Boston Bruins Split Home Games in Round 1

Boston Bruins Split Home Games in Round 1

welcome in everyone to episode 33 of tape to tape we are recording on Tuesday evening April 23rd I will be your host tonight I am Maria from Watertown I’m going to be joined by my ever so knowledgeable and popular co-host Caroline and um We Are Tonight going to be joined by a very very special guest that um I I can’t even um Express how excited we are to have this uh young lady join us on um on our podcast tonight so we are going to uh welcome in Bridget PR who is currently working with uh W one of her many jobs I must say she produces on Wei she provides content um hockey related cont content for Wei she’s also writing for Wei she is a play-by-play voice for the uh women’s professional hockey league she also calls games for um Hockey East so Bridget welcome in we’re so excited and so appreciative that you’ve given us um your time to uh to talk hockey tonight yeah no problem I’m always down to talk hockey very exciting yeah and yeah you got yeah and I neglected to mention that Bridget is also um a host of a podcast that is on Wei called um Sunday uh not excuse me um the skate to skate yeah the skate pod joined by Scott mclocklin who’s also pushing out some great content right now for the Wei website and Brian D fiz so um you can uh check out those episodes on Apple and you are also on the YouTube platform is that correct yes yeah we put up our podcast through like the Wei YouTube as well awesome awesome so before we get started we like to do a little bit of setting of uh the table for our listeners and you know tonight we’re going to talk about finally um you know any hockey Fan’s dream which is fi an iconic original six matchup between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs there have been uh two games played to date we’ll chat about both of those games we’ll do a little bit of around the league summary because there’ve been some crazy games already this early in round one um you know I wonder if the New York Islanders fans have uh come out from the fetal position yet after that game last night and we’re going to play a little game called which goalie is behind D number two I don’t even know if we need to play this game any fur further um at this at this juncture but um Bridget we’d like to just also you know hear a little bit about before we talk hockey a little bit about you know your background what inspired you to um develop uh clearly what is a passion for for the sport of hockey yeah so um basically I started I mean I started really getting into the NHL when I was maybe in like eighth grade or I was pretty I was a teenager um and then when I was in high school I was trying to figure out what did I want to go to college for what did I want to do for work and my dad said uh don’t do something you hate because he doesn’t like the job that he’s done for a long time he said don’t do something like me like that you hate he said what’s something you could do every day without getting tired and I said I talk about hockey every day and I do so I went to school and I’m so jelly I’m so jelly that doesn’t feel like work I mean this week for me I was I was at the Garden you know game one and game two talk like going to the press conferences after the game in the locker room interviewing players it’s crazy to like if I had told High School me that was making that decision like okay when you’re in your 20s you’ll be in the locker room I’m talking to players and all that stuff I’d be like wow okay you made it you did it uh so that’s what I was hoping to do and lucky for me um I when I took the job at Wei actually was really working Red Sox um but I wiggled my way into hockey slowly and now I’ve kind of like made smart move smart move smart move living the dream I always used to say to my students because I used to work in higher education a lifetime ago that if you do what you love you never work a day in your life and I’ve never worked a day in my life and so hopefully you haven’t either it’s you know what the only thing that’s getting to me right now is how tired and exhausting like a playoff run is and covering it and I’m just emotionally exhausting too yeah so I’m I’m like catching up on sleep still so are you are you watching all of the games so I I would assume that you’re trying to yeah watch as many games as as possible given the content and you know the platform that that you have on Wei yeah for us so obviously it’s hard for for us to watch the games that are going on when when the Bruins are on we we follow it but we’re not really able to watch it too much so a lot of the times the next day I’ll I’ll catch like NHL on the fly or or if there’s something I really in particular want to go back and look at I’ll I’ll go I’ll tune in because I have them all recorded So I usually have to watch them a little bit later except for on off days like today so yeah I I follow it as much as I can the ree stuff is funny to me um I Vegas the the rire State Building I mean come on people that’s a good one I haven’t heard that one yeah no no that’s what they refer to him on the broadcast is the rire state building I can see why he’s he’s huge he’s just crazy too yeah we we’ve had a couple of conversations on on prior episodes about him I’m not sure that he’ll have a long and sustained career if he continued on the path that he first broke into the league on he seems to have settled down a little bit probably because his face got broke so many times he keep doing it but but he’s I mean I worry if the Bruins make it to a a Conference Finals with New York yeah I mean if they didn’t have Pat maroon that that would be there’d be no match for him no no and I’m not sure honestly you know I I I don’t know how even Pat maroon me neither up against you know he’s the the kid is no disrespect to Pat much younger he’s he seems bigger and and stronger right and yeah and and you saw what he did to Reeves like Reeves said that was the most difficult fight of his career and and Reeves is been a fighter since he came into the league so yeah I don’t know if maroon matches up I think Maro probably does get beaten up pretty bad by him but he’s he’s at least willing to step in with them if he if he has to go up against them so I don’t know that’s a tough match up for anyone like you said I don’t I don’t know if there’s anyone that really wants to to go with him yeah I can’t imagine you want to antagonize him but maybe yeah you’re right he seems to like that Limelight and Spotlight when when it’s on him right good bad or or ugly um and again I’m you know I’m not sure that will serve him you know it may not get the respect of a lot of other players around the league he may get the respect of his teammates for a period of time but across the league I’m not sure how well received that’s going to be over a long period of time doesn’t seem sustainable no I agree with you it’s a different it’s a completely different League than When Brad Martian tried to break in and make a name for himself right I mean granted Rey is obviously a much bigger