3 Reasons to be pessimistic about the 2024-25 Boston Bruins

3 Reasons to be pessimistic about the 2024-25 Boston Bruins

it’s time for a bit of a reality check folks today we’re talking three reasons why you should be pessimistic about the 20242 Boston Bruins you’re locked on Bruins your daily podcast on the Boston Bruins part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what is up Bruins fans and welcome back to the locked on Boston Bruins podcast I’m your host Ian McLaren and this is a Daily Show where we discuss all things spoked B today is Thursday July 11th and I want to thank you so much for making lockdown Bruins part of your daily routine free and available on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply before we get started a quick reminder you can find the podcast on social media locked NHL Bruins and you can find me my hockey thoughts dad jokes ianc McLaren I am a lifelong Boston Bruins fan been covering this team for various outlets for 20 years now was a full-time hockey News writer at the score before jumping on and beginning hosting this podcast and you know I hate to do it today but we got to talk about some reasons why we should not be as hopeful about this team heading into next season don’t worry tomorrow I’ll jump on and do three reasons to be optimistic about the 2024 25 Bruins but today again a bit of a reality check here as we look at the roster as it stands and the number one reason to be pessimistic about the Boston Bruins in 20242 is the lack of an elite goal tending tandom make no mistake the reason why the Boston Bruins were so good this past season and even back in the record setting uh regular season of 2022 23 was because they had one of if not the best goal tending tandem in in the NHL and that has been broken up by Don Sweeney when he decided to trade uh lenus allar to the uh Ottawa Senators in a deal that included the 25th overall pick marusik and Unis Corp pasalo now if you look at this past Year’s stats five on five in the regular season the the Boston Bruins ranked third among all teams in the NHL with a 92.9 team safe percentage you go down to look where the Ottawa Senators ranked and they were third from the bottom with a mark of 89.95 you kick that up to all situations the Bruins were again third uh with a safe percentage of 91.18% the Ottawa Senators 31st at 88.4 five now that wasn’t all on Corp pasalo as uh his counterpart Anton forsberg you know wasn’t much better but at the same time it shows you how important it was for the Bruins to have not only uh Jeremy Swan and lenus Omar but to play them off each other as Bonafide starters each and every night uh the fact that there was no real drop off in performance between swayan and alark that is something that a lot of teams cannot uh cannot boast it’s a lot of teams have considerable drop offs between their one option and the backup the Bruins had one a and a one b and it worked um perfectly for them over the past few years uh you have to filter out their stats in terms of ice time down to uh 1,000 minutes of play and you see that uh they had an almost even split Swan played 44 games in the regular season allar played 41 uh there was like a 100 minutes between them so not that much of a gap in terms of actual game time maybe two games allar had a 930 save percentage Jeremy Swan had a 929 save percentage at five on five which is uh which is pretty remarkable if you look at where Unice Corpus Salo comes in he ranked 49th in the NHL a goalies who played at least a thousand minutes with a 905 save percentage his counterpart Anton forsberg not much better at 897 so at least Corpus Salo was the better goalie but you’re going from sixth and seventh in the NHL in terms of five on five save percentage to um seventh and 49th he was interestingly tied with Andre vasileski and Alvis mckin McKenzie Blackwood ahead of guys like Joseph wall Philip gustofson uh just behind Jake ainger so he wasn’t he’s kind of average I guess you could say to poor uh not among the top goalies in the NHL by any stretch of the imagination so to go from Swan and alar to Swan and Corp pasalo even if goalie Bob can work some magic and get more out of Corpus Salo uh there’s going to be a drop off he’s not lenus elar it’s just it’s just a fact I mean Unis Corpus Salo is not lenus alar uh and a lot of people say well allmark wasn’t very good before his time with Boston no he was he came to Boston with like a 916 safe percentage in his previous two seasons with the Buffalo Sabers who were not a very good team he’s going to help the Senators and his loss will hurt the Bruins and there’s there’s not going to be an even split obviously once Swan is signed he’s going to play The Lion Share of the games but there’s no telling what that extra workload will do to him and what kind of drop off there will be in the games that Corpus Salo starts and whether those can be scheduled losses if he just does not turn it around he’s not very good he allowed I believe the a goal on the first or second shot in 20s something games last season you can’t be behind the eight ball especially if you are lacking scoring depth as it is which the Boston Bruins are and we’ll discuss that aspect of why we could be pessimistic about this team up after the break passion drive and patience the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your Ride Alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance superchargers roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights and more whether you’re into speed power or style eBay Motors has you covered with over 22 million parts for your number one ride You’ll Always Find exactly what you’re looking for and with the eBay guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back with eBay Motors you are burning rubber not cash with all the parts you 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the Bruins had the best tandem in the NHL another deficiency for this team is lack of scoring depth and that was something that already reared its head in the postseason uh the Bruins didn’t necessarily lose to the um Panthers because of poor defense they quite simply had issues scoring at five on five they ranked 13th in terms of sorry that was at all strengths they ranked 13th in terms of goals four which put them at 54.3 four advantage at five on five uh the Bruins dipped a bit uh ranking well they ranked 11th in goals four at five on five actually let’s double check that yes they ranked 12 with goals for at five on five however they did not have a positive shot attempt differential they were at 47.0 three uh their expected goals were an even 50% High danger attempts were 50.2 s so they could and that rank 19th they could really use some help offensively and that was with Jake debrusk and Danton Heinen in the lineup and they provided some much needed depth scoring look at the playoffs these guys were top six fixtures for this team yes you’ve added Elias Lindholm who has posted 40 goals in the past that may have been an outlier likely was an outlier he should still contribute you know on the same level as Jake debrusk down the middle if not better but they’re still looking for scoring on the wings we discussed this yesterday in terms of an opportunity that uh you know what’s more likely does Fabian lysel jump up and grab a spot on the wings do they look for help in free agency do they eventually make a trade whatever the case they do need some scoring depth besides David pook there’s really nobody on this team that you can count on to be a scoring threat night in and night out and you look at their stats uh last season you see a remarkable drop off in uh production between posto and the next highest scorer who was uh Brad Marshon there’s an 18 goal difference there was a uh 43 Point difference and that was with Marshon playing a full 82 games we’ll discuss this in a little bit but he’s getting up there and we may not be able to count on him as much offensively moving forward considering he’s already at age 36 poak had 47 goals 63 assists uh you had Marshon with 29 goals 38 assists for 67 points only two other guys had more than 50 points that was Charlie Coyle and pava zaka Charlie McAvoy ranked fifth on the team in scoring and then you had guys Trent frederi who did not average even half a point per game he was at 40 points in 82 Games Morgan geeki 39 points and then an even bigger drop off the bottom of the top 10 you had Matt ptra who had 15 points in 33 games and Brandon Carlo had 14 points in 76 games are you gonna get more than what you got last season from Coyle and zaka who had career years is there more offensively to be mind from Charlie McAvoy you can probably you should be able to get more of Trent Frederick especially if he takes Jake debrus spot in the top six and is given a prime opportunity give him some power play time as well uh maybe you can get a bit more of Morgan geeki but the Bruins do need some scoring help that’s just a fact and um you know where is it going to come from these stats of course don’t include Jake debrusk who did have a pretty productive year last year 19 goals 21 assists same point total as Trent Frederick uh that was those were disappointing numbers I was hoping that he would push for 30 and that’s probably why the Bruins weren’t willing to commit and he went to Vancouver but whether it be via trade whether it be via free agency whe whether you’re looking at Daniel sprong or Kyler Yamamoto or Philip zadina or Alex neander who I think is a decent option uh the Bruins already signed the 20 what Fifth and 26th picks from the 2016 draft why not take a flyer on the eighth overall pick Alex neander who had a pretty productive run there with Columbus near the end of the season pretty surprising that he wasn’t qualified to be honest uh he’s an option out there that could add some add offense just take a look at all the available options but right now I’m not very optimistic about uh the Bruins in terms of their scoring ability and while they did yeah they’re harder to play against they’re bigger with lindol and zorov they’re harder to play against but this was a team that scored uh 14th ranked 263 goals last season um maybe not good enough they need to add some more scoring to the lineup somehow some way whether or not it’s the new guys Lindholm zadorov could chip in uh or whether it’s a young guy that needs to step up or someone from outside uh I’m a bit leery of the fact that they didn’t add a ton offensively electing instead to invest in zadorov over a scoring Winger uh and we’ll see if that yeah comes back to bite them in a moment um another Factor you know like I mentioned Brad Marshon not getting any younger uh we’ll discuss the Aging