On this episode of the Pucks with Haggs Podcast, Joe Haggerty and Mick Colageo talk about the Stanley Cup Final and whether Florida's dominant showing makes you feel any differently about the Bruins going down to them in the second round. That, and much more!
Pucks with Haggs is presented by:
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Welcome to the #CLNS Media Network’s YouTube channel for Boston #Bruins hockey. CLNS Media is the leading online provider of audio/video coverage for the Boston sports. Get complete inside access to the Bruins at TD Garden, the game day skates at Warrior, and everywhere on the road. CLNS #NHLBruins' credentialed insiders Mike "Trags" Petraglia, Evan Marinofski, Conor Ryan, and Joe "Haggs" Haggerty. Providing instantaneous news and analysis all in real time, as well as full access to complete videos from the players, coaches, ownership and everyone else on Causeway Street.
For the CLNS award winning Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox, College hoops, NBA History, go here to featured channels- / @bruinsrinkside
Pucks with Haggs is presented by:
Prize Picks! Get in on the excitement with PrizePicks, America’s No. 1 Fantasy Sports App, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy! Go to https://PrizePicks.com/CLNS
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Welcome to the #CLNS Media Network’s YouTube channel for Boston #Bruins hockey. CLNS Media is the leading online provider of audio/video coverage for the Boston sports. Get complete inside access to the Bruins at TD Garden, the game day skates at Warrior, and everywhere on the road. CLNS #NHLBruins' credentialed insiders Mike "Trags" Petraglia, Evan Marinofski, Conor Ryan, and Joe "Haggs" Haggerty. Providing instantaneous news and analysis all in real time, as well as full access to complete videos from the players, coaches, ownership and everyone else on Causeway Street.
For the CLNS award winning Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox, College hoops, NBA History, go here to featured channels- / @bruinsrinkside
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SportsTranscript
00:00that when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011,
00:03there are people who really suddenly wanted to talk
00:06about the Bruins the next season and the season after that
00:10that hadn't really been on, you know,
00:12it's like, that feel like the Bruins are hot, you know,
00:15and it's like, wow, I kind of felt like-
00:17Ariana Grande's at the games for goodness sakes, Mick.
00:21You know, they've even got the like celebs
00:23that live down there going to the games.
00:24Yeah, you get the weekend down there, we can do a duet.
00:27I'm sure Gary Bettman loved to see that.
00:35Welcome to another edition of the Pucks with Hags podcast
00:38powered by PrizePix, the exclusive daily fantasy partner
00:41of the CLNS Media Network.
00:44This is the 98th episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast.
00:47I'm your host, Joe Hagerty.
00:48You can find my work at joehagerty.substack.com.
00:52Get a premium membership.
00:53You get all of my NHL and hockey writing
00:55sent straight directly to your inbox.
00:56I also file columns for the Boston Sports Journal.
01:00I'll be doing columns for them, Sunday notes
01:04all through the off season.
01:05So check that out as well, bostonsportsjournal.com.
01:08I also do Q&A with them usually in the middle of the week.
01:11So check that out as well.
01:13With me today, a longtime friend and colleague,
01:15Mick Colaggio.
01:16Mick, please tell everybody
01:17where they can find your work, my friend.
01:19I got a blog called Rank Wrapped
01:20that I link to on X and sometimes Facebook.
01:23And I write the seasonal Bruins articles
01:27and also the seasonal issues of the Hockey News.
01:28And I contribute to the Boston Hockey Now
01:31with a Sunday column of my own.
01:34And I'm looking at expanding my role in the coming season.
01:38So we'll see what happens.
01:39Good, good for you, Mick.
01:41All right, Prize Picks.
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02:53Let's also thank Game Time.
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03:47All right, the business at hand, Mick.
03:49Let's start with a little bit of news here,
03:51a little Bruins nugget.
03:53There's not much, little things trickling out
03:55of Causeway Street right now.
03:57Not exactly world-breaking stuff
03:59until the end of the Stanley Cup Finals
04:01and then the start of free agency
04:03and the draft and all that stuff.
04:04But it's fun to now know that the TD Garden
04:08will in fact host the championship game
04:10of the Four Nations Face-Off Tournament next February.
04:15The final few games in the pool play
04:17and then the championship game at the end
04:20in Boston, the final week of the tournament
04:22will be in Boston at TD Garden.
04:25And the whole series-
04:26President's Day doubleheader in advance of that.
04:29That's right, and the whole series will be
04:31at the Bell Center in the Garden.
04:32So Montreal and Boston are the two host cities
04:34for the tournament.
04:36Mick, your thoughts on this, just curious,
04:39like the Garden, Boston and the TD Garden
04:42have not been host to a lot of NHL things recently,
04:45the big events, you know,
04:46the All-Star Game was here a long time ago.
04:50The draft hasn't been here for a long time either.
04:53Three years later.
04:54You know, they've had their winter classics, obviously,
04:56but I know the Bruins love to host these kinds of things.
04:59And, you know, this is the way to make Boston, again,
05:02the center of the hockey universe for a week or so,
05:05which will be fun.
05:06They've had more NCAA than NHL
05:09since that 20th century segment
05:12when the Fleet Center was so fresh and new.
05:14And now that it's one of the several buildings
05:18in the NHL that are now nearing 30,
05:20which is hard to believe.
05:23I think going back to Boston Garden now
05:26is one more season, it'll be 30 years.
05:29It's unbelievable.
05:30Well, I was looking at the,
05:32I don't know if you saw this on my Facebook,
05:34but I love the GBH, you know,
05:38the Channel 2 Facebook account
05:40that will like just post randomly old B-roll
05:43that they took back in the day, GBH,
05:46when they were going around
05:47and doing like news pieces or whatever.
05:49And today they posted 1985 Causeway Street
05:55before a Celtics playoff game.
05:57And it was just, it was mind blowing to me
06:01to look back at what Causeway Street
06:04and outside of the Garden looked like 40 years ago.
06:06I remember it as a kid, obviously.
06:07So that's my memory of going to the Garden.
06:10It was the dark, dank, like overpass,
06:12like the barely any sunlight coming in,
06:15like all the hustle and bustle going on there.
06:17But it was like kind of a nasty place to be
06:19around the front of the Garden back in the day.
06:22And it was funny to sort of see B-roll
06:24and to get jogged as to what it used to look like,
06:26to your point.
06:27It was like Gotham City in the Batman movies.
06:30All the buildings are linked together
06:31by these little passageways that go over the street
06:34and there's pipes everywhere.
06:36There's rail everywhere over the street.
