Is the Boston Bruins’ culture dead? | Bear With Me
The Boston Bruins have lost six straight games. What is going on? Joey Copponi and Rob Tocci lament the Bruins’ recent stumbling, address the emerging trade rumors between Boston and Vancouver, and try to diagnose what exactly is wrong with this team. All that, and much more!
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9 Comments
Idk there’s something going on in that locker room that’s not right. Like this isn’t the same Bruins team culture wise we have seen
Guys you are totally right
Watching these guys all forget basic hockey tactics simultaneously, and refuse to even try to make up for it with effort makes me feel like the culture is gone daddy gone.
Then when they have a stretch of strong, Bruins hockey, they go on the PP and it’s SO bad that it negates their prior effort and they go to absolute crap for half a period! They just seem so fragile emotionally. Whatever else they do, they need a TEAM of sports psychologists to re-convince them that they are good NHL players.
Of course, they are only good players when they are giving 100% effort.
This is good. Not all toxic and hyper negative like some pods but not all sunshine and pro team like others. Sorry I missed it until now.
Steve nailed it with the culture and hes right: the system is done.
Was my post too critical of the B's for you snowflakes?
Nice show, guys. I see certain Rinkside videos addressing “retools”. Not only do I think a retool is a flight of fancy in general, but I have no idea where the Bs would even start with so many poor players and the decent ones having NTCs. Any thoughts?
Why is everyone acting like the Bruins are just starting to free fall now?
Um, from January – May of last season the Bruins were a .500 team, they played below .500 vs. playoff teams and they had one of the worst 5×5 offenses and power plays in the NHL
This year?
The Bruins are a .500 team, they’ve played below .500 vs. playoff teams and they had one of the worst 5×5 offenses and power plays in the NHL.
They’ve just added having the goaltending and the penalty killing go backwards on them as well this year to their litany of problems
So the powerplay and the offense both struggled for the 2nd half of last season and all Sweeney did was swap out Debrusk’s offense of Elias Lindholm’s.
Debrusk is on pace for a 35+ goal season and Lindholm would be lucky to register 45 points at this point. And we’re wondering why the Bruins still aren’t scoring this year?
As for the prospect pool, the Bruins have had one of the worst Farm Systems in the entire NHL for a decade and it’s ranked 30th-32nd everywhere these days
Poitras, Lysell, Merkulov and Letorneau are their only real forward prospects. Lysell and Merkulov are depressed assets and Letorneau is an unknown that’s 3-5 years away
After those four it’s nothing but Don Sweneey’s collection of bottom 6 guys who won’t score as forwards in the NHL such as Kuntar, Harrison, Duran, Farinacci, Spicer and others
On defense the Bruins don’t have a single defensive prospect that projects as a Top 4 D-Man and the D prospects they do have all project as bottom of the roster players that are years away
In goal the Bruins don’t have a single real goalie prospect as both Dipietro and Bussi are both over 25 and an RFA and UFA respectively. There is no path to Boston for either so why would either agree to re-sign with the Bruins this off season especially at their age?
The Bruins also don’t have a 2nd round pick this year and their own picks are likely to be middle to back half of the first round selections which don’t typically turn into star players, thus their draft capital isn’t going to be viewed all that favorably by other NHL teams
As for assets they can trade this year, they aren’t trading any of the guys with full NTCs so forget about moving E. Lindholm, H. Lindholm, Marchand, Pasta, McAvoy or Zadorov and they won’t move Kastelic either as they just re-signed him
No one wants or would give them much of anything for Osterle, Wotherspoon, Peeke, Mclaughlin Koepke, Max Jones or Korpisalo
So the only guys they could trade for anything of value would be pending UFAs in Frederic and Brazeau as well as pending RFAs in Geekie, Beecher and Wahlstrom
Not a single one of those guys would yield much of anything in return. Maybe Frederic could get you a third round pick but that’s about it
So who is left to move?
Three guys with limited NMCs (8-10 team no trade lists) in Carlo, Coyle and Zacha
None of the three make a gross amount of money and none of three have too much term left on their deals
After that they’re down to just two more guys other teams would value that don’t have NMCs/NTCs in Lohrei and Swayman (Swayman’s NTC doesn’t kick in until the 2026-27 season)
So here are the Bruins real trade assets as again, they aren’t trading Pasta, Marchand, McAvoy, Eliase Lindholm, Hampus Lindholm Nikita Zadorov or Mark Kastelic and half their roster sucks and has no trade value
-Lohrei & Swayman (neither has trade protection right now)
-Carlo, Zacha and Coyle (8-10 team limited NTCs so all can be moved to 2/3rds of the league)
-Future 1st round picks 2025 and beyond
-Future 2nd round picks 2026 and beyond
-Poitras Lysell Merkulov Letorneau (prospects)
The Bruins shouldn’t be moving any 1st or even 2nd round picks as that’s exactly why they have the NHL’s worst prospect pool that houses next to nothing in terms of real, impact NHL talent today
Lysell and Merkulov are both depressed assets that have proven nothing at the NHL level. Their value as prospects would just be as “add ons” on any deal. No other NHL team is going to value either much.
