What Went Wrong With The Boston Bruins? W/ MIKE MILBURY

It's the Bob MacCon podcast and as usual is brought to you by Bet Rivers. Download the Bet Rivers online casino and sportsbook app today with John Shannon. Well, we're going to turn back the clock a few days at least and spend some time talking about one of the great collapses I guess in sports history. I don't know whether it will go down as such, but to hockey fans it was a big collapse and that's the Boston Bruins who had a tremendous regular season, one of the best in history and then lost in an opening round to, you know, essentially the 16th seed. The Florida Panthers, a team that was great last year during the regular season but was an abomination, relatively speaking during the regular season this year. Barely got a disappointment and a disappointment, abomination is a little tight. I suppose they did make the playoffs, although they had to go to the last week of the year to do it. Well, truth be told, our guest today was supposed to come on and talk about the Toronto Boston rivalry. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, that's still a big story to talk about and that is the king is dead. What happened to the king? Yeah. And what does the king do now? Yeah. Mike Milbury will be with us who's more associated with Boston hockey than anything else probably. Former player, former head coach, analyst, general manager. He's done it all in the hockey biz and Milbury has been on with us before and was a big hit previously. I imagine he will be the same today. Mike Milbury, when we come back after these, hi, this is Bob McCowan for betrivers.com. Hey, if you're looking for a sports book or casino app, you should check out the bet rivers, sports and casino app today, play all of your favorite casino games for real money anywhere and anytime. Plus get in the action with each sports game with hundreds of sports betting options and get ready to feel like a VIP because you'll earn both loyalty level points and bonus store points on every real money wager you make. You must be 19 plus available in Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 or speak to an advisor free of charge. Betrivers.com. We're back. McCowan Shannon with you as always and with us. Former player, former head coach, former analyst, Mike Merb, there's a manager too. General manager, Mike Milbury is with us. So I assume you watched all of the Boston first round series. Is that true? Milbury? Yes, I did. I did. You know, can we just spend a little time looking back? Like when you think about this team, you know, I'm going to start with the acquisition of Lena Somarck. Very controversial and boss. They didn't know who he was and they gave him a big contract, but you know, that happened. Then they wind up acquiring at the end of that year, Lindholm, who was a great acquisition, but at the playoffs he got hurt. So we couldn't see, he was very cocky and I was a little suspicious of what he was going to be like. But I mean, a good trade obviously looked like it was going to be a good trade. Jeremy Swamin came into the fold and they traded for Pavel Zakka, who I thought was a soft guy, but a high first round pick with talent, but that was for Eric Hall. I was actually having a pretty good series for New Jersey, but still an interesting pick up knowing at that point there wasn't confirmation of Craychee and Bergeron returning. So it filled a hole either on the wing or at center somewhere, so pretty heady move. And then of course Bergeron and Craychee come back and it's like the gang is back together and you know, but there's still the issue starting last season, if you remember, McAvoy was hurt coming off of surgery. Marcia was hurt coming off of surgery. Who else was out there? Somebody else was out of the lineup. But there were big guys that were out of the lineup. And then everybody thought, well, we'll get to Thanksgiving or Christmas, just hanging on. And all of a sudden somebody sprinkled fairy dust over this team. And I don't know if it was Jim Montgomery or Mr. Rogers, as I call him, who came in and just said this is going to be a wonderful season and everyone's going to go right. But the goaltender was incredible. Both gold tenders were incredible. So I mean, they had a little bit of a tough start. And then they're going through this record setting here. And the best team in the league by far, and there appears to be no urgency to do anything if you're the general manager or the president. If you're gambling or Don Sweeney, but they go out and swing a deal with Washington Capitals and pick up Dimitri Orlov, got player I've always liked, and a sort of gritty, hardworking guy in half the way to play on the fourth line, a great acquisition. I mean, they paid the price and everybody knows he's trying to go forth. And then shockingly he picks up Tyler Bertuzzi. So the stinkin' rich get richer going into the playoffs. And everything was poised for, as they put it around here, Stanley Cup or bust? Were you guys feeling the same way after all that? Well, I think there are two things that are true about last season than the Boston Bruins. Number one, at the beginning of the year, nobody picked them. Nobody picked them. That's number one. Number two, before the Stanley Cup playoffs, everybody picked them. And we were wrong both times. And I don't mean one person I'm talking about, everybody was the same way. Everybody felt the same. Am I not, am I telling the truth? Oh, yes. I do a little radio show in Boston on a weekly basis. We had maybe 25, 30 shows. And the first question I asked every guest, including John Shannon and amongst others, you know, a lot of reporters locally, Kevin DuPont, none of them had any clue that it was going to be like this. And like