06:39There's just, it's just,
06:42you can't even tell where you are half the time
06:43unless you know it.
06:45Chicago still has kind of that look a little bit.
06:47It's very reminiscent of that.
06:49Yep, yep.
06:50Boston, it's amazing how many iterations
06:52there have been of North Station.
06:53If you look on, you know,
06:56Boston Globe or Boston Public Library archives
07:00for old newspaper photos,
07:02there's some amazing stuff
07:04about what North Station looked like
07:05before there even was a Boston Garden.
07:07So that's not even the,
07:08our childhood iteration is not even the first one,
07:12you know, so letting it was Boston Garden
07:14after they put the railways underground.
07:17Then there was the Fleet Center
07:18with Boston Garden in front of it.
07:20Then there was all of so many years
07:22of this beige wall in a parking lot.
07:24And I used to think it'd be great there
07:27to have that little mural that's up the street
07:29on Friend Street, do a gigantic one of that
07:33and put that in front of that beige wall.
07:35You already got the right background color.
07:37So instead, we now have an incredible
07:44it's a destination place now.
07:47There's swarmed with fans in their replica sweaters
07:50and on game nights,
07:51and you don't even know if they have tickets.
07:53And I don't know if they care.
07:54Obviously they want to have tickets,
07:55but if they don't, they still go.
07:57It's just so much going on there.
07:59It's unbelievable what's happened to that era.
08:02And I've been told that Dallas
08:03has gone through a similar transition.
08:06If you go back to like the beginning
08:09of the Claude Julien era,
08:10we were down there for the opening night.
08:13And it was like a construction zone.
08:15It was very much like a segment of,
08:18after TD Garden had been torn down.
08:20It was like that around there,
08:22walking around the area near their arena.
08:24Now, I guess it's all built up.
08:25I haven't been under this, but this is what I'm told.
08:28It's like Boston now.
08:31So it's nice to see that the city caught up to the arenas
08:34like they promised they would.
08:35Like, you know, we're going to put this arena
08:37in this part of town.
08:37You always hear what a great thing it's going to be,
08:39how many jobs, how many things are going to happen.
08:42In the case of the Fleet Center,
08:44I think it took, what, 25 years for this stuff
08:48to really come into existence the way it is now.
08:53Well, and it's part of a bigger conversation
08:55with that area, with the big dig and everything too, right?
08:57And like all the stuff that took place
08:59with like the Greenway and how nice that is now.
09:02It's made that whole area eminently more walkable
09:04than it used to be.
09:05Like, it's a gorgeous area, but like, to your point,
09:09like it makes you realize how long the garden,
09:12the new garden has been there now.
09:14Not the new garden anymore.
09:16No, and it's not really one of the ones
09:18that's got all the bells and whistles.
09:19Like, even though they've put money into it
09:21and it's like, it's as good as it's going to be.
09:22And you know, some of the stuff that they've done recently
09:26with like the, you know, the food court around there
09:28and some of the other things have really like built it up.
09:30So it's a lot more like Madison Square Garden now.
09:32I think it's such a nicer building now.
09:34I mean, it's knocking out the front wall
09:37so the fans could look out toward Canal Street
09:40and knocking out the sidewall.
09:41So you can now look out at the Zakem Bridge
09:43and Bunker Hill Monument.
09:45Those things didn't exist for most of the history
09:47of this arena.
09:48So the things that the remodeling,
09:51the legendary transformation as they marketed it,
09:56yeah, I wish they didn't throw those extra seats
09:58into the lodge rows.
09:59That wasn't necessary, but what they did upstairs,
10:04I thought was excellent.
10:05It's just a much better experience up top.
10:10Yeah, I didn't like them getting rid
10:11of the yellow seats either
10:12and making them all black everywhere too.
10:15The look of the place now, I don't think has as much-
10:17It doesn't have that Boston identity anymore.
10:19It used to, Boston Garden back in the day
10:22was a very bright arena, but it wasn't dark on the edges
10:25the way Madison Square Garden was.
10:27And now with the LED lighting, I think they thought
10:30that should be the appropriate look.
10:31And so it's a totally different feel
10:35being in the building ever since, you know,
10:38they already started doing that to the seats
10:41before the St. Louis final in 19.
10:42And now here we are.
10:43And Scully Square, I've been brought back from the dead.
10:47You know, it's funny.
10:48Well, I think it's just,
10:49Mick, I think it just looks like every other building now.
10:51You know, like it looks the very streamlined
10:53to like any other place.
10:54You really can't even tell you're looking at the garden
10:56when you see a picture of it, when it's empty.
10:58Well, that's what, you know,
11:00we had to get into the Stanley Cup final
11:02before I realized that they did not paint
11:05Stanley Cup playoffs.
11:07So Stanley Cup final on the ice
11:08just inside the blue lines.
11:10Yeah.
11:11I saw three rounds, two rounds of Bruins playoffs,
11:14watched three rounds on TV.
11:16And it wasn't until I was in the Amarant Bank Arena
11:20in Florida that I realized,
11:24hey, it doesn't say Stanley Cup final.
11:26And I speculated, which probably, you know,
11:30you don't need to be very smart to know that
11:32to figure this out,
11:33that it's those superimposed television ads
11:37that they want, that, you know,
11:39they do it over the boards
11:40and they also do it on that patch of ice.
11:42It says progressive just inside the blue lines.
11:45I guess really having an ad there
11:48messes with what TV wants to do.
11:51Yep. That happened a few years ago.
11:52I remember when that first happened.
11:55Cause I used to look forward to,
11:57at the end of the regular season,
11:58you would see the Bullgang guys out there
12:00like pretty quickly after the last game was played
12:04and they were putting the playoff lettering on the ice
12:06and putting that stuff out there.
12:07It would happen really fast.
12:08You would see it before you left the building
12:10after game two.
12:11They used to paint it.
12:12Now it's prefab.
12:13It lays down like a sheet.
12:15Yeah. But I noticed the year they stopped doing that.
12:18And then you look down at the ice
12:19for game one of the playoffs
12:20and there's nothing there.
12:21Yeah. Weird.
12:22Yeah. It is weird.
12:24It's so, and it didn't occur to me that,
12:27I wish it messed with the boards too.
12:29Then the fans at the game would get to have blank boards.
12:31Wouldn't that be cool?
12:33But advertising being what it is.
12:36PrizePix is the largest daily fantasy sports platform
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13:49Yeah.
13:50The one interesting thing about the four nations
13:53being at the garden is it brings back what-
13:56Well, that was the question, wasn't it?
