Lessons The Bruins Can Learn From The NHL’s Final Four

Lessons The Bruins Can Learn From The NHL’s Final Four

Uh, I’m looking at the final four teams here in in hockey. Stars and Oil, uh, Panthers and Hurricanes, and I’m missing a team, the Bruins. So, my question to you, that was a nice setup, right? Stellar setup here. How in the hell can the Bruins copy these final four teams and get back here where they belong? Yeah. How can they get back? Well, the good news is, um, it’s pretty obvious where what what some of these four teams are doing. So, well, okay. And the first thing, and we got a chance to talk with Andy Brickley, which I love picking picking his brain. Um, that stood out to me a lot of raving about the defenseman, the defensive efforts. And typically when you talk about defenseman in hockey, especially a couple years back, you’re talking about their shutdown plays. You’re talking about them locking down the Done. But over the past couple of years, you’re hearing more about their ability to anchor the blue line, keep the puck in play, make sure that their team is staying um locked in in the offensive zone. And we’re seeing that um the key team to look at in this conversation is going to be the Carolina Hurricanes because they just kind of have a title wave of defensemen that get so actively involved. You’ve got Slavven, you’ve got Orlov, you’ve got um I’m missing a guy right now, Shawn Walker, which I shouldn’t be missing Shawn Walker because of his offensive defenseman efforts and what he has brought to the Carolina Hurricanes has been outstanding. So, their ability to just consistently keep everything in front of them and no matter what the pace of the game, it’s the stellar offensive defenseman that are so key. And Andy Berkeley actually talks to us on Boston is under the chat and mentions he would look to adding a defenseman to the Boston Bruins lineup. And I thought that that was amazing. Uh catch what Berkeley said here. Do you want a true stay-at-home defenseman or an offensive? No. No. I want a guy that can that can move the puck. Yeah. You know, I think the Bruins had a difficult time getting easy exits out of their defensive zone because of the lack of, you know, skill and experience on the back end. That was a problem. You got to get easy exits cuz you know so many teams like you watch the teams that are getting close to you know conference finals. You know Carolina qualifies. What do they play? Relentless hockey. You know that pucks they play the rim game in the offensive zone. They put pucks at nets. They their back pressure is all based on a fast skating game. So you got to have guys that can get to pucks, make plays, get out of your own zone and ease the pressure. And that’s what I’m looking for in that top 3D. So I was surprised to hear Brick talk defenseman and adding into the mix here. Now, we do know the Bruins were without Hampus Lynholm, which is a key asset to that back end. But more importantly, I loved his emphasis on he wants a defenseman that can move the puck. Number one, he wants a guy that can push pucks forward or get pucks on net and why that kind of translated to what the Carolina Hurricanes are doing so well. You got Shawn Walker and Demetri Orof. These defensemen are leading the postseason in rush chances and opportunities. So, they’re getting the play going. And what they’re doing so outstandingly is that once they start getting the play going, if they lose possession of the puck, they’re already backtracking, anchoring on that blue line to make sure that the play does not get past them and everything stays in front of them. As I mentioned beforehand, then you’ve got Shane Gosspear. I’ve raved about him a bit here on Boston the chat. I have tracked his career from the Flyers to the Red Wings. Now, him being part of Carolina, he is helping this Carolina team lead in offensive zone time. And then more importantly, he’s just had a number of clutch moments for this team as well. So, he’s one of those guys that can just walk the blue line, track the puck, and make sure nothing gets behind him and do so very well. Expanding past Carolina, because we did talk about four teams, you also have Thomas Harley for the Dallas Stars. He had that OT finisher to send Winnipeg Jets home and make them rethink if they can make another postseason run. But more importantly, it’s the fact that he has three goals, two assists, 23 scoring chances. You don’t hear of defenseman having 23 scoring chances, and he leads all defenseman in this postseason. So, he’s another guy who just constantly jumps in on the play. But where I also love his tenacity is the fact that as soon as a play gets going, his skating capability and what he is doing is that he is being a netfront presence while the rest of the guys are operating trying to find those lanes forward. So, you’re constantly seeing him in front of the net to either be that guy to have a