Is Marco Sturm The Bruins Next Head Coach?

Is Marco Sturm The Bruins Next Head Coach?

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Hockey Hub. Sophia and Casey back with you. And as usual, we have a special guest this week. It’s going to be Connor Ryan. We’re going to bring him in in just a sec. But case, I wanted to set up the show a little bit. We have breaking rumor news. How about that? Not official breaking news, but we have kind of breaking rumor news about who could be the new head coach of the Boston Bruins. We’ve got Connor Ryan to talk about some offseason moves he thinks the Bruins should be making, offer sheets, so on and so forth. He’s an expert, so we’re going to kind of dive into what that means, what that looks like. We’ll touch on the playoffs, obviously, because that’s still happening. Maybe not for long, depending on uh how the next few games go. And then some Olympic stuff, Winter Classic stuff, but we’re all over the place again today. Casey, good to good to have you back. Missed you last week with Adam on. I know it’s so strange when I don’t get to hop on, but I’m excited, too. We’re going to learn a lot from Connor and then at least we’re narrowing the search for the Bruins head coach. So hopefully some good news coming there. But uh I’m excited to chitchat and happy to be back on with you. Yes. Okay, without further ado then let’s bring Connor Ryan in. He’s uh he’s on a timeline. He’s going to go cover the Patriots after this. Uh a man who has many skills but especially hockey. I love reading his hockey stuff. I’ve already told him that uh his tweets are some of the best in the game. Uh and Connor, we could talk about them, but we’re going to get serious. We’re not going to talk about funny tweets yet. First of all, thanks for being on the show. Of course. Yes, absolutely. Thanks for having me. He’s one of the first guys I followed when I got to Boston, too, by the way. So, we do love your tweets. Perfect. Thank you. I do what I can. Very informative and entertaining, which is the perfect combo. Um, Connor, you wrote a great article of uh on the what the Boston Bruins should do, and you explain how offer sheets work. We want to touch on that, but we’re going to start with this breaking news that again is still a rumor. It’s not official, and we’re actually getting uh more and more updates as the morning goes, but the rumor last night was that Marco Sturm was going to be the new head coach, the next bench boss for the Boston Bruins, of course, with Bruins uh experience himself, but that isn’t official. And one of my favorite sources um in the world for hockey news is Elliot Freriedman. This isn’t a tweet from him, but he has his podcast, 32 Thoughts. Fantastic podcast if no one’s ever listened to it. Uh, but this is what he said this morning. I’m under the impression that Sturm is still supposed to visit Boston. Now, whether that’s to do another interview or to be given the job, I can’t say that as we record because he was also going live this morning, but he’s very much in it. So, I really uh trust Elliot Freriedman. Um, but it seems like all things point are pointing towards this. What do you know? And what do you think? Yeah, it does seem like when you look at the finalists and you’ve heard, you know, the names Marco Sturm, you’ve heard Mitch Love, who’s the assistant coach for the Washington Capitals, you’ve heard Jay Woodcraftoft, the former Oilers head coach, you hear the same names over and over again. And when you hear Marco Sturm, it checks off a lot of boxes, right? Where you obviously have the Bruins connection for a player that that was here and scored some big goals for this team. But I think what’s impressive about Sturm is the fact that he’s kind of carved out his own coaching career both overseas on the international circuit and then with the LA Kings for what stands as seven seasons. And I think you look at what he’s done there, whether it’s serving as an assistant coach on Todd Mlullen staff or spending the last three years coaching the Ontario reign of the Kings AHL team and developed a couple of guys who are making an impact for the Kings right now, whether it’s Quinn Biffield, uh Brandt Clark, a few different players like that. Uh Sturm just seems like a guy that is what the Bruins are kind of looking for. And I think when whether it’s Sturm, Love, all these kinds of younger coaches, I think what the Bruins are doing here is they’re trying to set the tone of what they’re looking for this off season. And I think if you’re bringing in a guy like Sturm who’s 46, who’s waiting for that opportunity to be an NHL head coach, has kind of paid his dues in terms of the amount of experience he has, um, working with a lot of different coaching staffs, obviously helped, uh, team Germany, win a silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics. You know, it’s easy to look and just be like, “Oh, well, it’s a former Bruin. Of course, this guy makes a lot of sense.” But he’s a guy that I think you look at his resume and his track record. It’s a guy who’s due for an opportunity. And I think if he is the guy, um, Bruins fans should be excited to see what he can do to kind of mold and build and I think grow, especially with what’s going to be a pretty young and revamped roster moving forward. Yeah. If he does happen to be the guy, is it hopeful that he’ll stick around for, you know, more than a year or two or even three seasons, 46 years old, known to have key development with younger players, good with blended locker rooms as well cuz some of the veteran guys that he had for the Ontario Rain team, you know, were a little bit older and got their tap to the LA Kings a little bit later on. So, could this also be a helpful sign for just structure coming back into play? Yeah, absolutely. And I I think you look at like the different paths the the Bruins could have gone with this head coaching search and they’ve obviously cast a very wide net. But I think when you look at who they’ve been linked to, whether it is Sturm or you know these younger assistant coaches that are waiting for that opportunity, I think that signals a Bruins team that I think they have high expectations and they want to get back in the playoffs as soon as possible. But I also think bringing in a younger coach uh for the long haul at least projects stability. And I think more importantly patience, right? That I don’t think it’s going to be like we need to make the we need to make the playoffs right away this year. That is the main goal and we’re going to move assets and do everything we can to get back to it. I think if you have a younger coach like Marco Sturm who’s you look at some of the hallmarks of what he’s done and a lot of people mentioned communication and working with younger players and relating to players as being a former NHL player um who you know played pretty much a decade ago. I think bringing in a coach like that signals that this team is going to at least extend some patience to Sturm or whoever it is and give them a time to build up the roster. Whereas if they opted for, you know, the Peter Lavlettes, the Gerard Galance, the John Tortoellis, these guys who they have a established