A Little Bit Of Everything…

Tying up the rest of the loose ends:

*Boston Bruins.  So the NHL trade deadline is rapidly approaching.  Some trades have already happened.  But things should head toward fast and furious in the coming days.

What will the Bruins do?

Last season, GM Don Sweeney went out and got Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson, which admittedly was more than I thought he would do.  I mean, it wasn’t like getting Jon Michael Liles and Lee Stempniak, like he did one year.  You can argue the merits of handing Coyle a 6 year extension for huge bucks this season.  But the moves from last year worked out pretty well, I think we can say.

Unfortunately for Donnie Hockey, that hole on the right wing of David Krejci (and Jake DeBrusk) still exists.  Seems like it has existed for years.  And I guess it has…other than the Johansson stint.

In my opinion, that’s almost the only move to make.  The “Perfection Line” of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak is all set.  Wait, I still need to know where that moniker came from.  No one but people on the NHL Network seems to call them that.  I don’t ever remember hearing that nickname until the playoffs last spring.  Mostly out of Doc Emrick’s mouth.  Annoying…but whatever…

The gaggle of third and fourth liners the Bs have would probably suffice.  Coyle/Anders Bjork is a fine start to the third line.  Sean Kuraly/Par Lindholm/Chris Wagner/Joakim Nordstrom/Anyone is certainly acceptable as a fourth line.

Karson Kuhlman may very well be an NHL player.  But I am beginning to think that isn’t this year.  And I am totally done with the Danton Heinen Experiment.  On any line.

If you added some beef to the bottom six and a somewhat of a scoring RW to the second line, I think we are good.

Wait…defense anyone?  I am not sure they need it.  Well, no one will stop any kind of upgrade attempt of course.  But I think the 2nd line guy is more important.  The 9-10 guys in the mix now on D would seem to work.  Perhaps Jeremy Lauzon is the real deal.  Or perhaps he is being showcased for a trade.  He did just sign a cheap extension after all.  And you ain’t getting rid of that John Moore contract.

But if they stood pat on D, I actually wouldn’t mind.

Who to give up?  Anyone!  Maybe Sweens can soak someone into taking Heinen.  Or even better, “The Player Formerly Known As David Backes”.

Ummmmm…yeah, I know those ain’t happening.

But the time is now to make another run.  Patrice, Marchy, Z, Krejci, Tuuks, etc aren’t getting any younger.  As much as I would like to hang on to guys like Bjork, Kuhlman and Jack Studnicka and hope they develop, if the package is right, Donnie has to consider dealing those guys.

After all, guys like JFK, Peter Cehlarik, Trent Frederic, Zach Senyshyn, Jakob Zboril, Anton Blidh, etc. have or will ever make it.  And those are “kids” that Sweeney had high hopes for.  Among many others.  So who is to say the likes of Kuhlman will either?

*Tom Brady.  Everyone sick of this talk yet?  Still a month away from free agency.  It will be an absolutely fascinating process once things start going down.  But I’m a little exhausted from it all at this point.

How much more can we talk about it?  Hasn’t every angle been covered thus far?

Is there really any NEW news?  Or just idiots like me speculating?  I say it’s the latter.

Wake me up on this one in a few weeks…

*Dustin Pedroia.  I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again:  PLEASE GO AWAY!!

The guy was a good player for a long time for the Boston Red Sox.  But he seems to be the only one that doesn’t realize that his career is over.  We keep hearing he has setback after setback.  And how he needs to “regroup and consider his options”.  We hear it seemingly hear it every day.  And will through Spring Training, most assuredly.

I appreciate his zeal to get back and play the game.  But that ship has sailed.

If it’s all about getting the 25 mil plus left on his deal, well that is all guaranteed, so he’s going to get it anyway.

Step aside Dustin.  It’s long past time.

*Kobe.  His death was certainly tragic.  As was his daughters’.  But so were the deaths of the other seven on board that helicopter.  I think the general public loses sight of that waaaaaaaaay too many times when it comes to celebrities.  But I am never going to win that fight, ssssssooooo…

As my man Colby recently posted, along with most assuredly several others, a little bit of a cloud still kind of hung over him as his career went on.  Yes, the rape accusations were 17 years ago.  But it’s funny how that all played out.  Charges dropped, case dismissed, civil suit being settled, Kobe buying his wife like a 4 million dollar ring while this was all going on…and everything else…how soon we all forget.

