Boston Globe KPD: Patrice Bergeron is taking a beating, so why aren’t the Bruins coming to his defense?

[Fenian24]

Foligno is the only one of the 3 I will call tough. I'm willing to have everyone pile on, but I will not call Frederic tough.

He is scrappy and was willing but I am sure that Cassidy has told him to keep his job keep your gloves on. I have no way to verify this except he is not the player I watched in Providence or last year.

The lack of toughness, grit, heart all stop at this coach and GM with most blame falling on Cassidy.

 

[DominicT]

He is scrappy and was willing but I am sure that Cassidy has told him to keep his job keep your gloves on. I have no way to verify this except he is not the player I watched in Providence or last year.

The lack of toughness, grit, heart all stop at this coach and GM with most blame falling on Cassidy.

That's how you see it. I don't I'm having this same debate on Twitter where a couple of people in the Bruins office a watching. So I will just drop this here:

 

[Fenian24]

That's how you see it. I don't I'm having this same debate on Twitter where a couple of people in the Bruins office a watching. So I will just drop this here:

Give my loathing to the folks in the Bruins office and mention that Johan Gadjovich and Jake Middleton would make great Bruins.

I do put the blame on Cassidy based on his track record.

 

[bruwinz73]

Bruins lack any identity. When you are worrying about why the team doesn’t defend their captain then you are too deep into the problem. The “leadership” should have been asking the toughness question after the first dozen games where the team had never dictated the physical tone of the game. Recent transgressions on Bergeron not being addressed are on Cassidy, but the root cause of the problem is Sweeney.

 

[jgatie]

KPD, the man who once preached for eliminating the instigator and repealing the rule against bench clearing brawls, who then did a 180 and called for elimination of any fighting in hockey, calling it "barbaric", now wants somebody to punch a player out for going after Bergeron?

The man should make up his mind.

 

[N o o d l e s]

I’m really not sure why anyone is surprised or pretending to surprised about how this season is going. Most of us here have been calling for major changes in the front office and it hasn’t happened.

This team already had major flaws before they lost their 2C and didn’t even bother to replace him. No urgency, what else is new with the front office. It’s not getting better this season or any time soon until they decide mailing major changes is important to the franchise and they f***ing follow through and do it.

A down season and missing the playoffs might actually finally do that. I kinda hope it happens. It’s just a shame Bergeron is so old and a lost season with him still in the fold is a problem

 

[Therick67]

Give my loathing to the folks in the Bruins office and mention that Johan Gadjovich and Jake Middleton would make great Bruins.

I do put the blame on Cassidy based on his track record.

Donny has built a soft team, not Cassidy. I recall Tinordi and Ritchie dropping the gloves more than a few times. I guess they didn’t get the memo from Bruce.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Because they have no sack

 

[Therick67]

I’m really not sure why anyone is surprised or pretending to surprised about how this season is going. Most of us here have been calling for major changes in the front office and it hasn’t happened.

This team already has major flaws before the lost their 2C and didn’t even bother to replace him. No urgency, what else is new with the front office. It’s not getting better this season or any time soon until they decide mailing major changes is important to the franchise and they f***ing follow through and do it.

A down season and missing the playoffs might actually finally do that. I kinda hope it happens. It’s just a shame Bergeron is so old and a lost season with him still in the fold is a problem

Missing the playoffs will get Mr. Burns attention, but they’ll just fire Bruce and continue with dumb and dumber...

 

[The National]

 

[TCB]

The Bruins miss Big Z, McQuaid and Looch ! Needless to say this team is a far cry from what it use to be.
c

 

[chizzler]

That was years ago. He can’t even stay in his skates when he fought his last year in Boston. He was around for a lot of crap over the years.

 

[The National]

That was years ago. He can’t even stay in his skates when he fought his last year in Boston. He was around for a lot of crap over the years.

This was less than an hour ago.

 

[JHockey14]

That was years ago. He can’t even stay in his skates when he fought his last year in Boston. He was around for a lot of crap over the years.

That was 30 minutes ago

 

[chizzler]

Yup. My post stands.

 

[Bradely]

Probably has to do with the coach holding them back.

