News Article: Steve Buckley: Don Sweeney deserves some faith from Bruins fans

[Fenway]

Now that it seems certain that Sweeney's hands were tied as far as Hamilton was concerned I agree we need to cut Don some slack. He certainly rebounded yesterday getting a #1 pick from St Jose (which could be a lottery pick)


Buckley: Don Sweeney deserves some faith from Bruins fans

He traded Milan Lucic. He traded Dougie Hamilton, whose new deal with the Calgary Flames, announced yesterday, suggests that the young defenseman so badly wanted out of Boston he’d have walked all the way to the Saddledome. Whatever Sweeney’s motives and restraints, the assumption was that these deals were merely the first dominoes to fall in what would be a whirl of daring draft-day trades that would land much-touted local product Noah Hanifin (Norwood, Boston College) or some stud from the wilds of Canada who could help right now.

Instead, the Bruins used their 13th, 14th and 15th picks in the first round to, well, pick 13th, 14th and 15th. And they traded a future third-round pick for the mighty Zac Rinaldo, whose role with the Bruins will be to get wheeled out to the ice and propelled at opposing skaters.

It sounds like the Bruins are rebuilding. Except that they are not.

Click to read more...

 

[BMC]

Given my experience of Bruins ownership & management through the years there is no way in hell that I give them the benefit of the doubt about anything, nor do they deserve any faith from me.

The Bruins are my team and I will cheer them on no matter what.

If ownership & management want my support they can damn well earn it.

 

[Gordoff]

Now that it seems certain that Sweeney's hands were tied as far as Hamilton was concerned I agree we need to cut Don some slack. He certainly rebounded yesterday getting a #1 pick from St Jose (which could be a lottery pick)


Buckley: Don Sweeney deserves some faith from Bruins fans

Seems to me that the title of the article and the content contradict each other. Just sayin'.

 

[KnightofBoston]

Given my experience of Bruins ownership & management through the years there is no way in hell that I give them the benefit of the doubt about anything, nor do they deserve any faith from me.

The Bruins are my team and I will cheer them on no matter what.

If ownership & management want my support they can damn well earn it.

Agreed. There is something I like about Sweeney though, and time will tell if he was the right guy for the job. But in a league where even the best team doesn't always win the cup, im looking at this team long term and I too feel they were going to die a slow death with Chiarelli at the helm. And time will also tell if Claude needs to go and was part of that, if Neely was part of that or if every last one of them is guilty and we're ****ed either way because we have a beta owner whos a replica of his dad


Idk...im putting my faith in sweeney for the moment, because as it stood, with or without Hamilton, and Lucic, this was going to be a perennial 7-12 seed team that always had an excuse. Last season was some of the most boring listless crap Id ever seen, Id love to hear some vets that have been here since Orr chime in and list a more boring season. And the sad thing for me was, while it was the most boring season, it wasn't the worst team. Something had to give.


And you can forget hamilton, the idea of having him here and how it would have helped win cups is irrelevant. If you want to talk about why he didn't want to be here and what this organization needs to do to prevent negative working environments then that makes sense


If Bruins need to draft with the more mental game side of things in perspective and maybe not always go for what the scouts would call best player available, fine. If they want to get rid of some coaching staff and toss certain players, fine. Just attack that part of the Bruins structure right now


Sweeney seems to be pushing us for change, whether that be a top (hell maybe even double) draft pick and quick rebuild, or he sets us up to be competitive or both. The last thing we want is a 7-12 seed bubble over the next 3 years

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Lower the price of tickets if you expect anything from fans

 

[hutch22]

Cut me and I bleed Black & Gold. Not to date myself but I was a Bruins fan before Bobby Orr. Milan Lucic was one of my all time favorites. After the Montreal playoff disaster a few years back, I expected Lucic to come out guns blazing in 2014-2015. He did not. I was extremely disappointed in his play. Dougie Hamilton is a fine young skilled defenseman but not a franchise player (at least not yet). I was very happy that Sweeney was able to get all those draft picks to replenish their farm system and I have high hopes for the B's scouting department. I was happy to see the B's draft Jesse Gabrielle. That made my draft weekend. It doesn't take much to make me happy. Go B's.

 

[mislysBB]

Given my experience of Bruins ownership & management through the years there is no way in hell that I give them the benefit of the doubt about anything, nor do they deserve any faith from me.

The Bruins are my team and I will cheer them on no matter what.

If ownership & management want my support they can damn well earn it.

I agree with this.