13:58No, that's fine.
14:00The four nations, the tournament,
14:02the one thing interesting thing
14:03about the tournament being there
14:04is that it brings back Pasternak's comments
14:07about him not watching
14:08and not really caring too much for it
14:10because the Czech Republic was not invited.
14:13They win gold at the Worlds and they get snubbed.
14:16So-
14:17That's right, that's right.
14:18And he mentioned something about it in his Instagram posts
14:20when he won.
14:21Right, right.
14:22I saw that.
14:23You could tell he was still salty about it
14:24and that was kind of a rallying cry
14:26or a motivational point for them.
14:28So that adds an interesting sort of like storyline
14:31or narrative to this that, you know,
14:33it's going to be in Pasternak's home city now,
14:34the championship,
14:35which maybe he knew that at the time that it was coming
14:37and that made him even more pissed off
14:39that he couldn't be a part of it.
14:40Yeah.
14:41Well, Marty Walsh was down in Florida
14:42representing the Players Association
14:44to talk about a few things and, you know,
14:48hockey fights cancer,
14:50also some other things they were doing.
14:52Plus they talked about this tournament
14:54and the Bettman Daily pre-series presser,
14:59these questions came up.
15:00And one of them, the answers was,
15:04they didn't want a tournament any bigger than four teams
15:09because they felt it would have disrupted the season
15:12for too long.
15:13That was their reasoning.
15:15The reason they picked the four countries they did
15:17was because they wanted all NHL players
15:20because they have an Olympics coming up
15:23and they wanted to give them a tournament.
15:26And they thought that these four countries
15:28best fit that bill.
15:29Obviously, that's not where the line should have been drawn.
15:33You know, if you were only going according
15:35to who's going to produce the best hockey teams here.
15:39The Czech Republic certainly belongs
15:40in that group with Sweden and Finland
15:42and not in the group that they got left on the outside.
15:46That's quite obvious.
15:47But how do you do it then?
15:49They wanted to peer around Robin.
15:50The two games on President's Day,
15:52the day-night doubleheader and President's Day in Boston
15:54were not a semifinal.
15:56That's just going to be the completion of the round Robin.
15:58So there's no consolation.
16:00There's just a round Robin
16:02and then a championship game Thursday.
16:04Yeah.
16:06Yes, exactly.
16:07And it'll be interesting to see how that all plays out.
16:10It'll be fun, you know, to, like I said,
16:12have something, you know,
16:13sort of the international hockey spotlight
16:15be in Boston for a week.
16:16I think that'll all be cool.
16:18And that's-
16:19I'm old school.
16:20I wish they did these things in September
16:22and did not shut down.
16:24I hate shutting down the season.
16:26Yeah, I know.
16:27But like, I think it's something
16:28you just got to kind of make peace with now.
16:30And to be honest with you,
16:32like shutting down the season for a few weeks
16:34actually makes the product better
16:35when they start playing again
16:36and the stretch run and then going into the playoffs.
16:39I think all of that stuff kind of, you know,
16:41giving them a breath like this
16:43in the middle of the year, actually,
16:44like not for the guys that are playing, obviously,
16:46but for the league in general,
16:48makes the quality of the product better
16:50down the stretch going into the playoffs.
16:52You can argue that.
16:52It gives guys a chance to get over bumps and bruises,
16:54nagging things.
16:56It does.
16:57And they have more energy.
16:58The re-entry is chaotic for some teams.
17:00And that can scare the-
17:01Of course, oh yeah.
17:02Well, of course it's chaotic,
17:04but like, you know,
17:05the benefits of it, I think,
17:06just raises the speed, the level of play,
17:09like all that stuff down the stretch on the whole.
17:11But you know what's funny?
17:12After the NHL worked so hard
17:14to make the regular season relevant,
17:18and the cure to that was ironically expansion.
17:22Yeah.
17:22Because by expanding from 21 to 30,
17:25they made a 16 team tournament,
17:28only, you know, 50% of the league
17:32without expanding the tournament.
17:33That's why playing games are a terrible idea.
17:35And that's why,
17:39but the league doesn't seem to care
17:40that Colorado played Winnipeg in the first round.
17:43Even though those two teams
17:44had two of the best records in the Western Conference,
17:47they would not have been seated
17:49to meet each other until at least the quarterfinal
17:51if they had gone with conference seating.
17:53And when you have to play a balanced schedule like this,
17:57conference seating is the only right thing to do,
17:59but they like a division-centric playoff
18:01and the surprises that come with it.
18:03This was my question to Batman,
18:05and the answer was,
18:07well, you still got to beat the best to win the Stanley Cup.
18:09I'm like, hmm, that's a tough sell
18:12because your only argument that somebody's the best
18:14is because they're there waiting for you.
18:16Well, how did they get there though?
18:17Did, you know, if Colorado and Winnipeg
18:19had to cancel each other out, you know,
18:21I mean, that's like Federer and Nadal playing each other,
18:25you know, in the U.S. Open in the third round
18:29instead of wait until they get to the semis.
18:31It's kind of crazy.
18:33Yeah, I guess.
18:34I don't, I've never had a big issue
18:36with the divisional way they set it up now
18:38because, I mean, I understand it's always going to have
18:40like tough first round matchups
18:42where it might be one good team getting eliminated
18:45in the first round, but like-
18:46Yeah, but the regular season schedule should reflect that.
18:48They should play more regular season games
18:50against each other.
18:51That's what they're going to do.
18:52Against the divisional teams you're saying.
18:54Absolutely.
18:55In order for the playoffs to be fair,
18:57whatever you do, whatever you decide you want,
18:59the schedule should reflect it.
19:02No, I agree.
19:03I mean, I don't think you should necessarily
19:04be playing the Western Conference teams twice,
19:07once at home, once away.
19:08Like you could take away, you know,
19:10you go to Edmonton every other year
19:11and pack in some more divisional games
19:13with things like that.
19:14I definitely am in favor of,
19:16I'd love to get back to the point where we, you know,
19:19and this is earlier when we were covering the Bruins,
19:21when the Bruins and the Canadians would be playing
19:23each other like eight times a year.
19:24You know, I think that was-
19:25Right, right.
19:26Now, maybe we're never going back to 1982 to 93,
19:29but it would be to, but instead of four,
19:33you actually have of the Bruins seven division opponents,
19:38two of them, they only played three times this season.
19:41Right.
19:42The rest of them, they played two home and two away.
19:44Now- Right.
19:46And so two of the Bruins divisional opponents,
19:49they played no more than they played the Metro division.
