Bruins can’t buy a goal these days | Poke the Bear

[@BahamutBreaker]

Conor, 13:31 I feel like media personalities, like yourself, too often make vague claims like this one. Who are the “passengers” that you’re referring to? If you’re not going to identify which players, specifically, need to improve effort and/or consistency, then there’s zero reason for the organization to call up the young AHL skaters that you’re clamoring for. A team only calls up a replacement player when someone on the current (NHL) roster needs replacing. So, if the Bruins bring up Lysell and Poitras, who leaves?

[@robertforte6697]

Um, these days the Bruins can’t buy a goal but this isn’t a “new” thing The Bruins, going back to the puck drop on the season, have been a lousy 5x5 offensive team with a lousy power play. They’ve been and still are at the bottom of the NHL in just about every meaningful scoring statistic and that’s been the case all year And news flash, guess who was a miserable 5x5 team with one of the NHL’s most inept power plays from January to May of last season? Um, it was Boston So again, this whole Bruins not being able to score consistently thing…. It’s kind of being going on for about a calendar year now Why does this problem still exist? This isn’t rocket science as the change from Montgomery to Sacco have barely seen the 5x5 offense and power play numbers improve for one simple reason alone… The answer is, they have a low talent forward group where they play up to 3 bottom 6 talented guys in their Top 6 every night where they also lack both a true 1C (lindholm isn’t that) and a true 2C (neither Zacha or Coyle are that either). Sure, Lindholm is a 2C but they don’t play him there, instead, they play him above his talent level as a 1C which is they same thing they do with Colye, a 3C that’s defensive minded that they play as a 2C that they expect Top 6, offensive production out of As of this morning: 29th: overall scoring 26th: 5x5 scoring 24th: goal differential (-17) 30th: ranked power play 26th: ranked penalty kill 1st Line Caliber Players: 1,1RW Pastrnak 2nd Line Caliber Player: 3, Marchand-Zacha- E. Lindholm Lindholm is not a 1C he’s a good, two-way 2C Pavel Zacha failed as a Top 6 center in NJ. He’s failed here too in that same role which is why he’s played predominantly wing in Boston. He’s not a Top 6 center. Zacha is soft, not great on draws and a ghost come the postseason. Even calling Pavel Zacha a good 2LW is being kind but I’ll give it to him but again, he’s not a real Top 6 2C That’s it. 4 forwards out of their group are Top 6 ish players But again, they lack a real 1C because Lindholm isn’t that and they lack a real 2C because Zacha is wing not a center and Coyle is a good, two-way 3c, he’s not an offensive generating 2C no matter how many times they put him there. Yes Lindholm is a 2C but they don’t play him there, they play him as a 1C They also play guys like Geekie, Brazeau and Coyle in the Top 6 regularly, guys who aren’t Top 6 caliber players No NHL team is going to win many playoff games when they don’t have a real 1C or 2C nor a real 2RW or 1LW while playing 3 Bottom 6 guys in Top 6 roles and add to that a miserable power play that can’t score either And folks wonder why the Bruins can’t score goals and haven’t been able to score goals consistently for over a calendar year now? This is not that hard people, it’s called lack of talent and this isn’t a small sample size anymore Instead it’s a year long roster/talent problem at forward that exists and unless the talent is changed nothing about their scoring goals is going to change either The Bruins are losing games to dreadful NHL teams like CLB and NYR even when they dominate or play well versus them simply because they can’t even score 2 goals a night consistently, let alone 3 goals most games Trent Frederic hasn’t scored in 11 games. He’s having a turd of a season where he’s under 40% on draws a minus player and is on pace for a 11 goal / 25 point year Yet every FN night he’s in the lineup. Beecher and McLaughlin and even Koepke are just low talent guys that are never going to be good enough to score consistently and those aren’t really there roles anyway However, letting Poitras, Lysell and Merkulov rot away in the minors, which is only hurting their value, while they also go 1-3 in their last 4 games and lose to two bad teams in the process, going back to back games scoring 1 or fewer goals and having played below .500 all year vs playoff teams…… Just to keep Beecher Mclaughlin and Frederic in the lineup every night right now seems almost like malpractice at this point This is just bad management combined with bad coaching decisions at that point Boston played below .500 vs playoff teams from January-May last season Boston has played below .500 vs playoff teams all season this year as well 9 of the Bruins next 11 games are versus teams that reside within the current playoff structure After the NYI tomorrow they won’t play another crap team until January 20th versus the Sharks which again, will be only be their 2nd game in these next 11 where they will be playing a crap team, the other 9 games will be versus playoff caliber opposition Next 11 game prediction record wise: 4-7 Best Case Scenario in the next 11:: 6-5 Tonight’s game in Toronto could get ugly quick. Toronto is good offensively and they are a much tougher team overall to play against this year under Craig Berube. It’s also Hockey Night in Canada so Toronto will be fired up I feel the only thing saving the Bruins from an embarrassing loss tonight would be Toronto throwing up all over themselves As that’s still kind of Toronto’s mission statement as a franchise, I guess that’s still possible :)

