Okay, so where do the Bruins go from here?

Coach Jim Montgomery was asked that question during his pick-and-roll after Boston’s latest disaster, a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jackets, and he answered it the only way he or any other coach could. Watch the movie. Continue to demand that the players reach the expected level. Jada, jada yada.

That doesn’t mean we ignore the hours Montgomery and his staff put in every day. It is tireless and, at this point, thankless work.

But the ball is really in GM Don Sweeney’s court. We are twenty games into the season and despite pre-season expectations, the team he has put together is a bad team. They are bad on offense (31st in a 32-team league), bad on defense (28th), and terrible on special teams (32nd on the power play, 25th in the penalty kill).

You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who has even met, let alone exceeded expectations. You could possibly put reserve goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo and Mark Kastelic on the fourth line in that category. That’s it. And that’s not good enough.

The ball has rolled so far down the hill that quick fixes no longer work. Montgomery yelling at Brad Marchand didn’t do it. Neither has David Pastrnak on the bench. The same goes for scratching depth players.

Management, out of desperation, tried to pick up veteran energy player Jeff Viel from Providence for Monday’s game and he did everything you could ask of him. He picked a fight with one of the toughest guys in the league, got a few penalties and led the team in goals. A team close to success would have responded, but the B’s might as well have had a “Do Not Resuscitate” order on their card.

After the game, Marchand acknowledged that the ball has rolled so far down the hill on the B’s that pushing it back up won’t be easy, though he did try to strike a hopeful tone.

“It will take a long time and it will be very difficult,” the captain said. “But in the end, that’s what makes these things really worth it and so much fun. When you see yourself getting to the point where you want to be and you understand how hard you work to get there, there’s no better feeling.”

But it’s anyone’s guess who will be next to Marchand when and if they return to the top of the hill.

The easy fall guy is and always has been the coach in this league. And you have to ask yourself whether the coach’s vision of the team differs from that of management. After the B’s were bounced from the playoffs by the Florida Panthers, Montgomery complained that “you can’t win every game 2-1.”

But when Sweeney reshaped the roster this offseason — and this time with plenty of salary cap space — he doubled down on the defensive aspect of the game, saying “sometimes you have to win 2-1.”

The problem is that the two expensive items that Sweeney spent a lot on did not come close to what was expected. We knew from the start that two-way center Elias Lindholm (seven x $7.75 million) was not Patrice Bergeron and big defenseman Nikita Zadorov (six x $5 million) was not Zdeno Chara. Fine. But they still have to realize even their own identity.

On Sunday, Lindholm acknowledged that he fell far short of his own standard. Good for him. However, that recognition hasn’t changed the fact that he hasn’t scored a goal since Game 3 of the season and hasn’t registered a point in his last five games. Not only was Lindholm expected to be a defensively responsible center, but he was also expected to mitigate the loss of an offense that went out with Jake DeBrusk.

Zadorov has enough will in his game. He delivers strong checks and drops the gloves when necessary. But he hasn’t killed enough plays himself, sometimes appearing to have disconnected from his attackers on breakouts and he still leads the league in minor penalties with 13 (although Charlie McAvoy is close behind on 12).

Is there time for them to turn it around? Certainly. But it may take some time. In the summer of 2021, Sweeney went out and signed Linus Ullmark, Nick Foligno, Tomas Nosek and Derek Forbort. There wasn’t much bang for the buck the first year, but the following season they all played roles of varying degrees of significance in a record-breaking 65-win season that saw Ullmark win the Vezina.

But if this is all there is to Lindholm and Zadorov, boy, that’s going to be hard to swallow for the man who signed them. Neither is going anywhere. According to puckpedia.com, Lindholm has a full no-move clause for the first five years of his deal and Zadorov has a no-move this year and no trade next year.

Sweeney would also have to manage partial no-trade clauses for mid-tier veterans like Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha or Brandon Carlo if he pursued a shake it up trade. Perhaps the most tradable chip right now is UFA-to-be Trent Frederic. While Frederic could land a bright future, it’s hard to see a return that would massively change this team’s fortunes. And now that the B’s are close to the cap, they have money-in-money-out limitations.

Yes, this is a mess the B’s are in, and there’s no easy way out.

Originally published: November 19, 2024 at 12:55 PM EST