19:53Right.
19:54They played them two home and one away,
19:57or one home and two away.
19:58And- Right.
19:59And then the West, it was one and one.
20:01And I'm getting feedback from fans that tells me
20:05that they missed the rivalries and they, you know,
20:09they realized that, yeah, sure.
20:10Does that mean some years I won't see McDavid?
20:12Yeah.
20:13Okay.
20:14I'd rather have my rivalries.
20:15Okay. Right.
20:16Well, I put that question out
20:18and the answer was, well, you're anecdotal
20:22and I have no problem with them calling it anecdotal.
20:24It wasn't a scientific thing.
20:27Said that, you know, that our surveys with our fans
20:30indicate that people want to see the stars.
20:33And then Daily chimed in and said,
20:35our teams are telling us that too.
20:37That our teams are telling us that they want to see,
20:40they want the stars in their building.
20:41They don't care about the rival, you know,
20:43relative to the rivalries.
20:44And so, you know, that's where I was left.
20:47So don't hold your breath.
20:48If you're hoping for more games against the Canadians,
20:50ain't ever going to happen.
20:51Yeah. Or the Leafs or whatever.
20:53You know what I mean?
20:54Like not necessarily the Canadians right now,
20:56but still, I don't know.
20:58I think that kind of survey and that kind of thing,
21:03that smacks to me of a lot of places
21:05that aren't like true hockey markets
21:07or diehard hockey markets that are saying that
21:10because they want the ticket drop,
21:12Conor McDavid come to their building.
21:13Like that doesn't, as much as there's excitement
21:16when McDavid comes to Boston,
21:17the Edmund Tullars comes to Boston.
21:19Who's the Columbus Blue Jackets rival?
21:22Right.
21:23I mean, you know, if you could identify one,
21:25it would probably be the team that came in.
21:28That's the exact market that would be in favor of,
21:30no, we have to have McDavid once a year.
21:32Like, you know, all that stuff.
21:33It's much more important to them to get the stars in
21:36and to sell the tickets that way.
21:37And frankly, for Florida, I think it's more important too.
21:40Although, I mean, I think ticket sales for them
21:43when they play Montreal, Boston, Toronto, et cetera,
21:46is much higher.
21:47For a different reason, yeah.
21:48Yeah, because all the snowbirds can go
21:51and actually watch their team in a big building.
21:53Anytime I drove to a Tampa game from my parents' house
21:56down in Rotunda West, it was 90 minutes straight North.
22:00And there would always be some Jeeps on Route 75.
22:04There'd be some Jeeps with big Bruins logos
22:07on their spare tire.
22:09Yeah, yep.
22:11Speaking of Florida,
22:13you were down at the Stanley Cup Finals.
22:16You attended game one and game two?
22:18Correct.
22:19Okay, set the scene for me.
22:21What were your thoughts on watching those first two games,
22:25covering them?
22:25Like, what were your takeaways from being down there?
22:30Florida's hot.
22:33No, seriously,
22:37the Panthers have,
22:40this team has a great relationship with its fans.
22:43And the fans know their team.
22:46There's a lot of jerseys that are up there
22:48that are not Kachuk, Bennett, or Barkoff.
22:52There's a lot of sweaters that say,
22:53well, Bob Rovsky.
22:55There's a lot of sweaters for other guys.
22:59Or there's some Yoakunin sweaters.
23:02That's 20 years ago.
23:03Holy Yoakunin, wow.
23:05When he was the showcase when Florida hosted
23:07the All-Star game in 2003, he was their guy.
23:10And so, I saw some of those.
23:14And there's a lot of errors in between.
23:16So, Florida in their time
23:17has really gotten some loyalty established.
23:21And of course, you know, when you win,
23:23you make a whole new generation of people
23:25that turn on to your game.
23:26And they play with such a swagger.
23:29They play, they remind me so much like the 95 Devils.
23:33They're so fundamentally sound and tenacious.
23:36And the fans engage,
23:39the fans engage that their game.
23:41They engage and look forward to what Florida does well.
23:44They engage with that game.
23:46And they are so on top of the game.
23:48And they are screaming at every guy that goes down,
23:51every guy that gets hit.
23:53As soon as they do a soft dump to the corner,
23:55the fans get a buzz on because they know
23:57that this is where Florida goes to work.
24:00It was really fun to see them.
24:02You know, we've talked before amongst ourselves
24:06up, you know, when the Bruins finally got there,
24:09you know, 15 years ago or close to that,
24:13about the Tampa Bay Lightning, you know,
24:15and 20 years ago when they won the last cup
24:17before the lockout year
24:19and how their fans really got into their team
24:21and their game.
24:22Well, Florida, that's happening in sunrise now.
24:24It's really happening.
24:27They really have a fan base.
24:29And, you know, for a while there,
24:30I used to think that team might be leaving.
24:32And I'm not thinking that anymore.
24:34I think they'll get a lot of mileage out of this,
24:36even if they somehow screw it up.
24:39I mean, their ownership situation's
24:41a lot more stabilized now,
24:42and that's obvious with the success they're having
24:44and the money that they're spending.
24:45So, like, I agree with you.
24:46I think they've dug in roots hard enough
24:49that I don't think they're going anywhere either
24:51at this point, nor should they.
24:53I mean, they're still not the Tampa Bay Lightning
24:56as far as how well the organization is run and everything,
24:58but, like, they're getting there.
24:59They're getting better.
25:00They are getting there.
25:01It is really, you can really see that, yeah.
25:04It's quite a place to be.
25:07Now, granted, it's not a regular season game,
25:09but what I do remember is that
25:11when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011,
25:14there are people who really suddenly wanted
25:16to talk about the Bruins the next season
25:19and the season after that,
25:21that hadn't really been on, you know,
25:23it's like, that feel like the Bruins are hot, you know?
25:26And it's like, wow.
25:28I kind of felt like-
25:28Ariana Grande's at the games for goodness sakes, Mick.
25:32You know, they've even got the, like,
25:33celebs that live down there going to the games.
25:35We get the weekend down there, we can do a duet.
25:39I'm sure Gary Bittman loved to see that.
25:41DJ Khaled and Ariana Grande
25:43hanging around at the Stanley Cup final.
25:45Well, you know what?
25:46I have no idea what, you know,
25:50I've heard of these people, but I don't know what they do.
25:52And, you know, the NHL's like that.
25:55I mean, they did, like, these little snippets
25:57of their performances on the scoreboard.
25:59And one of them, I was thinking,
26:00well, that's a buzzkill, you know?