you said, none of them had any clue that the collapse would be so complete and it wasn't a complete collapse. So Michael, what went wrong in the playoffs that we didn't foresee from the regular season? Was this a place, a case of this team not facing adversity in the regular season, so they didn't know how to adapt? Well, I don't know about you, John, but I don't like adversity. I like to sail into the sunset and have a little bit of adversity. Yeah, but I know that I heard that talked about often, but I don't know. They kept on winning. They kept on playing really well. You know, even at the end, but the first sign for me was, and I thought about this two weeks before that last game in Montreal, I said, if Bergeron's playing in that game, it's an old-land-sign game. It's one for the memory books. It's my last time there. And sure enough, what happens is he gets dinged. And we later find out that it was a herniated disc. Now, I don't know the severity. I've had a herniated disc. And I've had an operation because of a herniated disc. If it's impacting your nerves on one side or another, you're an excruciating thing. And yet, at somehow, he managed to come back and play. But that was the first problem. So there was a problem with an injury. The second problem was game one should have told us something. They weren't ready to play. Florida played harder. Played hungry or hockey. They were the better team for most of the game. And Omar made the kind of saves that he made all year. Timely saves. Momentum saving saves. And he was terrific. But in the end, the analysis was, okay, Boston squeaked by. They've done something they've done all year long. They haven't played their best hockey, but they still win. All right. That takes you to game two. And Florida basically blew him out of the building. There was no doubt in game two who was the better hockey club. It was a hard charging team. The chuck was now very visible. I mean, Barco didn't show up to later in this series, but who knew this? Verhagi was this good. And somehow the goaltender, who I always thought was going to be a problem, lion, was good enough. But Chinsie goal in game two. But that sets them up to go to Florida with the chance to strike on home ice advantage. Talking about the Panthers that are. But then the Bruins take two. They weren't particularly wonderful games for the Bruins. They good enough, especially the second one. They chased the lion out in game three. So Barrosky comes in in game four. They win both and they're absolutely everybody in this town thought it was over. They came back for game five and Florida's persistent for checking Florida's attitude of, you know, we can do this. I was surprised. I was very surprised at how good they were. And they hadn't been that good all year. They just managed to squeak in. But the pain after game five was palpable. And it was pretty clear that Bergeron was not going to be a huge help. Don't forget with a second to go in regulation. Brad Marshan had a chance to not just win the game, but win the series. And that was going to be part of the classic Bruins storybook of this season. Because they're the best third period team in hockey. They do everything great. There's no lead that isn't safe on the Boston Bruins. And here's Brad Marshan as the clock's ticking down going one on one with a Sergei Brabashin. It's going to go in. It's fate. It's the Boston Bruins of this year, isn't it? I would have thought so. But even in the moment, I mean, you have to think if you're Brad Marshan, your head is ticking down seconds. And you're trying to pick a corner against a pretty god damn good goaltender who's finding his rhythm. And it wasn't a horrible shot, but it wasn't a great shot. I think he just, you know, I don't want to say Marshan panicked, but he pulled the trigger just a half second too early. And it proved to be a bad decision. But you know, yeah, it could have, they could have won in any of those games. They could have won. But still, they come back to Boston in game seven. You know, I didn't go to the game, but my, I sent my voice to the game with my tickets. And they said it was unbelievably tense before the game. You know, there was this feeling in the crowd that it wasn't like it had been all year that we're going to win. It was like just a sort of deep breath, like what's going to happen. And sure enough, Florida takes a two nothing lead. And then shockingly, the Bruins come back to, and I'm watching that on the tube and I'm thinking, are you kidding me? Like I thought, I thought they were toast. I thought they were toast at two nothing, but I give them credit yet again for a comeback. But Florida, you know, they've been, they were built for a pretty good season last year, not this year, but they, and they wound up having all sorts of issues with goal tenders. But you can see there was reason why Bill Zito, their GM might have had some reason for optimism because of the kind of players that were now showing up in a critical moment. And in the critical moment with the goaltender out, the Bruins were soft. They weren't aggressive at all. And they gave Florida plenty of time. And then so all of a sudden shocking news were in overtime and they continued to play soft. There was a scramble, just before the game went in gold, there was a scramble behind the net. There were four Bruins, I think, maybe all five within, you know, the face off hash marks down to below the net, including birds are on. And Marcin and somehow to Chuck and company came out with a pocket and I was scrambled. It came to Rahagie and he could add a picnic lunch before he shot the puck. And to Chuck was standing right, his big, dirty, right front of Swamin, who had no chance to see it. And Rahagie makes this perfect