Post-Game Talk: GAME 43 - The ship was the pride of the American side..... Oilers 4 BRUINS 0

[Boston Bandit]

Ugly Bruins

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

Ugly Bruins

Pretty much sums it up

 

[Alicat]

@Alicat I don't want him traded BUT they can't afford to let him sign with somebody else and get nothing in return.

We need draft picks

They trade Marchand then I’m done with this franchise.

You constantly bring up Marchand as the guy to trade first. You want him gone for some strange reason.

 

[Fenway]

I feel like Marchand wants to be a Bruin just like his buddy 37.

But he wants term

Elias Lindholm may have been a terrible miss and I have no clue what they do next.

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

They trade Marchand then I’m done with this franchise.

You constantly bring up Marchand as the guy to trade first. You want him gone for some strange reason.

I think Marchand is a Bruins lifey.

 

[Alicat]

I think Marchand is a Bruins lifey.

I hope so

 

[Blitzkrug]

They trade Marchand then I’m done with this franchise.

You constantly bring up Marchand as the guy to trade first. You want him gone for some strange reason.

If i may as a neutral party on this argument; I don't think it's anything more than presenting a scenario. Let's just say if the Bruins do crater between now and the deadline, pieces are going to be moved.

Marchand would be obscenely valuable to somebody given he's a big time playoff performer and has experience as a winner. Double that with him being on an expiring deal.

That's just a scenario though. There's absolutely no chance he move unless he himself asks for it. That's the only way i consider moving him and even then it would probably need assurance he re-signs in the summer. Lowkey i'm still kinda pissed at Sweeney for not letting Chara finish his career in black and gold so i'd rather not do that again.

I'm also not a fan of the "trade everything nailed down and tank lol." mantra you're going to see pop up.

 

[trenton1]

Call up Poitras. I like watching him play.

 

[GordonHowe]

Bruins players have no answers after getting outclassed by Oilers at TD Garden

After getting booed off the ice at TD Garden, Bruins players had few answers for their play after a 4-0 loss to the Oilers.

www.boston.com

 

[KOZ37]

If i may as a neutral party on this argument; I don't think it's anything more than presenting a scenario. Let's just say if the Bruins do crater between now and the deadline, pieces are going to be moved.

Marchand would be obscenely valuable to somebody given he's a big time playoff performer and has experience as a winner. Double that with him being on an expiring deal.

That's just a scenario though. There's absolutely no chance he move unless he himself asks for it. That's the only way i consider moving him and even then it would probably need assurance he re-signs in the summer. Lowkey i'm still kinda pissed at Sweeney for not letting Chara finish his career in black and gold so i'd rather not do that again.

I'm also not a fan of the "trade everything nailed down and tank lol." mantra you're going to see pop up.

I think if they want to expedite a rebuild, they need to be open to most anything. I'm not necessarily advocating a Marchand trade, but if Ray Bourque can be traded I think anyone could. I also agree Marchand would have pretty solid value to a contender. Heck trade him and re-sign him in the off-season

 

[Fenway]

They trade Marchand then I’m done with this franchise.

You constantly bring up Marchand as the guy to trade first. You want him gone for some strange reason.

@Alicat

To get decent draft picks somebody good HAS to be moved. That is the reality of a hard cap. Montreal is suddenly back in contention, which muddles things more.

Tampa is one point behind with FIVE games in hand.

I don't want to lose Brad but the options are now limited.

As KPD wrote

David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, still have years of “no move” protection. Ditto for newcomer Elias Lindholm and the injured Hampus Lindholm. Brad Marchand can be dealt, but Sweeney and Neely aren’t about to swap out their captain, who, by the way, remains on course to be an unrestricted free agent July 1.

Forwards Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha, along with veteran defenseman Brandon Carlo, can be dealt, though all three have varying ability to govern what teams they would accept in trade.

Franchise goaltender Jeremy Swayman, signed on the eve of the season for eight years/$66 million, is the one gemstone who can be dealt. Because of his age (25 when he signed the deal), his “no move” clause won’t trigger until the start of 2026-27, which would have been the season he bridged into unrestricted free agency.

Realistically, dealing Swayman is absolutely, positively, 99 percent out of the question, which is another way of saying anything can happen (see: Wayne Gretzky, age 27, Edmonton to Los Angeles, Aug. 9, 1988).

 

[BiteThisBurrows]

Well sucking is coming anyways so might as well get best talent they can .I could do a few yrs if they build it right .

Could you go as long as Anaheim? Chicago? Or what about Buffalo?