26:02And whatever, it's a great place now to go to a game.
26:08And I couldn't always say that.
26:10So being back in that building now
26:12for the first time in several years,
26:13I'd been there a few times before.
26:17And now it's a whole different feel.
26:20These fans are engaging their team.
26:22They're not just, you know,
26:23reacting to whatever the loud voice says.
26:27Some guy on a tacky FM, you know,
26:29sounds like a really loud voice.
26:31A hockey FM, you know, sounds like a DJ talking, you know.
26:35But they're a really good hockey team,
26:39and they play with that swagger.
26:42They give you that 95 Devils, 74, 75 Flyers feeling.
26:46They're like must-see TV.
26:48The Bruins weren't on, and they're playing,
26:50and they're on, I gotta watch their game.
26:52You know, they got a method to what they do,
26:55and they got the athletes to do it.
26:57And it's a special thing.
27:01It seems like, you know,
27:02and I look at Edmonton playing them,
27:04and now they were shot out of a cannon
27:07in the first period of game one.
27:09Yep.
27:09The quickness and smoothness
27:11with which the Oilers executed
27:13made the first period of that series all about Bobrovsky.
27:17Without him, they're down five to two.
27:19And they wind up scoring a fast break goal
27:22with a couple of quick passes,
27:24and they got the puck in the net, and the crowd goes nuts.
27:27But Edmonton stayed the course,
27:29and it wasn't really until the third period
27:31when Edmonton kind of lost a little bit of their zip
27:35that Florida started feeling good about their game.
27:38And-
27:39Well, that's because, I mean,
27:41Florida's just gonna keep punching Edmonton
27:43into the mouth until they submit.
27:44Like, that's what I think what you're gonna see
27:47in this series, and I think game two
27:50was kind of reality hitting them, for sure.
27:53And honestly, that dry-side hit on Barkov,
27:57that feels like, to me, at a certain point,
27:59Edmonton's like, I think the only way
28:01we're gonna win this series
28:02is if we start taking out some of Florida's players,
28:05especially Barkov,
28:06because he's so key to everything that they do.
28:08And that's really the only hope that they have.
28:10Which is ironic, because this is the first series
28:13Florida's had to play with.
28:14They weren't the better team down the middle of the rink.
28:16You know, I mean, you got McDavid,
28:18a generational talent, dry-side,
28:19who's about as good a player he can be
28:21without having that said about him.
28:22And then you have, they can choose
28:25to put Nugent Hopkins there,
28:26who is an excellent two-way player.
28:29And so you're saying, okay, yeah, Lundell's really,
28:34you know, he's a really good player,
28:35and people are learning about him now.
28:37And Barkov and Bennett, but, you know,
28:40it's not that they're getting outplayed.
28:42I really think this would be a different series
28:44if it wasn't for the goaltending.
28:46But more about the good goaltending,
28:48that Skinner was bad, and it's not about that.
28:50But Bobrovsky just was outstanding early in game one.
28:55And so, to me, it's a split
28:58as far as the hockey that has been played.
29:00I'm looking at a split series
29:02except for goaltending right now.
29:04So when I get to Edmonton, what's gonna happen?
29:07I don't know.
29:07But I do know that game two usually speaks
29:10to game three more than game one does.
29:12So I think that I'm looking-
29:15I think we saw the real series in game two.
29:17And it's funny that that seems to be Florida's MO,
29:21is a lot of times in these series,
29:22we've seen this the last few years,
29:23they drop game one, especially if they've had a long layoff
29:26and they don't look like themselves.
29:28Well, then when game two starts,
29:30you actually start to see the real Florida Panthers.
29:32That's right.
29:33They feel their way in, yeah.
29:34And they put their stranglehold on the series.
29:36And reality sets into the other team,
29:39like, uh-oh, we're playing a good goddamn team.
29:42That's right.
29:42This is what we're up against.
29:43So now Edmonton got a true view
29:46of what they're playing against here.
29:48And Knobloch's post-game comments
29:50after game two were interesting.
29:52He was saying that while Edmonton had this,
29:55you know, a great power play that can't score in this series
29:59and they had a great penalty kill
30:00that finally gets scored on in this series.
30:03He said that one of the things that he noticed that,
30:05you know, he was asked, you know,
30:08you got a chance now to size up the Florida Panthers
30:10under more true to circumstances.
30:14What do you think now?
30:16And he's like, well,
30:17I always knew they were going to play
30:18a better game in game two.
30:20But as far as what we saw tonight,
30:22he says it's, you know, systems are not perfect.
30:27All systems can be exploited some way.
30:32One thing about them is that we know they're physical,
30:35they're in position, they play hard, they're tenacious.
30:39And, but when we're on the power play,
30:40the biggest difference is we don't have as much time.
30:43And one of the things I do remember
30:45watching Dallas play against them,
30:46when Dallas was having trouble
30:47killing penalties against them,
30:49Dallas was trying to change what they do,
30:50which is they like to pack it in,
30:53like 80s Canadians, you know,
30:54and get Craig Ludwig in front of Patrick Bois
30:57with those gigantic shin guards he wore
30:59and just play it tight.
31:03Well, Edmonton eats that alive.
31:07So what they wanted to try to do is, you know,
31:12get out there more, Florida wanted to get out there more,
31:16but that's how Florida kills penalties.
31:18So it's the Dallas couldn't do it.
31:20When Dallas tried to send people out there
31:22to be aggressive on a PK,
31:23they were, we weren't playing it
31:25the way they like to play it.
31:26So they got exploited.
31:28They couldn't kill a penalty to save their lives.
31:30This is how Florida kills penalties.
31:31They take away your time and space
31:32and challenge you to make a play
31:34and they anticipate so well off of whatever you decide to do.
31:38So those-
31:39Everything they do, everything they do is aggressive, Mick.
31:41Yeah.
31:42That's like what, that's a lot of what I like about them
31:43is they're not sit back and wait
31:45and see what you're going to do
31:47and trap you in the middle.
31:48Like they're just, they're going to come after you.
31:50They're going to punch you in the face.
31:51They're going to come after you.
31:52They're going to hit you.
31:53And they're going to force you into making mistakes
31:55and discourage you and eventually wear you down.
31:58And, and same thing on the penalty kill.
32:00Like they just will force you into mistakes
32:02and force you to panic with the puck.
32:03And I just love-
32:04The puck's very aggressive.
32:06I just love it because it's old school.
32:08You know, there's a lot of old school mentalities
32:10of the way the Panthers play.