guy and I don’t know what his actual skill or Talent level is out on the ice if he has it I don’t fault him for trying to make a name for himself and get talking about because we’re doing exactly what he wants right we’re talking about him yeah well I mean the reason that he got the GU like uh he got Madison Square Garden going the other day is because he scored right everyone was oh my God he scored uh he can actually play hockey right as opposed to just running running people over did he just tap a puck in in front of the net yes yes but he did score so but he did score so it’s still it still counts right as Jack always used to say it doesn’t matter how pretty it only matters how many exactly exactly that’s now Bridget um you know it Boston is known Sports Talk Radio market and for for the long for the longest time you know there weren’t a lot of prominent women you know at at the Forefront and and myself personally I think Wei um in the last couple of years has done a very good job you know providing women at the station with platforms you know you’ve got Courtney Cox who’s you know a show host on on Wei which is a major Morning Market show the Greg Hill show um you’ve got Megan otellini who you know before joining Wei was you know had um a good writing career and was also providing cont content I think for NBC Sports Boston she’s you know she slotted in almost seamlessly um with with a forier and Lou and now um now with Jones and Christian arand and then yourself so ha has there been any kind of um difficulties for you breaking in as as a woman in a in virtually what’s been a male dominated Fields because I you know I don’t see the other station being as Progressive as as Wei has been over the last handful of years yeah we had trenny too she was before everyone when I first when I first got there she had a weekend show um so oh that’s right that’s right try had a show um and then and then it was Danielle myrr who came over with Greg Hill from uh aaf so that was she was early too and then obviously they wanted to replace her with another female host so that’s where we get Courtney Cox from uh yeah I mean it’s been good when I first started there were really no women in the building on weekdays so which was now it’s been six years since I started there um but in terms of in terms of difficulties breaking into the business I would say you if you’re comfortable just being the only woman in a room then you’ll be okay for for me a lot of the times that was it it was just like okay I’m gonna walk in I’m the only one like I my first job at a college I worked in North Carolina for IMG we had 70 hosts 70 like Mission halftime host uh uh 69 were men and one was me so it was very very male dominated and um the only thing was nobody was ever disrespectful to me the only thing was people just really didn’t come talk to me I think they didn’t think I had much in common with them even though I do probably exactly the same thing they do which is broadcast sports go home watch more Sports uh that’s so a lot of the times lucky I think this generation of women that are my age um all we we get treated better than than Generations past there are people that are very keenly aware that if they say the wrong thing or or make you uncomfortable uh you know that they they shouldn’t be doing those things so I think that because of women that came before uh we don’t deal with the same kind of harassment that has gone on in the past now granted I do occasionally get some comments that I’m like okay what the hell is that like one person one person I work with this year um I showed up to broadcast a a college hockey game and he asked if I’d ever done this before I was like do you think I just locked it off the street like what think High dude are you kidding me with that question right now like I don’t think you asked that that’s the thing it’s like the stuff it’s like subtle more subtle yeah would you to a guy I don’t think so I don’t think so yeah and then and that’s an appropriate response honestly because I’ve U I’ve gone to that well where I’ve said are you asking me this because I’m a woman because I don’t think you’d be asking a guy that and you get the look like oh I didn’t mean anything by that yeah you did exactly I didn’t know what to say a lot of the times I’m caught so off guard that I just don’t I just look at them and I’m like yeah yeah a huge Mission I think of our um our podcast has been to just show how you can have a a regular Bruins and general hockey talk where you’ve got two women who are knowledgeable and make I think good points about the things that we about the game um because what we have to say is just as valid and you know I I don’t see a lot of uh women co-hosting let alone either on their own hosting a podcast or having a group of women talking hockey but how many hockey podcasts do we all listen to on a regular basis that are just men and I think it’s just the idea of having women just having that same conversation like the conversation is essentially the same it’s just who’s delivering it just to kind of get people to recognize that like you shouldn’t be surprised when I start talking about hockey or when when I say like okay in this period the Bruins have to do X Y and Z and if they do that this will happen like you should not be surprised that I said that and yeah plenty of times not even any kind of intention to Discount what I have to say or like they’re not being like rude or mean or anything but plenty of times I’ve had conversations with other guys where they’re like oh wow you really do know a lot I’m like yeah yeah because I love this like yeah yeah I know what I’m talking about it’s the same as being an expert in anything else right like if you’re like the best like best eye doctor just to pick a random thing like right whoever researches it and practices it the most and like lives it the most knows what they’re talking about it doesn’t have anything to do with anything else yeah and I’m the mindset you know I I I’m very flattered when someone says hey you made a really good point but sometimes I’m even more flattered by like almost a descent to the point that I’ve made which means okay you actually listen to what I said you might not agree with it but now we can have a conversation about it because now I can hear your point maybe I’m going to learn something from from you that I may have missed in the point that I was trying to make so yeah yeah so um how do you balance it all Bridget because you’ve got your you know you’ve got your hands in um you’re wearing a lot of different hats right um how do you do it all and you do it all Well I this I think I I said yes to a lot of things this year this year was really hard for me it looks like you did yes My Philosophy is you say yes to stuff even if you don’t necessarily know exactly where where it could lead you you say yes to to help people out and they they you know you never know what’s going to happen so uh two years ago I said yes to broadcasting a random Mar moman’s hockey game because my friend needed a fill in um I said