00:00All right, so first, let's just get right to it.
00:02They announced that there's going to be a captain.
00:04Pasta or McAvoy?
00:06Which one?
00:06I think it's Pasta.
00:09I think the last couple years, it's probably shifted towards him.
00:12McAvoy, for a long time, I think they kind of had that lined up in their minds
00:17that he came up with the future captain label.
00:21He wore letters on some teams when he was younger.
00:23Learned from Chara.
00:24Yeah, he's on a pairing with Chara the first few years.
00:28But I really think Pasta, like the last couple years, has really stepped up,
00:31especially if you go back to that sell-off they had, 2025,
00:36trading away multiple players, including Marchand at the deadline.
00:39McAvoy was out hurt at that time, wasn't around the team.
00:41They were on the road.
00:42I think Pasta really stepped up, and that's kind of just carried forward.
00:45I think he carries himself well.
00:47He's extremely well-respected, and obviously he's the best player.
00:51He's the biggest star on the team, too.
00:52I mean, he's the dude that, you know, you look at the ad,
00:55everyone knows Pasta, everyone knows Pasta or not.
00:57He's probably got more television ads.
00:59I mean, he had the Dunkin' Donuts commercial where you couldn't really understand what he was saying.
01:02He's very good on the ads.
01:03Why haven't they announced it, though?
01:04It's kind of odd, right?
01:05Other teams are announcing it, and they're saying,
01:07not until the home opener?
01:09Is this like a social media thing?
01:10No, I think they're going to do it at some point during camp,
01:13so sometime before the 29th.
01:15But this is what they've done in the past.
01:17It's usually sometime during training camp because they'll do it in some sort of team meeting setting first,
01:22and then they'll put it out to the media and the public.
01:26But, yeah, I think Bergeron was during camp.
01:29Martian was during camp.
01:30But it was pretty early on.
01:32So I expect this to be in, like, the next couple days.
01:36But if it lingers, like, it's –
01:38I don't really know what they would be waiting for at this point if you do it September 28th.
01:42Right, the day before the season opens.
01:44Yeah.
01:44It's kind of bizarre.
01:45All right, so one thing I'm looking forward to more than anything this season
01:48is to seeing how much and how well James Higgins does.
01:52I mean, right now, he just was in that – what is it, the Prospects Challenge?
01:56In two games, he scored six goals.
01:59Yeah.
01:59I mean, the dude's a stud already.
02:01Yeah, so that's a tournament he should dominate.
02:04He's playing a lot of players who are not going to be in the NHL this year.
02:07A lot of them aren't going to be in the AHL this season.
02:10So it's set up well, and it's a nice jump start for him going into camp.
02:14But he did exactly what you wanted him to do and even more.
02:18Like, he scores – the second game, he scored all four goals in a 4-3 overtime win.
02:21So, yeah.
02:22Who can you compare his game to?
02:24Tell me a little more about him because, I mean, I've never seen him actually play, obviously,
02:28but I've read a lot about him.
02:30Well, I think if he hits his ceiling, a player I've always thought was a pretty good comp is Sebastian
02:35Ajo from Carolina,
02:36who was just the number one center on the team that won the Stanley Cup,
02:39who's, like, not this super dynamic offensive star.
02:43He's not putting up 100 points, but he's just a really good all-around player.
02:46He's got really good vision.
02:48He's high hockey IQ.
02:49Like, just sees the ice well.
02:51Higgins is a very good skater.
02:53That's going to be a strength for him.
02:55So, yeah, he's certainly one of the biggest storylines.
02:58I do think he makes a team out of camp.
03:00It's possible they send him down to Providence for a little seasoning, but I don't think he needs it.
03:05I think he's ready, certainly at least in a third-line role, and then let him work his way up
03:09from there.
03:10How about the new guy, J.J. Paterka?
03:11So, we've got a German theme going on, right?
03:14Marco Sturm's German.
03:15Paterka's German.
03:17That they're going to Germany next year.
03:18Oh, there we go.
03:19And they spent a lot to get him here and sign him, right?
03:22So, how does he look, and what's the deal with him?
03:23Yeah, so, only one day so far, but he looks good.
03:26I mean, I like the trade.
03:27He's 24.
03:29He has upside.
03:30He's already got, you know, some really good seasons on his resume.
03:33Didn't quite work out last year in Utah.
03:35His only season there.
03:36So, Bruins pony up, as you said, two first-round picks to get him.
03:40He brings an element of speed and skill that I think was missing at times for the Bruins up front
03:44last year.
03:45Really interested to see where they play him.
03:47I thought for sure they would want to look at him on a line with Pasternak early on.
03:52Those were not the lines today.
03:54We'll see.
03:54Michael Sturm said he's going to rotate things through, so we'll see if we get that at some point.
03:58But today he was with Pat Elzak and Casey Middlestad on what would be the second line.
04:02Essentially, just going in the same spot where Victor Arvidsson was this year.