32:12And I really hope, and we've talked about this before,
32:14that it translates into other teams
32:17really starting to play that way
32:17and adopt going back to that sort of way of playing,
32:20especially with the aggressive forecheck.
32:22Like, I love to see that.
32:23Well, they soft jump, but they come at you hard.
32:26You know?
32:27Yeah, they do.
32:28Even the guys who aren't necessarily rough house players,
32:31they can still play physical in their own way.
32:33And then they get enough guys who are rough house
32:36that it's, and that's why I think what Edmonton
32:38made some very undisciplined decisions
32:41that we saw in game two.
32:43Well, they force you into that.
32:44Their physicality is more angry.
32:46Florida's is more tactical and very committed.
32:49And it's part of their hockey cohesion.
32:53And-
32:53And it's consistent.
32:54They do it all the time.
32:55Yeah.
32:56They do it all the time.
32:57They, you know, and that's what gets
32:59into defenseman's heads and forwards too
33:01that are trying to work the sidewall
33:03is they know they're coming every single time
33:06and they start to hear footsteps
33:07and they start to anticipate and make mistakes.
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34:36One thing I wanted to ask you, Mick,
34:39does the Panthers run the way they've dispatched
34:42the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Bruins, the New York Rangers?
34:46It looks like they're gonna have a fairly easy time
34:48with the Oilers unless something crazy changes
34:51in Edmonton, which I don't think it's going to.
34:52Maybe they win one out of two there
34:54and they give the home crowd something to cheer about.
34:56But-
34:57I don't know.
34:58All I'm intending to do is win a hockey game here.
34:59Watching?
35:00Yeah, we'll see.
35:01I don't know.
35:02I mean, it's like when you're there,
35:03you feel like every dump in, it might change the game.
35:06That's how it feels.
35:07But I know what you're saying.
35:08All the road signs tell us that this is gonna go quick.
35:11This is gonna be a five game series.
35:13I think game two was telling to me.
35:15It was not as competitive as game one was.
35:17And it was much more in the vein
35:19of what we've seen so many games
35:21the Florida Panthers have played this year.
35:22But let's just say it continues the way it's going to.
35:26And Florida finishes off the Oilers in five or six games.
35:30Does it make you feel any differently
35:32about the Bruins' second round series against Florida?
35:37And just seeing them do, in some-
35:39Oh, every time you win, I get better?
35:41In some instances, they're doing it easier
35:44against other teams than they did
35:46against the Boston Bruins.
35:47And the Bruins at least pushed them to six games.
35:49But it looks like nobody's gonna even push
35:52the Florida Panthers to seven games.
35:54And they are gonna prove
35:55that they're the best team in hockey.
35:57And they're doing it against
35:58some of the best goaltending, some of the best teams.
36:00I think they had an awfully difficult road
36:02in the Eastern Conference to go through
36:04the three teams that they went through.
36:06Does all of that, if they end up winning,
36:08change the way you felt about the Bruins
36:11going against them in the second round and the outcome?
36:14I actually felt more about that last year.
36:17As disappointing as it was for the Bruins
36:19to cough up their three games to one lead,
36:23the way Florida got better every round
36:26and just absolutely destroyed the subsequent competition,
36:32that kind of, I sort of felt like
36:34that kind of gave me a better feeling
36:36about the Bruins season that,
36:39and obviously that went way off the rails,
36:41but Florida was made to wait 10 days by the NHL
36:44to play the Vegas Golden Knights
36:45who are coming off of a perfectly appropriate amount of rest
36:49to play the Stanley Cup Final.
36:50So to me, that didn't have a chance of being a good series.
36:53They were in a two nothing hole
36:54before they played a decent hockey game.
36:56So for me, that was just a hot mess.
37:00And so I was really feeling it last year.
37:02This year, I kind of feel about the Bruins that,
37:05you know what, they're so early in their process
37:08of transforming this club into a next generation version
37:11that I don't feel like,
37:16I don't feel like they were ever as close
37:18as going six games makes it look.
37:22They were down three to one.
37:23They won game five.
37:25You can say the scores were tight.
37:28You can look at all these things, but that's hockey.
37:30That's what hockey does.
37:31Does anybody talk about the 69 St. Louis Blues?
37:34Well, look at the scores of their games
37:37against the Montreal Canadiens
37:38in the second straight year
37:39that they got swept by the Canadians
37:41and would be swept by the Bruins the following year.
37:43But that 69 series against Montreal,
37:46those years that they lost,
37:49nobody remembers that as being a great hockey team,
37:50the first two years of the St. Louis Blues,
37:53because they only had to win their way out of the West
37:55to get into, which was the expansion division,
37:57to get into the Stanley Cup series.
37:59And they did, but those games were very tight.
38:03And so I'm looking at the Bruins and saying, okay, yeah.
38:06So the series looked tight.
38:07The games looked tight,
38:09but there was never any doubt what was gonna happen here.
38:12And it doesn't change my mind about the Bruins being,
38:15I don't have to feel better about the Bruins.
38:16I feel great about what the Bruins did.
38:19I already did, and I still do,
38:20because for them to pull off what they did
38:23given the challenge before the season
38:24and what they wound up doing with their season,
38:27and then you wind up winning a series against Toronto
38:30that was really doubtful, that's great.
38:33Now, if I don't need Florida to win the Cup here
38:35to make them look better.
38:36That's kind of my point though, Mick,
38:38is like, I think them just cutting through
38:41the rest of the NHL like a hot knife through butter,
38:44it makes you feel like the Bruins in the state
38:48that they are in sort of transitioning
38:51from one group to the other
38:52and sort of introducing young players
38:54and all the stuff that's going on right now with them,
38:56where they're clearly passing the torch.
38:59For them to push the Panthers really as hard
39:01as anybody else has in the entire league,
39:04I think it does make you feel a little bit better
39:07about the way things went down.
39:09Maybe relative to the other competition that failed.
39:13When that series is over initially,
39:16I think if you're a fan, you get discouraged
39:18because you're like, the Bruins couldn't even get
39:21like 20 shots on net in a game,
39:22and they were having a difficulty
39:24breaking the fuck out of their zone
39:25and they were getting pushed around.
39:27But I think the fact that they were managed
39:29to push it to six, that they had that one last win
39:32to at least get it to the garden for one more game,
39:36that they were able to hold down the Panthers
39:39for the most part, that they did push back
39:41at certain points, our possum neck fighting Kachuk,
39:43there were other things in that series
39:45that they soldiered on through Marshand,
39:48being taken out in the middle of the series.