okay you know I’m just going to get more reps do the P byplay I show up the commissioner of Hockey East was there comes up to me in the second intermission pulls me away says do you want a job working for Hockey East just a random game that I wasn’t going to do so like you say yes to a lot of stuff and you see what happens basically and this year I kept saying yes to other things um and so I was working for Hockey East on Ness and I was working for Providence College I started out the season with Yale but um quit that H partway through to do some of the other stuff that I was doing said yes to the bean pot said yes to the pwhl and then all of a sudden I was like I have no time to even think about anything else like I and then by the way this is all during ruin season so it was it was a lot going on for me and I hit like some serious fatigue in the spring like March was pretty I was pretty fatigued by then and I still tired but but I I just kind of lived day by day got what I needed to get done each day and then all of a sudden here we are in the spring so well I happened to catch some of your pwl broadcast I think it was a week ago you are a natural like you just sound so po and so knowledgeable and just so comfortable with you know going over you know the the the um the rosters for each team and you know the strategy of the game what one team had to do over the other team it just was it was so refreshing to to hear thank you yeah I so I put a lot of time into research I have some like really cool Advanced analytics that I go through um that we have through the PW and it’s like I can go through every goal any of them have ever scored I can go through every save a goalie he’s ever made every face up so I go like in deep in watching the video and and going through stats and stuff but I also take a lot of stock in what uh when I talk to the coaches what they say about um you know just picking up different things and sometimes I pick up stuff from coaches that’s not it’s not even doesn’t even have to do with that game but I like something that someone else said that I can apply you just absorb it all the more you do it just yeah kind of is there and and and you know you have to be kind of in the moment it’s live TV so hopefully you output the right like you you have the relevant thing to Output but it’s all in there so it’s just about being confident and you know well you are one massive sponge my friend you like you must you are just absorbing it and um it’s it’s it’s so refreshing and it’s it’s invigorating right it makes you want to just like okay you know maybe my next life I could do something like this you know in my in my retirement years perhaps yeah it’s I mean it’s a lot it’s a lot of fun that’s awesome it’s good and then and then when it’s rewarding right sometimes I get this week I’ve gotten some nasty tweets and whatnot but uh I don’t know if if it’s related to Toronto I don’t know no probably it probably is you know what’s a beautiful thing block block I love that button block block mute exctly someone commented this week on our last Sunday skate the the girl I’m glad you corrected the girl kidding me but but it’s also like I kind of laugh at that like sometimes in the moment I’m like a that’s rude but then then afterwards I’m like that’s just whatever yeah it serves no purpose in clapping back they just you know allowing them to say that just shows the the the closed-mindedness and the ignorance of the individual who’s actually calling the radio station to say these things or actually taking the time to be so brave to sit behind their laptop and type something me you live rentree in their head I guess so it’s just like I’ve had people find my Instagram scroll through pictures to find one of me broadcasting and comment on it like that I shouldn’t say XYZ like you found my you went through all this all that trouble you loser I don’t get it but but that being said it’s mostly rewarding like yeah um when the work comes out and you’re proud of it that’s a good feeling that’s awesome we give them something we should give them something to talk about because I have a lot to say about the first two games yeah I just have one question I’m gonna put you on the spot you don’t have to answer it I think I know what the I think I know the answer but who’s your favorite Wei radio personality radio does that mean like weekends doesn’t matter not just doesn’t matter doesn’t matter this might surprise you actually because and this is just because he’s a great guy too I love Fitzy Fitzy knows everything F yeah I thought you’d say Razer for sure but oh that’s isn’t so he’s I wouldn’t call him a host fit is a host that’s true yeah so like personality if we’re talking about guests and everything obviously my co-hosts right so yeah but if you’re talking about like hosts like of a Regular Show outside of of my you know my show fit’s just he’s very intelligent I think he’s people don’t really give him the credit for it because he’s got that like Persona the kind of like Fanboy persona but he actually really smart and really nice and I have to say he and Andy Hart together are very good they’re and they’re good listening um they’re really good listening uh together so I think they balance each other quite well um and just for our listeners too if you need some um hockey talk Sunday mornings 9 to 11 Sunday skate with Scott mcglaflin Bridget PR and Andrew roft it’s good really really good content and I would I would uh give give them a listen on Sunday morning they have open phone lines they’ll take your calls they’re always very gracious they’ll even check up on you if you’re missing an action peria call us every week and then all of a sudden she wasn’t there and I was like I’m a little bit right where’d she go I was like uh oh this isn’t like usually she’s first in line I know I hear about it too so let’s talk some more hockey let’s talk about some games so we had a game on Saturday night between the Bruins and the Maple Leaves and that was a five to one win for the Bruins and the the big storyline leading up to that game was of course which goalie was going to be behind door number one door number two door number three pick a door right and so so you know I think there might have been you know a little bit of gamemanship which was pretty enjoyable I think leading up to that don’t you feel the same way I wonder what Montgomery was thinking like laugh he must have been laughing behind you have to be laughing right why not have fun with it at this point in time my favorite line was when someone asked him oh who was going to be a net and he said I didn’t even tell my wife I’m not going to tell you that was awesome nobody know do you remember uh who did I say who did I say who did I say would be in net who should be in net who did I say you called it my friend you you called it I’ve been right both games I thought Swan was gonna start game one that one was a weird gut feeling that I had I I was like I just feel like it’s going to be swming um and then I did think think they were going to rotate so I I didn’t