3 reasons to believe in the Bruins going into next season

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Has it been a difficult week dealing with the reality of Boston's first round exit at the hands of the Florida Panthers? Absolutely. But is it all doom and gloom? Well, not necessarily. And I'm going to talk about three reasons why we can be hopeful about next season. We're on today's episode of Lockdown Boston Bruins. Your Lockdown Bruins, your daily podcast on the Boston Bruins, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. What is up Bruins fans and welcome back to the Lockdown Boston Bruins podcast. I'm your host Ian McLaren and this is a daily show where we discuss all things spoke to be. Today is Friday, May 5th and I want to thank you so much for making Lockdown Bruins, part of your day every day. We are free and available wherever you get podcasts and on YouTube, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. On today's episode, I'm going to discuss three reasons why we can be hopeful about the Boston Bruins for next season. It's not all doom and gloom. It's not a lost situation. They're not going to be in the lottery next year. There's a reason to believe that they can bounce back and I'll discuss that why here in a moment. A reminder that you can find the podcast on Twitter and Instagram at locked nhlbrewins and you can find me, my dad jokes and hockey tweets at eencmclaren. Let's get right into it, shall we? Three biggest reasons for hope going into next season. The first for me is that the Bruins resigned one of the best players in the NHL in David Posternock. Could you imagine if the Bruins had just lost to the Florida Panthers and David Posternock had not yet signed his contract extension? We would all be in a frenzy wondering if and when it was going to happen and whether or not the disappointing loss had turned him off remaining in black and gold and he was going to explore his options in the open market. Now he'll begin his new eight year, $90 million deal coming off the best season of his career and one of the best seasons in Bruins history. 61 goals, 52 assists for 113 points in 82 games. He's up there among some of the elite players in the NHL today and he should stay there for some time. This wasn't a case of him being dependent on Brad Marchon and Patrice Bergeron to get him the puck. He is a legitimate superstar player all on his own volition. Yes, he had help from his line mates and such but he's proven that he can play with whoever and produce whenever with 61 goals in 82 games this season. You go along with 52 points. He's not a one dimensional player. He is a complete player. Sure he has his some deficiencies in terms of turning over the puck. But as I pointed out a few weeks ago, the players who turn the puck over most are the guys who have the puck most and you want the puck on David Posternock's stick. That's how you get 61 goals. He chipped in with 5 goals in 7 games in the playoffs, admitted that he suffered a shoulder injury in game 1 so not fully optimized. He would have been ready or 100% he said if they had moved on to the second round. But still 5 goals, 7 games, a pretty good clip and we can count on him to continue to push for 50 year in and year out. And I talked about this a couple of weeks ago as well. He's on track to become the leading goal scorer in Boston Bruins history. That contract will account for a big chunk of the Bruins cap to go along with Trelli McAvoy who's making $9.5 million. That is going to be a challenge for Don Sweeney and Co. But the reality is they have some very good core pieces in place along with Posternock. This isn't a case of they lost on the first round and now they're going to be tanking going into a rebuild. They still have Brad Marsh on who really came on strong late this season and it was fantastic in the playoffs. Miller Hall still around for a couple of years, perhaps he could be a salary cap victim and traded the season. Not Charlie Coil, Jake DeBrusk, Pavel Zaka signed for a bunch of years as well. There's still some very good core pieces there up front and on the blue line as well with McAvoy Lindholm signed for quite a few years yet. Brandon Carlos on the books, he played pretty well in the playoffs. So you still have some core pieces there to build around. Linus Olmark's under contract for a couple of years. Jeremy Swamin, restrictive free agent, he's due a new deal. Hopefully it's fairly reasonable and they can keep that tandem together for a few years yet. All that to say, the big reason for hope here is that you have one of the best players in the NHL locked up for several years. You have one of the best defensemen in the NHL locked up for several years and as such, you're not going to be tanking anytime soon. You're not going to be rebuilding and those two guys should be able to attract talent to fill out the roster. Yes, the salary cap is going to be a challenge. You're probably going to have to clear some space. They have those bonus overages for David Craychee and Patrice Bergeron, $4.5 million most of any NHL team heading into next season. But you have those key pieces in place, those building blocks to surround with talent and some good players down in the AHL who might be able to step up and contribute as well. You have a lot of people who are going to be able to do that. You have a lot of people who are going to be able to do that. You have a lot of people who are going to be able to do that. You have a lot of people who are going to be able to do that. You have a lot of people who are going to be able to do that. You have a lot of people who are going to be able to do that. You have a lot of people who are going to be able to do that. You have a lot of people who are going to be able to do that. You have waited until after the season. Of course, there was all those conversations about is he uncertain about what life will look like in Boston post-Berseron post-Craychee. Will they be able to feel the competitive team? Well, he decided to re-up before the playoff collapse and he will be a big reason why they will rebound next season. So that's number one for me. We'll talk about the second and third reasons for hope, including the reverse president's trophy curse here in a moment. But first, a quick word about today's sponsor, eBay Motors. When you're building a championship team, you need to know that all the parts will fit right. 