Sorry it is in 2 parts - Bruins PR accidentally hit the pause button
BOSTON BRUINS GENERAL MANAGER DON SWEENEY…
On Bergeron’s timeline…
“You’re right, we are going to give Patrice as much time as he necessarily needs. You could look at plans B and C and such, but let’s be honest, you don’t replace that type of player and what he means to our organization. That might take years to replace that player in that sense. We do have to give him all the latitude in the world to make the best decision for he and his family. We’ll do that. He’s given us indications that he’s not going to hold us up in that sense in terms of what we may have to do subsequent to making a decision. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t think there’s a timetable on it.”
On how he would go about replacing Bergeron…
“Again, it might be years in the making in terms of you draft a player like that, develop a player like that, and you count your blessings every day. That’s ultimately what it comes down to, to be perfectly honest. That’s how it generally happens for most organizations. When you have an iconic player, a player that’s going to go into the Hall of Fame, that’s generally how it transpires. It will be no different for the Boston Bruins to find the next type – I don’t know whether or not there will be another one.”
On if center is somewhere he would look via trade or free agency…
“Let’s acknowledge that we’re not playing and we’re disappointed, ultimately, in how we performed throughout the series. Good pockets to it. I’m sure we can get into more of the nuances. Ultimately, we’re disappointed we’re not playing. We have to look internally, first and foremost, at areas that we need to improve. That very likely falls on me with player personnel or whether or not we’re going to implement internally and whether we develop properly. All of those things have to be evaluated and they will be. We’re in that process already. Going back to the coaches, Bruce [Cassidy] spoke about it yesterday, how do we continue to make the necessary tweaks, implementing the personnel that we have brought in. I think we did a pretty good job last year of attacking some of the areas. We have a lot of players that have left the organization in the last three years that have been big parts – you’re talking about Zee [Zdeno Chara], you’re talking about Tuukka [Rask], you’re talking about Krech [David Krejci], you’re talking about players that have been here and won and helped us win. Replacing those players and implementing those players, I think you saw a little bit of that in the first part of the season where we had some new faces and people were feeling out where they were going to fit in and Bruce and his staff figuring out what impacts they were going to make. Then you look at the team in January, February, and March and that’s the team we had envisioned and played very well. Did we play our best in a Game 7 or throughout the Carolina series? No, I don’t think we did. My message was I believe we’ve left something on the table this year in terms of what we needed to accomplish, what our ultimate goals were to accomplish.”
On Krejci…
“Not recently. David Pastrnak, along with Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark have all traveled over to the World Championships and will play. Knowing how close they are, I’m sure there will be a conversation that maybe filters back to me. I certainly kept in touch with David and his camp throughout the year. He had hard decisions to make in terms of the promise he had made to his family overall. Just ultimately decided to stay and see it through. I’m sure at some point in time if he decides he wants to return, then hopefully I get a call and we can have a conversation. But I have not gone down that path for several months.”
On if he would pursue Krejci…
“Again, has to line up for a number of reasons. Still looks like he values playing the game and being highly competitive and was highly productive. Seamlessly would probably fall back into knowing what our team is like and what we’re trying to accomplish, but again, it’s hypothetical for me at this point in time. I’ll cross that bridge when it’s presented.”
On how active he can be this offseason…
“Depends if you’re talking about free agency, you’re talking trades – I think all of the above, to be perfectly honest there as well. I think I have to peel back the onion a little bit and see what chances we can make and want to make. We’re going through a little more deeper dive with our coaches and player personnel staff and look at, again, internally what are our options versus going to the trade market and exploring some of the opportunities that may present between now and really September and October.”
On what his sense is about why they couldn’t get to full potential in Round 1….
“Again, we knew this going in and breaking down the series in pre-scouting. You’re talking about teams that finished one and two expected goals wise. Two very, very defensively oriented teams that were going to be stingy. It was going to come down to the execution piece, which give them credit, they executed just a little bit more than we did at certain times in crucial games and situations. Discipline, we took too many penalties in this series, takes away – it’s not just that we might have on the surface won a power play, where our power play percentage was a little better than penalty killing wise. They were a very good penalty killing team all year as well. We knew that was going to be a challenge. That being said, it takes away momentum of your own 5-on-5 play when you have to take a lot of energy to kill those extra couple minors here and there. That’s on us for some of those situations. And then getting to the 5-on-5 and the areas of the ice, they used the up top really well, their D found some seams that generally don’t happen in our system so shame on us for the breakdowns overall and we didn’t execute to the same degree. Whether that’s the tip of a whether that’s a key moment of games that I talk about being able to elevate and finish a 2-on-1 versus not because you know there’s just not a lot of trade chance opportunities in the course of the games. The way the games played out, when you got a lead it was difficult to come back. I think six of those games, it spells exactly that way. Game 7, you know the margins are even smaller - you’re entering the series knowing the margins are even smaller and in Game 7 they probably get even smaller. Really, the opportunities just weren’t there. They executed just a little bit better than we did that’s why I describe it as I think we left something on the table.”