shot, you know, he had lots of time and a perfect screen. And it was like, the air went out of the balloon. In fact, you know, the air is going to be out of the balloon and Boston, and Marcin, you know, for a very long time. They have, after the dust has settled here, the aftermath of this nuclear implosion is going to be massive. They have all sorts of issues facing them coming up and it's going to be fascinating to see how they handle it. And you know, John, as well as I do. I mean, this is, I got to assume Rahagie and Bergeron are hanging up the lumber. I can't see, I mean, the injury, I don't know what happened to Rahagie. Somebody, something happened to him. Lower body, Omar, wouldn't tell us what it is. But I mean, these guys are 38 years old. And the other team, the other key players look younger and faster and more willing and more productive. So I think it's, I'm going to be shocked if either one of them comes back to play. Look at naturally, I think all of us look at this and try and analyze it under the title, the headline, the Boston Bruins Collapse, after a great season they can't extend. But I wonder whether we should instead be saying the Florida Panthers played great. Maybe that's the real story and maybe we'll find that out in the playoffs to come to see how deep Florida manages to go. I don't know whether that'll mean anything or not. But you know, as you said, Mike, this Florida team was built for success a year ago and they had a terrible, they had a terrible regular season in there. Books, their season was as bad as the Boston Bruins season was good, but they managed to get it together. And the talent that they've got and the style that they play, you know, proved to be too much for the Bruins over seven games. It may prove to be too much for the Toronto Maple Leafs and everybody else. I just, I just think I think we tend not to give Florida enough credit. We start, we were doing nothing but looking at the why the Boston Bruins lost. Well, 43 point difference. There was a 43 point difference. I understand, John, but we've seen this, you know, you don't see it every day, but every once in a while you do, you know, that's why they have the word upset, you know. Well, I can tell you this. I clearly Florida was underestimated by Boston and probably by the rest of the hockey world and who I agree. Who play, who she's going to pay attention to them. But, you know, when you look at their roster carefully and you see it to Chuck and you see an Eclad, you can see a Barkov and now I know Usterinen and Verhagie are better than I gave him credit for, but they have some depth to their roster that I didn't foresee and they were able to get Bobrovsky to come up to a reasonable standard of goaltending. But I don't want to say that's the only thing because number one, the goal is to get the goal tender. Oh, Mark was not anywhere in there as good as he was during the regular season. Okay. So he's got an injury. I don't know who, whatever, if you're not good enough to play, they had another goal tender who had a great season. They made a mistake. The goal tender wasn't good enough and the coach and the staff made a mistake by letting him play. You could tell many times when he was trying to get up that he was hurt. They should have had Swamin in there far earlier than they did. First point one, point two is Lindholm was what, plus 47 or around plus 50 for the year. And one of the most sure handed breakout artists in the league, he was given away the puck left and right. So was McAvoy. Orlov did too, sometimes in critical moments, although I think of the three, Demetri Orlov was the best defenseman. Connor Clifton and Game Four were usually reliable, heady little player. He was minus three, just kept giving it away. And up front, I mean, the normally sure handed players that you have, I mean, Marcin had a good series, but there were a bunch that were just not good enough. But for me, mostly it was a goal tender and the defense. All year long you've seen that play get stopped, get moved up to the next line of offense and the way they went. That was stop Diddin's tracks. And for that, I give Florida credit and responsibility to the Jones defense. You talk about the Omar scenario, all season long, Jim Montgomery alternated them. If Omar played two, then Swam and played two, then Omar would play. But when we always talked about the lack of experience of the goal technique, whether Omar was heard or not, but we don't talk about Jim Montgomery's lack of playoff experience. Because I think it really did show, Mike, don't you? I do. You know, and one of the clear cut signs to me was all year long, it was, you know, he was whistling a happy tune and singing everybody's praises, but I think it was in Game 6. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was in Game 6 when the Bruins were just turning the puck over left and right. He got snappy on the bench. And it's the first time all year that I've seen him get snappy. He was yelling at guys. He was visibly pissed off. But it's tough to go from Mr. Rogers to Captain Bly in the middle of the playoffs. You know, you just can't get away with that. I mean, they're used to one thing. You know, he's going to have to, there were signs that the inmates were having a little too much influence over what was happening. I mean, there was a story that Bergeron, although he was hurt, was making calls to the coaches and to the players like, what the fudge is that? I mean, you know, call the players on your team if you want. You're not calling them the coaches. And, you know, if you want to retire and become a coach or assistant manager, go right ahead. I mean, I love Bergeron, but that's, that's taking it a little bit over the line for me. I mean, I