00:00Good morning, Judd.
00:01Morning. What's going on?
00:02I kind of like this setup with the sweater vest.
00:04I was debating wearing that I had, but it looks like I'm going to.
00:07Oh, that's very kind of you.
00:08It's cold at the rink.
00:10Morning skates hit the garden today.
00:12Yes, yes.
00:13Well, game this evening, and I was before when we were talking about you coming in,
00:17I was talking about how, and I like it,
00:20but how tight it is when it comes to the playoffs and the Eastern Conference.
00:24It's the best time of year.
00:25The hockey is just so intense.
00:27I think what we saw the other night from the L.A. Kings,
00:29a tight 2-1 overtime game,
00:32is what the Bruins are going to be involved with here a lot here down the stretch.
00:35So if I do the math, so the Bruins at this point,
00:37if they can go 11-7 in their final 18 games,
00:41which is certainly doable at this point,
00:43that would give them 100 points.
00:46If you get to 100 points,
00:47that usually means you can punch your ticket to the playoffs.
00:50So that's the goal here down the stretch.
00:52It's not going to be easy.
00:54They have to figure out a way to win on the road,
00:57and they've got a number of those road games coming up.
00:59And I believe that half of the 18 games that they will play here down the stretch
01:04will be, at least as we speak now,
01:07against teams that are not currently in a playoff position.
01:09Why is this team so much better at home?
01:13You know what?
01:13I don't think that you can get a clear answer from anybody,
01:15whether that's the general manager, Donnie Sweeney, or Marco Sturm.
01:18So the other day when we were in Nashville,
01:20one of the things that Marco Sturm said was that sometimes when the other team pushes,
01:25and that's going to happen on the road,
01:26the Bruins seem to get away from their game.
01:28They don't have that problem on home ice,
01:30but that's something that they have to fix.
01:33One of the things I think we all talked about was the trade deadline
01:38and what the Bruins didn't do when it came to significant moves.
01:43Was that because they're, you know, some of us believe it's because they're teetering around the 8th seed
01:50and maybe they don't feel like a push would have took them to that level?
01:54I think that's part of it.
01:55You know, I think one of the things that we had talked about heading into the trade deadline,
01:58and Don Sweeney will tell you this, the Bruins weren't in the rental market.
02:03And then when you look at some of the players who could move the needle,
02:07and certainly they looked at right defensemen,
02:09and a lot of those guys did move, whether it was the players didn't match up to where
02:14or something that the Bruins wanted or the price tag that the Bruins were willing to pay,
02:19there just wasn't a match at this point.
02:21And if you think that you're a playoff team,
02:22and you can certainly make some noise in the Eastern Conference,
02:25I don't think that there's any team in particular that you look at in the East and you say,
02:29oh, the Bruins can't beat them.
02:31So at that point, you want to stick with the group that got you to this point.
02:35So, you know, if you look around the Atlantic,
02:37just some other teams in the Atlantic division,
02:39Corey Perry was the only addition for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
02:43He's 40 years old.
02:45The team that's right behind you trying to get into the playoffs,
02:47they added a kid named Warren Fogle.
02:49He's a bottom six winger.
02:50Montreal did absolutely nothing.
02:53So I think, especially in the East, it was pretty quiet around the trade deadline.
02:57But if you have players and your top players,
03:00if you've got a guy like Pasa that's speaking pretty openly about wanting guys to be added,
03:05what does that tell your players if you don't do anything?
03:08Like, have you noticed any type of pissed off player personality after post-trade deadline?
03:15Because we talked about it going into it,
03:18that if you've got guys that say that they want help,
03:20why not give it to them?
03:21No, I don't think I've seen that reaction at all.
03:24And certainly the Bruins certainly brought the effort the other night against the Los Angeles Kings.
03:29You know, yes, you'd like to be able to add help.
03:31But at some point, the question is, well, what's the ad and what's the price?
03:35You know, and just based on some of the names that moved,
03:38I haven't heard anybody in particular who would have said,
03:41boy, I wish the Bruins had landed him.
03:44When you start to look at where they are right now
03:47and you talk about the stretch that they got coming up,
03:49who are some guys that you would like to see step up
03:52to kind of maybe help them when it comes to that push of making the playoffs?
