What is the cause of the Bruins mediocrity?

[Ryan77]

Someone really needs to start a "How would YOU fix the Bruins and make them great again?"

I see the same posters whining time and time again but never once offer up a suggestion for solution.

That's a really long post and I don't quite have time to write it right now but I love the idea.

My only thing is i think the Bruins are their own worst enemies IMO. Got rid of the right guys, kept some wrong guys and signed to many 4th liners to absurd contracts and here we are today.

Right guys gone:

Lucic
Boychuck
Seguin

Wrong guys kept

Quaider (love him but not worth his money)
kevan miller
Rask (will love the hate post I get for this one)

I also hate the Belesky signing and the Backes signing as well. (Post for another day)

But that's all the past and you want how to fix the future. It's a hard one because nobody knows how prospects will turn out here. I think some people are delusional to think all prospects will pan out as advertised. Also think some people here think only the Bruins have a good deep pool of prospects. A lot of players never really adapt to the NHL game/style.

 

[the overrated]

Well that depends if you consider his one down year as the normal or not. He's pretty close to his career GAA and SV% this year half way through.

I wasn't one of the ones questioning him; I just remember there being a ton of posters that had doubts on him, his contract, and questioned if keeping Jones & moving Rask would've been the better decision.

With that said: You're right, I probably could've/should've omitted that from the 'things that are going right and could be going wrong' list.

 

[Bruinaura]

I have no objections to people holding Julien accountable. But for every 20 posts that are calling for his head, we are lucky to get 1 who propose a viable coach to take his place....That to me is the real question. Firing someone for the sake of change is one thing, but that's only half the equation.

We ought to have a rule on this forum that every post that wants to fire Julien, it should be mandatory to put forward a name to fill his shoes.

Agree 100%

 

[ReggieMoto]

I have no objections to people holding Julien accountable. But for every 20 posts that are calling for his head, we are lucky to get 1 who propose a viable coach to take his place....That to me is the real question. Firing someone for the sake of change is one thing, but that's only half the equation.

We ought to have a rule on this forum that every post that wants to fire Julien, it should be mandatory to put forward a name to fill his shoes.

A name and why this candidate is a better option. For instance, I keep seeing Gallant's name but I haven't seen any reason that explains why he's a better option over the current coach.

 

[since76]

Swenny and chia gave clode players type he love and adore, he use them as first liner and pp and he never ever blame them and protect his beloved against everything !
And now , it is not clode fault because bruins are full of zero skill players
It is sooooooooo hilarious

 

[Bad Puck Bounce]

Well I had a nice long post written up and then Chrome died.

To sumarise, it falls on the Coaching staff, The Core players and their leadership, and the GM and President. No one is free of blame at this point, and to me, that's scary.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

I've been beating that drum for 2+ years now, but nobody wanted to hear it back then.

And before anyone responds with the usual "I've met Neely and he was this and that.... blah, blah, blah" The guy you meet in public is almost never the same as the guy behind closed doors running a business.

Bring in a President that knows business and has nothing to do with hockey ops (or move Neely there) and leave Sweeney in control of hockey ops. I'm more than fine with that.

And that, is not my gut feeling.

Just wondering:

Is it Neely impeding Sweeney from doing what he wants, or rather insisting he does something that he doesn't want?

 

[BMC]

Where is Marchand in this discussion? Isn't he one of Boston biggest weapons? Bigger than say Torey Krug?

I loathe Marchand and therefore any comment I make about him is too biased to be taken seriously so as a rule I don't comment about him

 

[Hali33]

I think the core is aging. Lots of wear and tear over the years which means more injuries and longer recoveries to reach 100%. They've also achieved their long term contracts, settling down, having kids. Less energy to devote to hockey, and less incentive to leave it all on the ice every game.

Outside of the core the depth is not there on this team from what I can see, despite a lot of hype. There is no room for the core to struggle or get injured because there's not enough talent ready in their development to step in, make an impact and keep things afloat.

I think management have struggled in the trade market for a while, dating back to Chiarelli's last couple seasons. Their significant trades have been, uh, criticized followed by multiple deadlines and off seasons of "we tried" where they seem pretty paralyzed, unable to do much of signficance. They've made some mistakes and I don't think they approach the market with confidence, for good reason. Very little wins over the past while.

I don't know what to think about the Neely/Jacobs stuff. There's reliable people alluding to this being an issue and I can see that being true. But it feels like Chiarelli had to own his mistakes as a GM while any poor move made under Sweeney's GMing seems to be pushed onto Neely/Jacobs meddling and not his fault. Don't remember Chia getting that bailout.

As for Claude, I don't think there's ever going to be a time where he's not a top coach in this league. But all coaches time comes to an end at some point and it's time for a change. I'm just not convinced it's now. To me, Rask, Pasta, Carlo and coaching squeezing something out of a pretty flawed roster are the reasons we even have a sniff at a playoff spot.

 

[Oates2Neely]

Yeah, but this isn't the cup winning Kings. They are having some problems with depth scoring too. Which when you have Kopi not performing, takes away a big chunk of their scoring.

