Locked on Boston Bruins What’s More Likely? 2024 Trade Deadline + Playoffs Edition

Locked on Boston Bruins What’s More Likely? 2024 Trade Deadline + Playoffs Edition

The Boston Bruins are on a nine game point streak heading into tonight’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes and I’m wondering if grapes are what’s key to their recent success Also let’s play what’s more likely Wednesday here on a brand new episode of Locked on Boston Bruins your locked on Bruins your daily

Podcast on the Boston Bruins part of the locked on podcast Network your Team every Day what is up Bruins fans and welcome back to the locked on Boston Bruins podcast I’m your host Ian McLaren and this is a Daily Show where we discuss all things spoked B today is Wednesday January 24th and I want to thank you so much for making lock on Bruins part of

Your daily routine free and available on your favorite podcast app app and on YouTube part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and today’s episode is brought to you by sleeper download the sleeper app and use promo code locked on NHL to get up to a $100

Match on your first deposit terms and conditions apply see sleepers terms of use for details the Bruins are preparing for a game tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes we’ll preview that later on in the podcast first we’re going to play what’s more likely but also a reminder that you can

Find the podcast on social media at locked NHL Bruins and you can find me my hockey thoughts and dad jokes at ianc McLaren all right what’s more likely this is a game believe I played a couple times back in the Summer where we take two opposing scenarios and discuss which

One is more like likely let’s begin with playoffs now the Bruins of course are a fantastic regular season team over the past two seasons they are the best team in the NHL all right we know they had the historic run last year against all OD well maybe not All

Odds but against most odds they are right back up there um to begin 2023 2024 not even to begin to continue in fact since the beginning of last season they are 29 Points clear of second place Vegas in the overall standings theyve played 128 games they

Have a record under Jim Montgomery of 94 20 and 14 that’s a 789 point percentage the next closest team in that respect is colado colado at 667 just unreal success Under head coach Jim Montgomery but if you’re on X anytime you tweet about the Bruins someone is gonna say but what about the

Playoffs look what they did in the playoffs last year they stink they choked nothing matters except the playoffs sure perhaps if your only goal in life is to see your favorite sports team win a championship then you’re going to be disappointed more often than not in my lifetime I

Think I calculated at the Bruins have won what 3% of all possible Stanley Cups so you’re G to be disappointed 97% of the time all right so just enjoy the ride is my advice and that’s my philosophy at the moment but for the purpose of this conversation we’re going to look at

What’s more likely the Bruins flaming out in the first round of the playoffs once again or going all the way and winning the Stanley Cup for me I’m picking cup cup or crumble that’s the question I’m going Stanley Cup for a couple reasons all right first while the

Bruins failed to advance last year in what was seen as kind of their last dance their last opportunity with Patrice B and David Cree in the mix it was Jim Montgomery’s first kick at the kick of the cup with this squad and there’s no question that he

Made some errors in the playoffs last year should have gone to Jeremy Swan sooner he tinkered with the lines way too much and also some load management down the stretch may have been been more in order but he’s a very good coach and you have to believe that he’s going to learn

From those mistakes and Implement some changes here in the upcoming playoff run whether it be sticking to a goalie rotation which has worked so far in the regular season although we have of course seen Jeremy Swan get more starts recently with allar injured and perhaps it’s becoming clear that he is more the

1A than the 1B maybe you go with Swan to begin the playoffs but you can’t be beholden to one goalie just you have two Elite goal tenders just make a switch as early as possible these guys understand that they’re a tandem they’re a Duo they’re they don’t seem too precious about that

Playing time obviously you want to be a net in the playoffs you want to have those big game performances but for the benefit of the team just make switches earlier don’t wait until game seven to give Jeremy Swan a start or vice versa if he’s struggling in all

Marks Fresh So I think he he learned from that um I think and we’ll discuss this coming up but I think we’re going to have more of a sense of what is going to work in terms of line structures in the postseason as well again when Patrice berson came back and Montgomery

Decided to keep Brad Marshon with Charlie Coyle that was that was a double head scratcher um I don’t think you’ll see those same mistakes by Jim Montgomery also look at the quality of competition the Bruins right now first place in the Atlantic first in the East

If they were to to uh begin the playoffs today they would take on the second wild card team right now that is the Detroit Red Wings last year the Florida Panthers yeah they kind of sneaked into the playoffs squeaked into the playoffs but they were the reigning president’s Trophy winners

And same can’t be said of teams in the mix for the wild card at the moment Detroit New Jersey the Islanders capitals is anybody afraid of any of these teams I don’t think so um we perhaps underrated Florida last year because of the wide Gap in points but