necessarily want omark in game two not because I don’t trust him because I just thought Swan one two all Mark 3 um would have been what I would have done after what I saw in game one but I I I did guess it right both times now is it really a guess if you go back in hindsight that just continuing the rotation so it wasn’t like it was it was it was there for us right in front of our eyes I guess the whole time but we didn’t know if that was going to continue yeah well I think what through people off a little bit is you know hearing both Montgomery and Don Sweeney say you know we know what the plan is and our goalies know what the plan is so that you know might have led you to believe are they considering maybe doing something a little bit different or other than their standard goalie rotation so I just I kind of enjoy the shad and Freud of it and listening to you know some of the Sports Talk radio show hosts on both stations basically demanding that he needs to tell us who’s going to start he doesn’t need to tell you a goddamn thing right he doesn’t need to tell us any of us anything there were two times that before we were playing this whole playoff game like there was two times that we spoke to him earlier in the season in March and in April when he did tell us what he was going to do but we didn’t we didn’t know if we could believe him but like a in hindsight that he was telling the truth about it was when we were in Montreal Scott and I traveled up to Montreal we talked to him before one of the games and Scott asked him about the goalie rotation and he said we if we don’t get a guy a majority of time down the stretch in the end of the regular season then we’re not going to do that in the playoffs and what did they do to the end of the season they rotated so that was one one time where he was honest about it that was all the way back in March so we kind of had that in our mind and then uh in April early in April he said we’re we want if we’re doing a rotation we’re probably going to rotate for the first four games of the series and then decide from there so I think now that we’ve seen what happened one and two I think we can be pretty confident swam and three all mark four and then with sample size see who matches up best for the rest of the series and that’s perfectly logical the way you just explained it because I can’t remember if it was Sweeney or Montgomery who said you know ultimately it’s going to be a performance-based decision so if if one of those two Right comes out being you know sharper you know more more prepared I however way you want to analyze it they have given themselves that opportunity to make that decision of going with one or the other based on the performance of both of them yeah exactly and I think if you think about it in in another aspect it’s not just about kind of what you talked about Bridget because I think that’s what is front of mind for everybody but if you think about it also a little bit a step further two things one this is quite literally how these two goalies have trained all season right like you kind of alluded to earlier in our conversation where not a one of them this year played any kind of significant stretch of time Swan did a little bit when when there was question about Ali lenus was hurt I think I think he had a little yeah right like yeah exactly this is how they’ve trained literally all year and then you want to have their bodies do something different like it doesn’t NE neily make a ton of sense like these athletes are extremely ftuned to a certain way look at what happened after uh the the the CBA break and then not just with the Bruins right like a ton of players like you just don’t play for 10 days and all of a sudden you know you can see it because they’re so fine-tuned but then the third thing is because we have this two phenomenal goal tenders who are essentially equal in their skills and what they bring this is phenomenal gamesmanship because now you have to you’re forcing your opponents to do twice the homework because they you know are preparing for a game you know but they don’t know who the goalie is necessarily going to be so now you have to build two you know lineups potentially based on who’s in net um and it just complicates their preparation just a little bit more like yeah and you wonder and you wonder if that would have changed the outcome of a Series last year basically well and I think that right and and I was very vocal and critical of you know some of Jim Montgomery’s not just the goalie lineup decisions but some player lineup decisions during the course of that Panther series where I thought what you’re you’re overthinking what you’re doing here just go with what got you here exactly and well you see you see that that this year they’re trying to not make the same mistake yes and I think that NE in next game even though the Bruins lost I think that Montgomery might do the same thing that Sheldon Keefe did which was keep the lineup exactly the same minus the peak injury having to change out probably weather spoon yeah we’ll talk about that yeah think that he’ll probably keep it the same and say guess what you just need to work harder you just need to do better like we’re not yeah you think this is the Personnel that we want but you guys going to do XYZ better put out A Better Effort and I think that the com there’s confidence behind that players feed off that confidence there was times last season in the postseason where I thought that by moving so many pieces he was showing that he didn’t trust what he had even though he had probably the best team in history and maybe he didn’t trust him so you know he that was a big spot to him down that trickles down it yeah does you have to feel you have to have a coach that that’s confident in you and and you know it I felt there were a lot of things in that series that if he had stuck with what everybody was expecting or at least like stuck to a better plan or more solid plan uh then he would have he would have had a little bit of different confidence level yeah in that in that series and also like goal tending you can’t just go to your your other goalie and just just game seven right yeah I mean he’s been right he’s been sitting there with right no game action you’re putting all you know so and point actually is you think about it is you’re giving them both regular action so that way if you do end up wanting one of them for games five six seven and you want to commit to one you know that both of them have been you know playing at that high level so they’re not getting rusty sitting there on the bench and if you tell them these four games you’re you’re both getting your even chance but after that we’re gonna play the like we’re GNA play it off of the results then you make them play that elevates their level for the first four games because they want to be the guy that gets the rest of they want to be that guy yeah so you know I I I’m I was happy that it started with the rotation um you know this the the goalie the both goalies have been this team’s best identity all season long it’s been