track record, right? Um, and they usually get results pretty quickly, but then it kind of fizzles out in a year or two. I feel like even if maybe there’s more risk with a younger coach like Sturm, it does feel like that’s a guy you hire to be here for four years, five years, six years, and have him develop with the team as opposed to trying to do the the quick fix where, you know, if they got Lavlet, it’s like, all right, are are the Bruins just trying to get back into the playoffs, have that one-year bump and see what happens? I know, listen, Bruins fans want to get back in the playoffs as soon as possible, but I also think the the smart move is to be patient and see what you can do with this team in the next couple years and develop what’s going to be a pretty young roster moving forward. Connor, I’ve changed my mind uh a thousand times about whether it mattered if the Bruins new head coach had Boston Bruins experience. And at first I was like, “No, no, it doesn’t matter.” You know, culture, whatever. like that did figured that that would just stay in the room and and try to, you know, bring it back this season because there was a little lost uh last season. But then, you know, I was thinking maybe it does, especially with this um unclear captaincy and and um you know, just just how important that is to the Bruins. Anyway, I’m not going to go off on a tangent, but where do you stand on that? And not sure if you can answer this question. If you can’t, that’s okay. But what do you know about his voice and what kind of voice he had in the room when he played? Um, and where do you stand on on him understanding the culture being important as a head coach? Yeah, I I do think having that experience is going to be key in terms of, you know, what he’s going to do if he is the head coach of navigating an offseason that has a lot of question marks. Like hiring Marco Stum, if that’s the case, is just step one of 50 the Bruins have to do this offseason, right? They got a lot of work to do. And I think even if this team is really active this offseason, which we all expect, they’re going to enter camp with one, two, three roster holes or a lot of question marks in terms of who’s going to be where, which younger guys are going to step up. And a lot of it’s going to fall on the head coach to really uh see what he can do to navigate a team that probably isn’t all going to be a finished product uh this off seasonason. you know, they’re not going to be able to account for all the different uh deficiencies in this roster over the span of one off seasonason, even if they have about 28 million in cap space. So, I think having a guy that knows the market, knows how vocal, I guess, the fans can be, uh, opinionated maybe is the best way to put it. I think having that experience can go a long way. And from what you hear about uh Sturman, what he’s done, uh communication is always what you hear about in terms of just, you know, being really upfront but relatable to to younger players, up through the ups and downs that every NHL player goes through, whether it’s them learning their game in the AHL or going up to hockeyy’s highest level. Um, and also it seems like when you look at what I think his main hallmarks is as a coach, it’s a lot of drawing from kind of what the Kings do best, which is playing a pretty structured grinding style of game. And maybe that’s not the most exciting product on the ice at times. I know I know Tom Mlan love to do the 131 quite a bit, but I think also if you’re the Bruins and you’ve got so much to do this off season, I think the most important thing if you’re trying just to write the ship pretty quickly is getting back to your identity as a defense first team, build from the goalender route. If you do that, I think that at least sets you on the right track. So bringing in a guy that is going to preach those principles and Sturm, I think makes a lot of sense if that’s who they’re targeting as their new head coach. I love that question, Sophia, because you mentioned market, Connor, and you see a lot about this needing to be a market that players want to play in and obviously coaches want to coach in. And I think Sturm can be a guy that can make it more attractive again. And plus, he’s got some ties to players that I’m hoping, I’m not going to say strong arm, that he can uh convince to come play in Boston, especially with the offer sheet conversation. But is there something that you know about him that would make him make this market more marketable to make players want to play here outside of his communication? um and the fact that he’s a strong former two-way winger. I know that the center conversation is consistently talked about in terms of building out this team, but do you think that he can just kind of have a better eye to make this more attractive? Yeah, I I think you look at his track record, especially, you know, developing and it’s not just guys in the AHL, but guys that were younger players with the Kings who have now blossomed into uh key spots with the Kings now from when he was an assistant coach. I think if you’re especially going into like the offers sheet conversation, if you’re a younger player who’s 22 to 24 who’s looking to take another big step forward, I think you see what Marco Surm has done in the AHL and the NHL. If even if you’re a free agent who’s looking for your first big contract, you think you can hit another gear with a guy who’s uh has that reputation as being a key developer in in Marco Sturm. I think it it makes an an appealing destination. The Bruins already have, you know, the appeal of the original six. they’ve got the opportunity to play with David Posick, all these kinds of things. But I think especially uh a head coach kind of sets the tone for what the roster is going to be or what’s going to be their their foundation or their principles. And I think selling, you know, free agents or anyone on a coach like Sturm, a former player who’s still young that still seems like he’s willing to grow with the game and do what he can to to help younger players especially take a big step forward. I think there’s a lot of appeal to having a guy like that running the show. I agree. And uh like I said, there were so many candidates out there and and as we were hearing more and more names, I was doing more research into each one and the more I think about it, the Bruins experience does matter, even though at the beginning I was like, I don’t think so. Um but Connor, we have you on. Originally, we didn’t expect this breaking news. We wanted 20 minutes of your time. We only have 10 left to talk about your fantastic article on offer sheets. uh the reason it was fantastic and what the Bruins, you know, might be doing this off seasonason where it’s a lot of great information, but we want to start with just the explanation like you did in your article of what that process looks like and the cost uh to some teams if they go that route. So, can you give us a little technical breakdown before we get into what the Bruins might be doing? Yeah, using offer sheets and you know targeting restricted free agents is not it’s something that I feel like uh reporters and media people talk about in the