Culture... it starts we how they are built. How the team is assembled

 

[PlayMakers]

Lots of blame to go around here...

Sweeney hasn't built a very tough team. As others have said, there's no Thornton or McQuaid in this group.

Cassidy and his staff seem don't seem to place any emphasis on toughness or fighting. In the playoffs they never target the other team's best players and try to wear them down.

The players have to take some heat as well. Foligno can fight, he's not a heavy but he can do it and he hits a lot. And will someone please tell me what is going on with Trent Frederic? He tried to fight everyone last year, all the heavies. He fought his way through the AHL. This year he doesn't fight at all. Why? I get that he wants to develop his game and I actually think he's doing a good job there, but you can do both.

 

[missingchicklet]

Major house cleaning is in order. Needs to be done while there is still plenty of season left, though. Coach needs to go. DS needs to go. I've had enough of this grinder/has-been obsessed GM, and I've had enough of this soft as baby shit culture. It's a disgrace to the spoked B. It's also terribly disrespectful to Bergy and Marchy who signed team-friendly discounts so that the Bs would have a better chance of building something special. Enough is enough. Bring in some brains for the front office that know how to build a proper balanced hockey club, and bring in a coach with a higher ceiling than what's currently here. The house needs to be cleaned sooner rather than later. Beyond tired of this rinse and repeat nonsense with DS and Cassidy every year (DS more so than Cassidy).

 

[Bradely]

That's how you see it. I don't I'm having this same debate on Twitter where a couple of people in the Bruins office a watching. So I will just drop this here:

Disagree... you either impose how you are or you react to what is coming. If this is how they manage in the first 20 games, then Bruins react and do not impose who they are. And that is on management if the case.

 

[bb74]

A few angles to this.

1. Team is soft and being told to play soft to win on the score and not settle scores.
2. Team is afraid and not willing to back up eachother (which means it's a shit team in the first place)
3. Bergeron has a split locker room and some there are on the other side and aren't backing him any way you cut it.

.... only so many options but none are good for sure

 

[Hamilton Brian]

Problem is I think we're victims of some revisionist history. Post-2011, things changed, and they changed right in front of us. Hard to say where the exact fault line of change was. 2014 when they got shunted out of the 1st round by Montreal? Not sure. We can look at 2009-12, maybe 13, as teams that other teams had reservations about. Somewhere, somehow, we lost our swagger. Look at the personalities departing, personalities entering. All on the coaches? All on the front office? 33 was still the captain through it all. Where's it fall?

 

[Hamilton Brian]

A few angles to this.

1. Team is soft and being told to play soft to win on the score and not settle scores.
2. Team is afraid and not willing to back up eachother (which means it's a shit team in the first place)
3. Bergeron has a split locker room and some there are on the other side and aren't backing him any way you cut it.

.... only so many options but none are good for sure

I would hate that there's an option 3.

 

[Gee Wally]

Dupes is right.
It’s a friggen disgrace.
Should be like this.

 

[finchster]

The Bruins just have a soft roster. There is a certain segment of Bruins fans who put too much stock into fighting and toughness. There were guys demanding more when the Bruins were the toughest team in the league in 2011.

However, when Chara left, no one could deny the Bruins were smaller and softer and needed some grit. So how did Sweeney replace him? He didn't. He let Zboril and Lauzon play which was a disaster.

The problem with grit and toughness is you need to draft it- teams overpay for this skill in FA market and trade. The Bruins have been drafting soft college guys for too long.

They need a forward who can crash and bang, and a tough dirty defenceman.

 

[Spooner st]

The Bruins just have a soft roster. There is a certain segment of Bruins fans who put too much stock into fighting and toughness. There were guys demanding more when the Bruins were the toughest team in the league in 2011.

However, when Chara left, no one could deny the Bruins were smaller and softer and needed some grit. So how did Sweeney replace him? He didn't. He let Zboril and Lauzon play which was a disaster.

The problem with grit and toughness is you need to draft it- teams overpay for this skill in FA market and trade. The Bruins have been drafting soft college guys for too long.

They need a forward who can crash and bang, and a tough dirty defenceman.

Actually they need a lot more than that, the FO needs to go, including most of the scouting group. This FO and scouting group can't save the Bruins no more.