This is going to be a long one but god i need to rant about how this dude has seemingly ironclad job security while being shitty at his job
God help us if this chucklef*** survives another offseason.
On the Sacco front; While i don't think he's a particularly good coach, i find myself hard pressed to blame him given the pile of shit he has to work with;
- He has exactly 2 top 6 forwards. One is pulling his weight after spending half the season trying to figure out how to get anything out of the plugs around him, and the other is 36 with a bad hip.
- Everyone else legitimately sucks. Coyle sucks, Lindholm has been a disaster, Zacha has been hot and cold. You have a hole you tried to fill with f***ing Justin Brazeau. I like the guy and the effort he brings, but ain't no way this guy is playing in an actual team's top 6 or power play.
- Other forwards are plugs. Koepke, Frederic, Beecher, whatever trash they call up up from the AHL to placate Sweeney's need for grit. One of the 3 promising prospects you have is stuck trying to make something worth with these meatheads.
- Top 2 defenseman are out, and the rest either suck (Lorhei, Carlo) or are miscast (Zadorov, Wotherspoon)
- Stuck with absolute bottom of the barrel assistant coaches
Scotty Bowman couldn't get shit out of this roster.
It all comes back to Sweeney. Him, and Neely have been given what amounts to diplomatic immunity for far too long. Guy's been in charge a decade and has drafted exactly 3 impact players in 10 drafts; McAvoy(which was as easy as you could get), Swayman and Carlo. Yes, it's hard when you trade your first round pick a good amount of the time, but still jesus man you can't hit on more than 2 late round picks?
Let's not forget how mixed his deadline work has been.
2016 - traded assets for Lee Stempniak, a middle 6 forward for him to beat off to and John-Michael Liles. While the prices weren't stupidly high, it's the fact he thought this would be enough to move a needle. It wasn't and the Bruins missed the playoffs
2017 - Drew Stafford for a bag of pucks while the Bruins were in position to maybe make a more serious playoff run. Consider me whelmed.
2018 - Probably his most egregious deadline period; First, he dumps Frank Vatrano for a 3rd round pick because "he doesn't fit" because god forbid this team actually try to acclimate younger players. Vatrano puts up 20 goals in his first full season with Florida and has since gone on to be a pretty solid second line player looking at his third straight 20+ goal season with the Ducks. (Got himself a nice extension too. Good on ya, Frankie) He then followed it up by trading a 3rd for Nick Holden, for some reason.
And then the true coup; A first round pick, some junk and Ryan Lindgren (who ended up turning out alright) for a so obviously washed Rick Nash with head issues. Nash gets his bell rung (multiple times if memory serves) in the playoffs and never plays again. Bravo, Don.
2019 - Can't shit on this one. Coyle and Johansson. We all know how important this was.
2020 - A first rounder for Ondrej Kase. He played 20 total games for the Bruins, contributing nothing. Bravo Donnie. For good measure trade a solid 3rd liner in Danton Heinen for Nick Ritchie, who legitimately might be the dumbest hockey player i've ever watched.
2021 - Taylor Hall. Good move, didn't cost nothing and you got to hang on to him. Solid.
2022 - Hampus Lindhom. Cost at the time was debated (steep tbf) but you made that go away by locking him in to an 8 year extension. Questionable given there were already questions of how much gas the core had left but he's been great so far so i don't think you can get too mad.
2023 - The big one; Orlov, Bertuzzi, Hathaway as you're on the road to history. Basically a redux of Chiarelli pushing his chips into the table in 2011. Absolutely the right call, just didn't get the result you wanted.
2024 - A Bruins team punching above its weight in need of some forward help. Instead of maybe upping the ante you trade for a Patrick Maroon who can't skate or contribute anything outside of the odd mean chirp.
Other GMs have been fired for less, but not this guy.