offseason that it never actually gets put into practice by teams. It’s something you don’t see all that often because uh it’s usually pretty tough to pull off because essentially it’s you’re targeting a free agent who a team still holds his rights uh going into free agency. So you essentially have to send submit an offer sheet to a player. So, you send out a contract. Uh, usually has to be a pretty hefty raise from whatever that player who’s usually due for their first big contract at that stage of their career. Usually they’re 22, 23, 24. Um, you submit an offer sheet and the team has an opportunity to match it, the team that holds the the players original rights. Uh, they can either match it, which most teams end up doing if that ends up being the case, because a lot of times you’re essentially negotiating that contract for the original team, which is pretty convenient. But if it is a team that either doesn’t have the cap space to accommodate that contract or they got to move out to other contracts on their roster to accommodate that offer sheet, they’ll usually let that player go. And if that’s the case, the team that does sign that RFA not only gets the player, but also has to submit uh or give up draft compensation. And it can kind of depend on uh how hefty the contract is. It’s based off of the average annual value. So, if you’re signing a guy to a contract between two and a half, four and a half million, it’s going to be uh usually it’s like a second and a third round pick is what you end up giving up for compensation. If you’re signing a player that’s going to end up having a contract of, you know, 7 million, it’s usually a first, second, and third round pick. So, it’s it’s a principle that you don’t see that often because one, you’re probably paying a premium for a player and you’re also giving up draft picks as well. And it also has to be your your team’s own draft picks. it can’t be if the Bruins wanted to do that, they can’t give up like Toronto’s 2026 first round pick or anything like that. So, it’s a practice you don’t see that often, but I think you look at what the St. Louis Blues did this past year where they targeted a team, the Edmonton Oilers, who didn’t have a lot of cap space. They got a lot of it tied up to two really good forwards up front. So, it made a lot of sense. and the Blues signed two kind of unproven guys in Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg thinking that hey they didn’t get a lot of run in Edmonton but we’re gonna sign them for affordable deals give up what was essentially a second and third round pick and and put Edmonton in a tough spot but they can’t match our contract offers and bring these guys aboard what happens Philip Broberg who was kind of a spare defenseman with the Oilers ends up being a top four defenseman uh this past year for St. Lewis and then Dylan Holloway who I think had six goals this past year with Edmonton ends up having almost 60 points. So, I think when you look at uh offer sheets, it’s a bit of a gamble, but if you’re able to identify, especially those younger players that are due to break out, especially, it’s a really uh smart way for a team to add what could be a high value player for what could end up being a pretty good value if it is someone who has just not broken out yet with their original team. Yeah, the risk versus reward, that’s always a fun game to play. Back to the strong arming that I’m hoping could potentially possibly happen. Are there any candidates that come to frame of mind for you? Because JJ Purka unhappy with the Buffalo Sabres. Has the German background as well, could play for a German head coach? I feel like there’s ties there. Not to mention is that Yokohharu, his former teammate as well, assisted him on a number of goals throughout his season. So, there’s connections here that I think could help amplify the results. But, are there candidates that jump out to you? And don’t tease me with Matthew Ny because it’s never going to happen and it breaks my heart. Yes, I I I will say a lot of people immediately point to Matthew N, but I almost feel like when you’re looking at an offer sheet, right, if if you wanted to sign Matthew N, who a great player, you sign him here, he’s going to be a 30 goal guy the next four or five years. So, I think we all agree on that. But to do that, you’re probably offering an insane contract that Toronto probably is still going to match. Toronto has a bunch of cap space, especially if they let Mitch Miner andor John Tiveres go. So, you have that issue. And also, if you wanted to sign him, are you signing Matthew N to a $9 million contract that means you’re also giving up two first, a second, and a third round pick to get him? Probably not. I like Matthew Ny, but I don’t know if he’s worth that. And so, I I think it’s instead of signing a guy like Matthew N, it’s finding the next Matthew Ny, right? It’s the guy who maybe has 10 goals the previous year, but you look at his underlying numbers or his usage um and you feel like he’s due to break out. It’s kind of like I know he wasn’t a uh a restricted free agent, but like Morgan Geeki was a guy that you looked at his numbers and how uh he wasn’t really used all that much in Seattle and you’re like all right if you put him in a middle six spot you can get a useful player out of it. So I think JJ Purka is a young player that makes a lot of sense right in terms of his skill set. It’s got the the German ties if it is Marco Sturm. So that could be pretty appealing. But I also look at you know players like Will Coulie with the New York Rangers. They’re a team that has, you know, somehow freed themselves from all this this cap jail that they were in by moving like Trouba’s contract, um, Barkley Gudros, and now they’re right back in cap jail because they took on JT Miller’s contract. So, don’t really know what New York is doing, but they, uh, they could be a team that if you give someone like Will Culie a uh, a pretty good offer sheet, they not may not be able to match. And he’s a guy that, you know, had 300 hits this past year, had 20 goals, only two of them on the power play. Like that’s the type of player that his floor is maybe a line driving third line regular for the next five years, but maybe he’s the next N where he could be a a 30 goal guy down the road. Like I think it’s all about finding players like that. Um there’s Luke Evangelista for the Nashville Predators who had 10 goals this past year on a pretty bad national team. Like nothing nothing too crazy, but you look at his numbers and he puts the puck on net. He’s averaged uh I think he’s one of the best uh players in terms of shots on shots on goal per game. He’s a guy that you look at him it’s if he can be a middle six player that ends up being a 20 goal regular and you can offer sheet him for three three and a half million maybe that has more value than signing like Brock Besser to an eight half million dollar contract right if he ends up being a 20 goal guy. So it’s easy to I think immedately look at the Bruins calf space and look at you know Mitchman or Brock Bess or Nikolai Eers and those are the flashy names and they would help for sure but I think if you’re especially trying