Boston Globe GASPER: Don Sweeney has to take a share of blame for Bruins’ problems

[UncleRico]

Why do we care who it is who writes the article if he’s spot on right?

It doesn’t take a hockey genius to see that the Bruins GM and President have terrible media skills and a clear disdain for public discourse. I wouldn’t care if the Arts editor wrote the piece.

They don’t actually care who writes the article. They just don’t want the article written in the first place because they don’t want to hear that there is something wrong with their favorite team.

 

[MarchysNoseKnows]

Collageo’s comments are exactly what the Jacobs family want and that’s for fans to be completely content with a playoff series or two because it could always be worse.

And KPD, Porter, and then Gasper (?!?) did Henry’s bidding. Lol.

 

[UncleRico]

And KPD, Porter, and then Gasper (?!?) did Henry’s bidding. Lol.

Conroy who writes for the herald wrote a similar article. Is he doing Henry’s bidding over at the herald? Or is it just a bunch of people writing articles who all have the same opinion?

 

[MarchysNoseKnows]

Conroy who writes for the herald wrote a similar article. Is he doing Henry’s bidding over at the herald? Or is it just a bunch of people writing articles who all have the same opinion?

I don’t know…maybe use history as a guide?

 

[Mathews28]

How could of Sweeney “cashed out”?

I know. He cashed “in”. He can suck, get fired and still get paid.

 

[finchster]

Well that argument certainly turned around on itself

Speaking of which,

 

[BiteThisBurrows]

Bruins fans are so spoiled.

Reality check.
The team's five-year record with Sweeney at the helm is 229-120-49 for a .637 win percentage, which ranks third in the NHL over that span. He was voted by his peers as the NHL's General Manager of the Year in 2018-19 as the club compiled the third-best record in the NHL and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, and the club won the President's Trophy with the league's best record in 2019-20.
But sure, no cup so it's a "disaster". Talk about a high bar. I have a friend who is a Sabres fan. Ya, I'm still feeling pretty good.

 

[pearljamvs5]

Bruins fans are so spoiled.

Reality check.
The team's five-year record with Sweeney at the helm is 229-120-49 for a .637 win percentage, which ranks third in the NHL over that span. He was voted by his peers as the NHL's General Manager of the Year in 2018-19 as the club compiled the third-best record in the NHL and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, and the club won the President's Trophy with the league's best record in 2019-20.
But sure, no cup so it's a "disaster". Talk about a high bar. I have a friend who is a Sabres fan. Ya, I'm still feeling pretty good.

Bruins fans are "so spoiled" by wanting a team that has a high win percentage, made it to the cup final in multiple years, and has won a few regular season awards to win a cup? And we should be "happy" with just making the post season because other teams are worse than us? Terrible take.

 

[UncleRico]

Bruins fans are so spoiled.

Reality check.
The team's five-year record with Sweeney at the helm is 229-120-49 for a .637 win percentage, which ranks third in the NHL over that span. He was voted by his peers as the NHL's General Manager of the Year in 2018-19 as the club compiled the third-best record in the NHL and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, and the club won the President's Trophy with the league's best record in 2019-20.
But sure, no cup so it's a "disaster". Talk about a high bar. I have a friend who is a Sabres fan. Ya, I'm still feeling pretty good.

Yet Bruce Cassidy had an even higher winning percentage and Neely and Sweeney felt enough was going wrong that they had to cover their asses by firing the coach.

 

[EvilDead]

Gasper hit the nail on the head and now all the sycophants of Donnie Boy and Clueless Cam are out to cry "hE DoESn'T kNOw anYtHIng aBOuT hOCkEy."

You don't need to be a puckhead to see that this team is rudderless and has no direction. Hell, a blindfolded Stevie Wonder locked in a dark basement could see that. It's obvious that Don Sweeney is in way over his god damn head and doesn't know how to do anything but trade away futures and meh prospects for talent to keep giving Montgomery Burns his playoff gate. AND EVEN THEN, he's found a way to mess that up too with trades like the Rick Nash Trade, the letting go of Nick Ritchie for nothing, and so on. The fact there are people who still stand up for this guy is beyond comprehension for me. Quite frankly, it's to the point of being enraging.

 

[Eddie Munson]

Bruins fans are so spoiled.