On Pastrnak…
“It's just a general conversation exit wise in terms of having the opportunity at the earliest possible time allowable for us to have a conversation with his with his camp. And he knows that, you know, there's mutual respect from David, me and his camp. And we'll dive right into it the earliest possible time that we're allowed to and get that indication. You know, there's never been an indication otherwise that this is where he wants to play. He wants to win. He's obviously a great player and an important player for us. And we'll attack it like we have done with all the other players that we feel the same way.”
On injuries…
“A little longer list. Obviously Griz [Matt Grzelcyk] is definitely going under for shoulder surgery. We've got a few other players that have some follow up. Probably one of the bigger surprises is Marsh [Brad Marchand] is going to have an evaluation hip wise so I think he's got some tests to go. We've got several other players doing some MRI’s. I don't think there's any other surgeries that are imminent. But stay tuned in case we have some updates. I just you know, like I said, I think we've got some follow ups to make sure the imaging comes back how they see it from a standpoint of time and healing as opposed to something that may be more proactive. But Marsh was, you know, in disclosure, Marsh was probably the one that was a little more surprising of having some adductor issues in the last couple of years and then just doing some work. But he's doing more exploratory stuff now to confirm that. But again, I didn't want to have anybody caught off guard. I'm not getting ahead of myself. I'm you know, it wasn't on the radar when other people spoke. So I certainly felt it was our due diligence to disclose that rather than to be surprised down the road. And I will cross that bridge when it comes.”
On Fabian Lysell…
“We have not had discussions internally about him definitively playing center. We do think he has attributes, but at this stage we are focused on his overall growth and development, I think this year was a really good building block here for Fabian in a lot of ways to be challenged, be pushed and see him respond. Now we'll go through the steps. You know, you've got an odd timing of the potential World Juniors coming up in August, and we'll go through that process. He's gone home now to get acclimated. We have our staff that's going to reach out to him to build in what his training regimen and where he's going to be, probably comes back a little earlier. But again, the August situation and if he's asked and then we have to evaluate as all teams will. Players are going to that environment and have that opportunity. So we'll cross that bridge when it comes. But we haven't really thought about him at center right now. We think that his offensive upside and scoring potential and creative mindset, both on the power play and five on five, he's being served well where he is and not necessarily force feeding, where a center, you know, has to play at 200 feet all the time and play against bigger, stronger guys all the time. So I think he's better served where he is right now.”
On Georgii Merkulov…
“He got dinged up in one of the playoff games and, you know, wasn't able to play. But he's fine. He'll be fine, he'll have a summer that we have to map out for him as well. You know, from our training regimen and being around acclimating, you know, was a good indoctrination of leaving school, getting in and the pro, you know, pro lifestyle to tell you the truth. And now we're going to be on top of what his training regimen is. And he's got a great creative skill set that we're excited about. And we believe we can teach him some of the other areas of the game for sure.”