Even if Bergeron was playing lights out, we can't win in the playoffs and go deep off the success of 3-4 players. We won in 2011 because of depth. We had 12 players with >10 goals and average looks to be around 8-9 per season for teams. The Wild right now have 6 players on pace to hit +20g per season. CBJ with the same. For reference, we had 4 in 2011. This all circles back to our biggest problem being depth with a side notion of lack of elite scoring.

I feel like this is a job for Don to accomplish. I don't think this comes from anyone else. I won't get on Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak or whoever for not carrying us because hockey is one of the biggest team sports out there. In 82 games, there will be droughts, there will be poor seasons, but we also have 4 forward lines and 3 lines of defense with players that can put the puck in the net. We need some more depth scoring and it doesn't look like it's coming from our bottom 6.



Right and if Vatrano manages to pick up a goal every other game, that is a 41g pace season which is unrealistic to expect. But one goal every other game doesn't sound all that much in the scope of the whole game, so it really highlights how many players we really need to contribute offensively. Defensive hockey is great, but unless we have like 5 defensive Bergerons on the team, we won't out defend less than we can score with this roster.

2010-11 regular season goals:

Lucic 30g
Horton 26g
Bergeron 22g
Marchand 21g
Ryder 18g
Chara 14g
Recchi 14g
Campbell 13g
Krejci 13g
Seguin 11g
Thornton 10g
Seidenberg 7g
(All above played minimum 75 games that season)

Wheeler 11g (58 gp)
Peverly 4g (23 gp)
Kelly 2g (24 gp)

 

[chizzler]

Remember way back when Chiarelli was fired and all this discussion was going on around here about the firing and the potential Sweeney hiring?

My only response to everyone was:

How much Sinden is involved? (and that was a rhetorical question).

Dan called me and I filled him all in on Sinden. Months later it came out how much he was involved.

There's your answer to your question

If that's the case Dom, this is all ownerships fault. If they're listening to Sinden, then old man Jacobs is losing it.

 

[Dr Quincy]

OTHER
The Bruins have gotten away for their identity.
In 90% of there games they been out hit.
But smaller and faster is the NHL as the Smurfs of the early 2010.

This is an example why the "eye test" often fails:

The B's in the Cup winning 2010-11 season: 21.17 hits per game.

The B's this year: 21.14 hits per game.

That 3/100 of a hit is really a huge factor.

 

[chizzler]

And anyone is surprised?

This team is performing exactly as most of us have predicted that it would.

 

[Dr Quincy]

Other: The Chara of 2016-17 is not the Chara of 2010-13. Thus he isn't able to lift the boats of the supporting D cast as he once was PLUS that supporting D cast isn't as good as the glory years group.

 

[amazingcrwns]

Other, Chiarelli's poor drafting has made it so the Bruins didn't have enough high end young talent to fill in the lineup as the older players worked their ways into more lucrative contracts. Boychuk, and Lucic were casualties of cap problems, Seguin and Hamilton was a self made disasters.

The next wave of talent is coming, but in the meantime we're seeing a lineup that's a borderline playoff team when fully healthy. Injuries aren't helping, but Rask has been standing on his head. I think Sweeney looks for a hockey trade at the deadline to strengthen the core and boost playoff hopes.

 

[missingchicklet]

Just wondering:

Is it Neely impeding Sweeney from doing what he wants, or rather insisting he does something that he doesn't want?

I wonder the same thing. I also wonder how much, if any, say/pressure Jacobs has/puts on both Neely and Sweeney when it comes to team direction, personnel, etc.

 

[Fenway]

If that's the case Dom, this is all ownerships fault. If they're listening to Sinden, then old man Jacobs is losing it.

Harry and Papa Jacobs watch many games together on TV down in Palm Beach.

To this day they have never said why Chia was fired. We all have our suspicions but we don't know what the last straw was.

I suspect this column by CHB played a role

Then came Black Friday in Florida. An off day. A dark day in Bruins history. In a hotel conference room.

Did anyone else’s head explode when the GM of the team basically kissed off the entire season before his team was mathematically eliminated from the playoffs? Really. This was unbelievable. There was still a possibility that the Bruins would be playing for a playoff spot Saturday night in their season finale in Tampa. Sure, they were going to need help from the Islanders (they got it) and Buffalo Sabres, but it was not impossible to dream of a night in which the Bruins would win, the Penguins lose, and the Bruins would have been in. It wasn’t likely, but it certainly wasn’t some million-to-one shot.

And yet we had Chiarelli effectively telling us the season was over.

“We put ourselves in this position,’’ said Chiarelli. “I consider it a failure. And it’s a failure on everybody’s part. But being a failure doesn’t mean there has to be a complete overhaul of everything. Guys fail. Teams fail. And they get back on their horse . . . ”

Swell. Not exactly Belushi rallying “Delta House,’’ or “Win One for the Gipper,’’ on the eve of the final game.

