Boston Bruins: Hoping Don Sweeney’s Plan Works
The Boston Bruins Achilles’ heal has been its’ blueline these last two seasons. A combination of injuries, mediocre play, and head-scratching moves have left a once mighty defensive core a shadow of its former self. Still Bruins general manager Don Sweeney believes in Boston (at this point we have to wonder if its only because he’s being paid to).
“Time will tell on that one, you know?”, offered Sweeney. “Either through free agency or through acquisition, it’s a matter of finding a trading partner or finding a match in the marketplace. We’re going to be aggressive.”
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“We certainly have identified, we had our pro meetings … I’m not going to give my whole plan out to you today. But we have areas that we want to address in the depth of our organization more likely in the forward position, either on the right wing or the center, or again on the backend. We’re exploring a bunch of different things trade-wise. It’s difficult in this league, but I think that we’re in the position with two first-round picks to be either selecting really good players or to be in the marketplace.”
No disrespect intended Mr. Sweeney, but the fans would like to know at least part of the plan. Right now, the only part of the plan we’ve seen is that Bruins front office likes to hand out golden tickets to bottom-pair defensemen.
If the Bruins are going to be ‘aggressive’, they might want to start locking up the more reliable members of their blueline first.
The Bruins have made no appreciable progress on Torey Krug. The Bruins’ best forward-thinking, puck-moving defenseman will see a serious raise if the B’s can hold onto him. Partly because Krug’s all-around play (scoring aside) is worthy of a serious pay bump, and partly because the Bruins front office think Kevan Miller is worth $2.5 million a year.
Sweeney still believes the current roster can have a strong season and playoff run. His goal during the offseason is to find a top-four blueliner. Sweeney believes that is the only serious piece of the puzzle missing in this Bruins squad (that is up for debate).
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“This is a results-oriented business, so we have to get better in areas. We have to improve our roster. I’ve said all along that we need to continue to improve our roster. We’ll be in the marketplace in every different way, shape, or form to try and acquire players that will continue to help us do so,” offered Sweeney in the defense of his plan. “Talking with Claude and going over the time he spent with Butch [newly minted assistant coach Bruce Cassidy], through my dealings with Butch, and realizing the development of a lot of the players that have been a part of our roster and success is the transition game and stuff that Butch has brought to the table.
“[It’s] how he saw the game, how he expects players to play and move pucks and work on it every day, is an area that I think he’s going to be an addition to our [coaching] staff and how he sees the game. I think I identified that if Butch was playing in this day and age now, he’d be a very welcome addition to our roster.”
Bruce Cassidy played in just 36 NHL games in his career.