mean, do you agree with that? I mean, it's a little strange. When I heard the story, and by the way, the two networks that I watched, CBCD and whether it was TNT or ESPN talked about it, I was shocked to hear it. I mean, is he, is he at least CCing Jim Montgomery when he does it? No, it just struck me as, you know, this is, this is not right. And I, you know, I remember when I first started, I was a little too anxious to give or get input from the key players, but after a while, you just say, you know, who the key players are and you take a little, but then you just do whatever the hell you want because it's your, you're asking a sling. But I didn't like the feel of it. And there was, well, I can sum this up, truly sum this up. The key players, Bergeron, Craychee, whatever a mix you want to put Marsh in versus the key players to Chuck, certainly to Chuck. Barkov eventually came around, Verhagi, Luister Ayan. There was a, there was greater will in the Florida Panther bench than it was, or on the ice than there was in Boston. And that's always a bad sign. Well, and, and, and if you put it behind the bench, if Paul Maurice barked at his players in the playoffs, it wasn't the first time he had done it this year. Right. That's right. You know, I mean, he must have pushed some right buttons. He clearly did. I mean, I was really surprised that he, he went with the, the journeyman goaltender. I mean, the guy's 30 years old. He's not in the national hockey league. There's the reason why he's only played 11 games, but I don't know, maybe he was trying to tickle Babrovsky. But he played a serious risky game with that one because he, Babrovsky came in, not, not that he was spectacular, but he was capable, right? And with a team that's playing well in front of you, you could get by with a capable gold tender. He got better as the series went on. Well, Babrovsky was a little, was sick and then at the end of the regular season, and they had no choice with Alec Lian. I mean, he was the guy. He got them to the playoffs. Well, I don't know where he was with the sickness, but I do know that he, that's like Lian played the first three games. And Maurice was calling him the second coming of Jacques Clont. You know, I mean, trying to pump his tires. And maybe that was just enough to get him. And the guy had whiffed on like three or four glove shots in the series. It was, it was clear that they were targeting him. And I don't think with Lian in the, in the net that Florida wins this series. It was an essential move. He made it, made it in the nick of time and, you know, that's the way this cookie crumbles. Well, I guess what we look, I mean, everybody will look back for an extended period of time in Boston at what happened and try and figure this out. You mean like forever? Yeah, like maybe forever. Yeah. But, but certainly it's going to be a focus of attention for some period of time. The question on my mind right now is what's the future for the Boston Bruins? Does the team come, this team coming off that, you know, one of the best regular seasons in history? No, the best. Well, arguably, arguably the best. Okay. I agree with you. You're right. But it was very good. And you'd think that that would be sustainable. I know they've got older players that they have to deal with. But now you have this playoff loss, this shocking defeat in the opening round against the team who barely made it into the playoffs, who was probably the worst team to get there. And the question now becomes what comes next? What about next year? Excuse me, next year? Well, what do you do if you're the Boston Bruins? Well, number one, you're going to have to face the music when it comes to the salary cap. And I hate talking about the salary cap, but it is what it is. You know, the two centers left him with a $4.1 million surplus due to bonuses that they made during the course of the year. If it weren't for the injuries to haul and to Felineo, they would have been way over the cap. They had to put those guys on long term IR. So number one, they're going to have to make a decision for me on which goal tender do you want to keep? You're not going to keep Swamin' Happy as the one B goal tender. They decide to go to Olmark all the time. He's a young kid. The other guy is still in his prime. Make a decision because you're going to have to trade that for a really good young asset. Windholm, McAvoy are set. They're coming back. Clifton is a free agent. He may not want to come back after the way things went through the playoffs. Grizzlech, I think, is okay to come back. The big piece though is Dimitri Oerloff, who was as good as any defenseman down the stretch. He's already in at like five and a quarter million. I don't know that they can afford to keep him. I can't imagine they will be able to afford to keep him, but that's Oerloff's the first big piece. Foreburt, I think, is unrestricted as well. So you're probably going to nick two to four out of your top six defense. You're still going to be winding up with Windholm and McAvoy, which is a good place to start and probably Grizzlech. So one gold tender, two or three defensemen. Bergeron goes and Craychee grows. The cookie just completely crumbles right there. Pavel Zaka was not good in the postseason. Couldn't come up with a pace, in my opinion. They were trying to pencil him in as a replacement for Craychee as a second line center. I don't think that's going to work, but they may be forced to try that. They just signed them for what, four years at like four and a quarter million. Taylor Hall playing third line, making six million or whatever, five and a half, whatever he is. He can't have a third line. Charlie Ecoil is a third line player making five million. Their spots, the brush goes into the last