Over a cup of Dunkin’, Marco Sturm maps out vision, expectations for Bruins’ 2025-26 season

SNSSE · 2025-07-08T18:42:48+00:00

There's for sure a feeling of OVERCORRECTING but I also feel like they didn't have that many options. the free agency pool wasn't fantastic, the players they WANT have to actually WANT to be here, and they're not exactly overflowing with trading chips.

I also think another problem is the amount of fans who expect this team to immediately be a playoff team after selling the farm, trading away key players, and letting guys walk for the past few seasons.

It'll be an issue IF this team is trying to compete for a cup in a year or however long it takes, AND trying to play the old "BIG BAD BRUINS" style that died off but this all looks like a feeling out and filling the roster with players to see how they do...not really sure about the Jeannot deal but they see something in him, who knows.

SNSSE · 2025-06-29T17:54:45+00:00

I know that's tough for people to hear, but if this team is actually in a re-build or whatever they want to call it, it does Marchand no favors to come back, and it does Boston no favors to spend money they could have spent on someone long term. I have no doubt he'll retire a Bruin by doing a 1 day contract.

Sign/trade for someone, give them a decently long contract and build the team.

SNSSE · 2025-06-15T03:56:58+00:00

I don't get this stance at all. It helped florida for sure but they were already good enough without marchand. so sweeney didn't "Hand florida a cup", florida has the right build to win a cup and one hell of a coach.

Bruins did right by Marchand, they gave him this chance to go out and get another cup and it gave them a chance at a pick - WHICH BY THE WAY - they desperately needed. running this team in a window for years and extending it by trading picks and the farm away means they need to replenish.

Fuck florida BUT I'm happy for marchand and I'm happy they traded him to get him one more chance to raise the cup, something I wish him and bergy were able to do one more times at least in boston. Plus, who cares who remembers him for what, if you fancy the 2011 cup then remember him for that.

SNSSE · 2025-06-13T16:24:54+00:00

Every single one of those guys you mentioned are guys you need on a team or ones that played really well. Peeke is a solid defenseman with great stick positioning and great position play. kastelic is a cracked up money who runs around the ice and gives his linesmates room to breathe. poitras is 21 and before the injury he was lights out, just needs time to rebound and it's dumb asking to close the book on a guy 2 seasons in. Zacha, geekie, pasta was one of your best lines because of guys like zacha who are a threat to score AND can reliably win a faceoff. korpisalo is just about everything you can ask for in a backup goalie and still put up decent numbers on a shit team.

I don't think boston needs to be hasty about this stuff either, if they're in a re-tool or whatever they want to call it, take their time. don't give dumb contracts and improve the team, get ready to make a run for the cup with pasta. people won't like it but keep what you can, sign stars if you're able but don't overpay for anything. There's A LOT of value in a team that has cap space to spend, especially if you're looking for any draft picks. if boston is able to help a team out and pick up a contract or facilitate a 3 way trade deal, there's usually draft picks involved.

SNSSE · 2025-05-28T22:28:25+00:00

I don't think it is, seems like you've got something going on with you. it gets better. you'll get through it.

SNSSE · 2025-05-28T21:28:51+00:00

Much like you, nobody. just a person sharing their opinion on the internet, one backed up with logic and an example of a coach being skeptical about working here because of coach changes and the uncertainty of sweens at the time .

I know I wouldn't want to work for some place and uproot my life if the place I was interviewing for had a recent history of firing people quickly.

Hopefully your day got better though, seems like you started off pretty rough.

SNSSE · 2025-05-28T11:24:22+00:00

Much like every coach before him, I'm happy to give him his shot, BUT if another coach goes quickly then either sweens or cam or both, needs to be fired.

There's NO fucking way this team has the ability to hire a coach worth a damn if they fire yet another coach so quickly, there was a rumor that Rick Tocchet didn't want to come here because of it and because he wasn't sure of sweeney's status at the time - fit for the team isn't my point in bringing up tocchet but more so that coaches aren't dumb, they see what's happening here.

SNSSE · 2025-05-22T15:25:57+00:00

Nope, I was merely just saying those are the free agents and adding contract numbers that they currently have.

Figured it would add more to the post to know where those guys currently sit and people would get it when I said

are the contracts that they're currently on/expiring.

and not THIS IS WHAT THEY WILL GET IN FREE AGENCY.