When the GM was asked if he expected to be around to fix things, he answered, “I don’t know. I’m not sure. I’m operating that I am, until they tell me that I’m not.’’

Chiarelli also looked at his skaters and said, “I don’t see the will. I don’t see the will whether you want to put it to complacency or . . . I don’t see that push. I haven’t seen it.’’

Julien didn’t take that one lying down. In the final week he reminded us that this was not the same team, adding, “There’s obviously issues with the roster. And there’s issues with the roster that have to be looked at.’’

In other words, “Don’t look at me. I’m not the guy who traded Tyler Seguin for a bag of pucks and then dealt Johnny Boychuk on the eve of our season . . . I’m not the guy who overpaid and gave too much security to some of these mediocre players . . . I’m not the guy who ran out of money to keep Jarome Iginla . . . I’m not the guy who bleeped up the draft almost every year.’’

48 hours later Chia was shown the door.

 

[Gee Wally]

This has been a good and civilized discussion for the most part.

Couple of deletions of those that just dont understand not to make your posts personal.
Going forward if you do , you're out. Plain and simple.

 

[BruinDust]

Chiarelli also looked at his skaters and said, “I don’t see the will. I don’t see the will whether you want to put it to complacency or . . . I don’t see that push. I haven’t seen it.’’

Chiarelli wasn't incorrect with this statement. Sadly little has change since that comment almost two years ago.

Julien - “There’s obviously issues with the roster. And there’s issues with the roster that have to be looked at.’’

Does any coach blame his roster as much as Claude Julien does.

How is this comment any different than his quote last week about not having many veterans in his opinion?

 

[BlackFrancis]

This is an example why the "eye test" often fails:

The B's in the Cup winning 2010-11 season: 21.17 hits per game.

The B's this year: 21.14 hits per game.

That 3/100 of a hit is really a huge factor.

I respect that you looked the numbers up and absolutely agree with your underlying reason for doing so, but this is a prime illustration of the hits/game statistic being completely useless.

Anyone can check a puck carrier - well, as long as it's within the .8 seconds or whatever the league has judged timely. The effectiveness of a check is impossible quantify with the current recording methods. Hitting a guy half a second after he passes gets the same credit as humping it and getting to him at the moment of the pass or earlier. You could always tell when the Bruins were on their game in the early part of this decade by the checks, especially Lucic and Horton. If they were late and light, the motivation probably wasn't there that game. If they were hard and timely, it was rare that the entire team wasn't dialed in.

Of course, the above ignores the actual recording of the statistic, which has given us endless years of main board Leafs fans pointing out how Soft Player A actually lead the team in hits or was top ten in the league, despite the eyeballs telling everyone who looked the dude was Charmin.

Again, I appreciate when you bring numbers into the discussion. The hits metric is just one I take exception to.

 

[ranold26]

There has been a need on D[top 2/3 guy] for the last two years, that has been discussed countless times.... yet here we are with threads like this.
Sometimes I think the world loves noise over a signal.

 

[Aeroforce]

Sweeney hasn't addressed glaring weaknesses. At the same time, the price tag for Adam Larsson was Taylor Hall.

Who on the Bruins comparable to Hall would we fans be comfortable dealing? And what would we expect in return? Other GM's are going to be wanting Brad Marchand, not Ryan Spooner.

The Seguin deal still haunts, when all we have to show for it on many nights is Joe Morrow sitting in the press box and Jimmy Hayes. That sort of asset mismanagement can take years to overcome (hence why Chiarelli was fired).

 

[chizzler]

It's not a black and white thing. You could take all of the choices and probably add. It's going to take time to fix the disfunction. This team is where it should be.

 

[BruinDust]

There has been a need on D[top 2/3 guy] for the last two years, that has been discussed countless times.... yet here we are with threads like this.
Sometimes I think the world loves noise over a signal.

And just adding another capable D-man isn't about to cure all that ails this franchise.

Is it a need? Absolutely.

But this franchise has fundamental flaws throughout it's line-up, coaching staff, scouting staff, and management team/structure.

Just adding one more capable D-man isn't about to change that. He isn't about to make a group of poor shooting forwards as bevy of lasers and cannons.

He isn't about to drastically change the fact this group is too comfortable and complacent.

He isn't about to change the fact that this team continues to for the last 3 seasons in particular, bringing in players who are borderline NHLers and many teams would of never considered or would of sent elsewhere.

He isn't about to change that this coaching staff and management group simply don't appreciate the skill-sets needed to be successful in the NHL of 2017. They say they do, but they don't.

 

[JAD]

I don't mean this to come off ass rude but if you think the Bruins could "contend" this year you are crazy. This team is so far off from that it's crazy.

No offense taken. We each have our opinions. I think I was implying that the Bruins would contend for a playoff spot, not a championship.
The Bruins have not been healthy all year and currently continue to deal with injuries. So to say they definitely would not contend if healthy is assumption based on opinion, just like my saying that they would contend. I guess there is no real way of knowing how they would have fared without injuries at this point, now is there ... everything is just conjecture and speculation.