a it’s been a strength of this team all season long and to think that you might you know depart from that strength because people want you to hold to tradition seems a little bit um non sensible to me are you going to call an Intel Riser that on Sunday yes I will better no you know what you know what I’m gonna tell them I’m gonna tell him Friday night while I buy him a beer at the event at the uh the sporting deck at the Omni I don’t want it to be on a I I call him out so many times like multiple times this season I’ve brought up the fact that I’m like I distinctly remember him talking about this last year on morning brew and he even toyed with the idea this year and I’m like I get it I get where he’s coming from but that he’s coming from this this tradition of having a single goalie right like even uh I mean there’s not even any close to having some sort of level of Tandem like yes they are playing the starting goalies are playing fewer and fewer games but like this is not the same so why would you do it and and it blew up in Monty’s face because I agree I think that he was doing what the the Talking Heads the the the you know the traditionalists were all saying it’s like okay it’s playoff this is what you do in playoffs and it’s like that’s not how they played the game all year I know do you remember he everyone thought he threw goalie Bob under the bus last year because he said well this is what goalie Bob told us to do well goalie Bob is a traditionalist and Montgomery was I think Montgomery might have been more inclined he he trusts obviously he trust Bob asza the goalie coach so he was he was going off of what he said but this this year I think Montgomery said no I’m making the decision this is what we’re doing we’re going for it go ahead I’m sorry go ahead I was just gonna say I think Razer is the way he is because he was so competitive for the net that he can’t conceive there being like a competition for it in in which both guys get to share it he thinks he sees it as like a what is it some perfect world like because if if you’re a goalie you want the net 100% And think both of these goalies also feel that way but they also might have a better chance of winning when they do what they’ve been doing all year so you have to do what’s right to win the game right I think nobody would argue with the idea of you do what it takes to win these games but this is a non-traditional approach it’s been you know two full seasons now and yet it still seems to be very difficult to buy into it in this what I have now taken to calling playoffs the high holy days like it’s the most sacred time of year it’s the most significant time of the year and there are rules and traditions and here they are breaking them proving that it is something that can work you know it and when they didn’t do it it backfired so like well it it’s going to work when they get out of the first round if if you know right right we’ll never if they don’t right if they don’t then you know we’re going to hear all of this rehashing all all over um again for you know ad Naim until free agency but but for now I myself am glad that he’s made a commitment to sticking to what has been this team’s soft ID and consistent strength all year long now you know in terms of the the two games that we just we just witnessed you know I think that each team did the same thing to each other in both of their wins the the Bruins four check in game one was absolutely phenomenal their defensive structure was pretty solid they did a good job of you know clean breakouts their their Penal kill was um a a strong point you know John beer first playoff game first first goal I mean how how good is that and you know it just seemed that once they got that first goal they weren’t going to relinquish the lead to the maple leaf so you know I’d like to hear from each of you what your your pros and cons were with respect to to to that first game well I mean it was an entertaining game for sure I I would say the the playoff nerves like it’s funny because like I’m there covering the team being impartial obviously where with Boston the whole year um but like playoff nerves I forgot how like I was going to get up there and just have a sinking feeling inside me every time like someone sh something off the post and it was like oh my God that’s right this is like it feels like life or death sometimes up there game one felt like that because the Bruins got the beater goal early and then they they shot like three pucks off post and it’s just like okay this should have been times where they Caroline’s nightmare yeah the post the ringing of the post kiding me like at least five times for the Bruins and one for Toronto but but at the same time San made so many good saves at Toronto he was locked in y like early on Toronto probably thought they should have been leading to nothing and then you know like yeah beat your scores and then so it could have it could have been even high higher scoring game than it was 51’s already pretty high obviously on the Boston side not on the Toronto side but um I they had a lot of things going right in the first game and I and and some question marks were were answered like how healthy is Pat maroon while he’s willing to go in and and make these kind of huge hits you’re you’re thinking okay his back must be healed he doesn’t seem to be worried about going in and doing he only played two regular season games with the Bruins so I was kind of wondering is he first of all playoff speed second of all fully healthy yeah and then he throws lilligren into the bench and everybody goes crazy and and he has six hits in the game and he had an impact he had an assist on the beater goal too so fourth line looked good I think depth was a strength of the Bruins in game one uh everybody was doing little things right they had issues breaking out the puck in both games though and that’s really one of the main issues in game two there there was a there was a little bit of a sequence in game one where I thought oh here we go again just make a hockey play and get the puck out of your end and I think um in game one Morgan geeky looked not ready for prime time to start the game I don’t know if it was you know nerves or unsettledness or he just looked you know a little out of sour um particularly you know when you’re wanting him to play a little bit of a defensive structure in our own end but I think he got a little bit um he got more comfortable and better as the game went on and I thought he had a solid game last night game two he was he was he was he’s a guy who I saw as soon as the Bruins uh brought him on to the team so I have a data analyst by training I’m I do hockey analytics for fun like literally just for fun right because I want to understand like who these players are and get to know kind of if there are things that I can tell about them through their numbers and he’s one that I figured out pretty quickly that if you give him more minutes he’s going to get better and better and he’s just one of those players who I think the more that he’s used the more comfortable