That was still a very good team I’m not as concerned about um Florida oh sorry about Toronto Detroit New Jersey the Islanders these are the teams in the mix for uh wild card spot at the moment even Tampa Bay I think the Bruins their structure their confidence their overall team play

Uh has them better suited for Success plus it’s a pretty wide open field this year the fact that the Bruins are in first place tells you this was supposed to be a transition year it tells you that there are no real juggernauts in the NHL at the moment although you could

Argue the Oilers are after having won 14 in a row but they just beat the Winnipeg Jets who are seen as probably as close to a Stanley Cup Contender as you can get uh how cool would it be to beat Vancouver again in the finals but other

Teams have holes they have flaws and pending movement at the trade deadline uh the Bruins are as well positioned depthwise to compete as any other team you need to have four lines three effective defensive pairings two good goalies the Bruins have that right now and that’s why I believe they’re more

Likely to win the cup than to flame out in the first round part of that of course has to do with the trade deadline and whether or not Don Sweeny will swing at the deadline or sit on what he has and uh we will discuss that here coming up as the podcast

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YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel all right the second question here on what’s more likely is with regards to the trade deadline does Don Sween swing or does he sit and I’m gonna air on the side of sitting here first of

All we’ve talked about this many times here on the podcast the Bruins have very limited trade resources to work with they don’t have a first round pick this year it’s top 10 protected the Bruins are not going to finish in the bottom 10 so Detroit will get Boston’s first round

Pick because it was part of the Tyler bruzi trade uh the Bruins also don’t have a second round pick this year or next year they don’t have a third round pick this year or a seventh round pick as if that’s much of a trade commodity so only one

Pick in the first two rounds of the next two drafts to work from not much then when you look at you know prospects you’re not trading Mason lorai uh you’re not trading Fabian lysel you’re not trading um who else you know John beer these are the kinds of players that

You’re going to be building around uh maybe not building around but they’re going to be complimenting the core moving forward now do they perhaps wave not wave but float Georgie merkulov after his successful AHL stint to date I don’t know what he’s going to bring back a prospect like Brett Harrison or

Um Brandon busy perhaps you know probably not there’s really not much to work with here and the guys on the roster who are impending unrestricted free agents those guys are typically candidates to be moved come trade deadline but you’re you’re holding on to these guys for the playoff push James Van rezek Danton

Heinen uh Kevin shaton Kirk Jake debrusk who we hope will be resigned at some point soon the only movement you could make is grizzli or forbort off the Blue Line Parker Witherspoon has played fantastic as of late he could easily step in for either of those two although I’d prefer forbort to be

The one traded but are you really going to be improving the team by signing are trading for board are you just going to be re recouping picks I don’t know what the strategy would be there all that to say I don’t really see Don Sweeney being super active at the trade deadline

Now having said that we do know that trades have been a strength of Don Sweeney’s tenure as general manager for ranking like the three main responsibilities I’d say trades signings drafting that would h that’s how you would rank it he’s made some Savvy decisions he’s traded for guys with uh you

Know control or the ability to retain in the past Charlie Coyle hus lindome among them he has also made some huge swings uh like last year bruzi orlov haway go all the way back to Rick Nash several years ago trading a first round pick ran lingren does he does he do that this

Year or here’s a thing to keep in mind as well and I touched on this in the first segment with regards to the lineup there’s an argument to be made that perhaps they did a bit too much last year and perhaps the chemistry was a bit off or

It was hard to know exactly where to SL slot everybody in the Bruins have a pretty tight-knit group at the moment they have some pretty good lines rolling right now um they have oh I should mention Matt potra another guy you’re you’re not trading him as one of those

Complimentary slash perhaps even core players moving forward if anything he might get sent back to the OHL before his 40 game Mark to preserve that um UFA Year from going from age 27 to age 26 so far he has played 32 games so that decision is coming

Up um and I think that was one of the reasons why they sent him to the World Juniors was to kind of delay that till closer to the trade deadline so that is one area I mean there’s certainly areas where they could improve you’d love to see them add another scoring Winger

Um yeah upgrading on defense over forbo or adding some depth in the event of injury we all know that is going to happen the Bruins aren’t going to remain 100% healthy uh do you want James Van reek as a second line forward in the playoffs or

Would you rather have him in the bottom six and on the power play are you going to rely on yesper bokvist uh moving forward with Heinen and ptra on the fourth line there is room for upgrades but there’s not really much to work with in terms of trade capital and that’s where

Don Sweeney is a bit stuck also in terms of cap space the Bruins don’t have a ton of that and don’t forget 4.5 million at the moment which would be a nice upgrade at the deadline that is going to bonuses for or berson and CI right now they only have about 61,000 in

Available cap space so unless someone goes on ltir there’s really not much to work with unless you’re subtracting from the roster maybe someone wants a a Derek forbort and they’re willing to flip a forbo as possible those aren’t usually the kind of deals we see around trade deadline time it’s usually rentals for

