Pre-Game Talk: Round Robin 1 - 8/2 3 PM - Flyers vs BRUINS in Toronto - NBC, 98.5 WBZ-FM

[Mainehockey33]

It’s good to be back.

 

[ON3M4N]

At least we won't have to actually see Gritty, because surely the teams aren't bringing their mascots?

I love Gritty lol

 

[Mione134]

Get the cookies ready!

 

[Bruinaura]

At least Mascots are wearing face coverings! Maskots!

 

[TP]

I'm still mad (we should automatically be the #1 seed)


and scared

 

[Jean_Jacket41]

I'm still mad (we should automatically be the #1 seed)


and scared

For those whining the President trophy is a curse, wouldn’t it be a good thing if the Bruins are not #1?



Any way, Bruins got this. Bergy won’t be two months away from his family for nothing.

2nd Cup and 4th SCF in 10y incoming.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

I'm still mad (we should automatically be the #1 seed)


and scared

Should at least have a 2 win advantage at minimum.

 

[talkinaway]

I just realized...

Bruins start 8/2, and are guaranteed to play until 8/16
Celtics start real games 7/31, and play regular season until 8/13. I'm pretty sure they're clinched, right? That means they probably play in playoffs until at least 8/20, even if they lose 0-4 in the first round with a B2B.
Red Sox start real games 7/24, and go to 9/27.
Patriots play preseason games starting 8/13, regular season 9/13.

If you count preseason, all four seasons overlap from 8/13 (Patriots start) to 8/16 (earliest possible Bruins exit).
If both the Bruins and the Celtics advance far enough, they could overlap into the Patriots regular season.
Could the moon, the sun, the Earth, and a comet align to have all four teams actually play on the same day? I seriously doubt it. Sox and Patriots can't flex their schedule much, but the NBA and NHL can easily switch games around, particularly to avoid football in the right market.

 

[jgatie]

For those whining the President trophy is a curse, wouldn’t it be a good thing if the Bruins are not #1?



Any way, Bruins got this. Bergy won’t be two months away from his family for nothing.

2nd Cup and 4th SCF in 10y incoming.

The President's Trophy being a curse is a myth. You are more likely to win the Cup as the President's Trophy winner than you are finishing in any other single position. And since you can only finish in a single position, the "President's Trophy against the rest of the field" analysis means squat.

 

[IntentionallyWide]

 

[TD Charlie]

So it’s official, no benefit to dominating 80 percent of the regular season in regards to this round robin?

 

[Fenway]

As details emerge, Bruins likely to exercise caution during...

The Bruins will be seeded based on the round-robin results. High seeding might not be their priority.

There will be no home-ice advantage in an empty Scotiabank Arena. No matter how hard they compete in the round-robin segment, it will not earn the Bruins a return to friendly TD Garden.

It’s why health, not necessarily wins, will be their primary pursuit against the Flyers, Lightning and Capitals.

It might not serve Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron well, for example, to dress for all three round-robin games. The 43-year-old defenseman and 34-year-old center might feel like they need only one or two tuneups, following nearly two weeks of camp, to feel ready for the opening round. It’s a good bet that Tuukka Rask, who has started all 72 of the Bruins’ postseason games since 2013, will hand at least one round-robin match to Jaroslav Halak.

This means the Bruins might not dress fully optimized lineups for the three round-robin games. They will be fine with that.

Instead, Bruce Cassidy wants all of his weapons armed and ready for Aug. 11. By then, he would like to determine where Nick Ritchie and Ondrej Kase fit best. He wants to evaluate whether Joakim Nordstrom, Sean Kuraly and Chris Wagner are his three most effective fourth-liners. He’d like to let Anders Bjork, Karson Kuhlman and possibly Jack Studnicka fight it out for the opening at No. 3 right wing. He’d prefer a few weeks to figure out whether Connor Clifton or John Moore would be better options than Jeremy Lauzon on the No. 3 pairing.

But all of these somewhat peripheral decisions will not really matter if Bergeron, Chara, Rask, David Krejci, Torey Krug, Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy or David Pastrnak pull up lame between now and the first round. These are the Bruins’ most critical players. It would be a shame to let four months of recovery time go up in smoke by putting the lead dogs at risk of injury, either in camp or in the round-robin games.

So Cassidy and the Bruins will proceed cautiously. With their 100-point regular season, they earned the right to prioritize good health, not wins, in the qualifying segment.

Eight of their Eastern rivals are not as lucky.

Fluto Shinzawa

 

[Alberta_OReilly_Fan]

at playoff time... beat the team that is put in front of you

everyone has always agreed... regular season accomplishments mean nothing. st louis creeped into the playoffs last year and it was no favor to have to play them. worried if you get a 7 seed or a 5 seed is ridiculous

at playoffs it really matters how well a team is playing THEN compared to how well it played in november and december

personally... id like to see the higher ranked team having an advantage... maybe its a best of 5 for the higher ranked team and a best of 7 for the lower ranked team? one less win to advance for the higher ranked team so the regular season does in fact mean something

but under the rules where the only advantage is home ice... we have learnt that its almost meaningless now to worry about seedings or home ice advantage. you either are able to beat your opponent or you cant

and almost all series are going 6-7 games so the level of parity is intense.

the only real advantage left for doing well in regular season, is that your ticket buyers and your fans on the tv get to be happy watching you win. our team made us happy alot this year. lets support them now that the real games are beginning

go bruins go

 

[talkinaway]

So it’s official, no benefit to dominating 80 percent of the regular season in regards to this round robin?