Letorneau is raw and far away it’s doubtful he’s viewed as a real blue chip prospect either buy other NHL GMs
Again, they’re not trading Pasta, Marchand, McAvoy, Eliase Lindholm or Nikita Zadorov
So all this Bruins trade talk amounts to the Bruins moving Frederic, Carlo, Zacha, Coyle and maybe Poitras and or Lohrei as it seems that moving Swayman isn’t a real option either
Worse yet, if they were just to re-sign or replace their own UFAs/RFAs with their current guys or similar production UFAs, they’d still have this low talent offense and next to no Cap Space to add to the team this offseason, so how are they going to get better next year unless the league Cap goes up exponentially?
So whether Don Sweeney bites the bullet this season and starts making hockey trades as roster players are the only real assets the Bruins have to move or whether he makes those moves if he’s even GM this summer, changes are needed ASAP not just for today but for the Bruins friggin future!!!
However, the elephant in the room is the Bruins don’t have many assets that they can move, would be willing to move and or could get much in return for
They still also have limited draft capital and the NHL’s worst Farm System & Prospect Pool
It sure seems like this is going to get way worse before it starts getting better again
Their current run of crap play since the beginning of January suggests tha
As does being a .500 team for a calendar year now, being below .500 for a calendar year vs playoff teams for a calendar year now, while also having a crap farm system and limited draft capital in the near term future
It is what it is as this point
At the very least the Bruins need a re-tool and that probably means a new GM who has a new vision for the future of this team.
Don Sweeey had his run. They won nothing.
In 10 years as GM they’ve won one lousy 2nd round series, ONE!!! With Don Sweeney as GM
The Farm System has been trash for a decade and it has less talent in it today than any of the other 10 years of Sweneey’s tenure.
The Bruins are in Cap Jail this year and will be in Cap Jail next year too as Don Sweneey handed out $160M in contracts last off season and the product on the ice nosedived
So if there is either a re-tool or rebuild if Don Sweeney is giving the opportunity to turn this thing around, it could be another 50 years before the Boston Bruins win their next Stanley Cup
As for this trade for Elias Pettersson or JT Miller nonsense… Exactly that
1Cs almost never come up for trade as teams don’t trade them or let them get to free agency
Half or more of the league would be in on Pettersson and Miller if they are made available for trade
More than half of the league has better roster players, better prospects, better draft capital and a better future Salary Cap situation than the Boston Bruins do
There is no universe where the Bruins would be the high bidder for either Pettersson or JT Miller so just stop with this fantasy now.
It’s pointless to discuss it because the best package the Bruins could offer would be something like Poitras, Carlo, Letorneau and a future 1st and again, at least half the NHL could beat that offer
And stop with the Machand, Pasta, E.Lindholm, H. Lindholm or Zadorov going the other way in any potential Pettersson or JT Miller deals. All make too much money, have too much term and have full NTCs.
Those guys aren’t going anywhere, so come up with real solutions to this mess Bruins homers
Vancouver would have no interest in Geekie Brazeau Wahlstrom Mclaughlin Beecher Koepke or Max Jones
What’s Trent Frederic worth? A bag of pucks and a 4th round pick?
Coyle, Zacha and Carlo all could be moved as each only has an 8-10 team NMC and none of the three have too much term of money left on their deals but do you really think Vancouver values any of those guys to the degree they’d move Eliast Pettersson for them?
Doesn’t seem like it
The only Bruins forward prospects are Lysell, Poitras, Merkulov and Letoroneau. Of the four only Poitras would probably be of any real interest to them as Lysell and Merkulov are depressed assets that have proven nothing and Letorneau is a wild card, raw 3-5+ year away player
Other than that two guys with no trade protection in Lorhei and Swayman (Swayman’s NTC doesn’t kick in until the 2026-27 season.
Lohrei can’t play defense very well and it seems next to impossible to believe that the Bruins would move Swayman right now or that some team would even want him the way he’s played since getting paid
Again half the NHL or more would be in on Elias Pettersson and or JT Miller and most of the organizations if not all of them, would have better assets to give Vancouver than Boston does
So just move on from this trade for Elias Pettersson and or JT Miller stuff, again, at least in terms of the Boston Bruins, it’s just flat out nonsense and not based in reality
https://youtube.com/shorts/YY2oF56yP9g?si=pDM2l_bgKiG6bGre