The Bruins Front Office Is Ruining The Franchise, And The Owner Doesn't Care
The Bruins Front Office Is Ruining The Franchise, And The Owner Doesn't Care
Once again, a Boston Bruins season that showed flashes of potential ended in disappointment. This time it was a first round playoff exit and the firing of Bruce Cassidy as coach. The Bruins faithful haven’t seen their beloved team raise the Stanley Cup since 2011. They have made trips to the final in 2013 and 2019 only to lose to the Blackhawks and Blues respectively. Now with an aging core including captain Patrice Bergeron contemplating retirement, Brad Marchand sidelined until Thanksgiving, and a lack of the basic requirements to compete on the ice - the team is dancing on the fine line of starting a full rebuild. Oh by the way, half of their defense corps won’t be ready to start the season because Charlie McAvoy, Mike Reilly, and Matt Grzelcyk each had somewhat major surgeries.
What Is The Front Office Doing Wrong?
Well, how much time you got? This question would get a quicker answer if we asked what the front office has done right lately. The answer is pretty much nothing. Most recently, Cam Neely opted to extend GM Don Sweeney’s expiring contract and fire Bruce Cassidy. In his tenure as head coach, Cassidy led Boston to the playoffs all six years including when he took over for the fired Claude Julien. Even if Cassidy’s message had become stale in the locker room, it isn’t all his fault that he doesn’t have much to work with in terms of talent on the roster. The notorious 2015 draft class was a complete failure on every level. You could argue that Jake DeBrusk has been good in spurts, but he doesn’t always try and he doesn’t want to be in Boston.
Let’s remind ourselves for a moment, who was responsible for that draft class? Oh yeah, Don Sweeney. Here is the follow up to that, who is Don Sweeney’s best friend within the organization? That would be none other than team president Cam Neely. Naturally, the two guys in charge won’t turn on each other, thus making whoever the head coach is the perfect scapegoat every time the team fails because of their actions. Owner Jeremy Jacobs is what you would call an absent owner. He lives in Buffalo and has nothing to do with the team. Frankly, he wants nothing to do with the team except for the money it brings to him. He has received multiple offers to sell the team but refuses to do so. Under his ownership, the Bruins are cheap and never pull out all the stops to bring in top talent. Instead they settle for lower tier and fringe players and hope for the best. In doing so, they tie themselves against the salary cap and don’t do anything to free up space when great players come along.
The Bruins over the last few seasons have lacked scoring depth, physical play, an elite defense, and youth. While some younger players have come up from Providence and looked good overall, none of those players look like top six forwards or top pair defensemen. What made that 2011 team so special is that it was a complete team with scoring up and down the lineup, capable bodies on the backend who could score, and enforcers like Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara who would beat you up for just looking at them the wrong way. Arguably the best fourth line in team history was the Merlot Line made up of three enforcers in Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell, and Shawn Thornton. They fought, killed penalties, scored, blocked shots, and hit everything in sight. They were the epitome of the city of Boston and the Big Bad Bruins - grinders who never gave up and did whatever was needed of them. The current regime is a soft shadow of their former selves and are moving further away from that historic mantle as years go by.
It Won’t Change
As we look around at the other teams in the league, you can’t help but notice what the Tampa Bay Lightning have done over the last three years. They are never content with their team and are always finding ways to add more talent despite all their success and current players. There are plenty of reasons why they are fighting for their third straight cup, and they have established themselves as an organization that will do whatever it takes to win. The Bolts are everything the Bruins aren’t. While Cam Neely says that there needs to be change in how they do things, it’s all lip service to the media until the results actually change. Those methods start at the top. As someone who wore the eight spoked B, he should know that better than anybody. New voices are needed at the head of the table, but nobody wants to give up their seat.