Reality check.
The team's five-year record with Sweeney at the helm is 229-120-49 for a .637 win percentage, which ranks third in the NHL over that span. He was voted by his peers as the NHL's General Manager of the Year in 2018-19 as the club compiled the third-best record in the NHL and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, and the club won the President's Trophy with the league's best record in 2019-20.
But sure, no cup so it's a "disaster". Talk about a high bar. I have a friend who is a Sabres fan. Ya, I'm still feeling pretty good.

Bruin’s fan should demand more. We have 1 Stanley cup in the last half century.

Sweeney certainly has a great winning percentage built on the backs of Marchand, Bergeron, Chara, Rask, Pastrnak, Krejci. None of which he is responsible for. After 7 years at the helm this is the time a prudent GM would have replacements coming up the pipeline to replace these aging players. But after all this time, he has no Bergeron/Krejci replacement. Seemingly was unaware Krejci was going to walk and sold the fans on “center by committee” which worked about as well as expected. Let Chara walk to play the kids for a year only to let one of those kids get snatched in the expansion draft and then one year later had to go out and get vets in FA to man his defense.

He’s nowhere near the worst GM in the league. But it’s his inability to juggle all the balls in the air that a GM needs to handle that has him on the hot seat for me.

He reminds me of my golf game. If I crush it off the tee, my short game is garbage. If I’m chipping like Tiger, I’m putting like Happy Gilmore . If I’m draining long putts, in only because I’m playing rescue golf after all my sliced drives that go nowhere. Don Sweeney like my golf game can just never hit on more than one aspect at a time.

In the end the arguement will be “did he just oversee them during their transition from a perennial contender to a rebuilding team or was he a driving force that led them there?”

 

[finchster]

They don’t actually care who writes the article. They just don’t want the article written in the first place because they don’t want to hear that there is something wrong with their favorite team.

It's not even their favorite team, it's their favorite manager. I think most of them can relate to a middle aged manager in over his head blaming all his errors on someone else .

 

[Hookslide]

Bruins fans are so spoiled.

Reality check.
The team's five-year record with Sweeney at the helm is 229-120-49 for a .637 win percentage, which ranks third in the NHL over that span. He was voted by his peers as the NHL's General Manager of the Year in 2018-19 as the club compiled the third-best record in the NHL and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, and the club won the President's Trophy with the league's best record in 2019-20.
But sure, no cup so it's a "disaster". Talk about a high bar. I have a friend who is a Sabres fan. Ya, I'm still feeling pretty good.

Bruce Cassidy won coach of the year and he got fired coaching Sweeneys roster...............One Cup in 50 years , I am not satisfied but I guess you are easy to plesae........

 

[Aussie Bruin]

Bruins fans are "so spoiled" by wanting a team that has a high win percentage, made it to the cup final in multiple years, and has won a few regular season awards to win a cup? And we should be "happy" with just making the post season because other teams are worse than us? Terrible take.

Reality is Jacobs knows his audience. There are plenty of Bruins fans who are happy with the team winning at around .600 in the regular season, contending for playoffs each year, making a postseason round or two, and having enough stars to stay invested in. The fanbase has been conditioned to it for a long time and will continue to fill the seats, buy merch and spend thousands on corporate packages as long as the team is competitive. And if that's what makes some people happy, I've no grievance with that - there's no wrong way to be a fan.

But for those of us who expect more, we are but voices crying in the wilderness. Won't change anything unless things really go to the dogs.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Reality is Jacobs knows his audience. There are plenty of Bruins fans who are happy with the team winning at around .600 in the regular season, contending for playoffs each year, making a postseason round or two, and having enough stars to stay invested in. The fanbase has been conditioned to it for a long time and will continue to fill the seats, buy merch and spend thousands on corporate packages as long as the team is competitive. And if that's what makes some people happy, I've no grievance with that - there's no wrong way to be a fan.

But for those of us who expect more, we are but voices crying in the wilderness. Won't change anything unless things really go to the dogs.

Sounds like me.

But I don't think I've been conditioned. Don't buy merchandise. Have been to one game in the last decade. 2009 was last time I was going to multiple games a year.

I love the game. The Bruins have been my team since 1965. I'm satisfied with what the Bruins have been since then.

Ignorance is bliss? Could be. But I'm a happy fan.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

Sounds like me.