Picks and what have you and that’s possible maybe someone wants for and they elect to get some picks back and they just promote Parker wer spoon maybe that’s the kind of deal not upgrading but trying to recoup some assets from years past who knows um but in terms of

Swinging big I don’t see Don Sweeney doing that uh at this trade deadline so that’s what’s more likely Wednesday we’ll do this again next week or or maybe open up the mailbag again but coming up we are going to preview tonight’s pretty big game I mean they’re

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On your first deposit terms and conditions apply that’s code locked on NHL see sleepers terms of use for details and locational availability I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the huge news in hockey this morning where five members of the 2018 World Junior Hockey Club for Canada have

Been told to surrender to London Ontario Police to face charges of sexual assault no speculation as to who it is um but just a quick reminder to say that we support anyone who has been through anything like this and uh just take care of yourselves on social media today with

Uh with this going around because it’s a a really tough story to be sure and we hope uh the victim and everybody who’s a victim is supported uh through this all right the Bruins take on the Carolina Hurricanes here on Wednesday evening it’s a 7:30 pm start and should

Be a good one Carolina Hurricanes you know not quite the PowerHouse that they have been in years past uh they’re seven2 and one over their last 10 however coming off a loss to the Minnesota Wild the other night the Bruins of course riding a nine game point streak 61 and three over

Their last 10 games now P kov leads the way in net for Carolina but he’s been out for several games as a result of uh being put in concussion protocol it’s been aunti R nailing things down but he’s got a pretty poor save percentage and they just picked up Spencer Martin

On waivers from the Columbus Blue Jacket so he could perhaps be making his team debut altogether this is the team that the Bruins should be able to continue their recent run of offensive success against they are 14th ranked defensively 3.02 goals allow per game uh pretty good offensively they’re ranked

Ninth but their power play is pretty bad 27% actually it’s very good at 27% ranked third and they’re fifth in terms of penalty kill at 83.3 the Bruins are fourth in both of those categories so special teams will be tight tonight and these two teams are pretty evenly

Matched offensively as well the Bruins ranked seventh Carolina ninth as I mentioned but defensively is where things should sway Boston’s way they’re ranked fourth given up 2.6 one goals per game whereas Carolina’s given up 3.02 and again part of that is the goal tending situation Sebastian AO leads the way in

Scoring for them but there’s a pretty big drop off to Second Place uh Seth Jervis on the blue line they have our old friend Demitri orlov who’s kind of struggling to fit in there only 16 points in 45 games Brent Burns leading the way on the blue line with 26 points

One ahead of Brady Shay their hottest player over the last five games is Jarvis with six points Boston it’s David Pock with five goals five assists over the last five games as I mentioned the other day though Carolina is one of those teams that perhaps isn’t as high in the

Standings but their underlying numbers are very solid and uh this could be a game that you know first of a back-to-back for the Bruins they have to travel after this one to Ottawa so it’s one you want to at least get a point out of heading onto the road

To face the Senators tomorrow night with cross border travel right now the hurricanes are third in the Metropolitan Division one point back of the Flyers but with three games in hand so by way of point percentage they’re second in the Metro and in the East they are

Fourth with a plus 15 goal differential which is also fourth so not quite a Powerhouse in the East but still a very very good team and one the Bruins do not want to take lightly by any stretch of the imagination all right that’s it for today’s episode my friends it should be

A good one tonight join me tomorrow for a full recap of tonight’s game with the uh the Stars to keep an eye on I should mention as well one of the reasons the Bruins are successful lately is their third period dominance they have had issues with that earlier this

Season but during this nine game point streak they have a plus4 goal differential 174 three against which is fantastic and like I mentioned off the top grapes a huge part of it Jacob loo two games sorry two goals over his past three games and uh he’s the most famous grapes

In hockey forget Don Cherry it is Jacob loo he said he usually has a lot of fruit before games things started going well for him when he switched over to grapes so um he said he tried grapes one day he scored two goals so he’s keeping it going and

That’s why you see him with grapes and whether it’s the grapes or third line promotion his game has certainly been a lot more a in to Bruin fans and we hope that continues tonight all right hope everybody has a great day please take care of yourselves take care of each

Other and we’ll talk to you again here tomorrow on locked on Boston Bruins part of the locked on podcast Network your team every single day

The Boston Bruins are one of the top teams heading into tonight’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Their surprising success begs us to wonder what’s more likely: Going all in at the trade deadline or standing pat? A first-round exit or a Stanley Cup win?

Locked on Bruins host Ian McLaren breaks down the scenarios before previewing a tilt with the Canes at TD Garden tonight.

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