04:05Was Morgan Geeky's season last year 68 points, 39 goals?
04:09Was that a one-off, or is that who we should expect him to be again this year?
04:16It depends.
04:17Is he on a line with David Pasternak?
04:19It's because he needs to be on that line to be scoring goals.
04:26If he is, I think he can be a 40-goal scorer.
04:29If he's on a different line, then you need him to find his confidence and find chemistry with whoever he's
04:34with.
04:35Playing with Pasternak, obviously a huge benefit for him, but he did have some really good stretches last year on
04:40different lines.
04:41He stepped up the few games that Pasternak missed were some of Geeky's best games of the season.
04:46So he can do it, but I think sometimes with Geeky, there's a confidence thing that can kind of come
04:53and go.
04:53There's some streakiness in his game.
04:55He cooled down down the stretch last year, playing on a different line than Pasternak.
05:00They tried to put them together for the playoffs.
05:03Some mixed results, but ultimately that didn't end up working either.
05:06So I think that there's going to be a season where Morgan Geeky, you kind of find out, does he
05:12need to be with Pasternak to get that out of him?
05:15Or can he be a 30-goal guy on your second line?
05:18Because that would still be extremely valuable.
05:20What are your expectations for this team this year?
05:23I think they're about the same as last year, honestly.
05:25Like on the bubble?
05:26Yeah, right around that bubble all year.
05:29Probably lean in.
05:30I'm probably like 55% they make the playoffs, but they're not a cup contender.
05:34I don't see them being near the top of the conference.
05:36What's the plan then?
05:37If that's who they are now, what is their ultimate plan?
05:41They are trying to walk a tightrope that is the retool on the fly, that teams try all the time,
05:48rarely pull it off.
05:50Oftentimes this ends up with teams having to go into more of a prolonged rebuild at some point when it
05:55doesn't work out.
05:56Yeah.
05:56But they are trying to walk that tightrope right now of not bottoming out while still incorporating youth.
06:03Don Sweeney has done this before.
06:04When he took over as general manager, this is what the Bruins did.
06:08They missed the playoffs two years.
06:11Shirelli's last year.
06:12Sweeney's first year.
06:13And then pretty quickly, you brought along McAvoy, Pasternak, Jake DeBrus, whatever you think of him.
06:19He became a top six forward.
06:20And now they had some younger guys that they incorporated.
06:23They're trying to do that again.
06:25They hope it's Minton and Higgins and Dean Letourneau and Will Zellers after this season.
06:31And more of these young guys establishing themselves as part of this core.
06:36It's a really hard balance.
06:38But that's what they're trying to do.
06:39It's probably a two- or three-year process.
06:42But the possibility is certainly there for this to not go well.
06:46And then they have to take a bigger step.
06:48And it doesn't help that the Atlantic is brutal this year.
06:51I mean, really.
06:52It's the best division in hockey.
06:53No question.
06:54And you know what?
06:55And I hate to say, give me a big picture thing.
06:58Because I just, whenever there's a team that's just kind of stuck in that purgatory where the Bruins seem to
07:03be right now.
07:04They're an easy team to root for.
07:05Because there's a lot of guys in there, obviously, that are very likable.
07:08But no one wants to hear that they don't have some sort of plan in their back pocket.
07:12I like the fact that, you know, you seem to see, like, the method to their madness.
07:17But it's, you know, it's tough right now to kind of see it that way.
07:20Right.
07:20They have a plan.
07:21It's just a tough one to execute.
07:23It's find this next generation of core players who are going to be ready to step up while Pasternak, McAvoy,
07:30and Swayman are still in their primes.
07:32It's not easy to do.
07:33But that is what they're trying to do.
07:35Do you see any of those guys getting traded at any point?
07:37Like, if things get bad, I mean, there's a lot of value in all three of them.
07:41If it got bad enough, yes.
07:43If you're talking, like, multiple years out of the playoffs or a year where they're not even close, I could
07:49see it getting there.
07:50I don't think they're there now.
07:52Making the playoffs last year was good for those guys.
07:54It gets them to buy in a little bit to what they're seeing.
07:57If they're in the playoffs again this year, you can keep selling them and keep telling them, like, hey, look,
08:03Higgins looks good and Minton's part of this core.
08:05And, like, just be patient with us.
08:07And Dunstrand's kind of referenced that because he's mentioned, like, you know, when Pasternak and McAvoy were young, it was
08:12like, well, Chara and Bergeron and Krejci, those guys had to be patient with them.
08:17So they are preaching a little bit of patience to those guys.
08:21All right.
08:21Well, Scott McLaughlin, you can read his stuff over at WEI.com.
08:25Also, I know you've been posting a bunch of stuff on the social media pages as well.
08:29And we'll be talking to you all season long, man.
08:31For sure.
08:32Sounds good, guys.
08:32We'll be talking to you all season long.
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