deflection or to kind of get that low slot opportunity. So, you’re just seeing a lot of um defenseman that have a chance of keeping the plays alive. And I think that would just help take a Boston Bruins team to the next level. Expanding outside of the defenseman, the next theme that you’re seeing is the depth scoring. We talk about that a lot. And sometimes when you talk depth scoring, you kind of get too hung up on who are your top six guys. Well, where I go is bottom six. Um because I come from a background and covering a team where it was that third line that was like your token. So, yes, they were able to shut down plays and opportunities, but they were those clutch gears to get in those scoring chances and moments when your top six guys are locked up or they say your superstars have to show up, but if they don’t, then what is the next title wave of scoring and opportunity that comes into the mix? That’s how the Oilers kind of sneaked in in my opinion. I mean, they’ve got so many guys that can contribute to the scoring totality and it’s just impossible to think whose night is it going to be. Takes pressure off McDavid, too. Totally. Totally. And he’s such a king with setting up chances, too. But like it’s like they’re pulling pages from his book and I mentioned it earlier here on Boston is under the chat. It’s getting to the middle of the ice and it’s having that capability. So what is this third and fourth line going to look like? Where’s the depth scoring going to come in? Another team that does so well with that the Florida Panthers. Yeah, they do. Yeah, Lundle Luceran and now I know I don’t even say it. And now Marie, but still that was the engine driving scoring chances and opportunities in so many ways. and Lundell, take it back to the last postseason and the postseason before that. He has been such a clutch gear for that Panthers team, primarily operating on the third line. You and I talk about the teams we used to cover. Now we cover the Bruins, but I know you were in Tampa for two cup for two cups, right? Yeah. Um I and I covered the the Lone Cup for the Capitals, but I bring them up because they had a scoring defenseman back in the day named Mike Green, and they used to get bounced all the time, like first or second round. The Bruins knocked them out a few times, right? M they switched bring in a Tom Wilson who’s like a hybrid. He can score but he can also kick your ars, right? And then you know listen they didn’t they don’t have cups falling out of their pockets but they were able to break through and get one, right? So it just kind of makes me feel like this is a modern NHL thing, right? Most of these teams now have these scoring defenseman. It’s it’s kind of a norm, isn’t it? Is that fair to say? It is and it isn’t. I remember asking Jackie Redmond about this, like are are the stay-at-home defenseman becoming kind of extinct with the way that defenseman are developing now? And she said absolutely not. Like don’t veer away. And I agree with that just because, you know, think about it. The best teams, they have a second, third, fourth line of defense. You know what I’m saying? And just in in in a creative mindset, you want to balance. So you have to balance things out. Like for instance, you know, back home, not to take it back to Tampa, Ryan Mcdana is one of the best defenseman in the NHL. and who he was paired with. They typically paired him with an offensive defenseman sometimes so that they had the freedom to play up and if anything got past them, you have that lock down guy behind them. So, you always have to have somebody who can lock down the zone. So, your stay at home defenseman are going to remain key in my personal opinion and my opinion was swayed more after talking with Redmond. But with the pace of the game changing, um, with how scoring is changing, then yeah, having offensive defenseman being able to jump into the mix again, it keeps things alive and it just changes the layering of scoring chances and opportunities that you could present. You went through a lot of coaches who are available in the rumor mill for the Bruins earlier in the show, right? Is there a coach available that sort of fits what we’re talking about now framework-wise? Like if this is where the Bruins are, you know, are kind of moving to, is there a coach available now out of the pool of coaches that makes sense for that? Misha Donskov, okay, because look at what he pieced together in Vegas. You got Shay Theodore, you got Alex Petrangelo, you’ve got these offensive defenseman, but I loved when when Martinez was on their roster as well. So, there was such a live communication there of like who was going to be locked down in certain plays and moments and then who was going to push up to the blue line and start getting things going. Also, you’ve got to talk about bringing the power play to life. You don’t want to rely on special teams because you’ve seen a lot