 

[Jumptheshark]

Oilers board all celebrating Skinner getting a shutout. Really? You shut out a team that struggles to score 1 goal a night. Congratulations

oiler fan coming in peace:

75% of oiler fans hate Skinner, believe he is an AHL goalie at best and that if we had legit NHL goaltending last june--we would have won the cup. Every lose is his fault and every game we win they believe it because he got lucky. Skinner and the goaltending coach are the two most hated people in the Oiler organixaton

 

[nORRis8]

oiler fan coming in peace:

75% of oiler fans hate Skinner, believe he is an AHL goalie at best and that if we had legit NHL goaltending last june--we would have won the cup. Every lose is his fault and every game we win they believe it because he got lucky. Skinner and the goaltending coach are the two most hated people in the Oiler organixaton

This is likely true, but I saw it differently.
Skinner was not good in the Vancouver series But as the playoffs went on to me he just gained confidence and became all around better
He let in two goals in game 7. He did his job in the final game.
Oiler offence was shut down by a strong forecheck as they just could not get anything started . It was surprising, but the offence sputtered.

 

[RiverbottomChuck]

Could you go as long as Anaheim? Chicago? Or what about Buffalo?

Every top team in the league has at least a couple homegrown top 10 picks it's okay to drop down a season every now and then and grab a real impact player without it meaning 7 years of suck.

 

[BruinsFan37]

This feels like the late 80s/early 90s i.e..

Pats are atrocious
Sox are bad
Bs are bad to mediocre, but somehow stumble into the playoffs each year
Celtics are wining championships

Which wouldn't be completely awful if I didn't hate basketball lol.

 

[Fenway]

Could you go as long as Anaheim? Chicago? Or what about Buffalo?

I think you can add Detroit, Ottawa and Poutineville to that question.

Charlie Jacobs is on record that the market will not support a rebuild but now it appears that retooling has failed. They might be able to get a Wild Card this year but then?

 

[Eddie Munson]

This team is borderline unwatchable. Period. Full stop. The end. Fin.

 

[smithformeragent]

All good things must come to an end.

The history books will show that they were able to prolong Armageddon and have an incredible regular season run that came suddenly crashing down in ‘23, and a solid Centennial season with a little playoff run in ‘24.

By prolonging the inevitable, you’ve delayed the rebuilding process and have made that part of this cycle more challenging. Had you not locked yourself into Lindholm and Zadorov last summer, you’d at least have cap space moving forward which would help you in acquiring picks due to your ability to take on dead contracts.

Strap yourselves in. This promises to be a bumpy ride.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

I think you can add Detroit, Ottawa and Poutineville to that question.

Charlie Jacobs is on record that the market will not support a rebuild but now it appears that retooling has failed. They might be able to get a Wild Card this year but then?

Surely this idea that the Boston/New England market will not sustain a Bruins rebuild is ridiculous. All the other major Boston teams have gone through periods of being horrible and gone on to thrive again. Bruins fans cannot be uniquely fickle, shallow and narrow-minded, can they? It's an extremely condescending and low opinion of the fanbase on the part of the owners, which perhaps should not be a surprise.

Yes if the franchise goes through a fallow period then attendances, merch sales and general interest will decline, and the Jacobs will make less money. But that's the way of it. They'll pull through and the sun will shine again sooner or later. If the Bruins do indeed face some sort of lengthy rebuilding or wilderness phase, they'll simply need to knuckle down, be patient and plan a way back to the pointy end. Whether or not the Jacobs would still want to be part of that, well that's up to them.

 

[TorontLoL 67]

During the next lifeless home game I'd love to hear the garden faithful fire up a "fire Sweeney" chant. Probably wouldn't make much of a difference but you know he couldn't hide from it anymore. Times up Don, pack your shit and get out.

 

[Blitzkrug]

That's such a bullshit excuse. "The market won't sustain it."

Then why did the Pats have no problem selling games out despite fans knowing full well they were going to suck? Sure they play less games but it's the fact fans knew in advance what they were getting. They didn't seem to mind.

The Red Sox have no problem putting asses in seats in Fenway despite the fact they have no tangible hope of truly competing in the near future with how little ownership wants to spend.

You would see a slight drop in numbers sure. Chicago is a good example. When it was apparent the sun was setting and they gutted everything from 2021-2023 their attendance dropped from 20k to like 17k, which is still over 90% capacity. Once they landed Bedard, even knowing the team wasn't going to be good anytime soon, numbers shot right back up.

Big market cities should be the last ones to fear a rebuild for this reason. Unless it goes catastrophically wrong like it did in Buffalo where a once proud hockey city has been turned into a wasteland. But even then, Boston isn't Buffalo.

 

[rfournier103]

Charlie Jacobs is on record that the market will not support a rebuild but now it appears that retooling has failed. They might be able to get a Wild Card this year but then?