year of a contract at four and a half. Marshann, they're littered with big contracts. They have to completely retool up front. It's going to be painful. The biggest concern for me as it was going into last season where I was saying, maybe they should think about trading. Marshann and Bergeron and retooling now. Then I started to feel like an idiot around Christmas time when I couldn't lose a game. I feel it's bad now when I look back at it because they weren't able to go the distance, but you're right to have that concern because it is going to be a mad scramble for them to get back, a semblance of the team that you saw this year. Your point seems to be centered around the salary cap. I don't disagree with you. The other point is, do you look at this team objectively and try and make change because of the way the season went? It sounds like that doesn't matter. It doesn't think it's going to be dollars and cents, isn't it? It's going to be dollars and cents and you're going to have to try to balance that with your needs on the ice. When Don Sweeney delivered this package to Jim Montgomery, Cam Neelian Don Sweeney delivered this package on trading day to Jim Montgomery, I think the real thinking was that the very, very worst this team is going to be in the Stanley Cup final and not unlikely to Stanley Cup winner. Instead, they found themselves in a pile of rubble here. It just goes from the penthouse to the shithouse right away. You talk about money and you know the Jacobs, you know what Delaware North is all about as much as anybody. If the fans were thinking they were getting to the Stanley Cup final, imagine what the budgets looked like going to the Stanley Cup final. And remember, 2019, they were making $7 million a home game that year going to the final against the St. Louis Blues. I'm sure there's a few meetings that have gone on since the loss to say, you know, we just left $40 million on the floor. $40 million. How do you think that goes over in the boardroom? You know, I think going into last season, let's face it, the changing of the coaching guard from Bruce Cassidy to Jim Montgomery was a earth shattering around here. Like Bruce Cassidy was well liked and you know the thinking was that he had been too mouthy and too publicly abrasive with his players. And so they made what I thought was a significant and dangerous play by bringing in a total opposite. But they've got the green light from ownership and it looked like, you know, they had hit the lottery and they did for the regular season, but that clearly is not what people want. They want a postseason run that's terrific. I mean, listen, I've been on a president's trophy winning team a couple of times. It just often happened that people come up to me and say, geez, I remember the time of your team won the president's trophy in 1983. I'll be your shit. Where were you in 1979 for too many men on the ice? But I will say that the talk around here has been, what is this equivalent to in terms of Boston sports? You know, and there are plenty of collapses or bad losses to come up with. One of them, one of the suggestions was the Patriots who lost their last game, preventing them to be undefeated to the Giants. I don't think that works for me because first of all, they were in the Super Bowl. Secondly, it took an act of God catch over the top and onto a shit helmet and a bad non-call by the official. They lost it, was a little unlucky and the other team played well, but it wasn't a collapse. The 86 Red Sox, Bill Buckner, ball through the legs and who was the pitcher, Bob, whatever his name was, throwing balls away at the end of the game when they were one strike away from the World Championship. Now that's an epic collapse. And I'll tell you the other one is my team in 1979 who lost in 77 and 78, took four games and six games to the Canadians, wind up against them in the semifinals and we have them finally by the short and curlies with two and a half minutes to go and we blow our brains out with too many men on the ice. I mean, as self-inflicted as you can possibly get, unforgivable. Now that's a collapse. This one was- I always thought, and I think you were probably working in the broadcast, I always thought 2010. The Bruins and the Flyers, the Bruins were up three games tonight. And then they were up in game seven, three nothing. And I think people, and the Fly, remember, and this is not an knock at Old Pali. Or Brian Boucher was one of the three goalies the Flyers used last year, that year, because they had brutal goal tending all year. I thought that was a worse collapse. And I think people in Boston conveniently forgot it because they won the Cup the next year. Yeah, that's true. Was that the first round? First round? I think that might have been the third round. Was it that late? It might have been the conference final. I remember the collapse and I remember Tuka Rask has never lived down. I mean, Tuka Rask has- It was Bob Stanley, by the way. Bob Stanley- Bob Stanley, that's who it was, right. There you go. But Tuka Rask has never been able to get any kind of traction as a great gold tender. He was a great gold- And it terrific career. Didn't wind up with a Stanley Cup that he could claim as his own. I think he was on the bench when Tim Thomas did all the work, but it was- That was a pretty good collapse. I got to give you credit for that one, but I mean, it was Stanley Cup final or 86 world championship. I was transcenting this one, but this one for me is scary in that maybe those other teams could have come back. I don't think this team is going to rebound. I don't think this- They might make the playoffs, but I don't see them being a contender for a long time. They've got- When you drop your top two centers, you got problems and they're not easily solved. I think- Fliers Pro in Series 210 was a second round series. Yeah. Listen, guys, we are late. We have to take a break here. We'll come back with more in a minute. Mike Milbury is with us back after these. Spring is here and so are the long days, warm weather and yard work. If you're anything like me, then you know how easy it is to get behind on your spring to-do list. But factor is here to help. The number one ready to eat meal kit can help you fuel up fast with ready to eat meals. Delivered right to your door. Saving you time to get the things you need to do. Done. Factors fresh, never frozen meals are ready in just two minutes, so all you have to do is heat and enjoy. 