But I don't think I've been conditioned. Don't buy merchandise. Have been to one game in the last decade. 2009 was last time I was going to multiple games a year.

I love the game. The Bruins have been my team since 1965. I'm satisfied with what the Bruins have been since then.

Ignorance is bliss? Could be. But I'm a happy fan.

Certainly not saying everyone's in that 'conditioning' boat but it's definitely part of the Bruins' messaging, the way the team is marketed and the way they evaluate success. That has an effect on fan/public perceptions of the franchise, especially when it's conducted for a long time.

And as I said, I get those fans who are happy with what the team has achieved and where it's at. That's just not my position at present. To each their own.

 

[quietbruinfan]

This team is headed nowhere but a few lotteries-maybe on the low end, but lotteries. The joke is on Sweeney, Neely and Jacobs.

 

[4ORRBRUIN]

This team is headed nowhere but a few lotteries-maybe on the low end, but lotteries. The joke is on Sweeney, Neely and Jacobs.

You say this as matter of fact lol

Some of you guys need to have a little faith not little faith. Its summer enjoy it

 

[mjhfb]

Bruins fans are "so spoiled" by wanting a team that has a high win percentage, made it to the cup final in multiple years, and has won a few regular season awards to win a cup? And we should be "happy" with just making the post season because other teams are worse than us? Terrible take.

I don't think it's spoiled as much as frustration.
I think part of the frustration is that in recent years they were close to being a true contender, but many people got frustrated when the final moves were never made or didn't work out during that window of opportunity.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

Sounds like me.

But I don't think I've been conditioned. Don't buy merchandise. Have been to one game in the last decade. 2009 was last time I was going to multiple games a year.

I love the game. The Bruins have been my team since 1965. I'm satisfied with what the Bruins have been since then.

Ignorance is bliss? Could be. But I'm a happy fan.

Certainly not saying everyone's in that 'conditioning' boat but it's definitely part of the Bruins' messaging, the way the team is marketed and the way they evaluate success. That has an effect on fan/public perceptions of the franchise, especially when it's conducted for a long time.

And as I said, I get those fans who are happy with what the team has achieved and where it's at. That's just not my position at present. To each their own.

 

[BiteThisBurrows]

Bruins fans are "so spoiled" by wanting a team that has a high win percentage, made it to the cup final in multiple years, and has won a few regular season awards to win a cup? And we should be "happy" with just making the post season because other teams are worse than us? Terrible take.

I didn't say you should be "happy". Just that it's not a "disaster" and everybody sucks and should be fired. Too extreme.

 

[BiteThisBurrows]

lol, I knew my post would rile some people up. I'm actually glad the bar is as high as it is, and it is very high. It's fun to contrast this to lousy teams where they try so hard to be optimistic but come up short.

 

[NDiesel]

Certainly not saying everyone's in that 'conditioning' boat but it's definitely part of the Bruins' messaging, the way the team is marketed and the way they evaluate success. That has an effect on fan/public perceptions of the franchise, especially when it's conducted for a long time.

And as I said, I get those fans who are happy with what the team has achieved and where it's at. That's just not my position at present. To each their own.

Its really just the context of each individual. I'm also a Minnesota Vikings fan so most of my frustration goes towards them, making me a lot happier with how the Bruins have done in the past 15 years than most.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

lol, I knew my post would rile some people up. I'm actually glad the bar is as high as it is, and it is very high. It's fun to contrast this to lousy teams where they try so hard to be optimistic but come up short.

Yes, lousy teams. How do they even exist?

This is what bothers me the most. The idea that the team is run by morons. For over 50 years. As if anyone who knew what they were doing would simply be putting out championship teams or true contenders year after year. Yet most teams have absolutely sucked for many years, some even sucking most of the time.

 

[pearljamvs5]

lol, I knew my post would rile some people up. I'm actually glad the bar is as high as it is, and it is very high. It's fun to contrast this to lousy teams where they try so hard to be optimistic but come up short.

Who is riled up? Nobody is saying that everybody sucks and everyone should be fired. People in charge of the construction of this roster that has chronically underachieved 100% are going to face scrutiny and questions about their job security though. I don't really care about how other fans of "lousy" teams feel about their teams, the fact that my team could and probably should have at least one more cup is all I care about.