Until Sweeney IMPROVES the team, I'll be skeptical. Yeah, maybe the Dougie situation was out of his hands. Sure, he got a great return for Lucic; but so far, neither of those moves improves the team for NOW. Futures and new assets are great, but it's a moot point if they can't contribute anytime soon.

 

[BostonPC]

I will be skeptical but at the same time I welcome decent moves. So far a mixed bag but it is early yet. I will give him credit for not sitting on his hands like Chiarelli did lately.

 

[alg363636]

I've warmed up. I will always hate the return on the Dougie deal and Rinaldo is a human pile of garbage but the Lucic/Jones deal was great. And as sucky as the return was Dougie wanted to leave and that made Sweeney's job pretty ****ty.

Don't love the draft picks, or at least passing on Barzal, but Dan and Dom's support of the picks helps.

Also Chiarelli made a big goddamn mess here.

He's like a 6.5/10 at the moment. So not good but I'll give him a chance. Chia was at like a 5/10 when he left so.

 

[Iceage]

I agree with this.

Until Sweeney IMPROVES the team, I'll be skeptical. Yeah, maybe the Dougie situation was out of his hands. Sure, he got a great return for Lucic; but so far, neither of those moves improves the team for NOW. Futures and new assets are great, but it's a moot point if they can't contribute anytime soon.

Pretty hard to improve the team when it was left in cap hell by Chirelli with not much left in the system. Now, he gave himself options to improve the team plus added lots of good prospects. It doesn't need to be through expensive free agents though.

 

[since76]

Confiance is never free. You need to earn it with real positive actions , only silly people give it for free.

 

[Serge]

Given my experience of Bruins ownership & management through the years there is no way in hell that I give them the benefit of the doubt about anything, nor do they deserve any faith from me.

The Bruins are my team and I will cheer them on no matter what.

If ownership & management want my support they can damn well earn it.

Right on. Some people have short memories when it comes to the Bs. I see that as a liability. I will root for Donny but he needs to deliver or get out of the way.

 

[Dicky113]

I now understand the Hamilton trade a bit better and I like the Lucic trade, but I just can't get over making two reach picks in the first round. It was idiotic not to to pick best player available or trade down. If senechyn and debrusk turn out to be stars then I will eat crow, but I find it hard to believe that will be the case.

 

[CashMash]

I'm already prepared to give him another chance based on the Lucic-Jones trades. Hamilton had complications. Minor strike on him for Rinaldo

 

[Ladyfan]

Given my experience of Bruins ownership & management through the years there is no way in hell that I give them the benefit of the doubt about anything, nor do they deserve any faith from me.

The Bruins are my team and I will cheer them on no matter what.

If ownership & management want my support they can damn well earn it.

QFT.

I liked Donny as a player so had hope he would be good in his new role...Not impressed so far.

Hate the trade of Looch ( I don't even care if I am the only one on this board to hate it).

Hate to see a useless flyer's goon signed

The only thing I think they did well is sign Adam McQuaid.

 

[doubleminor138]

Given my experience of Bruins ownership & management through the years there is no way in hell that I give them the benefit of the doubt about anything, nor do they deserve any faith from me.

The Bruins are my team and I will cheer them on no matter what.

If ownership & management want my support they can damn well earn it.

This, all day. You said it all, Bets.

 

[Czerk]

Real question is... why do young skilled player NOT want to play here....

This is a trend... not a good one either...

Why do we always sell off young STAR players for multiple maybes....

What is better.... a diamond or 3 rubbies....

 

[CashMash]

Real question is... why do young skilled player NOT want to play here....

This is a trend... not a good one either...

Why do we always sell off young STAR players for multiple maybes....

What is better.... a diamond or 3 rubbies....

Seguin wanted to play here. That's one down. Hamilton and Kessel didn't want to play here, that hardly makes it a trend.

I didn't like the Seguin trade that much, but it wasn't the worst trade ever...His issues were probably related to being young and a bit immature. He has meshed well with Benn now, who is a younger guy himself.

Anyway, speculations about locker room problems are not really that valid, since we know so little about it. I, personally, have a hard time believing guys in our leadership group (Bergeron, Chara, Krejci) to be difficult to work with...but, of course, what I said earlier goes both ways. You never know.

Rask might be a bit of a hothead, but he doesn't strike me as the type to be pissed for long.

In short, rumors about locker room problems are just that...rumors.

*EDIT* Since I forgot to tackle issues with management/coaching, the same logic as the locker room applies. We don't know much, but some younger guys may not like Claude's system (?)