of exposure on teams that are better with five on five and strength opportunities in this postseason. But when you get that power play opportunity, you got to be able to close the door. Dallas Stars were able to do that. It was an unfortunate situation, but still. So, the power play has to be revived for the Boston Bruins in order to compete. Period. Point blank. But you’re talking about a guy who again has that defensive ability to really bring the best out of defense, but also can speak to an offensive defenseman and make sure that they have an equal level of play and participation. Get that power play up and going. And then the last line of defense is just your goalender getting back into the sharpest frame of mind possible because that’s the other thing. We’re seeing two very possessed goalenders in this postseason with Frederick Anderson and and Oddinger. And look, I’ve given Otter so much heat in the previous postseasons, but I think that maturity has come in on his side. I think that he’s taken the offseason to learn behind other quality goalenders, and you’re just seeing him make these outstanding plays over and over and over again. And like I said, your second line of defense, third line of defense, fourth line of defense, that final line of defense is your goalender, and they have to be equally as sharp. They can’t rely on what’s going on in front of them. So, I did see a number of times where when pairings changed up a little bit in front of ASI, it just kind of changed his confident level. and you saw some uncharacteristic moments. You actually see that out of Bravowski with the Panthers when they were getting loaded up on by by the Maple Leaves in those first two games of the series. It was uncharacteristic, although we saw it last postseason of just how far Babowski was coming out of that crease just leaving so much room behind him and you’ve got such skilled scorers in a knander and company. You know what I mean? Like you give them that little gap behind you, they’re going to find it. So, it’s just it’s also just having that constant pressure, but you’ve got to be able to have these communications and capabilities and confidence in your goalender so that they don’t get into any sort of uncharacteristic movement when things get intense. All right, Duchess of Hockey, prediction time. Let’s start tonight. The defending champs taking on the Canes. I hate that stupid cane thing where they crank or whatever, but it works. It works. It’s corny, but it works. It gets the people turned up there. Who do you like tonight in the East? H I’m scared to say the Panthers only because well they’ve got the freshest legs in a sense of actually I worded that bad and I I know people are going to go crazy over it. They’ve got the momentum not the freshest legs. They were just in battle. You know what I mean? They’ve got the confidence on their shoulders of being able to eliminate the Maple Leafs and I know it’s like okay the Leafed Leafs or whatever. But it’s going to be interesting to see if we get close to that rematch of May 2023 Eastern Conference final. I think that at that point the Florida Panthers were kind of still like young and and growing and learning what they needed to do so well in the postseason and they were able to surpass them and part of what they did so well was a lot of that overwhelming physicality. So what they don’t want to do is go into this and allow a lot of penalties. You don’t want to go in and put Carolina in a lot of you know power play chances and whatnot. And how are they going to manage those offensive defenseman or those defenseman period like Walker and Orlov and Costa Spear and how are they going to maneuver around a Slavven? And I just think that Paul Maurice is going to make the changes when need be. He can change the lines up. He can change the looks in an instant and he can keep it very interesting. So probably a closer game, one would hope. Um because I know everyone got on the Hurricanes and called them boring in the previous series, but I just think that with the Panthers freshly coming off of a game, that’s what I mean by fresh. Um, and the Hurricanes just having so much downtime. We saw how long it took for the Panthers to get going versus the Maple Leafs. I feel like it might have a a similar effect to the Hurricanes. V Case with a K told me months ago. She told me months ago that the Dallas Stars would end up in the finals and possibly win it. Here we are in the West. Oil and Stars start tomorrow night. I imagine you’re sticking with the Stars here. You called this. Yeah. Okay. I’m going to continue to ride it. I’m concerned about the depth scoring in comparison to Edmonton.

With the Boston Bruins out of the NHL playoffs, what lessons can the Bruins learn from the remaining final four. Travis Thomas and Kasey Hudson discuss what they think the Bruins can learn.

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