he is the more assertive he is and I think having not having been in a high-profile playoff situation with regular numbers you know he was kind of um underutilized out in Seattle because he was kind of what like a fourth liner not getting a ton of minutes and they had a ton of talent ahead of him in Seattle um and then he was in Carolina where he had better numbers because he played more time and he had some playoff experience but like this was like going from Community Theater right into Broadway right like it’s it’s the Bruins the 100th season Toronto Maple Leafs like it I I can’t even imagine the intensity he was feeling and it’s completely understandable uh that you know he kind of made some questionable decisions but you know we all are nervous on the first day and as I was hoping to see after having that exposure to the environment spending time in it uh he was her his usual self it was business as usual for him um and so I was really glad to see that because I’ve been rooting for him uh this season um because I think there’s so much there and he certainly has delivered in spades for the BR yeah he’s he was a great addition uh and he is a strong centerman you see him take the face off for the poster knock goal the end of uh end of the second period Montgomery 10 seconds left or just about 10 seconds left Montgomery says who do I want to take this face off offensive zone face off he goes to Morgan geeki um and he puts him out there with with zaka who is capable of taking face offs too but he said he wants gei to take the face off and he wins it and then next thing you know three seconds later Puck’s in the back of the net cuz is able to to make a play with 7 seconds left in the period and okay wow geeki did exactly what he had to do there yeah he scores on the power play he’s a very smart player um he he can play pretty well with most most people um in terms of his staff before he came to Boston I one of the ones that Scott because Scott loves his analytics too he one of the ones he was uh preaching in the beginning of the season was if you look at the points per 60 minutes of geeky in Seattle he actually really ranks very highly but he just only played 10 minutes a game so he his actual point number low but points per 60 Minutes would have been very high so the more basically the idea is if you give him more time he’ll have more points and you put him in the right situation and I i’ I’ve actually really thought he’s a very smart hockey player um in my interactions with him he’s also a nice guy so um yeah definitely think he’s an intelligent hockey player that can figure it out yeah yeah I mean he had he I you know other than lenus who was as Montgomery clearly said was the Bruins best player last night I thought Morgan geeki had a solid game even even though it was it was a loss so you know what what my question to each of you is what are the Bruins need to do to generate or how are they going to generate some five on by scoring opportunities because you know that defense of Toronto and the goal tending is still suspect like on paper you’re better in both both areas and you know you’ve you’ve kept I think it’s the second highest scoring team in the league down to how many how many goals in this game one in game one and four well and one’s an empty nck so you know you’re you’re doing something right in that regard so how do you take advantage and get some five on five sustained five on five scoring pressure and goals in I for me it’s they have to take advantage of some very specific opportunities because I think what Toronto uh does is they open themselves up to disaster quite frankly with some of their long passing and what we saw really that went really really well in game one I mean the number of times I think there was like a really huge one by Carlo where I mean with his Long Reach because he’s a big dude I mean he was just picking pucks as they were getting past right so like take advantage of those because Toronto is doing that a ton um and then book it to that net because they’ve got a Civ who loves to move and if you can just interrupt those passes and throw every shot you have at this guy you’re gonna end up with a ton of goals I mean I I almost kind of feel bad for the goalie um not everyone can be as fantastic as Jeremy Swan or lenus alar and the defense in front of him is just mediocre at best so for me they’ve just got to really pay attention to when those situations are happening and they’ve got to be fast and insert themselves there I think that I good way to overwhelm and and and goalies are always put in a bad situation when you force a turnover on your four check because they’re you know you’re if you’re Samson off and Toronto has the park and you’re thinking it’s going to go the other way next thing you know someone like loo or Beacher or or someone picks picks off a pass pops the puck back out in front and you don’t have a whole lot of time to react so for checking can be a really big key in possession as well as creating a good scoring chance um and that goes for every line the fourth line had been doing it pretty well third line that could be a strength of them too um because I think Frederick’s good at that um Loo’s good at that on the third line um beer and they have a lot of players on the in the bottom six that are great at that top six I I’ve been a little bit underwhelmed with the offense from Maran I know they’re getting top I’m a little worried I was going to bring that up if anyone is concerned that you know there’s something you know that’s we’re not aware of um he’s still skating well he’s still he doesn’t seem to be doing able to sustain those prolonged period of times with keeping the puck on the end of a stick and cycling in the offensive zone so I wonder if something’s going on I personally have not heard anything about an injury okay um I but it is hard to explain right because we’ve we’ve seen what we’ve seen from him for a long time uh he’s been a little bit of a Streaker player this year than he has in the past he’s been a little bit more consistent uh usually he plays great against Toronto so I I I doubt he’s gonna go a whole series Without uh scoring or or being more part of the offense but um yeah he’s he’s someone that in a playoff series you you need at least a little bit of uh production from him because um Jake juss isn’t gonna score two goals every game and uh Johnny beer isn’t going to score every game and and poster knock that was a great goal that he put in but I think that five on five and through a majority of that game he was pretty well taken care of and well covered double teamed yeah so he only had um I think three shots on goal if I’m not mistaken whereas Austin Matthews had nine yeah have a lot of shots they had five yeah five yeah they yeah so um we all saw Andrew Peak too get get injured um it took us a while to find out what was going on her to even know that he wasn’t even on the Bruins bench and so you know how how do each of you feel that that will um that Personnel will be addressed with the Bruins because we all know why