39:49I think when you look at all the things beginning to end
39:52that Boston was able to do against Florida,
39:55and if they end up raising the Stanley Cup
39:58in the next couple of days, the next week
39:59against the Oilers, and just do it against everybody,
40:03some like even more convincingly than against the Bruins,
40:07I think it does make you feel a little bit more encouraged
40:09about what you saw in the post-season.
40:11I think it puts a little more weight
40:13into what they did in the first round
40:14against Toronto, advancing against them.
40:16And I think it raises a little bit the optimism level
40:19that they're gonna be able to come back
40:21and be even better and more difficult to deal with
40:25and more prepared for that moment the next time it comes.
40:27Now, that being said, Florida's a wagon.
40:31They're gonna lose a couple of players.
40:32They're probably gonna lose Reinhart.
40:34Montour's up, there's a few other players
40:36that need to get paid, or they're gonna need to figure out.
40:39Lundell, I think, is at a crossroads.
40:41Salary cap stuff with them, Tarasenko, obviously.
40:44There's a bunch, there's a few guys.
40:45They'll have to let him go.
40:47Yeah, but they're also gonna have to,
40:51any optimism you feel about,
40:53or a raised optimism you feel
40:55about how they did against Florida in the second round,
40:59you're gonna have to figure out some ways to get past them
41:01because the bulk of those players,
41:03the nucleus of that group is staying.
41:04They're the new daddy.
41:05Used to be Tampa was their daddy, now it's Florida.
41:08Yeah, they're gonna be even more confident
41:10after they win the Cup and more arrogant
41:12and more like going right in your face
41:15even than they are right now.
41:16They're pretty full of themselves, I think, Florida,
41:18and they have been for a while.
41:20And they're gonna be even more so after they win the Cup.
41:22So it's gonna raise the bar, I think, even more
41:24and elevate the bar of how difficult it's gonna be
41:26and what you're gonna have to do to combat that
41:28if you're the Boston Bruins.
41:29It's a lot like watching, being a teenager
41:31and watching the Bruins lose to the Flyers in 74.
41:34And again, in 76, when the Bruins were then,
41:38a team like the Bruins are now.
41:39They had just traded Phyllis Bazzito and Carol Badnay.
41:43Brad Park was on their team.
41:44Jon Rattel was on their team.
41:45And a lot of other stuff was changing underneath that.
41:49And the Bruins wound up turning those tables
41:52with a team that no longer had Oren Esposito.
41:57Terry O'Reilly was the face of the franchise.
42:00And yeah, were the Flyers everything in 77
42:03that they were in 74, five and six?
42:06No, but the core was there.
42:09And teams hit their sweet spots
42:12and there's movement among both ships.
42:14And this is why the Panthers are now the best team
42:17in Florida and not the Lightning.
42:19The Panthers are the best team in the league,
42:20not the Lightning.
42:21And that time came and went for the Lightning
42:24and it's now the Panthers' turn.
42:27And all they gotta do is finish the job here.
42:30And I think that they will just based on my eyes
42:33to just telling me what I'm watching here
42:36is a special hockey team that looks impenetrable,
42:38impervious to anything right now.
42:41It doesn't look to me like Edmonton's gonna have
42:43what it takes to solve this question.
42:45Edmonton's on the right track.
42:47They outplayed them in game one,
42:49but they still couldn't get past their goalie.
42:52So Florida's just got superiority in key areas.
42:56And now that Edmonton's going home,
42:59is it possible they're gonna win a game here, maybe two?
43:02I really don't see two.
43:03I say maybe one because Florida's a great road team.
43:07And so, yeah.
43:10So I think, yeah, the Bruins are a team in transition
43:12and their time will come and it probably isn't next year.
43:16And I don't think it's a failure for Don Sweeney
43:18if next year isn't the year.
43:21But I do think he's in a position here
43:23that something over the next three seasons should,
43:27there should be a pathway for the Bruins
43:29to get up to that level in these next few seasons
43:32through moves that are, you know,
43:35this off season would be the germination point
43:38of those moves.
43:39I think that that's what you gotta take
43:41what you got right now and find the right ingredients
43:45that you can then build the rest of your team
43:47and be that formidable over the next,
43:50if not this next season,
43:51because it takes a while to put it all together.
43:53Florida, two years ago, President's Trophy.
43:55Last year, is that your toast?
44:01No, it's not.
44:02Keep going.
44:03I thought it was the microwave.
44:05Anyway, Vinnie Johnson.
44:08Yeah, so I think that just like Florida
44:10took a few years to get here, you know,
44:12a President's Trophy and 122 point season,
44:14that looks like a team that's supposed to do something.
44:16Well, they go and get swept by the lightning
44:18and, you know, they win their first round,
44:20they get swept by the lightning,
44:21I think in the second one.
44:22They come back, make a huge trade,
44:25trade eight players,
44:26very much like the way the Bruins involuntarily lost
44:29something like eight last year.
44:30They lose eight on purpose to change around their team
44:34and get the right ingredients.
44:36They come back last year.
44:37They made huge strides,
44:38even though they didn't have a great regular season
44:40because it took a while to pull it all together
44:41and be healthy.
44:42This year, they've been,
44:44they were forced into losing Gutis
44:46and they took a different widget in Neckman-Larsen,
44:49but other people emerged.
44:51Forsling has become the new Nicholas Jomerson of the NHL.
44:54He's just a glue guy that holds the second pairing together.
44:57And, you know, he's just a terrific two-way player.
45:00And-
45:01Nicholas has been good for them too.
45:02Yeah.
45:03And-
45:04Good body, not afraid to throw it around.
45:07They're, they're really, they're really,
45:09it's amazing what they're,
45:10Stenland,
45:13this kid from Sweden who doesn't look like a Swede,
45:16and he's a big kid and he plays so smart
45:20and he's tactically physical.
45:22He's one of the best fourth liners I've seen
45:23in recent years, just outstanding.
45:26This team, hey, if Nick Cousins and Ryan,
45:29the Boston Strangler, Lombard, can't get in the lineup,
45:32how good is this hockey team?
45:35Yeah, oh, that is, that brings up a good question.
45:37So like, there's definitely something going on
45:39with the Panthers between Lombard,
45:41trying to choke out Trent Frederick last year.
45:44And I think it was Frederick.
45:46Yeah, it was Freddie, it was Freddie.
45:48It was Freddie, right?
45:49And Eckblad putting the sleeper hold
45:51on one of the Oilers players.
45:52Oh, I forgot about that one.
45:54Yeah, right.
45:54Yeah.