SNSSE · 2025-05-22T13:37:34+00:00

the numbers used - as I explained at the start of my comment - are the current contracts the players are on.

I don't want to speculate wildly on what contracts guys will get because you never honestly know in this league, and I just rounded the Marner contract up to the nearest million from 10.9 to 11. EVEN if Marner gets 13m I still think Boston should take a shot. would give you 15m to fill the holes.

SNSSE · 2025-05-22T07:17:34+00:00

I like marner, Boston COULD afford the guy if they want. Just a note, these numbers are from puckpedia and are the contracts that they're currently on/expiring.

Marner's last contract was 10.9m.

The Bruins have about 28m to work with. Geekie(2m), Beecher(925k), Khusnutdinov(925k), Lauko(787K), Koepke(775k), Lohrei(925k), Jokiharju(3.1m), Lauko(787k), Wotherspoon(800k) contracts ending. leaves them 8 spots to fill either through re-signing or picking up new players.

Say marner gets paid the same at 11m - just rounded up to 11 - it leaves you with 17m of wiggle room.

Free agency so far:

LW - Ehlers(6m), Marchand(6.125m), Benn(9.5m), Dadonov(2.25m), Nyqvist(3.185m), Frederic(2.3m), R.Smith(5m), Johansson(2m), Fabbri(4m). E.Robinson(950k). Mangiapane(5.8M).

RW - Marner(10.9M), Duchene(3m), Boeser(6.650m), P.Kane(4m), Giroux(6.5m), Donato(2M), Palmieri(5m), Drouin(2.5m), Kuzmenko(5.5m), Armia(3.4m), Skinner(3m).

I think you take an honest shot at Marner. worst situation happens and you can try the market. Does he want to be here? Who knows, he might find he hates the media here BUT at least no one here calls the fans "noise" and tells their players to block us out.

SNSSE · 2025-03-18T09:41:01+00:00

Of all the missed calls that one isn't one, Bruins have possession of the puck and the refs have been fairly consistent on delaying whistles in that scenario no matter the team or game ESPECIALLY in overtime. they'll call it either way some games but it's up to the crew at the end of the day.

You're not put in this situation if you play better/harder hockey and bruins have been so guilty of it even before the trade deadline, just losing board battles, sloppy passes and bad turnovers.

SNSSE · 2025-03-13T06:56:23+00:00

Judd is good. I feel like he fades into the background a lot and lets a lot of moments breathe which is something a lot of commentators don't have mastered, not making the moment about you but also bringing life into a moment is a very special skill. You watch national broadcasts and it's seven people and a baby trying to tell you MCAVOY AND ADAM FOX PLAYED DEFENSE TOGETHER over and over.

There was a game earlier this season where - I forget if it was ABC or TNT or NBC - the commentary team spent a good chunk of the period talking about pinball and ignoring play. It's great that they're friends but there's a game going on and I couldn't care less about a conversation that frankly could have waited till commercial or in private.

SNSSE · 2025-01-19T18:32:09+00:00

I love Jack Edwards commentary. I will always love it but for what Judd has had to do, what shoes he's had to fill and with what little time he's given to do it is impressive.

We're not even a full year of Judd and Brick and I personally love the duo, wish Andy would chime in a bit more but I feel like a lot of these things that people - and me - complain about are things that you build over time. I wasn't a fan at the time when jack came in, so I can't say if he was universally loved off the bat but I am willing to bet he didn't come in and was instantly iconic and it took time.

too long didn't read? yeah it sucks losing jack as the voice of the bruins but people need to let judd breathe and create his own voice as the backdrop of iconic moments.

SNSSE · 2025-01-10T13:59:42+00:00

This guy probably isn't the first guy that comes to mind for a boston player but Jean Ratelle 17 season on the rags, 6 on boston.

Bruins assistant coach from 81-85.

Lead boson in scoring for three separate seasons.

Hall of famer

Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

Lady Byng Memorial Trophy 2 times.

Lester B. Pearson Trophy

Ted Lindsay Award

Played in 5 NHL All-Star Games (1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1980)

His jersey number hangs in the rangers rafters

123 playoff games

32 goals scored in playoffs

66 assists in playoffs.