I really want to give Charlie a chance and hope he’s more committed to winning than his father. He says that the market will not support a rebuild, but he might not have a choice. How long will the market support this? What the Bruins have been doing until now has not been working, and a change is necessary. I didn’t see the end of the game last night, but I’m sure that if the Garden was half empty and the Bruins were getting booed off the ice on a nightly basis (see: Patriots, New England), there would be a major change coming.

It is my opinion that the Bruins need a “reset.” I say “reset” and not “rebuild” because on paper, there is talent on this team and they should be getting better results than this. Are the Oilers better than the Bruins? Yes. 4-0 better? I don’t think so. I’ve been saying this for a while, but there really needs to be someone with zero ties to Boston or the Bruins brought in to right the ship. It is time for a new direction as a franchise.

Getting back to “the market” not supporting a rebuild… that’s horseshit. The Boston Bruins are a top-tier NHL brand with legions of fans coast to coast in the United States and Canada. I’ve seen enough Bruins away games to know that. The Bruins fans aren’t going anywhere, and Charlie should be smart enough to know that the more the Bruins win, the more money that will come in. The windfall from winning will dwarf the short term dip, and honestly, given the baffling patience we Bruins fans seem to have with this franchise, I don’t think there will be that much of a dip in viewership or attendance.

Just my two cents.

 

[Blitzkrug]

All good things must come to an end.

The history books will show that they were able to prolong Armageddon and have an incredible regular season run that came suddenly crashing down in ‘23, and a solid Centennial season with a little playoff run in ‘24.

By prolonging the inevitable, you’ve delayed the rebuilding process and have made that part of this cycle more challenging. Had you not locked yourself into Lindholm and Zadorov last summer, you’d at least have cap space moving forward which would help you in acquiring picks due to your ability to take on dead contracts.

Strap yourselves in. This promises to be a bumpy ride.

The Armageddon part is interesting because it's a tale as old as time: teams seeing the flame go out will always try to do something to extend that window which usually costs them dearly.

Detroit did it post Lidstrom/Datsyuk. Threw everything they had at deadline acquisitions and some very questionable free agent signings. They failed and are still paying the toll today.

The Sharks tried it by acquiring Erik Karlsson on top of handing out horrid extensions. That failed, but they appear to be on the road out of the abyss now with Smith, Eklund and Celebrini.

Pittsburgh for some reason learned nothing from the Sharks and did everything they did including trading for Karlsson. That appears to have failed and they are in for a long, dark metaphorical winter.

Boston relied on older vets, threw stuff at the wall in the form of deadline pickups and using free agency to keep the window open. They got the best regular season in league history, and another solid respectable season after that before succumbing to the shift of time.

Boston actually managed to somehow delay the end of times. You don't see it often so in that regard it's impressive

 

[smithformeragent]

The Armageddon part is interesting because it's a tale as old as time: teams seeing the flame go out will always try to do something to extend that window which usually costs them dearly.

Detroit did it post Lidstrom/Datsyuk. Threw everything they had at deadline acquisitions and some very questionable free agent signings. They failed and are still paying the toll today.

The Sharks tried it by acquiring Erik Karlsson on top of handing out horrid extensions. That failed, but they appear to be on the road out of the abyss now with Smith, Eklund and Celebrini.

Pittsburgh for some reason learned nothing from the Sharks and did everything they did including trading for Karlsson. That appears to have failed and they are in for a long, dark metaphorical winter.

Boston relied on older vets, threw stuff at the wall in the form of deadline pickups and using free agency to keep the window open. They got the best regular season in league history, and another solid respectable season after that before succumbing to the shift of time.

Boston actually managed to somehow delay the end of times. You don't see it often so in that regard it's impressive

There have been some pretty good trades along the way. Not franchise altering stuff, but enough to keep the window propped open.

Dealing for guys like H. Lindholm, Charlie Coyle, and Pavel Zacha. Contributors in the right roles.

You hit on Ullmark and then dealt him for a pretty decent return when you had to.

It helps when you’ve had guys on the top of the roster making less. That’s no longer the case. You’ve got your core pieces locked up now, and you’re paying them as the market dictates.

Pastrnak, McAvoy, Swayman.

Then you locked in outer core pieces in free agency and are paying them big money.
E. Lindholm, Zadorov.

They hit on their $1 scratch tickets last year in free agency and got key contributions from the likes of Heinen and JVR.

You really needed a guy like a Poitras to take a major step forward and be found money this season, and he’s apparently not ready yet. Probably unfair to expect him to all of a sudden just slide in and be a 2nd line NHL center and produce 70 points.

Which brings us back to the question:
Do you ride it out here and take your lumps or do you deal off everything not nailed to the floor to try to restock the cupboards?

Here’s my other question:
Is it simply lack of talent or did something in this franchise break when things went down the way they did with Swayman? Is there division in the room? Is there division between players and management? They obviously canned the lame duck coach who either did or did not want to be here.