[@gregorsmith]

It wasn’t Swaymans fault after his idiotic behind the net “passes” directly led to the Bs being down 2? I cant man I just can’t with these 2

[@curiousbrowza]

It's never Swayman's fault. Perhaps, it's Ullmark's fault for leaving? 😂

[@BahamutBreaker]

Then don’t. No one cares, at all, that you “just can’t man”.

[@gregorsmith]

@@BahamutBreaker obviously some people care flamer boy

[@curiousbrowza]

@@BahamutBreaker I appreciate his sentiments. It's not like he's arguing or stuffing opinions at someone et al. But, yeah, he's just sayin' and it's his say. Cheers!

[@BahamutBreaker]

@@gregorsmithNope.

[@Guitar_Gangster23]

Boring Bruins Being Bad

[@zachhaist6426]

Freddy isnt worth 2 million. He definitely doesn't deserve a raise. He deserves nothing more than a 1.5 mill one year prove it deal

[@BahamutBreaker]

I don’t think you have a good understanding of what experienced middle-six forwards can demand on the UFA market. $2M AAV would be a surprisingly low result for Frederic next July. There is no way on Earth that he will be taking a “prove it” one-year contract this summer. Sometimes fans (including you) just do not understand UFA market value, at all. I’m not here to say Frederic “deserves” a larger salary, or not. He will get a larger salary, though. It’s just a matter of which franchise will be writing the paychecks.

[@zachhaist6426]

@BahamutBreaker then let him walk or trade him. Either way he can disappoint another franchise and not the bruins.

[@BahamutBreaker]

@Zach Easy to say that. If you let him leave as a UFA, you have to replace him in the NHL lineup. Middle-six NHL skaters don’t grow on trees. We learned that so far this season after DeBrusk left as a UFA. It is possible to trade Frederic midseason, but any team that’s acquiring Frederic this season isn’t going to be sending the Bruins a NHL-ready forward. Instead, Boston would receive future draft picks or the other team’s recent draft selections. Thus, you still have to replace Frederic in the NHL lineup.

[@zachhaist6426]

@BahamutBreaker he's not middle six, he's bottom six. They are very easy to replace.

[@curiousbrowza]

Actually, they can buy a goal (or two), dummies, but they'll have to mortgage some of that shut-down defense that they purchased. Why are you so limited in your thinking? Oh, I get it...fans = fanatics; one-sided thinkers. That's unbalanced, ya know. 😝

[@3dhyland]

@@curiousbrowza why don’t you make your own podcast “dummy”

[@curiousbrowza]

@@3dhyland On what topic? It certainly would not be sports entertainment (SE) which is a fraud. And pandering for tips with gambling advertisements is so low vibe. FYI: they can set any of the matches/games legally because it's sports entertainment. Regardless, I am flattered that you asked, but you're not the first/only one to make that pitch, although this is the first where SE was involved. Cheers! 🤗