to you know plug multiple spots in this lineup using that offer sheet to bring in someone like a evangelista can at least give you someone in the middle six that can help you right away and most importantly I think can really build and grow with your team for the next couple years moving forward. Love that. That was kind of where I was going to go with my last question. We only have a couple of minutes left, Connor, and then you got to go. So, I will wrap with a quick one, but just if you don’t mind furthering that thought just a little bit because your article does explain it. Why go the offer sheet route? Is it essentially just to not overpay, to not just look uh I mean, we talked about the NY thing could be an overpay situation. Don’t think Don Sweeney would ever do that. If I know anything about the Leafs, they will overpay people. Um, so that that’s that’s happening. Uh, for sure you can put my money on that. But, um, yeah, is it essentially because of where they are in terms of this retooling process? It’s, you know, maybe getting kind of the sneaky middleline guys that they can develop themselves that may not turn the season around immediately, but kind of turn into a Morgan Geeky. And sorry, last quick one. Don’t know if you can answer this, but how long does a team have to match the offer? Is it like a as long as they want kind of thing or a 24-hour uh process when that happens? I believe it’s uh I want to say it’s about a week. So, they have a little bit of time. So, I think there’s a lot of teams that probably get the offer sheet and they then open up their version of cap friendly and like all right, how are you what contracts are we going to move here to to make something happen? So, they do have some wiggle room there to see what they can do. So, again, you have to be smart in terms of, you know, finding the right type of uh team that really doesn’t have a lot of cap space. You look at like when the uh Montreal Canadians offer sheeted Sebastian Aaho, Carolina immediately matched. They were like, “Thanks for doing our contract negotiations for us. Yes, we wanted to keep Sebastian Aaho. You made it a lot easier for us.” So the same thing with Matthew Ny. If the Bruins were to give a a huge contract to him, I’m sure Toronto would be like, “Oh, thanks.” Like we didn’t have to even go through the whole process. We we didn’t have to go to arbitration or anything like that. So, I I think especially when you look at offer sheets, it’s not the end- all beall and it’s still something that is not widely used, but I think when you look at just how talent efficient, especially the Bruins uh rosters, especially upfront, I do think if you’re able to sign uh you know, a guy like Kulie or Evangelista um or or Purka, it gives you a guy that yeah is a younger player that can grow with your team, but also even if you’re kind of paying upfront for potential with some of these players. I think I think you almost have a better chance of, you know, hitting gold with someone like that as opposed to again someone like Brock Besser. And I I like Brock Besser as a player, but he’s a guy that if you’re paying eight eight and a half million for 25 goals, like would you rather than roll the dice with Will Culie who could be a 25 goal scorer, you’re getting him for four and a half million, right? It’s I think people look at how much cap face the Bruins have and they’re like, “Oh, they’re going to be able to sign three or four guys easily.” I don’t really think that’s the case. It’s going to dry up pretty quickly, especially if you’re going for some of the top names on the market. So, I think you have to be selective and find ways to get the most value out of what your cash base is this offseason. And I think offer sheets is the way to go there in terms of maybe adding a forward or two that has higher upside. Absolutely. I think we’ve learned that it doesn’t always take a big name to level up a roster and that’s what we love about hockey. It’s chemistry and that plug-andplay is very important. Koulie’s fantastic. Got to cover him for a hot minute this past fall in New York. So he jumped in on the top six guys a number of times and helped drive the engine that was New York trying to figure out their system at the time. So get more on this. Connor had a great article breaking down the offer sheet information. Connor, thank you so much for joining us. Also great highlights for Jeremy Swayman over at World’s Crushing at 7 and0 and helping pull off a gold medal win for the first time in 92 years. So check out Connor’s work. It’s time for Sevilla and I to hit a break. So Connor, go get your Patriots stuff in and join us on the other side of this quick break here at Hockey Hub. Thanks, Connor. Welcome back. Sophia and Casey here with you. We just said goodbye to Connor Ryan. Uh good tweeter, fantastic writer, good great journalist. And he put out an article on how the Bruins should be using offer sheets uh this off season to um to boost or bolster their roster. And uh we had to let him go because he had to go, but I could have asked him a bunch more questions. Really informative. uh if you guys want to read it over at uh Boston Globe. But um Casey, I wanted to just to touch on the process itself. What something he said in the article which I wanted to bring up but we ran out of time which was kind of funny. He’s like if you do this you might get booted from the lunch table as a you know the GMs might boo you. It’s kind of like trying to date someone’s current boyfriend. You know what I mean? It’s like let me take your boyfriend out for a cup of coffee and like Yeah, if he likes it better here, I’ll take him. And it’s like, yeah, I’m not cool with that. You know what I mean? I am not cool with that. Um, but it is it is how the game works. But I always I always try to find analogies of like real life scenarios. But, you know, essentially he was explaining, hey, you give this restricted free agent an offer sheet and then obviously the current girlfriend of the uh of the guy or the current owners of the team, the people have their rights, they get to decide if they want to match it or not. So in one way he did say it might make the process uh easier for the team that’s negotiating the contract if if they’re setting market value or whatever it is. Uh but on the other end you got to be sure it is like it is I don’t want to say snaky. It is part of the game but GMs have relationships too and uh in working and talking with many of them around the league sometimes they don’t like doing deals each other with each other if you rub them the wrong way. So you got to it’s gambling. You got to be sure that uh you’re not doing this to a bunch of people cuz it’s not it’s not a free-for-all. It’s not like let’s just try and see where it goes. This is also a relationship thing and you got to be careful a little bit with that. Yeah. It’s almost like a more ominous way of doing business. And you already kind of hate that feeling of something that’s like, is it happening? Is it not happening? But they have to be so inconspicuous about it. Um that’s a great analogy, especially cuz I just watched a show where a guy just kept coming for this other dude’s