Listen.  There’s no argument about Kobe’s basketball ability and the fact he was one of the greatest of all time.  He also may have remade himself into a quality person as he got older.  Maybe he was a quality person all along but made at least that one mistake.  I don’t know.  I never knew the guy personally.

But that’s my problem with putting all these athletes and celebrities on a pedestal.  No one knows “how great a guy” that any of these people are.  Am I supposed to take other athletes’ or performers’ words for it?  Who knows about those people either?

Recognize his greatness in the sport.  But let’s not get carried away with some of the nonsense that has been spilling out about him “in tribute”.

That’s all I am saying.

*XFL.  There’s been a request to comment on this.  So here goes:

I have watched very little of the first two weeks.  But what I have seen is a lot of disorganization across the board.  Officials, coaches, players, etc.  And I haven’t exactly seen great football either.

That’s not much of an analysis.  And since I’ve only seen a fraction, it may be totally erroneous.

One thing is for sure though:  If teams are already firing coaches and team captains after the first week of games, that has to raise a red flag.  ONE GAME?  A little hard to believe.

Maybe Vince McMahon sent down the orders.  That’s a little scary to think about, no?

In any event, despite the Blowhards’ love for the game of football, we really haven’t been inspired to watch much of it.  That seems like a problem for the league if we aren’t the only ones.

I could probably sum up the lack of desire in two words:  “Matt McGloin”.

‘Nuff said.

*Super Bowl.  As we all know by now, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl and Jimmy Garoppolo peed his pants in the 4th quarter of the game.  Does that mean that Jimmy Football now sucks and that he isn’t considered a franchise quarterback anymore?  I don’t have the answer to that as of yet.

What I do know is that if your coach does not trust you to with plenty of time left to move down the field at the end of the first half, then that could be a problem.

So maybe the jury is still out on Jimmy G?

No need to comment further as the game was over two weeks ago and I suppose we are all on to the XFL.  And…I passed on watching the halftime show and most of the commercials.  So I don’t have any intelligent analysis there.

I really just needed a few words on the game to wrap up the picks portion of the season.  As poor as they were, we still have to recap, right?

Week (against the spread):  1-0

Week (straight up):  1-0

Lock Of The Week (season, ATS):  10-7

Season (against the spread):  136-131

Season (straight up):  171-96

Oh So Close…

…so it’s been a little over two weeks.  Have we recovered?

Not particularly.

That will explain the delay in writing about it…or should anyway.

Yup, the Boston Bruins’ loss in the Stanley Cup Final is what we are referring to.

But we won’t spend a lot of time rehashing the past.  No sense in doing a whole lot of that.  With the start of NHL free agency coming up on July 1st, it is about time to focus on the future of the team.

That being said, what a massive, MASSIVE missed opportunity for the organization.  HUMONGOUS.

The road was cleared.  Tampa Bay, perhaps the best regular season team in NHL history, got swept away in the first round.  Washington, the defending Stanley Cup Champions, also ousted in the first round.  Pittsburgh, who always seem to be scary, done in the first round.  Toronto may have been the toughest matchup of them all, and the Bs beat them in the first round.

Out West, Calgary had the second best record in the league and yes, they were dropped in the first round also.  Did San Jose scare you?  They did me.  And the supposedly lesser St. Louis Blues took care of them in the Conference Finals.

So there were the Blues.  A last place team in early January.  That’s all they had to beat.

Then, seemingly true to form in this years’ Cup playoffs, the Blues took home the Cup.

Were there injuries?  Of course!  You don’t play 100 plus games in a season and not get banged up.  Especially after 20 plus games in the grueling playoffs.  But the Blues most assuredly had theirs too.

Cheap shots by the Blues?  Bad refs?  Check.  Check.  But they needed to overcome that.  It’s the Stanley Cup Finals for Chrissakes!!

I sssssoooooo want to pin the entire blame on goalie Tuukka Rask.  But I cannot.  That kind of pains me.  But although he did not play as well in the Finals as he did in the first three rounds, he didn’t exactly have a lot of help.

The first line was invisible.  I know, they were all hurt.  But still.  Injury did not cause Brad Marchand from trying to get off the ice with 8 seconds left in a period for a shift change when his guy then went down and scored.  Or when Marchand had half of an empty net to shoot at to give them an early lead in Game 7 and he fired it right into the goalie.  Or when Joakim Nordstrom just had to lift the puck a few inches over Jordan Binnington’s pad to score into a wide open part of the net and he couldn’t do it.

