00:00Yeah, you can't do that, especially when Toronto's without their best player, you know, and Matthews.
00:06It's like that's a game that you got to take advantage of, you know.
00:09So I don't know how if you're Charlie McAvoy or whoever on that hockey team, you don't get that you
00:16got that's one you have to win.
00:19You know, we talked about you just brought it up, Meggo, the schedule.
00:23They have the toughest remaining schedule in the NHL.
00:25And we talked about it yesterday, whether it's getting the Lightning twice or getting Columbus twice or playing in Florida,
00:36playing the Panthers down there.
00:38Like it certainly doesn't get easier.
00:41So you got to win the ones that you're supposed to win.
00:45Greg, let me ask you this question because, you know, you've been following the Bruins forever.
00:48If they don't make the fine forever.
00:50How many decades?
00:52Since the Bobby or era.
00:53How many decades since the Bobby or era?
00:56Yes, yes, go ahead.
00:57If they don't make the postseason, how do you feel?
01:00I would be disappointed, but I didn't expect.
01:05It wasn't my expectation going into it that they were.
01:08I thought they were on the bubble, may get a may get a first round playoff series and would not
01:13advance any farther than that.
01:15So I'm going to be disappointed, but I'm giving them a little bit of grace on basically trading, being forced
01:25into, if you buy salary cap stuff, and I think it's fair to in the NHL, being forced to trade
01:32away some talent last year with a look ahead to what you can turn the team into.
01:37Why do we excuse the Bruins?
01:39Because, Greg, I think a lot of people feel exactly the same way you do.
01:43Why do we excuse them when even before, well before Jason Tatum's return, the Celtics were essentially in a very
01:50similar position?
01:51They had to sell off a ton of guys.
01:53And they told you it's because of the second apron and what they had to do because of the way
01:58the whole league has been set up now.
02:00And yet, before Tatum came back, they're one of the top seeds in the East and super overachieving.
02:05So why do we look at the Bruins and we say, well, give them some grace.
02:09Like, they got a fearless out there, allowed to have an off year, a bridge year.
02:13But with the Celtics, it's like, well, yeah, okay.
02:16I think that's apples and oranges.
02:19I think the Celtics are a much more talented team than the Bruins are.
02:21And if it was Joe Mazzula's first year, maybe they'd get a little bit more grace if they did indeed
02:27stumble.
02:27But I feel like the Bruins entering this season, there were people in this market on another radio station saying
02:34that there was about to be in this four-year dead zone of hockey in Boston.
02:37That they had to totally and completely tear it down and rebuild it.
02:41So I just think the team is not – I think the Bruins are playing about at their level.
02:46I just wonder what the – see, I guess that's the question.
02:49When we talk to Judge about this and –
02:53It's Judd.
02:54Judd.
02:54And Shime saying –
02:55He gets bombs, though, I'll tell you.
02:58And Shime said that this was, what you'd say, a retool.
03:03But Judd said it was a reset and people were like, it's a rebuild.
03:08And you start to look at the talent that you have on this team.
03:12And I kind of agree with you a little bit, Mago.
03:14The talent that they have on this team, you looked at and go, okay, they got a good core of
03:20guys.
03:21And the Celtics lost their best player and shipped off a bunch of pieces.
03:27How is this good core of guys that you go into the season with going like, eh, this is a
03:32reset.
03:33I mean, you shipped off Charlie Coyle.
03:35Right.
03:35Who lost more talent between this point last year and this point this year between the Celtics and the Bruins?
03:42The Celtics.
03:42The Celtics lost way more talent.
03:45Look, they have –
03:45They also have the better players.
03:47Right.
03:47Yeah.
03:47Like, Jalen Brown is better than David Postardock.
03:50I'm sorry.
03:50They have arguably two top ten players in the league.
03:54Yeah.
03:54The Bruins do not.
03:55But they didn't have Tatum for most of the year and they were still definitely in contention in the East.
04:01The Bruins have not been anywhere near that.
04:03And I would say the Eastern Conference is as bad as it's ever been.
04:06It is awful.
04:07And you don't think Post is one of the better players in hockey?
04:10I think he is.
04:11I mean, to say that like –
04:13I think he is.
04:14Well, I mean, you were like –
04:15But he's not an MVP candidate like Jalen Brown.
04:16Well, I mean, Jalen Brown is having an MVP candidate year.
04:20But Post is one of the –
04:22I would say –
04:23I don't know where you would put him.
04:24I would say he's one of the top ten forwards in the NHL, right?
04:28Yeah, but skaters –
04:29Obviously, goalies are a separate category.
04:31But in hockey, you have a far smaller impact on the game than in the NBA.
04:35No, I get that point.
04:35No, I definitely get that point.
04:37But I'm just saying this wasn't a team that you looked at the Bruins and go,
04:42oh, they don't have no talent.
04:44You look at the –
04:45Before the season, though, Wiggy,
04:46the sportsbooks had them at plus 400 just to make the playoffs.
04:49Well, yeah, I don't know why the sportsbooks had that.
04:52But you look at their defense, right?
