00:00Hello, good morning, everybody. Bruins obviously have a game tonight and are on a five-game winning streak, but I
00:06have a question to ask everybody, especially Scheim, because Scheim is the hockey guy in the room, because Marco Sturm
00:12benched Zdorov on Saturday after he had a minor penalty on Friday while they were down.
00:17Now, Zdorov leads the league in minor penalties and is also second when it comes to penalty minutes this season.
00:28To me, this isn't new for Zdorov. 14 years, this has kind of always been the player that he has
00:33been, so the Bruins know who he is, right?
00:36What he said to the Globe yesterday, Zdorov spoke to the Globe, had me a bit concerned about how somebody
00:45may feel about how they're being treated on a certain team. Just to read a little bit of it, he
00:50said he felt disgusted about the scratch. He said, quote, listen, we are Boston Bruins. We play that brand of
00:56hockey, and I'm fitting this brand really well, and I believe it fits me really well.
01:00He goes on to say, I'm emotionally invested on and off the ice, so when I go out there, I
01:05will die for any of my teammates and this logo that's on my chest. Lastly, he says, quote, sometimes emotions
01:13can get ahead of you. It happens, but at the end of the day, that's why they brought me here
01:18to play that brand of hockey.
01:21When it comes to making sure that players are all happy during a win streak and so early in the
01:28season, it does concern me a bit when Zdorov is known to be that big, bad Bruin, and that's a
01:36type of hockey we've all wanted to see kind of back in this city, and to bench him a healthy
01:41scratch on Saturday.
01:42And listen, I understand. You're Marco Sturm. You're probably frustrated. They were down on Friday when he got that penalty.
01:48They still won the game. Yes, then they won on Saturday. I just don't know if we want to rock
01:54the boat this early in the season.
01:55This is a great lead from you.
01:57And it's not my AI assistant.
02:01No, no, no.
02:02It's not.
02:03This 978 text that says, diehard Bruins fan, I was very happy with the benching. He needed to get his
02:10head out of his A.
02:11See, so, and that's why I asked the question, because I'm sure a lot of people feel that way as
02:15well. I just don't, this isn't new information about Zdorov.
02:20Yeah.
02:21It's more how the athlete takes it.
02:23Yeah, the fans might look at it and go, oh, great job. You know, he needs to get out of.
02:27Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, famously, it happened to Cam Neely, and he was horribly embarrassed by it.
02:33Right, and he's pissed.
02:34And it was Stevie Casper who had him sitting there on the bench, dressed and ready to go.
02:42So, it's not good for the player. I'm sure Cam knows that.
02:46But, maybe it's the only way, if it's the only way, if a guy's taking dumb penalties, and it's the
02:51only way to get through to him, then maybe that's, but Marco Sturm felt like that's the only thing he
02:56could do.
02:56But also, Zdorov, much different level of a player than Cam Neely.
03:00Like, I think that's the other thing, too. It's not like Zdorov is some points machine, massive, integral piece of
03:07this team.
03:07Like, yeah, you want him to be a big, bad Bruin, and that really helps in the playoffs and stuff.
03:12But he also gets a ridiculous amount of penalties.
03:15So, you sit him down and be like, look, we love the way you play hockey.
03:18You need to take the night off. Just, like, take a deep breath.
03:21We need to dial it down just a hair. We're just starting the season here, guy.
03:25We need to just relax. And then if he comes out tonight and plays really good, it clearly works.
03:31And that's the expectation.
03:33I always just wonder, reading what he had to say to the Globe concerned me a little bit.
03:38And I haven't even...
03:39Is he going to be disgruntled or something?
03:41Is he going to be disgruntled?
03:42And he also talked in the article about how supportive his teammates have been of him.
03:46So, if he is a dressing room guy and everybody loves him, and then they hate to see him be
03:52benched,
03:54it's something I wanted to present.
03:55Yeah, you don't do that to a guy of his level.
03:58Here is the great Maria from Watertown.
04:00Hello, Maria.
04:02Good morning, everyone.
04:04Courtney, excellent lead.
04:06But I just wanted to add a little bit of context in Marco Sturm.
04:13That benching was exactly what Zdorov needed, because he was playing relatively recklessly in that game in Anaheim.
04:25And he was trending in the wrong direction.
04:28And you have your first-year goalie, DiPietro, in there, saving your bacon.
04:35And Zdorov took a very, very undisciplined double-miner penalty late in the second period in a two-to-one
04:45game,
04:46which put Anaheim on a three-minute power play to start the third period.
04:53So I have to give Marco Sturm credit for having the cojones to do that to someone that he referred
05:02to as a leader on that team.
05:05Zdorov needs to be on the ice and not in the penalty box.
05:11He eats up a lot of minutes.
05:13He's on one of the PK units.
05:15And to me, it sends a message across the board to the entire team that we're going to stay structured
05:25and we're going to stay disciplined or else.
05:29Okay, Maria, thank you.
05:31Also, possible alternate view of this, the Bruins want him disgruntled
05:37because they want to be able to unload that contract without anybody getting mad about it later.
05:44So you want to be able to trade him because it's not a good move.
05:47If you want to trade him, then embarrassing him publicly doesn't help his trade value.
05:51It's not embarrassing him publicly.
05:53It's a way for you to say, look, he's being detrimental to the team.
05:56We need to bench him.
05:57Yeah, but nobody wants that guy.
05:59Nobody wants the guy who...
06:00Somebody might want that guy.
06:01No, the other organizations are like, oh, we don't want a guy that you think is reckless
06:06and can't follow whatever it is you're coaching.
06:09Because you brought up the point, like, this is who he is.
06:12He's always, you know, like, we've been talking about this for the past couple of years.
06:16He takes stupid penalties.
06:18But if he's playing that...
06:19He's led the league in penalties.
06:21Right.
06:22But if the thing is...
06:24Back-to-back seasons, maybe three.
06:25But if the thing is, like, we're bringing you here for you to be that guy that can kind
06:29of, like, toe the line of gray area of trying to bring that physicality back, trying to
06:35bring that big, bad Bruins back.
06:37You can't bench a guy who is in year 14.
06:41It's one thing if it's year three, four, and you're saying, hey, listen, we love what you're
06:45doing, but we need you to reel it in a little bit.
06:47Quickly, Sean.
06:48Yeah.
06:49It's one thing to toe the line.
06:50It's another thing to get a stupid penalty by going back to a guy after a player's dead
06:53and, like, punching him in the face.
06:54Yeah, but what other sport, like we've talked about, where you've seen a team bench somebody
07:03that they view as being a leader, and that's been in the league for over 10 years?
07:07It's not a good look.
07:08I don't care.
07:09To Courtney's point, that player's not looking at it like, coach, I understand why you're
07:13doing this.
07:14Yeah.
07:14That player's like, really?
07:16I mean, Gerard Mayo said he was benching a running back, and then he started him.
07:21Yeah.
07:22All right.
07:23That was mind games, Greg.
07:25I can't believe that happened.
