
11:58championship to Edmonton. But I think he understands that even though the salary cap is going up, he needs
12:03to be surrounded by better players. One of them is going to have to be in goal. So,
12:09you know, it's on the Edmonton Oilers, Jeff Jackson and Stan Bowman and those guys to be able to fill
12:15in. But where I thought you were going with that one is, so I think the last time we were in here
12:20and we had talked about this big free agent class potentially coming out, right. All right. So
12:26McDavid, check off the board. Kaprizov, off the board. Eichel, check off the board. He signed Kyle
12:33Connor. Check off the board. He signed an eight-year deal to state in Winnipeg. So those
12:38are some big names in free agency that I think a lot of teams, not just the Bruins, were salivating
12:44about depending on how it would go at the tail end of this season that maybe those were guys you
12:48could acquire. There's still some really good players out there, but those are some big names
12:52off the list. If Jeremy Swayman is playing at a Vesna level and this team is overachieving
12:57compared to where we had them kind of before the season, do they A, have the assets to even
13:02help add to this team come trade deadline time? And B, are they even willing to just knowing that
13:08it felt like this year was kind of going to be a reset year heading into that big free agent class?
13:12Yes. Yes, absolutely. You heard Cam Neely and Don Sweeney mention it at the press conference just
13:18before we started the season that the Bruins really tried. They made a run at some of the
13:22offensive players that were available in free agency during the summer, whether that's guys like
13:27Brock Besser or Nick Ehlers. I'm not really sure on that one. And as far as the assets, so the Bruins
13:34have two first round picks coming up in this upcoming draft, two first round picks in the next draft.
13:41I have a hard time believing that the Bruins are going to pick four times in the first round and use
13:47all those picks. Those are assets that they can parlay into something else.
13:51Looking forward to the call tonight, Judd. You and Brick, 7 o'clock on Nesson. What time does the
13:54Our pregame show so you can kick in with Billy, Sophia, Barry, Razor and the boys starting at 6 o'clock
14:01and then we'll get it going at 7. Bruins and Blackhawks tonight.
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