Captain here as the podcast continues if you’re looking to grab MLB tickets this summer well game time is the place that makes it getting tickets faster and easier prices on the game time app actually go down the closer it gets the first pitch they have killer last minute deals all in prices fuse from your seat and a low price guarantee so game time takes the guesswork out of buying major league baseball tickets I’ve already use it this summer to go to a Blue Jays game you can grab it to go to a Red Sox game all you have to do is download the game time app create an account use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply but again create an account redeem code locked on NHL for $20 off game time last minute tickets at the lowest price guaranteed I mean we got to admit it friends Brad maron’s game is not quite where it was in the past and despite playing a full 82 games last season uh he equaled the output he had from 2022-23 in nine more games 67 points in a full 82 games of course the previous season was interrupted by offseason surgery that uh took him out of the lineup for the beginning of that season but it looks as though his point per game days are behind him that rise began around 201617 with 85 points in 80 games it culminated with a 100 Point Season back in 201819 the fact that they didn’t win the cup in Brad maron’s best season of his career when he had 100 points 23 points and 24 playoff games uh that’s surely a disappointment uh he then had 87 points in 70 games in 201920 he had 69 points in 53 games during the co shortened season 80 points in 70 games in 2021-22 and then backtack 67o Seasons with this past season being his lowest point per game Mark um in quite some time and it’s no disrespect intended but it’s time to ask whether perhaps uh he’s slowing down a bit and whether they can indeed count on him to put up Elite offensive numbers moving forward or even high-end offensive numbers 0.82 points per game nothing to sneeze at uh but it’s a far cry from the 1.3 points 1.24 points a game 1.27 1.25 that stretch that he had um from 2017 to 2021 the 0.82 was his lowest Mark since 20156 and again probably can’t count on Marshon putting up big numbers which just magnifies the need for scoring help elsewhere um if you have a line of Marshon Coy geeki or Maron Patra geeki Marshon Co lysel or marshan Co or marshan Patra whoever is that going to be a dominant enough offensive line to take the focus off zaka lindol Pastak I’m not quite sure um now I love Brad Marshon he’s been on the podcast we’ve had fun on social media he’s a great guy I do believe he still has a lot of gas in the tank but I’m not sure we can count on him to have you know 30 goal 70 point Seasons from this point out he is due a contract extension he will be paid he will be a a core player for this team as Captain for probably a few more years but in terms of that high-end offensive uh contributions we saw him explode in the playoffs there uh with those huge games against uh the Toronto Maple Leafs uh but he did fall off a bit in the um Series against the the Florida Panthers uh he had 10 points in 11 games overall but against the Panthers uh when the Bruins were trying to CL claw back he was a bit quiet offensively uh he had two assists in those games uh against the Panthers of course he was injured uh by Sam Bennett and he had zero points in the two games that he was able to play in whether or not he was still feeling that effects of that incident not quite sure but he did play 20 minutes in uh the game six that they lost of course only 10 minutes in the previous game that he was knocked out of two assists in the first two games and no points over the final three games against Toronto uh a series that they narrowly won so yeah take that with a grain of salt uh I’m sure he will remain a big game performer from time to time but not quite the offensive threat and compound that with lack of scoring elsewhere and perhaps a more leaky crease and those are some reasons to be a bit pessimistic about the Bruins this coming season now having said that there are reasons to be optim Mystic about this team and we will cover those on tomorrow’s episode of Locked on Boston Bruins we’ll also bring you all the latest on the black and gold hopefully there will be some word about a Jeremy Swan extension sooner than later if that happens I’ll be sure to jump on YouTube and do a quick short and uh bring you all the details on that uh but for now we’re talking about um reasons to be pessimistic tomorrow reasons to be optimistic thank you so much for taking some time to listen today friends please do take care of yourselves take care of each other and uh we will talk to you here tomorrow on locked on Boston Bruins part of the locked on podcast Network your favorite team every single day

In this episode of Locked on Bruins, host Ian McLaren delves into the three main reasons why Bruins fans might feel pessimistic about the upcoming season.

From significant player departures to concerns about aging stars, he covers the critical points that could impact the team’s performance.

Tune in as he breaks down:

The departure of Linus Ullmark
The lack of scoring depth
The aging of Brad Marchand

Make sure to subscribe to Locked on Bruins on your favorite podcast platform and YouTube.

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