girlfriend. Like no shame about it. Um, and you’re trying to create an enticing offer and atmosphere to make a player change their mind. And usually when they put on that sweater, their first mindset is, you know, making an impact with that team, with that roster, kind of starting their legacy where they’re at. And you’re talking about players that are coming from, you know, other dynasty teams or original six teams. So, I feel like that kind of ups the ante, too, because when you talked about Will specifically, you’re coming from the Rangers. They’ve got a lot of heat on their back as well, but that’s an original six team. So, I can imagine how the conversations and the negotiations can be a little touchandgo considering the foundation of of both of these teams. But what I also like that he mentioned and elaborated on was just the fact that like it could be the smarter option. I think we’ve talked so much about, you know, the free agents that are going to be coming up this summer and you’re looking at such extensive contracts of eight plus million dollars and you’re hoping that they’re going to just immediately level up your roster. But I feel like, and I don’t want to speak for Bruins fans, but I feel like, you know, there were some acquisitions where they weren’t feeling like it panned out right away or it panned out enough to make a statement to go spend more money on a free agent. So, that it has a risk and reward sense to where like you can protect yourself from coming out of pocket too much, but also um it’s the draft picks. I just wonder if the draft picks are going to be worth it. And it also depends on the caliber of the player. Yeah, for sure. the draft pick um graph, which we don’t have, but it is in the article. It’s great. Um you know, you can potentially give up several first round draft picks. I think four if like the contracts over 11 million or something like that, a certain amount of money. But it is a ridiculous cost if you’re going high for the bigger guys. But I do, you know, we we’ve touched on free agency um in this this summer. the pool isn’t like the least interesting, but it’s also not the most interesting because of uh you know some of the bigger names you already know that they’re going to get max money or close to max money. Um and then you have these like middle of their career maybe leaning towards not the end but someone like John Tvaris definitely towards the end. Uh a Brock Besser a Nikolai Eer’s kind of middle of their career and is it worth the you know market value or wherever they’re sitting and that’s what Connor’s point is the $28 million in projected cap space that the Bruins have is going to go quickly and I like the idea of allowing another team to develop these guys. and he said probably stay away from the guys like Ny that everyone’s talking about and pick the Morgan Geekies uh of the world if you can and that’s what the whole point of the staff and scouts and that’s their job you know so if they can get a couple guys where the Bruins are only giving up a later round draft pick and uh get them for a decent cost love that idea but anyway unless you have anything else to say about it case I’ll give you the floor if not we can move on to the Stanley Cup final any final thoughts on on his uh his appearance on our show. Yes. Um loved loved that insight that he mentioned about going for the guys like getting another Morgan Geeky because I think it just pans out better. But um just for some names thrown out there that are not in the Matthew N conversation. Evan Bashard was another name because of what the Oilers did as Connor mentioned beforehand. They’re not um shy when it comes to the offer sheet conversation. I mentioned JJ Purka because I think that there’s great connection there and obviously he’d be reunited with a teammate that was impactful to his play. Um Mason McTavish, he’s another guy who’s been on the market, 22 years old. So that age range that Connor expressed um would be better to go for, especially considering the candidates that are being mentioned for the Bruins head coaching job. You’ve got probably four or five guys in the mix that are between the ages of that 22 and 24. um a couple guys out of Minnesota. So there could be a reunite uh for Kus Nadinov. So there’s a couple of ties here where like it doesn’t have to be a big name because they’re going to be with guys that they’ve played with previously and then you have a potential head coach that’s really keen on developing and encouraging and motivating those younger players to make an impact. So um go read Conor’s article. No, great. No, great job throwing in those names and doing some research uh for us there of like who exactly he could be talking about that article, who the staff could be targeting. I have I don’t know if I’ve said this on the show, but I’ll probably say it all the time. I have like actual decision paralysis. I have such a hard time making decisions. So, this is just I didn’t know that. Yeah, actually like little things like do I want coffee or tea today? I’m like stuck. I like freeze. So, this morning Oh yeah. Or both. Exactly. Uh but can never do the job. So I just let the the pros do it. I couldn’t even um begin to like imagine of what decisions I’d be making and and especially with like oh god it’s giving me stress just thinking about it. I was like that too. And then it was weird because growing up as a military brat, my parents used to get so frustrated with me about that and then all of a sudden I was just constantly like all right just pick one. Just pick. But I’d have so much anxiety after the fact. So, I totally get it. It’s a lot of stress and like Sweens takes a lot of heat for the decisions he makes, but uh like I said, he’s made some good ones for sure as well. And now we’re just waiting to confirm who the head coach will be. And then to your point, this whole offer sheet stuff, guys are going to sign in the off season. You need to know that who to the who the head coach will be and what kind of attraction they might bring. Um, okay. I mean, I can still go on on this, but I think we should move on to the conference finals that uh are both in 3-1 series leads now. And I definitely thought that we would be going seven and obviously there’s still the potential in both. Are you surprised with how dominant Florida has been and how dominant the Oilers have been? Yeah, starting with the Oilers side of things actually because I think that’s probably one of the matchups, Oilers and Dallas Stars. I think last time I went to about six games, but this was already being raved as something that was going to be a juggernaut matchup. And as soon as you hear juggernaut and you know all these key terms for a battle, you get excited about it and then it just kind of deflates. Um I think I mean I mentioned on here a couple of times there’s things about the Edmonton Oilers that I did underestimate. I’ll take full uh tap on the shoulder for that and because goalending whenever it’s questionable, a lot of things can happen. But Steuart Skinner just kind of gets hotter as things go along and that helps a really formidable offensive team such as the Oilers. You got Conor McDavid telling the