45:56They're always doing, the Panthers like,
45:58definitely like have lead the league
46:00and we should do a prize picks with that
46:02for MMA choke holds that Florida Panthers players
46:06will put on their opponents over the course
46:09of a series.
46:10I think that could be a stat category that we can pick.
46:12Well, given the Oilers PK, maybe power play goals.
46:15There you go.
46:17All right, one trade name,
46:20and this name obviously has been like vocally pooh-poohed
46:25by the organization, like very convincingly
46:29and like strongly, and I can understand why.
46:32But we've heard a few whispers,
46:35and maybe it's put out there by his own camp
46:37because he wants out.
46:39Brady Kachuk potentially being available
46:41in a trade out of Ottawa.
46:44Like that is the guy that if he ever became available,
46:48the Bruins should give up everything they have to give up
46:52to get the player, that player.
46:54I think that is the kind of player that they need.
46:56Not only would he check a lot of boxes
46:59as far as the way he plays,
47:01style of play fits with the Bruins.
47:03He's got the skill, he's got the meanness
47:04and the bad-ass play
47:07and the power forward kind of thing going on.
47:09But like how awesome would it be to watch Brady Kachuk
47:13in a Bruins uniform going against Matthew Kachuk
47:15in a Florida Panthers uniform
47:17when those two teams started playing each other?
47:20And like the entertainment value,
47:22the fun that would be, the competitive level that would be,
47:25like it would ratchet it up a whole nother level.
47:28Like if by some chance he ever becomes available,
47:31Don Sweeney needs to make that happen.
47:35I've never considered that realistic to muse about,
47:40but if you're-
47:42Does something really have to be realistic
47:43to muse about it, Mick?
47:44But if you're talking, then I'm listening.
47:48I mean, I'm picking up what you're laying down
47:50and I can't think of a player, a singular player.
47:55I mean, I'd do a blockbuster with them
47:57and get Chikrin over here
47:58and get Brady Kachuk over here.
48:02And the one guy that I really,
48:05that there's been a lot of crap slung at after this playoff
48:09that I really don't want to part with is Charlie McAvoy.
48:13A lot of people are considering him
48:15as just this exchangeable widget who turns the puck over
48:18and they go, look at the,
48:19you gotta look at the hockey being played
48:21and what's being asked of this kid
48:23and what he's doing out there
48:24and the situation he's doing it
48:26and how many different partners they try him with
48:28in order to somehow,
48:30because he's trying to do too much.
48:32He's a poster boy for trying to be too much.
48:34And as a result, when it goes poorly,
48:37he becomes a hot mess.
48:38And they just played a series
48:39against the best team in the league.
48:40So it was hard to look good when you don't have the,
48:45so I would like to see
48:46if there was a way to get Chikrin over here
48:48to play with him,
48:50then I'm listening to any all things.
48:53If there's a way to get Kachuk here,
48:54I'm listening to any all things.
48:56I used to, I will admit this full disclosure,
48:59before Kachuk got signed,
49:01before he got traded from Calgary,
49:03he and Pastanak were both pre-contract
49:06and I would have done the Pastanak for Kachuk deal then.
49:10And the reason was because,
49:13not because I was down on pasta,
49:14it was because the Bruins are so desperate
49:17for a player that brings that kind of thing
49:21into their game.
49:23And the Bruins-
49:23The hard skill and toughness and attitude,
49:25like they need that.
49:26Anybody says, oh, this guy's a prototypical Bruin.
49:29I don't even know what that means anymore.
49:30The only thing I know,
49:31I know what they're trying to say,
49:33but it makes me wince
49:34because how many prototypical Bruins
49:35play for the Bruins?
49:37You know what I mean?
49:38And not everybody has to be either.
49:39I love Jon Rattel as a Bruin.
49:40He was not a prototypical Bruin,
49:42but I loved him as a Bruin.
49:44He went right through the gates of hell.
49:46The Montreal Canadiens in the late seventies
49:47made it a mission to knock him on his ass
49:49as many times as they could
49:51because they felt like they had a chance
49:52against the Bruins
49:53if they could keep him occupied
49:55with the physicality that they had on their defense.
49:58And so that's how the game was with them.
50:00And Rattel, like Rick Middleton,
50:02the great Rick Middleton,
50:03who should be in the Hall of Fame,
50:04played through it.
50:05Now, Pasta plays through it.
50:08Pasta has shown me so much
50:10that I've really gotten on the bandwagon here.
50:15And so I would hate to see him go.
50:17That having been said,
50:19if you're talking about things that big,
50:23I have to consider all things
50:25because growing and changing your team
50:29and making it get where it wants to go hurts.
50:32Now, can they get there?
50:33Is there a pathway for the Bruins to get there
50:34with the core that they have without disturbing it?
50:37I'm not ruling that out.
50:38I like a lot about that core.
50:41Would I continue tweaking it?
50:42Yes, absolutely.
50:43So, like Brady Kachook,
50:45oh, hell yeah.
50:46Would I love to see him in a Bruins uniform.
50:47My goodness.
50:48My goodness.
50:49All right.
50:51Tweet of the week from Insufficient on Twitter.
50:55I would give Florida credit like the Bruins who outmuscled,
50:58like the, excuse me.
51:00I would give Florida credit like the Blues
51:02who outmuscled us.
51:03And he's talking about 2019.
51:04If they weren't such cul-de-sac tough guys.
51:07I've never heard the phrase cul-de-sac tough guys.
51:10I'm going to adopt it now.
51:11This guy is calling the Florida Panthers
51:13cul-de-sac tough guys.
51:14Is that a Florida thing?
51:17I really like that.
51:18I think that's pretty awesome.
51:19Cul-de-sac tough guys.
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53:33Mick, thank you very much for joining us, my friend.
53:35Can I make one more comment?
53:37Yes.
53:38Somebody's going to react to this and say,
53:39hey, Brady Kachook and Matthew Kachook
53:40are not anything like each other as players.
53:43And I'm not going to argue that.
53:44I just wanted to make a reference there
53:46to the Pasternak end of the story
53:48because you got to give something to get something.
53:50But yeah, I realized Brady Kachook's
53:51a completely different player than Matthew.
53:53I would love to see Brady Kachook
53:54in a Bruins uniform if that were possible.
53:55Yes.
53:56Brady Kachook is definitely not a cul-de-sac tough guy.
53:59He is the real genuine article.
54:02I would agree that Matthew Kachook
54:03is a cul-de-sac tough guy.
54:04Mick, thank you very much for joining us.
54:07Everybody out there, thanks for listening.
54:08We'll see you at the rink.
54:16We'll see you at the rink.