On his role with the team and the past season…
“I think I've been around this town long enough for people to know in terms of pressure and what I'm necessarily going to lump in myself and hold myself hopefully to the standard that is why I'm in this job. The Jacobs family, the organization, the history of the Boston Bruins, you know, the standard that we're being held to is exactly what I aspire to. And again, to be perfectly clear and honest, it's the aspiration to be the best in class, on and off the ice. And when we're not, we want to hear about it. You know, the criticisms are what they are, and nobody likes to hear them. Call it constructive criticism, I don't necessarily feel that's constructive, but it's appropriate. And you need to hear them. You need to have evaluations. You need to look in the mirror and figure out what that guy's staring back at you is saying. So that's a big part of my makeup. But I think it aligns with what we try and accomplish, what we have tried to accomplish. I stand up here and say, if I can put the best team together, if Patrice wants to continue to play, that's the mindset that we aspire to uphold. And winning is part of that. Absolutely part of that. And what we've tried to do over the course of you know, since I've come back as part of not playing the game, is have we accomplished it all the time? No. It's hard to win 50 games in a season, but you just don't hang your hat on it. You got to go through, and I say, we left it on the table. We did not accomplish what we had hoped to do in the course of the season. Only one team does, but we aspire to be that team. And you are going to go through pockets. Every organization probably goes through them where you have to step back, be very realistic. Maybe it's injuries, maybe it's cycling, whatever it is. You have to go through it in professional sports and we may. But as it stands right now, we have a competitive, really competitive group. We've been competitive. We want to remain competitive and play the right way. And that's what we're going to try and do. You know, we think we've got the building blocks both in goal and in the back end where maybe that was out of sorts for a little while. I mean, you lose a player like this and you know that's going to happen. There's a hole there. So it might take some time, like you referenced in terms of filling the center. It might take some time to draft that player, to develop that player, to put them in that situation. And that's all part of what we're trying to accomplish, you know, as an organization. And we stand here today acknowledging we fell short. And that's on me to try and pull the right strings and hopefully make the right decisions. And that's part of professional sports, both as a player and management. This is probably the longest answer you're going to get out of me.”
On the coaching…
“I mean, we have a good coaching staff. They work really hard. They're looking for all areas of the game they can continue to improve. I think we got out of the gate a little slow. We were trying to find some traction. We had new faces. Where do they fit? You know, the temperature was probably a little higher than you wanted it to be. But those guys dig in and then all of a sudden things start to come in and, you know, now you're trying to keep it on the rails. You know, you're always springing leaks. Nothing's going as seamlessly as you want to. And those are times where the group comes together rather than pulls apart. So I think Bruce's staff, you know, they work hard. They try to identify the deficiencies both at their level and also in terms of what we're trying to communicate. We all want to add the absolute right pieces, and at times were doing it well and at other times we’re falling short. But as a staff, I think they attack the areas of the game. Defensively, we’re not a team that gives up an awful lot. Now, we didn’t score enough, okay? We were expected to drop from two and a half, 2.4 [goals] to 1.6 in the playoffs. Is that a function of just playing a really good defensive team? Well, that’s what we have to figure out. We were talking about that during the course of the year in depth scoring, and then you talk about a three-month, not a small sample size of a team that was functioning at high level. Ultimately, that’s the standard we have to hold ourselves to. If the power play goes sideways as a function of, okay, what is it? They go to work on trying to figure out what it is. Is it all personnel? No. Is it systematic? No. Is it execution? A lot of times. And that’s the part I appreciate about our staff and their willingness to dig in and try to find the areas of the game. We’re not seamless and we’re not doing things as well as we necessarily want or should, so we have to continue to improve overall, as an organization.”
On working in younger players…
“It’s an imperative need for us to continue to foster creativity, and scoring is difficult in this league. Now, you have to have courage in order to go to the hard areas of the ice, and that’s a hard one to convince anybody. If you don’t have that internal drive, that’s a really difficult process to try to create in a player. So those are things you have to identify at the earliest time possible and bring up. But fostering creativity and the scoring potential in players, and getting to the high side, is imperative for us. And maybe even more so, as we’re transitioning out, in the next two or three years, players that have done that for us. So yeah, I think your point of reference for Fabian Lysell or getting Johnny Beecher, Merkulov, or whoever’s the next, Jack Studnicka, who’s sort of come into a flatline for a little bit – now we need to get him back on an upwards slope, which is what he was. That’s where your organization moves forward; it’s not just about getting lucky. It’s not even a luck process. It’s honestly identification and development, and then the player himself has to have an internal engine that gets him to the point of where he’s capable of playing and contributing. But I think your point is well made, that we’re going to have to have it. The league is hard to score in, especially this time of the year. It’s funny, it doesn’t always translate. Regular season success and some of the things that happen don’t always translate to what’s going to be successful in the playoffs, and that’s a tough balance. Because if you don’t have those attributes in the regular season, you’re not getting to the playoffs. You can’t just grind yourself through and just defend every night. You can’t do it. You can be a good defensive team and have success doing it, but you may still find yourself on the outside if you can’t score enough. That’s part of an area of our game, and our coaching staff — back to your question — that we need to continue to find a way. Maybe we don’t deflect enough goals. We need to make sure we’re not just throwing pucks there in hope of a rebound, but can we create? And there’s all different ways to create. You realize rush chances in the playoffs dramatically drop. In our series, they were nonexistent. They executed a couple, we missed a couple, we scored a really good one shorthanded, but those are the margins when you’re playing really good teams.”