media, “We could play defense.” So, as for the media side of things, as for the personalities you’re seeing out of the Oilers, I appreciate that. But after everything the Dallas Stars have gone through in terms of like close and no cigar and just doing it over and over again, I thought they were going to put up a better fight. I thought we were going to see better depth scoring come into play. There was so much conversation about like you haven’t seen the best of us yet because they had key players that were injured that finally joined the lineup and it still feels like it hasn’t packed any punch. So that’s where some of the lack of entertainment came for me. Like I feel like we were on the edge of our seats waiting for guys to return and Robo to get back out there and then it’s just been like nope Edmonton’s the better team and like we’re going to see two conferences that just kind of fizzle out too quickly. But your take on that before I guess we switch to the Eastern Conference because the Panthers are a whole another conversation. Yeah, just just in general, I’m surprised um that the games haven’t been closer. And it’s one thing if we’re talking about like a 3-1 series lead, but they’ve gone to like overtimes. I don’t think we’ve seen an overtime in this uh conference final, I’m pretty sure. Um I think but yes uh like thinking like I’m thinking double overtimes and you know guys blocking 50 shots a night and that’s what I was expecting to see as opposed to like blowout games which is kind of what we’ve been getting. Obviously very exciting for Oilers fans. Uh I’ve heard you I’ve said this before but you know it’s their year so to speak that they made it all the way to game seven of the final last year lost to Florida and it’s their year to do it. So, like for them blowing and bowling over teams is no problem. The first round is always so exciting, but you know, we so we saw so many lead changes, we saw a couple hatt tricks, we saw so many storylines that I was just expecting it to get more intense as the series went on and it’s kind of not gone that way. And for me, it’s so unique with hockey. And let’s not like I’m not discrediting the Dallas Stars that they’re like not putting up a fight or the Carolina Hurricanes. Um, like I said, there are a lot of leagues, sports leagues, where I don’t feel like parody uh a thing, and I just don’t enjoy watching um that much those sports. But with hockey, it’s always close. I just thought we’d have a little bit more um of the I don’t know what, like the intensity, I guess, and and Yeah. hanging on to the edge of your seat moments, like waiting to see who’s going to come out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and if if you’re the Dallas Stars and listening to our podcast, which I doubt they are, they’re probably like, “F you.” Like, it’s so intense on the ice, it’s not I’m not knocking that no one’s putting in there like effort. It’s so hard. And like looking at the box score and the score doesn’t even tell half the story. I just thought we’d have closer series. So that’s that’s my It’s more the consistency of seeing like closer games and stuff cuz No, you’re right. I don’t there hasn’t been overtime. There’s just been these like mega tilts of a team being more dominant in the third period. So game one, you just saw obviously the Dallas Stars capitalize on the power play over and over and over again, take over the third period, take game one and then it just kind of the script flipped. Then you’re seeing Edmonton Oilers have that dominant polish off towards the end of the games and then more so uh putting the nail in the coffin in that third period. And at first I thought we were going to see a little bit more depth scoring from the stars because then you get Tyler Sean into the mix and then you saw some other guys kind of make some pushes. But I think you said it perfectly like the anticipation of seeing who’s going to have the final the last say, the last dance that hasn’t been like um as intense and as competitive as one would hope, especially considering conference finals. And then on the other flip of the coin, you got the Florida Panthers who went into Hurricanes territory and decided to make it their own over and over and over again. And we knew that they were going to be a tough team because they found their stride versus the Toronto Maple Leaves. And the Panthers are that team that once they kind of get into a rhythm, um they’re very punishing and they’re very good at being consistent at that. But again, you just wanted to see better hockey in the conference finals. Totally. And we talked about Florida looking unbothered. Uh I love that you kind of came up with that word. you know, uh, obviously they got shut out in the last game, but I don’t think they’re too stressed about it. Uh, and again, I don’t know why I always feel like I have to defend myself. It’s just cuz I know how hard these guys work and I know how tough these athletes are that I hate to like come across thinking that Florida thinks they’re coasting or they’re just like relaxing and that the Panthers are asleep. Uh, yeah, sorry. Carolina Panthers NFL. Anyway, um yeah, the hurricanes are asleep. That’s not like at all what this is. It’s just uh Florida is they’ve got the recipe. And yeah, I don’t know if it was with you. It was with Adam and I don’t even know if we got to it on the show, but one of in the notes we were when we were talking like pregame what we were going to talk about on our show. We wanted to discuss um rosters and like building around teams that are proven to win and teams like copying that in terms of depth scoring, being able to roll all four lines, good goalending obviously like this isn’t um rocket science. I think, you know, those are obvious obvious tools and ingredients like special teams, so on and so forth, and just like kind of building these rosters to go all the way. And when you have two teams that are likely going all the way for two years in a row, the other teams around the league need to take notice and be like, what did they do at the deadline? Um, and you know, what do they got that are the X factors? Either way, I hope I’m not wrong. I’m praying that the final go seven games or at least six and we’re seeing like we’re on the edge of our seat for that. I’m definitely hoping that’s the case. But I I think we can both make that a hopeful manifesto because you’re talking about uh seeing a lot of emotion out of Okconor McDavid when things didn’t pan out for the Oilers last season. So that chip on their shoulder that being so close and it not happening for them for things almost going their way. Um, and that final game was just like, what did they win by one, maybe two, the Panthers. So, with it being so close, I feel like that stings even more. But you’re totally right. I mean, I don’t think that they’re nonchalant in the sense of not bringing their best game to the ice. I think that they just have that goldfish memory. They turn the page so fast. And I mean, like, look who’s leading the ship. Paul Maurice. His quotes as of late have just gotten even more Paul Maurice, if one can say. Yeah. like the shotgunning of beer versus like the things that