shaton Kirk was in the lineup and that was to get the power play going and the power play has been a little bit going no no it has it has been a little bit better but my concern is having you know defensive units that have both shaton Kirk and Matt klick um trying to defend against the the talented and Speedy forwards that the Maple Leafs have so I I can start with just saying what the update was today from practice because Peak as of last night when I asked coach she said they didn’t have an update which is very part for the course for right after the game but this morning they said he’s weak to week which is once again my least favorite designation because it could mean he could be back by the end of the series or he could be back never like you know not not till the next season so um unfortunately taking a puck to the hand pucks pu beat hands a lot of the time like if we’re doing rock paper scissor but would a puck versus a hand Puck wins usually so he has a week toe injury they said um orbert has been taken off longterm IR Lori was recalled they said forward’s not going to play in game three and is considered dayto day even though he did play two games in Providence so um I feel like the real option is W spoon W spoon but that’s I think what um makes makes sense makes sense to me um but who comes who comes out you I mean do you take shat and Kirk out no you I think they’re they probably go with well and shaton Kirk as the as the pair as the I think so too that would be my that would be my assumption because uh are they both lefties both righties no so if you put we spoon in shaton Kirk will be able to go back to his natural oh true true true he’s been playing his offside with Peak right right right right back to what he’s more comfortable with yeah I think that water spoon is the natural next one up because I think he’s been a better overall defenseman s over like lorai um he’s a little bit older a little bit more maybe a little bit more experienced to some degree um he’s more physical yeah he’s just he’s just has a little bit more to offer you know I certainly wouldn’t for me the idea of forbert coming back in is I mean a little bit premature because he hasn’t played at this level in weeks right like yes he was a great PK guy but like he hasn’t played that role at this level in a really long time um like you said he’s only had the two games back I just think you know W spoon’s been in more recently he’s been part of everything more recently it just it makes so much more sense even if he maybe isn’t the most ideal but he’s the best option and I don’t mean that in any kind of deprecating way I think he’s I think it’s gonna be fine I’m Gonna Be The Optimist I’ll be The Optimist I’ll be the one who’s I I mean I think W would have already been in if not for the need to get shat KK on the powerful it probably would I agree with you I surprised he hadn’t been yet but yeah and and I like forart you know but he’s not the most Fleet of foot you know he’s he’s you know he’s a he’s a good stay-at-home defenseman you know he’ll he might be able to you know Rush the puck in here and there but I worry about you know having been off the ice and not having you know the pace of play even in a regular season game him being able to keep up in not only the playoffs but with a team that you you know Toronto is fast and you know the Bruins have consistently over the years struggled with teams that are faster than they are and they’ve never been known for their you know their speed themselves so you know I would um I would give him a little bit more time you know maybe get him a game at home in in the next round um to to get we might see him I think we might see him sooner than the next round I think we might see him in this round in this round honestly I think we might see him in this round um because Peak if you think about the role that Peak played a huge asset uh was his power his penalty KK yeah yeah so uh so same with forbert yeah and the hope is forbert got two surgeries one was we believe one was lower body probably groin that’s what and then one was upper body so maybe getting surgery on that makes him faster than he was before if he’s fully healed um po right his could be improved yeah I mean that’s kind of what happened with Martian when he had the hips surgery because he had to because of his his range of motion with the actual crossing over when skating was significantly hampered so it’s Charlie Coyle a few seasons back had to get surgery on his knee I believe and he was much you you could see was better the next season so he’s been you hope that I mean that’s the goal of the surgery um so as long as he’s healed enough you think he might actually be a little faster than when he left and speaking of Charlie Co Coyle that was an area of weakness in the game last night um he was he was not very good in the faceoffs last night he had he had a great deal of difficulty he was buzzing that’s the other thing that I know he was buzzing yeah he deserved a goal I believe he was it last night’s game he hit a post or maybe it was he hit the post probably that night when everyone was hitting the post um his line for a good stretch I mean that was what was so particularly frustrating about last night’s game um you know so for the Penalty Box for me was in spite of having those moments where my God were they cooking they could not convert they could not convert and it was driving me bonkers because I don’t I don’t understand it like the chances were there the shots were there Why didn’t it go in the net the guy is not a spectacular goalie it shouldn’t be hard sometimes it’s it and cliche it’s cliche but Puck luck and it sometimes it goes your way sometimes it doesn’t especially at the Garden yeah P bouns off the STS and the boards those boards are horrendous like at least they should be bounces but we don’t even get those with those you know crappy boards in there um I want to be mindful of your time Bridget because I know there are other games that you need to um to pay attention to um series predictions series predictions for so I I said this um my official series prediction is that Bruins in six um I think it’s gonna be a long series I think there’s I don’t see it ending in five uh which would it would have to take now right there’s no sweeps are off the table um I think it’s gonna be six or seven I say six and this is actually more of a personal thing for me game seven would be a very difficult game for me to make too wouldn’t allow it so the Bruins need to do it in six I have a twl broadcast uh on the same day at 3:30 and that game would be probably 8:20 I might be able to make it back in time tight but I was hoping that it wouldn’t take that but what that means is that they would have to that means they would have to take it in Toronto so they would have to win on the road um that would be and then they and also means that they got to take um one either game three or four um on the road as well so yeah I I said Bruins and six if they can if they can stay out of the Penalty Box and generate some five on five