False.

Round robin standings only have one tie-breaker: regular season standings. So if we get 4 points, and another team gets 4 points, we beat them in the standings, no matter what - even if our 4 points include two OTLs while the other team got 2 wins and 1 regulation loss.

When you're only playing 3 games, it's a pretty big advantage. If you assume there are no OT games (yes, that's a big assumption), there's a good chance that there will be at least a pair of two-way ties (4-4-2-2) or a three-way tie (one sweeper plus 3 teams with 1 win for 6-2-2-2, or 1 sweepee plus 3 teams with 2 wins for 4-4-4-0).

If we win at least one game, we're almost guaranteed to avoid bottom seed. If we win two, we're almost guaranteed top seed, and if not, almost guaranteed second. If we win 3, we're guaranteed top seed no matter what.

 

[Fenway]

Is the format ideal? - of course not

But after what we have all endured the past 4 months at least we now have something to look forward to.

The Bruins ARE being rewarded for their season as the round-robin is a freebie and they know they will be in Field of 16. If they go 2-1 they will almost certainly keep the #1 seed because of the tiebreaker as I doubt any team will go 3-0.

I will miss working at the venue but I will be at NBC in Stamford, CT running a camera by remote. I did that in 2018 for the Winter Olympics in South Korea and with high-speed fiber it is doable and with Stamford only 500 miles from Toronto there will no issues.
With apologies to @BMC

DROP THE f***ING PUCK

 

[Fenway]

@Bruinaura - You have 22 days

 

[Bruinaura]

@Bruinaura - You have 22 days

I'll have to break out the big guns... Christie Cookies. The inventors of the DoubleTree cookies.

 

[Deleted]

Oh pre game thread how I have missed thee!
Excited isn't the word.

Let's go ******* Bruins, let's go!!!!!

 

[Fenway]

I just realized...

Bruins start 8/2, and are guaranteed to play until 8/16
Celtics start real games 7/31, and play regular season until 8/13. I'm pretty sure they're clinched, right? That means they probably play in playoffs until at least 8/20, even if they lose 0-4 in the first round with a B2B.
Red Sox start real games 7/24, and go to 9/27.
Patriots play preseason games starting 8/13, regular season 9/13.

If you count preseason, all four seasons overlap from 8/13 (Patriots start) to 8/16 (earliest possible Bruins exit).
If both the Bruins and the Celtics advance far enough, they could overlap into the Patriots regular season.
Could the moon, the sun, the Earth, and a comet align to have all four teams actually play on the same day? I seriously doubt it. Sox and Patriots can't flex their schedule much, but the NBA and NHL can easily switch games around, particularly to avoid football in the right market.

There have been a couple of times all 4 teams have played on the same day BUT the Celtics were always in the preseason.

 

[talkinaway]

Is the format ideal? - of course not

But after what we have all endured the past 4 months at least we now have something to look forward to.

The Bruins ARE being rewarded for their season as the round-robin is a freebie and they know they will be in Field of 16. If they go 2-1 they will almost certainly keep the #1 seed because of the tiebreaker as I doubt any team will go 3-0.

I will miss working at the venue but I will be at NBC in Stamford, CT running a camera by remote. I did that in 2018 for the Winter Olympics in South Korea and with high-speed fiber it is doable and with Stamford only 500 miles from Toronto there will no issues.
With apologies to @BMC

DROP THE f***ING PUCK

I think a team getting 6 points is actually pretty likely. Even if you assume all teams are 50-50 (which minimizes the chance of this happening), a single team's chances of sweeping is 1 in 8. When you loosen it up and allow for any team to sweep, it's actually 50% in a single conference - and no, it's not because it's 1/8 times 4, but for some reason it works out that way. Add in the EC and the WC, and there's a 75% chance that at least one RR team sweeps.

Without loser points, the Bruins getting 2 wins is enough to give them a 75% shot at first place based on tiebreakers.

 

[kthx]

Damn I love seeing pre-gametalk threads again. Cassidy said he might rest players, any new info on this?

 

[DarrenBanks56]

still think home teams for this restart shouldve been allowed line changes on icings. the better teams from the season should get some type of advantage.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

So it’s official, no benefit to dominating 80 percent of the regular season in regards to this round robin?

Yep. Being ahead by 4 wins or whatever it was means nothing. NHL logic. If a dumb decision can be made, the NHL will do it.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

Lets. f***ing. Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

I think a team getting 6 points is actually pretty likely. Even if you assume all teams are 50-50 (which minimizes the chance of this happening), a single team's chances of sweeping is 1 in 8. When you loosen it up and allow for any team to sweep, it's actually 50% in a single conference - and no, it's not because it's 1/8 times 4, but for some reason it works out that way. Add in the EC and the WC, and there's a 75% chance that at least one RR team sweeps.

Without loser points, the Bruins getting 2 wins is enough to give them a 75% shot at first place based on tiebreakers.

I could easily see the Bruins going 1-2 however to no fault of their own.