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What's really interesting is there was the Boston Bruins and then there were 11 teams that were basically equal, statistically equal. If you look at who had 110 down to 100 points, you know, throw a hat over them. There were 11 more teams. Well, the team at the top is now gone. Does that mean it's anybody's Stanley Cup to win in your opinion? Well, it's always anybody's Stanley Cup. I mean, when you see Seattle do what they did against Colorado and I admittedly Colorado was had they just can't they couldn't get it right right from the beginning of the year, injuries or whatever happened and they were never quite in sync. Right. And they were the team everybody loved at the beginning of the year too. Right. And then and this Seattle team just came on and just would speed and depth of scoring that nobody ever anticipated. I mean, it's been it was it was terrific. So and then all of a sudden group hour decides to become a goalie again, right? I mean, it's just it's been fascinating to watch that I happened to think that the odds on favorite now to come out of the Western conferences is Edmonton. I mean, they got the two best players in hockey. Let's not even think about call calling for a vote on the second best player in hockey. Drycidal is it. I mean, what a show he put on in that series. I mean, and LA was good. If you could have just given one of those two guys to LA might have gone 12 games, you know, it was well, they played well. And yet those two guys could rise up and get it done. I think Vegas is a good solid team, well coached, but I don't think they have the stuff to match. McDavid and Drycidal. Though I always worry about Edmonton's goal tending. Dallas, you know, they what a great scene by the way to see Pervolsky come back after that wicked hit and come back with four goals last night. I mean, talk about an old pro. I mean, that's the kind of guy you root for, but he was he was terrific, although not enough to get the job done. But I don't know, John, do you see Dallas in a position to challenge for Stanley Cup at this point? Listen, I think if Jake Odinger can win a series for you. Yes, he might be. That's that's right. He might be the best goaltender left. I don't know what you think, but you look across the board of all the guys, because remember, you know, Shosturkin's gone, Oldmark's gone, Vassilevsky's gone. You know, all the guys, you know, Hellebach, the guys that are going to be in the Vessent at trophy race, then when we're going to see the award nominees in a week or so, none of those guys are in the playoffs anymore. And Jake Odinger has, I mean, we saw it last year, he took Calgary to seven games on his own. And even though last night was a bit of a collapse in the first period when Seattle scored three goals at 52, I still think Jake Odinger can get Dallas to where they can beat Seattle. So, so, and then when you're in the third round, Mike, I don't have to tell you what's that? I think that's true, I was just been the East terrific goaltender. And I do think Dallas will win the series, but putt, but to get back to Bob's point, yeah, there's a lot of teams out there, but I, I, my compass still points towards Edmonton and it points to two teams in the East. The first one who I didn't think I'd ever say, they might be ready is New Jersey. They're fast, they're skilled, and they've got this goalie from out of the freaking blue that has been unconscious. Like, and the defense is, is fine. Mobile, I mean, they got destroyed at home and came back with resounding noise against the Rangers. They made the Rangers look bad. I mean, talk about a team that's going to be in disarray. Imagine going on picking up Tara Sanco and Patrick King and coming back with nothing to show for it in the first round, getting ousted by your local neighbor. Yes, but New Jersey has been remarkable on how good they've been. I'm going to curiously see how they do against the hard checking team like Carolina. And of course, you know, the third team in my triumvirate, most likely to win is, is your maple leaves who. Well, I think there's a betting favorite actually. I know they are. I know they are. You're betting fair that when, you know, you can score as well. Yeah, you can score it. Well, they seem to have developed some a speed of course, some macho-ness about them. I still worry about their goal tending, you know, whether that'll hold up and worry about whether the defense is deep enough. But boy, sure, they can score goals whenever you give them an opportunity. And I think that when crushes a lot of doubts about themselves internally and gives them a legitimate chance to move ahead with some level of confidence. And can you think, can you worry that perhaps that there's too much relief that they finally want to play off series and they may not have the intensity to get any farther? Well, then shit, John, they're just not freaking good enough. You know what I mean? Go and grow up and you've got, you've got Austin Matthews, John Tavares. You've got