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From the hottest players to the biggest upsets, we've got you covered. Don't miss a beat this postseason. Locked on NHL. Available on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Locked on Podcast Network. More team every day. Thank you so much again for making locked on Boston Bruins part of your day every single day. As well as on YouTube. Every dayers can expect a fresh episode on Monday. We're going to begin some player reviews looking back on this past season and beginning with Patrice Bergeron. Alright here's another reason for hope. We'll call it the reverse president's trophy curse. We all know president's trophy winners very rarely make it to the Stanley Cup final much less win. You're more likely or you have better chance of putting money down on the field as opposed to whoever wins the president's trophy when you're picking a Stanley Cup winner. However, recent history suggests that the president's trophy plus one year bodes well for success. Let's look back to recent president's trophy winners in 2016, 2017. The Washington Capitals won the president's trophy with 120 points and they lost in the second round to the Pittsburgh Penguins. 2018, the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup. In 2019, the Tampa Bay Lightning, 128 points won the president's trophy and were swept in the opening round by the Columbus Blue Jackets. They won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021. The Colorado Avalanche won the president's trophy in 2021. They lost in the second round of Vegas and then won the Stanley Cup in 2022. And then finally, the Florida Panthers win the president's trophy in 2022. What happens here in 2023? Well they beat the president's trophy winners in the opening round to 7 game series and now they're two up on the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round in a very similar fashion to how they beat the Bruins. Very opportunistic, taking advantage of turnovers and getting some very good goal tending from Sergey Burbrowski. That's not to say they are guaranteed to win the cup but they're in a great position at the moment to advance at least to the conference finals. Now the one exception in there is the fact that the Boston Bruins won the president's trophy in 2020, the COVID shortened season and of course they did not win the Stanley Cup in 2021. Take that for what you will but over the past several years, president's trophy winners have been bumped early and then bounced back to go the distance. That's three teams in the past five years and four championships if you include the lightnings back to back campaigns. Yes the Bruins lost to those lightning in 2020 and did not win the Stanley Cup the following year but it's still an interesting trend that we need to keep an eye on and that's one reason for hope for next year. The Bruins will be super motivated to bounce back to prove that this regular season was not a fluke and more importantly that they have what it takes to win the games matter most. Are we expecting another record breaking regular season? No. And that's just fine. It's probably better to not sneak into the playoffs but just have an average of a lot of average regular season, no pressure, no expectations and come back and do the thing. There's a great combination of health, puck luck, goal tending that needs to go into winning a playoff series much less two, three, four. The Bruins can bounce back from this experience and keep in mind when they lost in 2019 in the state like a final two, the St. Louis Blues. A lot of people expected a letdown coming into that next regular season. They went out and were the first place team when the league shut down due to COVID-19. We never know what will, would have happened under normal circumstances. They still had some core players in the mix at that point, Chara, Krug, Rask, maybe under normal circumstances, they would have had a better fate in the playoffs. They were going in as the number one seed. They were forced to do that receding prep games going into the bubble. Everything was arrived. But you know, recent track records suggest there is some great bounce back ability here for the Boston Bruins in 2023-24. We're going to talk about one more reason why the Boston Bruins, there's reason for hope for next season here in a moment. Another quick thank you for making locked on Boston Bruins part of your day every single day free and available on your favorite podcast app. Every day or Monday on the show can expect a full look at Patrice Bergeron's regular season and playoffs this past year for the Bruins. The Tampa Bay Rays are for real this season and they just swept one of the best teams in baseball to prove it. The Pirates, they have not run into a buzz saw a team like the Rays and I think it got to them. The Warriors bounced back in game two against the Lakers. Can they keep this momentum going as the series heads to LA? And just like that, it's a best of five. And the Vegas Golden Knights are looking to build on a high scoring game one victory in their second round series against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. That's the way this team had played back in the inaugural season in the playoffs. For all these stories head over to locked on Rays, locked on Warriors and locked on