In their first seven games of the season, the Boston Bruins seemed to be encountering just a little turbulence on their way to a cruising altitude.
But with a 4-0 loss to the Nashville Predators, a team that had not won a game yet in the 2024-25 season, it’s looking more like twin engine failure.
Bruins legend Mike Milbury isn’t surprised by how the team has started the season.
“I’m not disappointed. I’m not surprised either,” Milbury said on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show Thursday.
To Milbury, the Bruins’ 3-3-1 record thus far is part of an adjustment period.
“There’s a ton of changes,” he said.
“They needed a talented center, so they go out and get [Elias] Lindholm. They need a big thumper on the blue line, and they get [Nikita] Zadorov. [They are] probably the two best guys at that position available, but they focused on size.”
The 6-foot-6 Zadorov adds to a super-sized defensive core, where the shortest player, Charlie McAvoy, is at league-average height for a defenseman. Does that big, hulking presence slow the Bruins down? Milbury thinks so.
“So far the group, which is huge, looks a little slow, looks a little out of sync, and it looks a little undisciplined,” he said.
The Bruins are an expensive team that got even more so thanks to those free agent additions. Their high-salary players, like Charlie McAvoy for example, haven’t been earning that money in Milbury’s eyes.
“McAvoy should be a dominant player on the blue line. He's been inconsistent, and he's got to get over that inconsistency and earn his paycheck,” Milbury said.
Milbury also zeroed in on another highly paid defenseman, Hampus Lindholm.
“I'm a little tired of Hampus Lindholm. It looks like he’s just blasé out there. This guy was incredible in his first full season, and I don't know, it just looks like he's collecting a paycheck,” Milbury said.
“There's no passion to his game, and the game is passionate. You’ve got to have gumption, you’ve got to have some fire in the belly, for lack of a better phrase.”
In the transition from being what Milbury called a “puck possession” team to a “dump and chase” team, the Bruins have upgraded their size, but in turn, have lost some speed.
“The size is no good if there’s not any speed. If you’ve got size and no speed, it’s a recipe for a disaster,” Milbury said.
While the Bruins’ throwback “thump” style may have worked in the 1970s or 80s when Milbury was playing, it may not work in today’s game.
“The thump is great. I mean, that's what the Bruins did under Don Cherry, what the Bruins did under Harry Sinden. They were the big, bad Bruins. But I don't know if there's time for that right now,” Milbury said.
The Bruins have also yet to hand a long-term contract to third-year head coach Jim Montgomery. Could Montgomery be on the hot seat despite his ridiculous regular-season success in his first few years in Boston?
“It’s really hard to pin it on him,” Milbury said of Montgomery.
“He’s had great regular-season success, but that’s not what counts, right? I mean what counts is going deep into the playoffs. But I don't know that you could argue against the position that he's taken them as far as they could go.”
While Milbury is preaching some patience, he acknowledges that fans should be concerned with the way the team has looked so far.
“Let’s wait and see how it goes the rest of the way. They need some time to come together as a group,” he said.
“But there are definite concerns. I mean, the questions about their speed, about Lindholm and players out of position and Marchand – he’s got to find his mojo.”