Monter, you've got Kneelander, you've got this wealth of goal scoring. And if that means if they can only win one round and then their goal tending or the defense lets them down, well, they were not built well enough to win the series. They have talent and they do what they, the name of the game is, which is score more goals. Score goals like anybody else can. But if they can't figure out that they have to work hard at the other end, back check, play defense block shots and stop shots if you're golden and then they're not going to be good enough. But I do think that they, and I still have, as I mentioned, I still have doubts about the rear end. But I do think that, you know, I think they've poised themselves to make a deep run. You're probably right. And you know, you know, in Toronto that may believe fans were all shocked probably almost as much as Boston fans that they didn't have to play the Bruins and thrilled that they didn't have to. And so who do they get in the second round? They get again, a team that, based on the regular season, shouldn't be competitive against them. But guess what? They're down again in this series already. And Florida, maybe just, maybe what Florida did is find them as found themselves. Yeah, that's right. I think you're spot on there. David Beat Goliath, and all of a sudden he's grown a set of cahonies here. And now it's right to chuck with three assists in, you know, Barkov picking up the pace and for Hagee scoring and, you know, Barkov or Beckblad back to health in Babrovsky, who well remember what he did against Tampa Bay a few years ago. Yeah. And four games sweep. This is the world. This is the reason why they gave him $10 million to play goal for them because he was goddamn good. Now he just has to be goddamn good at the right time. And maybe he's found it. Maybe he's maybe he's found it. And if he has, who doesn't matter if it's the Leafs or the Devils or Edmonton, it's when you get that hot hand, he covers a lot of sins, makes up for a lot of mistakes. And like Jake Ott and John said, you can, he can steal a series if he's can roll back the hands of time. I'll tell you what, the other guy, the guy who was a bit of a Bruin killer was branded one tour. I mean, and again, he scored another goal last night that, but hey, listen, he's a roller coaster player, you know, up and down. How many mistakes did he make in game seven and yet scores the, the tying goal in the last minute and then he scores again in game one against the Maple Leafs. He's a fascinating character. Oh yeah. I mean, one of those guys that can skate, do you remember the goal you scored? He scored on Swamin on the back hander. Was that the first goal in game seven? Maybe not. Or game six. No, that was he scored, because he scored two in game seven. You're right. Yeah. So, so he rolls up from behind your net and I, I filled so bad for the Bruins defense when this happens, because I remember it happened to me against the Canadians a thousand years ago. But it was on the power play and when the power play breaks out, now they do a lot of drop passes, but Montour was on the fly. Now, it's up to the first checker to direct him into a certain area so that he probably before the red line so that he has to make a decision and you pressure him. Bruins put no pressure on him whatsoever. He skated end to end, made a wing pass and then split the middle without anybody putting the finger on him and then threw a back hander on goal, which was, you know, it should have been stopped, but it was, it was not, but he did play well. He played with, I don't know if he can keep it going and you know, where he came from Buffalo, right? Well, he, you know, he, the fingerprints of one general manager's on the defense throughout the National League, that's Bob Murray. And it's Shathia Dorsen Vegas, you know, you have this Lindhomes in Boston, Brandon Montour, all these guys came out of the Ducks chain. Yeah. Well, Bob Murray knew what he was doing when it came to the defense. Yeah. Well, certainly did and Montour, you can't take anything away from him. And then, and this day and age, when you can get a mobile defense, and as we've seen with Mack, Mack of Boy and Lynn Dohlman Orlov makes a big difference, makes a big difference right now. He, you know, he's a force to be reckoned with. Another guy that was underestimated on the roster with Florida and you know, maybe what they needed was this, we just talked about this shot, this jolt of confidence that catapults them into a different level of level of performance. Hey, before we let you go, how you liking the radio embossed? Yeah, I like it. It's good. I mean, we're going to wind it down now. That's pretty much a hockey show, a Bruins show, but you know, we do touch on different subjects. And by the way, to just see the drone that hit the Kremlin today? Yeah, I did. What the hell is that all about? Do you think the Russians did it themselves or what? Yeah, of course we do. I think that I mean, you know, why would the Ukrainians do that? You know, I don't know. That was just why they do that. It looked like it was a cheap drone too, because it didn't do too much damage. But I'm not even sure it didn't damage at all. I've seen them with you. Here, you know, imagine having another bite in Trump race. Oh my God. Talk about embarrassing. Well, get ready. Yeah. You guys, you guys got your own problems. That guy who knows got a symbol for leadership. Oh, yeah. We've made a right. We've made a right turn on this show. I'm not right. Right. I've been watching Fox News a lot. Stop. We've got to get out of here. Mr. Vell. It's always a pleasure. Thank you very much for your time, pal. We'll see you soon. You got it. You know, Bree, we'll be back in a moment. When was the last