Some fine, some yikes.
The Bruins wrapped up the last of their 2024-2025 season post-mortem duties today, with Charlie Jacobs, Cam Neely, and Don Sweeney meeting the media to get grilled on what went wrong and what’s next.
I think it’d be fair to say that there wasn’t much earth-shattering (or even surprising) news that came out of the availability, but there were still a few items worth unpacking.
Sacco is in the mix, but the team will conduct a full coaching search
The Bruins plan to include interim head coach Joe Sacco as one of the finalists for the permanent job, but the team will look elsewhere as well.
“We’ve already started that process,” Sweeney said. “Knowing who’s available and narrowing that down.”
Sweeney mentioned structure, detail, and organization as being key points for the new hire, along with the ability to evolve offensively and effectively communicate with players, including younger players.
Sweeney wouldn’t come right out and say that he’d be hiring a current or former NHL coach, but kind of spelled out that’s the way things are heading.
He cited wanting the head coach to have “some form of NHL exposure,” and referenced his last head coaching search, where the three finalists had NHL head coaching experience.
Sweeney didn’t like a question asking if the head coaching job would be viewed as a land mine
The term “land mine” obviously wasn’t used, but Sweeney got a bit testy when asked if he thought potential coaches might be hesitant to take the job.
“I’ll call you up and let you know if somebody turns it down, the invitation to interview for one of the most historic jobs in the National Hockey League,” he said.
That’d be kind of an awkward phone call, but sure…
Charlie Jacobs stepped in it when asked about the season ticket price increase
Sometimes, saying less is more — and that was the case when Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs was asked about rescinding the 4% increase in season ticket prices (on top of a big increase last year).
The simple answer was “no, we’re not going to rescind that.”
The actual answer was…well (per a team transcript):
“I see ticket pricing is a sensitive subject. I’m aware that things cost more as the way our structure of the US economy is based, things cost [more]. I expect that you probably pay a higher electric bill than you did last year. I know that we, for instance, pay more to open our building for security, for ushers, for concession workers, for parking attendants, everything. People deserve a raise and an increase. Likewise, we increase our ticket prices as our expenses go. I mentioned this before, every dollar we bring in, 50 percent goes to the players, we share it. We’re in a partnership together with them. The ticket increase, the price, whether it’s 4 percent or 9 percent, is all going back into the hockey club. So we’ve made our decision. We’ve raised our ticket prices, and no, we will not be rescinding that.”
The bold part (emphasis mine) probably should have been the entire answer.
No fan, season ticket holder or not, wants to be lectured about prices increasing, electric bills increasing, etc.
If the team and TD Garden are actually increasing wages for employees as part of this, that’d be a more palatable spin, but it doesn’t look like that’s actually what’s happening here.
To call it “tone deaf” is probably unfair, as Jacobs was likely just trying to be transparent and offer a peak behind the curtain at how revenue is spread out, but it didn’t really land.
Neely gave Sweeney a bit of a pass for the infamous 2015 draft
Ah, the 2015 draft. We relive it constantly.
When asked if he was happy with the team’s drafting and player development, Neely acknowledged that the team could be doing better, but also called out what he viewed as a “narrative” about that nightmare draft.
“Our drafting and developing, the narrative there is a little off, and it’s been going on for quite some time,” he said. “Goes back to 2015 and it was really unfair to Don.”
He went on to say that Sweeney was hired relatively late in the draft preparation process and gave him credit for acquiring assets prior to the draft, but acknowledged that the team should have taken a beat to regroup with the picks after trading up failed.
The rumor (at the time, not sure if it has ever been confirmed) was that the B’s were trying to package their three picks to move into the top five or top ten, with eyes on Noah Hanifin.
Instead…well, we know the rest.
Sweeney is heading into the final year of his contract, with no extension currently in sight
Sweeney said that his contract status would have no bearing on the decisions he makes (i.e. he’s not going to do something super shortsighted to try to save his job), and confirmed that he is in the final year of his deal.
Neely said that he thinks Sweeney has “done a good job here, for the most part,” but also said he doesn’t know if he’s going to offer Sweeney an extension:
“I’ve given it a lot of thought, I’m still contemplating what the best course of action is…I’ll figure that out in the near future, with that particular question whether we’re going to resign Don or not, but he’s got another year left.”
A bunch of players are planning to go to the IIHF World Championships
Sweeney mentioned that the Bruins will be well represented at the upcoming Worlds, with Elias Lindholm, David Pastrnak, Jakub Lauko, Andrew Peeke, Mason Lohrei, and Jeremy Swayman planning to participate.
Nothing really to report on pending free agents
Sweeney wasn’t likely to break news about re-signing a player at this news conference, so it was no surprise to get a basic “we’ll have talks with all players” line.
He mentioned that the team would prefer to have Morgan Geekie back on a “longer-term deal,” and noted that the team planned to have internal discussions on guys like Henri Jokiharju and Cole Koepke.
Odds and ends
A few more things that came up:
- The team plans to use all available options to improve this offseason, including the draft, free agency, and trades.
- Swayman didn’t think the extra workload this year was what led to his less-than-stellar performance.
- While acknowledging that he expects both of them to be better, Sweeney pointed to the team’s performance as a whole when asked if Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov needed to provide better return on investment. He also noted Lindholm’s difficult start due to injuries and Zadorov’s consistency issues partly being attributable to having “every different partner known to man this year.”
- No players are facing major offseason medical needs, with Pavel Zacha needing a “small” non-surgical procedure and Johnny Beecher possibly needing a small procedure as well.
Your thoughts on today’s briefing?
I thought it was, for the most part, fine — a little defensive at times, a little testy, but mostly candid and an acknowledgment that the team is kind of in uncharted waters and figuring out what to do next.