scoring I they can beat this team they they can beat this team yeah I had the same same prediction I think we’re all kind of on the same page that the way that the Bruins have played against Toronto All Season yes playoffs are different however a lot of the uh issues that I see with Toronto have not been addressed a lot of their holes I think and I think that when Boston is turned on and plugged in and ready to go they are unbeatable and the the team that I saw play on Saturday night was that team and I’m not saying that last night’s game was not good it was a good game they LED for most of it like they didn’t they weren’t terrible it was we’ve seen some stinkers my God this season have we seen some stinkers no I that was not what that was how about last how about last playoffs how about last first round no please yeah God that was yeah no I still have PTSD I can’t even yeah high quality loss not mad bad luck things that can be addressed they just can’t make mental mistakes they can’t have have too many men on the ice penalties you cannot give a team like the Toronto mapel Leafs you can’t hand them opportunities such as that and guess what that was the that was the penal the penalty kill that Pete got hurt on yeah too many yeah it wasn’t even one that was worth it right like it’s not like it was H yeah you open your you open your players up for injury when you’re when you’re penalty killing blocking shots and so they they I’ll take it one step further yeah yeah was was it Matt grizzli who couldn’t make a a play on the puck to get the puck out which precipitated that whole crap storm um to begin with so or but anyways um I can save my ma grizzli R for another podcast I won’t go off on a tangent yes Scott and Brian didn’t agree with me that grizzli in game one got pushed around a lot so much he did he did he he got pushed around I don’t think he’s a bad player and I don’t think he’s played bad in the series I think that he’s trying to do the right things and when he has space he does the right thing every time but when he doesn’t have space he loses the puck because he’s just bumped off of it and I am not one of the big macros critics it’s just watching what is in front of me I see that happen a lot yeah and and more so in these last two games than I think I I have in like any other game in particular this season I can recall off the top of my mind yeah say every every single time every game I swear every other episode I’m saying Matt grizzli when he’s good my God is he good but when he messes up holy cow is it bad it can be like Monumental costly mistakes or you know like you said he gets just bounced around and then it’s all of a sudden this significant like hole that has developed it’s just bad luck you know it’s usually on like a defensive Zone breakout too so then when you turn the puck over at your own defensive Blue Line it comes back at your goalie real quick usually that’s when it’s a problem and we you know we’ve all seen past playoff hit past playoffs where you know the opposing team has targeted his side of the ice now you know he to his credit in last year’s Series against the Panthers he he played well he played well and he held his own but my fear is what I’ve seen over this these first couple of games is kind of that old Here We Go Again they’re they’re going after him and he’s I don’t want to say caving but he’s not able to to sustain the battle and win and win the battle that he needs to win yeah I I don’t think he’s coming out though I think no I agree with you yeah he’s not coming off no yeah he’s too good he is still has that talent that skill that they need they trust him more than they trust l so oh God please no no no pass to the opponent so yeah he’s he still has some seasoning um he still has some seasoning he still has a lot of hesitation to his decision making particularly in in um the defensive zone so I think I’m okay with him kind of watching and learning for the time being yeah so uh Bridget thank you so so much um I we can’t thank you enough for your for your Insight for your time for you know providing us with um really good hockey content and I can encourage our listeners enough to you know check out all that Wei has to offer by way of um hockey content either you know by listening to the podcast listening to Sunday skate on Sunday morning reading the articles that are posted um on the Odyssey website under Wei’s uh Banner so um here’s to a long playoff front for the Boston Bruins here’s hoping that that longer than last year right long we’re asking for it’s got to be right it’s got to be longer than last year go into withdrawals in the summer like I don’t even know what to do with myself so got to be longer and to the Islanders fans there there’s still hope this really hurts right now but there’s still hope is there is there I’m trying to be optimistic I’m trying to be optimistic usually the roles are reversed here what are you doing tonight sorry sometimes yeah you gotta play you gotta play the other side every once in a while yeah it’s opposite day it’s opposite day on tap Today podcast oh God Bridget where can folks find you on social media um so if you’re watching this my name right there Bridget PR it’s kind of hard to spell if you aren’t seeing it uh it’s v r i d g tte p r o u LX uh and that’s my handle on Twitter and Instagram um and then yeah you can find the content that I do the way Maria just said YouTube um we.com and on on the radio fantastic oh and on CV for my other job so on nessen Ness um yeah fantastic well thank you so much this was a lot of fun yeah it great guys yeah it’s a good good any any yeah hockey talk is awesome we could talk hockey all day every day so um it’s nice to have this this Avenue to just express our thoughts and opinions which are all our own our listeners may not always agree with what we have to say but that’s okay that’s how we develop discourse yes yep they should join in on our Discord channel to have some of that one-on-one conversation with us um you know we like to post all that kind of stuff in our show notes um but yeah we will be back next week I don’t know what the schedule is we’re gonna find out I guess we’re kind of on the fly but Tuesday night Tuesday night will be game five Tuesday night then we’ll probably be recording next Wednesday correct but as always go bees go bees

* Find our special guest on Instagram and X @bridgetteproulx

* Bruins take Derek Forbort (https://www.nhl.com/bruins/news/bruins-recall-derek-forbort-from-lti-conditioning-loan) of LTIR and send him for conditioning to Providence

* Andew Peeke (https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/bruins-d-corps-dealt-major-blow-with-andrew-peeke-week-to-week-with-hand-injury/ar-AA1nx5Qe) is week-to-week after an injury in Game 2

* Glad we aren’t Islanders (https://www.nhl.com/news/new-york-islanders-carolina-hurricanes-game-2-recap-april-22) fans!

* Check out the show Bridgette co-hosts on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCvEhON3Iy0nnV4jsgTMP7_RGrfGNAz__)

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