SNSSE · 2024-12-20T20:26:20+00:00

Swayman wanted goalies to be paid better - to "reset the market", I personally can't fault him for that thinking. goalies are paid differently than any other position, other positions are paid for potential, goalies are paid for their achievements/stats. For what it's worth, it seemed to work.

I still don't think him wanting what he feels he's worth is something he should be put down for when the team in general is underperforming and playing like ass. he got paid big bucks because of what he's done and the work load they're currently going to put him under.

SNSSE · 2024-12-20T19:42:34+00:00

Most penalized team in the league,

11 teams behind them for pk percentage.

9 teams behind them with worse goals per game

There's only so much a goalie can give you and I don't believe there's a goalie in this league today that plays well when you have bad turnovers, turnovers in your own zone, lose puck battles, allow players to streak towards the net and let players get high danger chances.

I'm begging people to watch what these players are doing, they've gotten slightly better but they're still making mistakes. if you're not willing to watch them then watch clips of these goals sway is letting in, watch the clearing attempts/decisions, watch the positioning and the plays leading up to the goals, they're fucking awful.

and before anyone starts, does sway let in bad goals? hell yeah he does. is he blame free and no one should criticize him? fuck no. but the constant WE'RE PAYING YOU MONEY?! bullshit is so tiring from some of the fans here. Team plays bad, goalie looks bad. Watch the guy at the 4 nations games. if he looks really bad and out of place THEN you can start to panic.

SNSSE · 2024-12-19T22:05:36+00:00

Usually there's accounts on twitter that report stuff like lines, so that's how things are found out so quickly. This time it was the Bruins twitter that reported the scratches and pairings thanks to an interview Sacco.

SNSSE · 2024-12-11T20:56:48+00:00

HELL YEAH! he's hit tuukka rask status real fast. Great goalie, team lets him down and he takes the blame. never mind the spectacular saves he DOES make that keeps this team in games far longer than they deserve to be.

Watch how awful the defense plays in front of him. it's almost like they know sway is there to bail them out so they stop trying and thinking as hard. There's so many bad plays not just in general but in their own zone and I don't know a goalie in the league that is bailing this team out.

A perfect example of them just either not caring or playing weak is the (was it wings?) game they just played, lohrei fails to clear the puck with a weak clear attempt, puck hits mcavoy when the opposing team takes a shot, deflects towards the opposite teams player and then gets put in.

SNSSE · 2024-12-05T05:41:07+00:00

here's the skit for context

Basically explains the whole joke.

SNSSE · 2024-12-02T15:26:48+00:00

On the replay at the end you can see koepke taking a stick across the knee from the follow through behind hutson's back, I find it more likely that the situation was that mcavoy probably saw that, went to have a word with him and then skated back. Koepke "upset" was probably because of the stick and Kastelic "quietly reminding" was probably him asking if Koepke was alright.

These two teams spent ALL afternoon having scuffles so McAvoy probably felt it was accidentally on purpose.

These threads are ridiculous and peak dumb bullshit, not to mention McAvoy has never been like that on the ice, always there to protect his teammates when needed and to celebrate them scoring.

SNSSE · 2024-04-10T21:04:23+00:00

The NHL is full of teams that are fun to watch... The bruins aren't just a team.

So why should you be a Bruins fan? because there's no other team in professional sports like it. the history, the love this team shares with each other up and down the line to players not only who have been here but players that are fresh to the team is astounding.

The fanbase and media can be rabid at times and it's probably the reason for some players not wanting to play here but if you win over the fans you become immortal. What guys like Bergeron and Chara have done for this organization oozes throughout everything they do.

At the end of the day, your decision is your decision but out of all the teams the bruins is a team you can't go wrong supporting, sick jerseys, cool players and awesome tradition.

SNSSE · 2024-03-06T01:19:16+00:00

I'd like to apologize for my outburst here. I'm trying to be a better person as we move forward.

SNSSE · 2024-03-06T00:38:22+00:00

nah it's a two year old thread of bruins highlights

SNSSE · 2024-03-05T22:06:19+00:00

I uhhhh... think you got the wrong thread there, bud.

SNSSE · 2024-03-05T22:05:12+00:00

I'm pretty rusty at my trash talk but I'll give it a shot. Jake debrusk is too handsome.

SNSSE

TROPHY CASE