he just comes up with for comparisons. Like you could tell that they’re just very good at that game happened. It’s like they’re the ex that you wish like pined after you but never gives you a second thought. That’s the Florida Panthers if we’re giving another relationship analogy. A relationship analogy. Yeah. No, that’s uh and that one hurts too. And you’re like, “Don’t you want me still, right? Don’t you check my stories?” No, I don’t actually. No, I don’t. David. Um, yeah, just to wrap that thought, it’s funny. I think I’ve told you that Paul Maurice’s quotes, you know, and his nonchalantness kind of bother me, but I’m wondering now, and maybe I do a deep dive in the offseason. Uh, one of my friends is Jackie Redmond. She does a great job on TNT, and she’s been doing the interviews uh with him. So, I might like do a deep dive on the psychology behind that. Maybe that’s a great way to protect your team, too. You know, like maybe there’s some kind of psychology behind get taking the attention, being this like quote dude be having this persona. Maybe there’s something there about protecting his team and and I don’t know. I I don’t want to get into it right now. It’s more of like a psychology thing. But I’m going to think about that because it’s not not on purpose and it does bug me a little bit and it doesn’t go unnoticed, but he could maybe have a tactic up his sleeve that seems to be working. Um, especially when you do lose, if you can kind of be clowny about it, and I’m not saying he always is, but he sometimes just the way he answers questions bothers me when when they lose. Maybe that’s a tactic. So, we can revisit that conversation when the summer is a bit slower. Um, but we do got to go to break because we have a couple more things to talk about. Uh, Olympic news and some Winter Classic news. We’ll get your thoughts, Casey, on that. We’ll be right back after this. Welcome back into the hockey hub here on Nessen. Casey and Sophia breaking down all the hockey things from talking to Connor Ryan about offer sheet opportunities, the potential rumored breaking news, Sophia, as you put it so perfectly of Marstrom maybe being the next head coach. And then we talked some conference finals, what’s been interesting or less than entertaining. And then sticking with the Panthers for a second. Um the guys who are just ruling hockey right now, they’ll be hosting a Winter Classic down in Florida versus the New York Rangers. There was a give and go, a push and pull to the reaction on this one, Sophia, about whether or not people were excited about there being a Winter Classic down in Florida. Of course, the first thing is the ice, the concern about the ice, but the entertainment around it being the Panthers as well as the Rangers. What do you What do you make of all of these Winter Classics and outdoor games? Yeah, I feel like there are too many a stadium series and I don’t know what the other ones are called, but two just too many uh for sure. I remember the first one uh and I think it was HBO or someone did like a behind the scenes the 24/7 series and again this was before we had this behind the scenes was such a trendy word like this access like it was so cool to get um the behind the scenes and to like see the setup and the snow and it was actually cold and it was so cool and a once a year on New Year’s Day. I think that’s excellent. I understand from a fans perspective, I think it kind of gets tiresome and gets annoying, but the league doesn’t care if the league is making money and if they’re selling tickets and if they’re selling swag, they’re going to keep doing that. And so my thought about it being in Florida, you have a a team that could barely sell out a couple of years ago, was not putting bums in the seats. all of a sudden they are Stanley Cup finalists and Stanley Cup champions and they’re growing the market there. If you’re like a whatever an 18-year-old kid or a 5-year-old kid and you didn’t really know about the Florida Panthers but all of a sudden everyone’s talking about them because they’re winning. You really care about the Winter Classic and what the NHL wants is to grow more fans to make more money. So to them this makes sense. As a diehard born and raised longtime hockey fan myself who doesn’t need the marketing, I don’t really love it, but I I get it in terms of dollars. Yeah. Do you feel like it’s taking away from the spark? I mean, a context Winter Classic and now you’re taking it down to the South. You’re taking it to Florida, uh, my backyard. And yes, the growth of the game is important, but do you think it’s just going to take away dull the spark that made the Winter Classic what it was? What was your favorite Winter Classic, by the way? Um, I would say like the the the first one, the earlier days were great. I did get to go to Detroit versus Toronto. Uh, we did a family, not my family, but someone really close to me family kind of road trip and it snowed the entire time and it was freezing and it was everything you kind of wanted. It was it was almost too cold to be honest with you, but whatever. Like that’s we knew that that was happening. um you know, check the weather, had the blankets, the hot chocolate, the warmers, but and funnily enough, like it snowed the entire time. I couldn’t really see anything of the game from the stands. Like it you really didn’t go get to watch the game, but uh Toronto versus Detroit and it was exactly what you’d want out of an outdoor game NHL experience. So, do I think the spark has died or or sending it to Florida? I think it’s already kind of over. Like the spark of the the the Winter Classic is kind of been done. That’s not to say that the league shouldn’t continue to do it. I mean, and I also got to cover the Bruins one at Fenway, which was so great. Bruins and Penguins, you know. Um, so like that that’s where I’m kind of like talking two sides out of my mouth because that was so exciting and it was so fun. and Fenway and you know Sydney Crosby and Patrice Berson facing off in the faceoff circle like two legends like you know teammates on team Canada so cool um and when it’s in your city you’re like hell yeah so that’s why it’s not really fair for me to say who cares or like the spark’s kind of over I think the league if they just stuck to kind of like one outdoor game a season it would draw more attention in terms of viewership but actually they have the numbers I don’t and I think if they were losing money, they wouldn’t be doing this. So, obviously, people are paying attention. What What’s your thought on it? You’re from Florida. Uh if you didn’t work here and you were, you know, 20 years old or whatever, like a young budding kid wanting to get into sports, would you care? And would you would you want to make the the drive to go? Yeah, I think if I was in my 20s and um you know, still in Florida and stuff, I would love that opportunity for seeing how, you know, how they’re going to pull more fans that are down in Florida, how they’re going to continue to grow the game. And like you said, I mean, the marketing aspect of putting this there helps with growing the game. You’ve got Wayne Gretzky who’s doing a development center down there. So, you’ve