04:54Just their top four defensemen, you were like,
04:57wait a second, you paid Lindholm a bunch of money.
04:59You got Sidoroff.
05:00You got, obviously, McAvoy.
05:02And I get it.
05:03Maybe Lurie wasn't –
05:04You know, the jury was still out on him as more of a defensive player
05:09versus an offensive-defensive player.
05:12And I don't know.
05:14I just –
05:14I thought this team was a playoff team, going to be scrapped,
05:18which they kind of are.
05:20Yeah.
05:20But I feel like we kind of look and go –
05:23But when you look at the forwards, outside of David Pasternak,
05:27starting the season, they had nothing.
05:29I thought we had high expectations for Kiki.
05:32Yeah, I'm going to say –
05:33I expected that you –
05:34Based on last season, you thought Kiki should have –
05:37and he's exceeded.
05:39But you didn't know he was going to be this.
05:41No.
05:41You didn't think he was going to be able to repeat what he had done.
05:43And you had –
05:44After what you saw from Elias Lindholm in his first season
05:47with the Boston Bruins, you expected nothing of him.
05:51Yeah, but you're paying him –
05:52You're paying him, what, $5 million.
05:54So you should be expecting some –
05:56When you're bringing these guys in, right,
05:59even though you might not get anything from them,
06:02you're expecting to get stuff from them
06:05because the money you're paying them.
06:06Wiggy, just call it like it is.
06:08The expectations for the Bruins in this city
06:11compared to other teams are so friendly.
06:14So friendly.
06:15How do you –
06:16How do you –
06:16Because they've won one Stanley Cup,
06:19and it's on Nessun, like, every week,
06:22behind the B of the 2011 parade.
06:26We ripped the team when they were the best regular season team
06:30in the history of the sport
06:31and then lost in the first round of the playoffs.
06:33We absolutely ripped the crap out of them.
06:34I'm not saying that this show doesn't hold them accountable.
06:37I'm saying overall, if you look at all four teams,
06:41the Bruins get the friendliest deal from everyone.
06:44Yeah, I find this so funny coming from a huge Celtics fan.
06:46Right.
06:47This is unbelievable.
06:48Well, the Celtics win.
06:49The Celtics are in the playoffs practically every year.
06:53And they have the best front office in the city.
06:56And the friendliest media by a wide margin.
06:58It's not even –
06:58I won't argue against that.
07:00I would say that the Bruins media is, you know, right there with it.
07:04You know who has the rudest media?
07:06The Patriots.
07:07We learned that yesterday on this show.
07:09Ben Boland stealing seats.
07:10Somebody's a seat stealer over there.
07:12That was just rude.
07:14Yes, it was.
07:15And he knows what he did.
07:16But this is rich.
07:17So the Bruins get a pass.
07:20Every other team other than the Celtics gets a pass.
07:22No, no, no, no, no.
07:23The Red Sox definitely don't get a pass.
07:25No, they don't get a pass.
07:25Especially when John Henry comes up on this show.
07:27They're the one team that doesn't get a pass.
07:29But you're right.
07:29The Patriots don't get a pass.
07:31The Bruins, they get a little bit friendlier.
07:35Maybe it's just from the fans.
07:37It's okay, guys.
07:38Hey, just push for the playoffs.
07:39It's all right.
07:40Yeah.
07:40And you're right because Sean's kind of –
07:43he's kind of capping a little bit.
07:44Because, yeah, we did criticize them for that record-setting year
07:50about getting bounced in the first round.
07:52Yes, we did.
07:52But then people were like, well, it was Florida.
07:57Defending champs.
07:58Nobody did that.
07:58Literally nobody said it.
08:00Literally nobody did that.
08:00It was that.
08:01We couldn't stop yelling at the team because they wouldn't play swimming.
08:05No, no.
08:05And Wiggy, this is where I'll say that just quickly.
08:07That offseason, the Bruins were very, very, very aided by the Celtics collapse
08:15later that spring.
08:16Because if the Bruins were a standalone gag job and the Celtics did what they
08:20were supposed to do, I think that would be a far more long-lasting wound
08:24for Bruins fans.
08:25I just feel like the Celtics –
08:27making my point, the Celtics took the heat off the Bruins.
08:31Right.
08:32Against the heat.
08:33Right.
08:33No, I'm saying that –
08:34but if you flipped it, I think it would have happened.
08:36Like, the Celtic fan is the single worst person to have talk radio with
08:41because they never are critical of their team.
08:44Bruins fans, I think, may be the most critical and honest.
08:48Other than Maria, who?
08:51I would argue that –
08:52That's the only fruits of color we have.
08:53I would argue they might be the most passionate.
08:56Yeah, passion I would give you.
08:57Definitely.
08:58But Mago's right, though.
09:00The holding their feet to the fire.
09:04You're talking about a – can you imagine if the Celtics or, you know,
09:08I guess we see the Patriots do it, but the Celtics basically broke the record
09:12for most wins in the regular season and then got bounced in the first round
09:16of the postseason and how the criticism –
09:20What are you – were you here during that period of time?
09:23Everybody on the planet was calling for Cam Neely and –
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