On his contract…
“I’m under contract for right now. I’ve had a discussion earlier in the year in terms of the indication of where my path will be and that will be determined in short order.”
On sacrificing defense for more offense…
“I don’t think we’re going to stray from a foundational standpoint. I do believe that Carolina used their back end in the offensive blue line — in particular, Slavin and DeAngelo – but even Pesce got up the ice. That’s a little more systematic where they have a little more time, but I think our guys, we have to find a way to continue to contribute offensively from our back end. It doesn’t always have to be driving, but I do believe with Charlie [McAvoy] and Hampus [Lindholm] and, you know – Grzelcyk’s shoulder was bad, so maybe not as effective. We have to be able to contribute in that way. It has to be a five-man mentality, it’s not just going to start from the goal line. It’s great to be idealistic and say alright, every clean breakout leads to a great transitional play through the rush and that’s what forwards want. But when the other team does what they’re supposed to do, that doesn’t necessarily present. So, how do you create in-zone? Earlier in the year, we weren’t creating as well cycle-wise, and then we got much, much better, got to the interior. Even watched Taylor Hall transform his game a little bit, going to a net-front and doing a pretty good job there. Those are areas that can be improved in players. And that’s how you have to manufacture offense. It’s not just going to be, let’s be clean, let’s execute off the rush because that’s – it may happen, which we want to be good at. And for the most part, we are. But if you’re just a trade chance mentality, the neutral zone turnover rates go up. You’re going to be in your own end. We’re trying to find the balance. Part way through the year, we all knew the depth scoring needed to improve. And it did. It fell off maybe at the most crucial time against a really good team. And once again, that’s on us. It’s on me to find guys that can score at a higher rate with one chance as opposed to needing fifteen. But that’s a difficult exercise. I think they all go hand in hand. In terms of fundamentally how we want to play, I don’t think that necessarily needs to. But pockets of the game that we can continue to improve upon – I think that’s what Bruce, in our discussions, saying, ok where do we trade this. You know there’s going to be a tradeoff. If you’re hell bent to just try and tilt the ice all the time, you’re going to trade it off somewhere. You might want to wish your goalies luck at the start of the year if you’re going to play that way.”
On if he is looking for a power forward type…
“During the playoffs, any time you can have guys that occupy interior ice, can score there, it’s only going to help your overall team. Philosophically, yeah, you’d love to have that. Whether or not you develop it – draft and develop it – whether you acquire it, it’s probably no different from trying to amass the best players at any position. But I do believe it’s an area that really helps you. Especially as the things get tight. And when I talk about playing against good teams and the Islanders series last year we got dinged up. But that series got tight. When Tampa makes it hard on you, you know you have to get inside, and you have to beat a really good goalie. Size matters but also, we wouldn’t hold Marsh to a lesser standard. You realize that Marsh is not very big. But he plays all the attributes of a power forward. But in the playoffs, the other teams are looking to shut down the best players and sometimes that gets leveled out and negated. Maybe as you go along and situations, they’ll always rise up. The best players always do. But when you’re in certain games - I guess I’ll give Max Domi a hell of a lot of credit. He had a hell of a Game 7. That is sort of what you have to have happen. That’s not a power forward but my example is, that you have to have that mentality and we have to – Fabian, whoever is coming in our system has to understand, these are what translates in the playoffs. It’s the willingness to do it. I mean, Carolina has grown for 10 years. They’ve got guys that have come along and played against us and again, I’m not going to take anything away from Carolina and how they played. But I do believe, I started today in saying, I think we left something on the table. And that’s my job to find the tweaks and find the changes or convince players, coaches, development, all the way up. That’s just where it falls.”
On Jake DeBrusk…
“I don’t think things have changed, other than he’s happier. Because his life improved an awful lot. And he deserves a lot of credit for that. He went out and did perform. Maybe it’s a clearer head space that he defined. Not really thinking about things. Now he might take some time to re-evaluate and realize that I peeked over the neighbor’s yard and the grass is not necessarily greener. My lawn is looking pretty damn good too. Players have their own right. We know – I’ve said all along, I think I know what Jake DeBrusk is capable of. Everybody would like to hold all of our guys to that standard and to his credit, he went out and performed and played well.”
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