I could go on, but I won’t.  The Blues were the better team in the series.  Simple as that.

Let’s try to move on…

What are the Bruins going to do in the offseason?  Well, what CAN they do?

I’ll tell you one thing:  Do not expect an all-out pursuit of a marquee free agent, such as the run at John Tavares last year.

They simply don’t have the cap room to do so.  It looks like they have about 12 million in cap room to maneuver.  Can they create more?  Of course!

Although we won’t get into as much detail as we did with each the players on the Boston Celtics’ roster, we will take a look at all the players on the Bruins’ roster as of right now.  We will just do it by positional group instead.  Per usual in these types of exercises, I will give my thoughts on what I think they SHOULD do in each group, as well as what I think they WILL do.

Starting with my favorite:

Goaltenders:  The Bs played all of last year with the two goalies, Tuuks and Jaroslav Halak.  They have a couple of kids in Daniel Vladar and Kyle Keyser, but we don’t care about them.  Why?  Because every time the organization has a “goalie of the future”, they end up elsewhere.  The most recent example will be Zane McIntyre, who has been in the system for like 100 years it feels like, but is now a free agent at age 27.  Good luck Zane!

Well, I think you know what I would do.  I would shop Tuuks as fast as possible, hoping that someone overpays for his Cup run.  With only a modified no-trade clause, this is indeed possible.  Then take Rask’s 7 mil salary and sign another veteran similar to Halak, who makes 2.75 mil.  Then, both your goalies make less than 6 mil combined and you can use the savings in part to acquire another, I don’t know…SCORER?

We also know what will happen.  These two will be between the pipes again next season.  No sense in going much further here now.

Defense:  The Bruins used 12 defensemen last year.  Ok, Jakub Zboril and Urho Vaakanainen only played two games apiece, so really they used 10.  So having some depth here helps, especially with a 42-year-old Zdeno Chara and a tremendously injury prone Kevan Miller still in tow.

Still makes me wonder why they signed journeyman Steven Kampfer to a two year extension though.  Kampfer spent most of the year as the teams’ 8th defenseman and pretty much ended it as the 9th, as Connor Clifton seemed to leapfrog him on the depth chart.  With Zboril and Urho getting closer, along with Jeremy Lauzon (16 NHL games last season) in the mix as well, what the hell did they need Kampfer for?  It’s not like they can send him down to Providence.  He would have to occupy space on the 23 man game day roster every day, even if he doesn’t suit up on the 20 man active roster.

Hmmmmmm…

Are they thinking about moving one of the top 7?  Entirely possible.

The most popular name?  Torey Krug.  Krug makes 5.25 mil in the last year of his deal next season.  Though I would still consider him a “specialist”, in particular, a “power play specialist” because of his physical stature, I will admit he has improved on defense over his career.  But if he wants like 10 mil a year as a free agent, then see ya!!  Some national writers have kind of anointed him as a first pairing d-man.  Really?  But if that is the perception, the team may be better off moving him.

Problem is, Krug has supposedly been quoted that he wants to play in Boston “forever” and that he hopes “something can be worked out soon”.  So what if he takes a hometown discount, similar to what we believe Brad Marchand took when he was up for his current deal?  May be tough to then move him.

I have a second name to throw out:  Brandon Carlo.  He is a restricted free agent, along with Charlie McAvoy.  Chaz was a first rounder and has some offensive upside to boot.  He is largely considered the heir apparent as the franchise defenseman when Z finally at least slides back in the pecking order.  Carlo was a second rounder and is an excellent defenseman.  Really took a step up this past season.  But he is no offensive threat whatsoever.

If the Bs cannot get something done with either before the onset of free agency, are they expecting to match McAvoy’s presumably monster offer from another team and let Carlo walk?  If Carlo wants 7-8 mil a year, I expect that he may be the one to go.

Just a hunch, but something to look out for anyway.  Would at least partly explain the quick re-signing of the veteran Kampfer.  Who could serve as good depth, certainly during the regular season.  All while the kids get more seasoning in the AHL.  Kampfer also can sit for long stretches on the inactive list, while you want the kids at least playing to develop more.

John Moore and Matt Grzelcyk round out the rest of the 12 and I expect they will be going nowhere.