03:57Well, I think you always look at the core players.
03:59I think, you know, for any team, whether it's this time of year, Wiggy,
04:02you know, or throughout the 82-game regular season,
04:05the guys who get the most ice time, those are the guys that you really have to lean on.
04:09So who are the core players?
04:10Well, Charlie McAvoy delivered in overtime the other night after his face got pulverized again.
04:15He's giving his teeth to the effort every single night.
04:18I was going to say, who has a voodoo doll for him?
04:20Like this season, he has been.
04:22I hope he got the Christmas card in early.
04:24Yeah.
04:24Or at least the picture for next year.
04:26So I think it's all those guys, whether it's David Pasternak,
04:29who's still top 10 in the league in scoring,
04:32Elias Lindholm's in there, Hampus Lindholm has to be in there.
04:35Let me ask you about Pasta because there's this thing where they want,
04:38you hear that they want him to shoot more.
04:41Leads the team in assists.
04:42It does.
04:43Well, is that, are you hearing that same kind of thing where they're saying, okay.
04:47Oh yeah, Marco Sturm talked about it.
04:49I think that the Bruins would like to see him have a little bit more of a shooter mentality.
04:52His game has changed a little bit here this season.
04:56But David Pasternak will always tell you that when he came into the National Hockey League,
05:01he had much more of a playmaker mentality, but then he developed an incredible goal scoring ability.
05:07And he's had this conversation in the past with us where he said, listen, goal scoring is addictive.
05:13So I think that he swung a little bit more that way.
05:15But when it comes to right now, if he's able to shoot the puck a little bit more, Greg,
05:20I think it opens up more passing opportunities, more playmaking opportunities for him.
05:25When you look at this final stretch, who is this Bruins team?
05:28Are they the home team or are they the away team that we've been seeing?
05:31And where do they fall when it comes to like a Stanley Cup run?
05:34Oh, well, those are two different questions.
05:37I think there's no reason that the Bruins, with the game that they play in the grinding style that they
05:41play,
05:41which is tailor-made for what we're seeing now and what we're seeing in the playoffs or what we will
05:46see in the playoffs,
05:46if the Bruins are able to make it.
05:49I think that that game should have the ability to translate on the road.
05:55When it comes to the playoffs, and again, and it's wide open here in the Eastern Conference,
05:59the way I sort of look at the wildcard picture, and Detroit has had some issues here down the stretch.
06:04They currently occupy the first wildcard spot.
06:06They're right in front of the Bruins.
06:08The Bruins have a game in hand.
06:09They're missing a couple of key centermen.
06:12Dylan Larkin's hurt.
06:13Andrew Kopp is hurt.
06:14And I think after Ottawa lost last night to Montreal, which was a significant loss for them,
06:20it's almost like a three-team race for two spots in the wildcard.
06:24So I think you're looking at Columbus, Boston, and Detroit.
06:27But you and Montreal are kind of also like dueling for that third spot.
06:33Oh, yeah.
06:34When it comes to the division, which means you secure that.
06:39You don't end up being disappointed when Columbus, like they've won or they have lost two of the last ten
06:48in regulation
06:49and still lost ground to Columbus.
06:52Well, all these teams in the Eastern Conference, Craig, like if you look, and I think the Bruins have,
06:57they're a top ten team in the National Hockey League since January 1st.
07:00If you look at the record overall that they've put together, and down the stretch, they have two meetings against
07:05the Jackets,
07:06which could very well determine whether or not that they make the playoffs at this point.
07:10But I think it's been hard for a lot of teams to be able to gain ground in the division.
07:15And the Tampa Bay Lightning, by the way, have gone on a slide.
07:18If memory serves, the Bruins are either, I think they're only like four points behind them in the Atlantic Division
07:23standings.
07:24And you're going to get a chance to see them, I believe, twice here down the stretch.
07:28So a lot can change.
07:29And the Bruins don't have a lot of division games left.
07:32Those are the games, if you want to cash in, that's going to be significant.
07:36Okay, well, we will be watching you this evening.
07:38Sounds good.
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