Cam Neely sends a loud and clear message to the Boston Bruins locker room..
Only nine games are remaining in the Boston Bruins 2024-25 season, and sadly, that’s the best news surrounding the team in a long time. They are going to miss the Stanley Cup playoffs and are currently stuck on a seven-game losing streak, so the season can’t end quickly enough.
What happens moving forward is going to be interesting to watch, to say the least. Changes are coming, and lots of them, you would expect. Whether it’s with the coaching staff or the roster changes coming, this season, the front office needs to get the decisions right.
Ahead of a 6-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks Wednesday night, team president Cam Neely spoke with Jim McBride of the Boston Globe on some topics. Some things stuck out, but it’s clear he used this opportunity to send a message to his locker room.
Bruins’ Cam Neely sends a message to the locker room
Neely spoke on several subjects, which included roster changes for next year potentially. He knows that this team has nine games left in the season, and with a depleted roster, he’s looking for one thing.
“There isn’t really too much I can say about liking during the season right now,” Neely said. “It’s just really about how we finish and seeing what guys may want to step up and show us that they’re NHL players.”
If he looks long and hard at some of the younger players, he might not find too many NHL players. Right now, because of injuries and other factors, truth be told, they are rolling out an AHL roster for the most part. You could make the case that they have two fourth lines, while a blueline that would mostly be in the AHL on most teams.
It might be better to break down who this comment may have been meant for than what he meant by it. Top prospect Fabian Lysell is one player who feels like he is having a lot of eyes on him with a thought to the future. The 2021 first-round draft pick is someone who needs to find a way onto the Boston roster sooner rather than later.
Boston Bruins superstar David Pastrnak puts locker room on blast after Anaheim loss.
When the Boston Bruins traded Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers on March 7, it left a leadership gap with them losing their captain. Who was going to take on that role for the rest of the season was the question. Charlie McAvoy would have been a logical choice, but his injury at 4 4 Nationa Face-Off has sidelined him since February and it would be surprising if we see him again in 2024-25.
That leaves David Pastrnak as the next logical choice, and with each passing game, the Bruins’ leading scorer has slowly taken on the role. From is postgame comments to his play on the ice and voicing anything with officials that needs to be voiced, Pastrnak has done it. Lately, you can tell that the last few weeks are getting to him and after a 6-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night, Pastrnak voiced more frustration and sent a message to his locker room.
David Pastrnak sends a message to the Bruins locker room
After a seventh straight loss, six in regulation, the Black and Gold fell three games below .500 and fell to 0-4-0 on their current five-game road trip that concludes on Saturday night in Detroit against the Red Wings. With the losses piling up and doing so in what feels like an embarrassing fashion nightly, Pastrnak was vocal Wednesday night in Anaheim.
“They (Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings) just rolled over us,” said Pastrnak. “Today wasn’t much different. We just don’t play with the puck enough. It’s a lot of our own doing. Not taking anything away from Anaheim. They were better in every aspect of the game today. That’s too many times it has happened this year. It’s really hard to find the words to try to fix it. It’s Game 73. We shouldn’t even be standing here and talking about games like this. This is the kind of game you have in the first 10, maximum 15 games, at the start of the season. Here we are, Game 73.”
Very well said. He’s not wrong. This year, it seems like anything that can go wrong has gone wrong, and the Bruins haven’t done anything to fix it or help themselves in any way whatsoever. It started in Game 1 against the Florida Panthers when they gave up four first-period goals, and things haven’t really changed since.
It wasn’t the coaching as after they fired Jim Montgomery, Joe Sacco took over and as usually happens when a new coach is hired, they played better for a stretch, but have reverted back to their old ways. Now with the St. Louis Blues, Montgomery has them on course to go from the bottom of the Western Conference playoff standings to a wild-card spot. Again, coaching isn’t the problem.
The problem starts up top with the front office and general manager Don Sweeney and President Cam Neely. They botched free agency last season in letting players walk and signing two players to contracts that they have not lived up to. It led to changes behind the bench and at the trade deadline, but the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Boston is slowly and quietly improving their draft lottery odds with each loss and there is no way to think things are going to change anytime soon over the last nine games. Pastrnak is trying to have things change with his message, and now we wait and see how they respond against the Red Wings on Saturday night.
About The Author