Forwards:  Let’s revisit how the lines went for the majority of the playoffs:

1.  Marchand/Patrice Bergeron/David Pastrnak
2.  Jake DeBrusk/David Krejci/David Backes
3.  Marcus Johansson/Charlie Coyle/Danton Heinen
4.  Nordstrom/Sean Kuraly/Noel Acciari

Of course, Karson Kuhlman finished up in place of Backes and Chris Wagner kind of split with Acciari before he got hurt.  That was pretty much it for the Cup run.  Several other jamokes played a bit during the year and maybe we will cover them, maybe we won’t.

Of the 14 dudes above, Johansson and Acciari are unrestricted free agents and Heinen is restricted.  Johansson had a 4.6 mil cap hit last season.  I liked his play when healthy, but if that is the area he is looking for in free agency, best of luck to him!  Acciari was a nice 4th line piece, but I imagine that someone will give him something like 3/11 or something silly like that.  Similar to what previous bottom six (three?) players like Riley Nash and Tim Schaller got when they performed well in their roles here.  Good for Noel, but the Bs would be foolish to keep him at that pay rate.  They have enough guys that could step in for cheaper.  Like…Wagner…

As far as I’m concerned Heinen can go too.  But I imagine he will be back.  The team LOVES him.  In their defense, there was some crazy stat I heard during the Finals.  I wish I can remember what exactly, but it was something along the lines of that the opposing team simply did not score any goals when Heinen was on the ice.  There is admittedly some value in that…even though there are 4 other guys on the ice with him…plus the goalie.

The “elephant in the room” here is Backes.  He is completely useless.  But on the books for 6 mil (and a modified no-trade clause) for each of the next two years.  The simple answer is “buyout” as in, BUY HIM THE FK OUT!!!  But General Manager (as in “General Manager of the Year”) Don Sweeney has basically said they will not do that.

My question is…WHY???!!

Yes, I believe they would be stuck with half of Backes’ salary on the books still.  But three mil is better than six mil.  And that three could be used for better purposes.

If he stays, where does he go?  The ninth floor with Kampfer most nights?  Ok, fine.  But that seems like a waste.  Nordstrom/Kuraly/Wagner is a fine enough 4th line.  And I’m not putting him on the 3rd with Coyle and Heinen.  Certainly not back with Krejci.

Ugh…

Maybe they can package Backes and a kid or two and a draft pick or two to an NHL team that needs to hit the salary cap floor.  That way they get rid of the whole salary.  We can hope for that anyway.

In any event, the major need is that top six right wing spot.  I assume you have heard that tune before.  Whether you want to break up that first line or not is your decision.  There has been talk locally of moving Pasta with Krejci and Jake and finding a bigger dude to play with Bergy and Marchy.  Ok, fine.  But you need to pay that guy too.  With what?  After you pay Chaz and some others, there may be nothing left?

Kuhlman?  Maybe.  But that’s a little underwhelming.

Peter Cehlarik (restricted), Anders Bjork, Trent Frederic, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, Zack Senyshyn?  Well, JFK retreated back to Sweden before the playoff run even ended, so that is not an option.  Wasn’t a good one anyway…as the rest would appear not to be either.

Move Krejci?  I’d absolutely consider it.  But good luck with that at his 7.25 mil price tag.  And, oh yeah, his FULL no-trade clause.

The solution?  Find that other top six winger somehow and then just mix and match the bottom six.

Easier said than done.  But that is really the only thing I think the Bruins will attempt to do.

And I really don’t think they will be able to get anyone good, seeing they have to spend money on keeping McAvoy and trying to keep Carlo.  Unless they can move Krug, and/or Backes and/or Krejci, it just doesn’t seem realistic.

But I’ve been wrong before…so we will see starting in a few days…

Random Musings…

Time for that bullet point format again:

*Following up on the NBA draft…the Boston Celtics did exactly what I thought they would do.  Nothing.  But this may be a good thing.  Some dude named Robert Williams fell to them.  Is this good?  I don’t know.  But the pundits seem to like it.

He is 6’10” and is apparently a “rim runner”…there are new terms coming out every day, folks.  But he is also apparently a “rim protector”.  A term of which I am familiar with.  Never actually heard “rim runner” before.  But maybe I’m just stupid and it has been around forever.  Entirely possible.

In any event, he’s someone who can defend the basket but also score around the basket.  So they say.  After his freshman year at Texas A&M, he was supposedly a pretty good lottery pick but decided to stay his sophomore year.  Then, he was still supposedly a pretty good lottery pick but dropped to #27.

Maybe doing stuff like oversleeping introductory conference calls and the like had something to do with the plummet.  Hopefully, it’s as simple as that anyway.

In classic Jay Bilas-speak, Williams has great length and a tremendous wingspan.