time everyone agreed on what's for dinner? We want Chinese food. They want pizza and someone is always craving froyo. Well, there's something for everyone on DoorDash. Ordering is easy. Open up the DoorDash app, choose what you want from where you want, and your items will be left safely outside your door with our default contactless delivery setting. For a limited time, our listeners can get 25% off and zero delivery fees on their first order of $15 or more. When you download the DoorDash app and enter code Bobcast23. That's 25% off, up to $10 in value, and zero delivery fees on your first order when you download the DoorDash app in the App Store and enter code Bobcast23. Don't forget, that's code Bobcast23 for 25% off of your first order with DoorDash. Subject to change, terms apply. We are back. McCowan and Shannon with you and we thank Mike Bilberry for being with us. Why are you laughing? Michael Carlson appeared on our show there for about two minutes. Oh yeah. Well, what was that? That might be good for this podcast too. I'm not so sure Bob. Well, I suspect there are a lot of Canadians watching this right now who don't know who Tucker Carlson is, by the way. I think you're wrong, but that's okay. So this was supposed to be a Toronto Boston. This was supposed to be a great week because not only were the Maple Leafs and the Bruins supposed to play, but smack in the middle of a Red Sox Blue Jays series that hasn't gone the way the Blue Jays started with. No, a couple of close losses. They are owing to against the Bruins so far this week. Red Sox, yeah. They're a little concerned about the bullpen Bob. The Toronto bullpen. Yes. Well, I mean as great as it was, I mean, I think they won 15 innings without getting up a hit. Yeah. A hit. And now they can't get anybody out. I mean, this happens over the course of a season. You know that. Yeah. But this, I mean, you know, this every time this team plays, you know that they're, you know, they're going to score, right? You know, I mean, well, you think so. They should. Red Sox score three, Jazell score five. Red Sox score two, Jazell score three. Look at the top. The top of the lineup has been fantastic for the Blue Jays with the exception of George George, who's been the lead off guy, has been, you know, kind of ordinary. But I tell you what, my favorite four. Fantastic. My favorite player coming hell or high water right now is that Dalton Varshall. I just love the way he plays the game and hit the ball now. Oh, I like him. Well, he's still, I think he's still subject. He's still got a sub 200 average. So I think that's where to come from him. I hope I think the Blue Jays hope. But maybe when they get all these extra home games played, right? Yeah, maybe that's part of it. But there are two tough losses as we could Boston. No question about it. I mean, while we haven't talked since the Maple Leafs lost game against the Florida Panthers. Are you still confident the Maple Leafs won the series? No, I'm not. And is that why is that? Because I do think that there's a real relief that we finally won a series and how do we refocus and the, you know, the classic monkey off your back. I mean, do you see enough pushback? Did you see enough pushback last night? Mike talked about with the Boston Bruins and what they did in seven games. We saw a little bit of the Toronto Maple Leafs in game one. We did. Because this is just an opinion. But you've heard it from me before. I think the Maple Leafs got outplayed in five of six games against Tampa. And they got outplayed in game one against Florida. So they have been outplayed six out of seven times in the playoffs so far and have managed to keep their head above water. I don't think you can continue to do that at some point. And Browski had played better in game one than Vaszaleski did play in six. Browski was very good. Yes, I thought he was. And he, and he, and he's the type of guy. He gets on a roll. You have to watch out. The other thing is, and I am not a tactical hockey guy. I'm not. I'd like to think I tell stories about the game. But I have never seen a team in the eight games that I've watched Florida play where they put their sticks in the right spot constantly. Just watch game two. Even when the Leafs had the goalie pulled, that chance to score power play. Two deflected pucks because sticks of the Florida forwards were in the right spot. And then there had no chance to do anything with it. The amount of times that Florida with their sticks through the whole game, it throws a series of Boston and through game one where it was remarkable. It really was remarkable. Well, I'd say, look, again, you can't verify this by numbers in any way. But I think this was the second best Toronto playoff showing this year. The first best was game two against Tampa, where they controlled play and they did what they did most of the year. And one of the things I don't like that the Maple Leafs have been spending a lot of time shooting the puck into the opposing zone along the boards. And they don't win those board battles very often. Well, not winning many board battles against this team the way they're playing. No, and I think that's like giving the puck away. And you know, you can't do that with any. By the way, you know, how many kids from Ontario on the Florida Panthers? No, tell me. Eleven more than the Maple Leafs. You think that motivates them more? Damn right, it does. Make no mistake about it. Make no mistake about it. Maybe. Well, we'll see how it develops. It's only one game. It doesn't mean anything really, but it was a for to win. And we'll come back tomorrow with a guest. We're going to talk to baseball tomorrow. Okay, good. And we hope you'll join us for John Shannon Bob McCown. Goodbye, everybody. Bye. You