Golden Knights. Then check out locked on's new series, Paving the Way. Each episode will highlight a different voice from around the network, a locked on host whose journey in the industry has helped pave the way toward creating a more inclusive and diverse media landscape. That's Paving the Way presented by State Farm, available now on the locked on presents podcast feed. Now speaking of Patrice Bergeron and David Craycce, both guys are undecided as to whether or not they will return for next season. It will be difficult to fit them under the cap because the Bruins will be paying next year for their contracts this season, but they could still do the same kind of thing where they get kind of minimal contracts with bonuses that will carry over to the next year. It sure looked like Patrice Bergeron was contemplating that it could have been his last game following Game 7, the hugs. It happened last year against Carolina as well, but you really saw the emotion on his face when he hugged Marshawn and just the stunned look like is this actually the end? Now why would they come back? Why would they go through this whole rigmarole once again when there's no guarantee of winning? Well, next year's Boston's Centennial season. The team has a bunch of stuff planned to celebrate their Centennial. They've announced some key initiatives. There's a special logo, commemorative logo. They will be celebrating the 100th season of the Boston Bruins in a number of ways. And in a lot of ways, that could be the perfect closure for both of these guys. They have been such a huge part of the last 15, 20 years of this team, a huge chunk of their history, their numbers will be in the rafters one day. It would be fitting for them to play in the 100th season and go out being celebrated properly for being such a huge part of their history. Perhaps both of them come out and say this will be our last season no matter what. It's kind of a swan song. They can be fitted properly by the fans and go into it, giving everything that they have in order to compete for next year's Stanley Cup Championship. Ideally, both guys would be fully healthy as well. And hopefully the Bruins learned some lessons about load management down the stretch. Patrice Bergeron said he kind of regretted playing in Montreal. David Craycchi wasn't fully healthy in the playoffs. And Jim Montgomery will have another year of coaching under his belt. Hopefully he'll have that experience to make those better decisions in the postseason. So there's some of the reasons why I'm feeling hopeful about the Boston Bruins. I look at Providence. I see some good pieces that could make the jump up. We'll get a bit of a youth injection. There's still some great core pieces that the Bruins have in place here. And you have that old President's trophy plus one reversal that hopefully will carry on again next season. I know it's been a long week. It's been a difficult week. I thank you so much for checking out all the episodes this week. A lot of fallout to come yet. General manager Don Sweeney. President Cam Neelage and Montgomery head coach have yet to address the media formally following the season. So I expect that to happen next week. Be all over that. And also recapping players seasons went well for each of them. What didn't go well? Will the player be on the team next year? We're going to talk about all that coming up in the coming days for the Boston Bruins. We're on lockdown Boston Bruins part of the lock on podcast network. Your favorite team every single day. Hope you'll have a great weekend. Get out. Get some vitamin D. Let's get mentally refreshed and formally begin the off season coverage here for the Boston Bruins beginning Monday. Take care of yourselves friends. Take care of each other. We'll talk to you again here soon. Buying tickets to see your favorite NHL team shouldn't be stressful. That's where game time comes in. Game time is the place for last minute ticket deals. Forget planning months in advance. Time has deals on tickets right up to the day of the event. Get images of your seat before you buy so you know exactly what to expect when you arrive. You can buy tickets in a matter of seconds, two taps in your set. Download the game time app, create an account and use the code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, redeem code locked on NHL for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. The Tampa Bay Rays are for real this season and they just swept one of the best teams in baseball to prove it. The Warriors bounced back in game two against the Lakers. Can they keep this momentum going as the series heads to LA? And just like that, it's a best of five. And the Vegas Golden Knights are looking to build on a high scoring game one victory in their second round series against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. That's the way this team had played back in the inaugural season in the playoffs. For all these stories, head over to lockdown Rays, locked on Warriors and locked on Golden Knights. Then check out lockdown's new series, Paving the Way. Each episode will highlight a different voice from around the network, a locked on host whose journey in the industry has helped pave the way toward creating a more inclusive and diverse media landscape. Last Paving the Way presented by State Farm, available now on the lockdown presents podcast feed. Hello, Red Sox fans. I'm Jake Inizuski, host of your daily Boston Red Sox podcast, locked on Red Sox, part of a walked on podcast network, your team every day. Locked on Red Sox brings you the latest news and analysis. Locked on Red Sox is everything a Red Sox fan could want all in a 30 minute daily podcast. Join me and subscribe now to locked on Red Sox, wherever you get your podcast. There's locked on Red Sox and get your daily Boston Red Sox podcast, locked on podcast network, your team every day.