Ok, enough of all that crap.  The way I see it, if Williams can play defense around the basket and REBOUND, then we would be all jacked and pumped about him.  If he kept Aron Baynes off the 2018-19 squad, we would be ecstatic.  But we will see.  Brad Stevens will probably have him working on his three-point game this offseason.

In any event, it looks like the C’s got someone out of the draft that could be at the very least a rotational player.  Hard to argue with that at the end of the first round.

*Aside:  There are 60 people drafted in each NBA draft.  How many of those “make it”?  15-20?  Half?  Not that many.  Add in some undrafted guys and you get a few more.

How did the draft used to be like 8 rounds?  With fewer teams in the league?  This has always confounded me.

*One dude who WASN’T drafted was LiAngelo Ball.  My heart breaks.  I wonder how LaVar really feels?  I mean, that was a solid Foot Locker “One and Done” commercial, wasn’t it?  Sigh…

*Speaking of undrafted dudes…we present you:  Brad Wanamaker!!  Seven years in Europe and now apparently heading to the Celtics.  No idea, so don’t even ask.

But so much for the C’s going into next season with all the band coming back together (plus Williams) I am still not ruling out a major move.  But wouldn’t shock me if there were many minor ones.  A lot may depend on if Marcus Smart is back in the fold.  I believe this will happen.  But of course, there is a chance some team blows things right out of the water with a huge offer to him.  We all know there are a lot of stupid teams out there…in every sport.

*As for the other draft we wrote on last, the Boston Bruins did exactly what I thought they would do as well…draft a bunch of guys that no one has ever heard of.  And we will maybe or maybe not see some of them in 2 to 5 years.  I think I’ll leave my comments at that.  Since I have nothing else to say.

*In more positive news, the John Tavares talk has not quieted down.  He is apparently meeting with the B’s at some point.  I still see this whole union far-fetched.  But the longer it goes on, perhaps not?

The cap has increased and supposedly they would have room as the roster currently stands to actually sign Tavares to a deal.  Of course, they still need pieces, so players would still have to go.  But this is a positive development as far as I can tell.  I thought with all the bloated contracts the Bruins are carrying that they would no way in hell have space for a big-time addition.  Not to mention the fact that I doubted Don Sweeney would go after a megastar, but that’s beside the point.

I still don’t have any idea how in the hell they will be able to move guys like David Krejci, David Backes and Torey Krug (if they wish) with their no-trade and no-movement clauses.  I’ll let them figure that out on their own time though.

What a development that would be however if Tavares somehow actually came to town.  Again, I don’t see it.  But that just may be because I don’t want to get my hopes up.

*Thank God the NFL is kind of “off” for a while now.  I don’t want to hear any more of Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.  Gronk may be the greatest to ever play tight end in the history of the NFL.  Brady may be the best ever period.  But shut up about having fun.  5 championships under the Bill Belichick regime is not fun?  Tired of hearing about it.

It will be interesting to see how Brady does this upcoming year.  1.  He doesn’t have a threat to his job to help motivate him.  2.  He has skipped all voluntary work this offseason, which he does not typically do.  And therefore he has not established connections with the new receivers and backs like he had always pledged was very important.  3.  He is 41.  There simply is no evidence of quarterbacks succeeding much at or beyond this age.  Like it or not when we all talk about his age.  It has to be factored in.

Personally?  I think Brady will be fine.  Maybe it will take some work to build some rapport with some of the receivers.  But I’m convinced he’s doing the work he needs to do to be physically ready for the season.  Same with Gronk.  As much as Alex Guerrero appears to be a slimy dude, he got Gronk to stay healthy for an entire season last year.  THAT happens once every blue moon.  And Brady’s game was obviously MVP level last year.  Would he really fall that precipitously?  Doubtful…even at his age.

2019 though at 42?  I’m not making any guarantees.  That’s why I would have kept and franchised Jimmy Garoppolo last year, played him wherever possible this season and pretty much give him the keys to the operation next season.  But maybe that’s why I’m not in an NFL front office.  Actually, there are several reasons.  But we don’t need to go through those here.

*Speaking of “tired of hearing about it”, I’m not sure I want to relive Deflategate with this Julian Edelman appeal.  Jules is ready to battle to the end.  And probably eventually lose and serve the four games anyway.  Bud, you took something.  Everyone does.  You got caught.  Please take the penalty and save us all the nonsense.  Please…

Next:  Random musings, Red Sox style…