got, you know, NHLers and and Hall of Famers that are investing so much money in the Florida market. I think that that’s something else that adds to it. But it’s just kind of cool to see that like that’s a bigger conversation in a state that never was considered for hockey whatsoever. Um, growing up, I know a lot of people are like, “Well, how’d you even get into hockey?” Well, when my dad got stationed to a random small town, the two options there were tennis and skating. My mom’s business partner’s son played hockey. His daughter figure skated. And then my mom came home one day with a pair of skates and said, “Go join Lauren and figure it out.” But I learned early on that like the guys that I grew up with and the guys that I hung out at the rank with by sixth, seventh grade, they had to a afford boarding school and b make a decision to leave their hometown to go to the boarding school to even have an opportunity to potentially play in college or in Canada and maybe AHL or NHL one day. So, I’m just hoping that it shifts the market in a sense of like there’s going to be better development in Florida to where guys don’t have to pay and shovel out money to go to boarding school to just have a chance in the league. So, that’s where I come from on that sense. Yeah. And I think that’s what they’re doing. And like I’m being reminded of the Bruins had a outdoor game at Lake Tahoe and it was COVID and I was supposed to go as the reporter but we weren’t traveling because CO and that whole thing. So, yeah, missed out on that opportunity. Um, so, you know, again, if I if you’re part of it, of course, it’s so exciting. Like, I would have loved to cover that. Would have loved to do that. Uh, our producer letting me know that the Bruins have an outdoor game this season. Whoops. Didn’t know that. At Tampa as part of the stadium series. So, if I get to go to that or cover that, like, I’m not going to be sitting there being like, “This is overdone.” Like, obviously, if you’re part of it, it’s so You’ll love it. Raymond James Stadium is going to be a fine area for the game. And plus, Tampa will make it fun. Bias. Maybe it’s maybe it’s just more thinking of like I remember the first Winter Classic. Everyone who likes hockey, whether or not your team was playing in it, they were watching. Like it was like a spectacle. And you can’t expect something that’s been repeated 10, 15, 20 times to still be a spectacle. So like w with whatever it is. So it’s it’s the NHL isn’t doing anything wrong. It’s maybe more of like a TV experience. It’s not that much of a spectacle, but if your team’s in it and if you’re trying to grow the game, like you said, it’s going to bring a lot of tension to businesses who might be like, “Wait, this hockey thing, look how many numbers showed up. Maybe we do invest in a rink. Maybe we do get skates for our kids.” The NHL and Gary Bman say what we want about him. We have 32 teams now in the league. They have done an excellent job growing the game, and that is his main job. People forget that. People are like, “Oh, Bman, this Bman that.” He’s is a hockey fan. I’m sure now. But he’s a businessman and if he’s running a business, he’s doing a good job. So anyway, that’s my rant. I think we got to go to break. You can send us to break if you have any final thoughts. But uh that’s my little rant. No, you’re 100% true. In order for us to keep upping these contracts and adding to the capital, we’ve got to grow the game, which means more fans and burrowing our way further through Florida. So, um maybe more on this, but definitely got to get some updates on some other things going on around the NHL or more so the Olympics on the other side of this quick break. Don’t go anywhere. Stick with Sophia and myself here on the hockey [Music] hub. Welcome back into the hockey hub. Casey and Sophia, as promised, going to give a quick update when it comes to the Olympics. So, it’s been announced that uh Russia will still not partake in the upcoming Olympics. And the biggest question mark around that are obviously heartfelt reach is Alex Ovetkin and it maybe being his last opportunity or likely his last opportunity to play in the Olympics and now that’s not really a thing. So obviously without us getting too far into it, Sophia, um probably your initial reactions to this when we think about Obie, we talked about him so much on here. Yeah, I mean obviously very disappointed for him and just the way it’s crazy because he’s has he has a very long career to think that for the majority of your career, you’re not eligible to play in the Olympics because of the way the negotiations between the PA and the NHL were going. they weren’t allowing them for a couple of I believe it was two Olympics but definitely uh Pyongq and then COVID hit and that was a big discussion what were they going to let them go were they going to let them go and in order to save the season without guys getting too sick or the testing they decided not to do that and I remember for Berseron um who addressed it at the podium for the Boston Bruins side you know he was just so disappointed because he felt that that was going to be his last one and in chance and indeed it was and I remember seeing like how gutted he was, like gutted and angry. And Bergie never got angry. You know, he was very composed, but like you can just tell that it hurt him so much. Um, and so I didn’t get to talk to Ovuchkin about it, but like every guy says you dream of winning the Stanley Cup, but almost more you dream of representing your country and winning gold. And so, yeah, you know, it’s not their decision. They’re powerless in this like crazy political climate and then powerless with the negotiations. sad for him. I feel like we we’ve only got a minute left, so I want you to get your two two uh cents in there. But also, really quick, whoever does win gold, got to put that asterisk that you didn’t face Russia uh who has some of the best players in the world. So, that’s my thoughts. No, I couldn’t agree more. Some of the best of the best out there, and they want to compete against each other, you know, as people as players that have worked so hard their entire career to compete against the best and just admire each other’s play. Um, I think you put it perfectly though. you’re powerless in this situation in a sense. So, I think that makes it a bit of a tougher pill to swallow. So, I can understand the passion and protection that other players have for um some of the players that won’t get a chance to compete. But, all right, that’s a wrap for us today. We had Conor Ryan. Huh? I said we’re done. You said we’re done. We had Conor Ryan. A reminder to check out the details of offer sheet information and stay up to date with us for the head coach conversation. Until next time.

Is Marco Sturm the Bruins next Head Coach? The Bruins are rumored to have narrowed down their Head Coach search to the final round. Former Boston Bruin Marco Sturm is one of the coaching candidates that people around the NHL are linking to the team. Sophia Jurksztowicz and Kasey Hudson talked with Conor Ryan of boston.com about the latest coaching rumors and much more!

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