Bruins’ success found in Sinden’s checklist
Picked-up pieces while wondering if the Red Sox are in need of a Chaim-lich maneuver . . .
■ The Bruins are favorites to win the Stanley Cup. They have four regular-season games remaining and a shot at the NHL’s all-time records for wins and points. They have a chance to go down in history as the greatest NHL team of all time.
Time to check in with Harry Sinden. Harry is the Bear in Winter, the godfather of the Spoked-B, a man who came to the Bruins in 1961. He was Bruins head coach when 18-year-old, wiffle-haired Bobby Orr first played in Boston in 1966. Together, they won the Cup in 1970.
Harry will turn 91 in September, has been married to Eleanor for 70 years, and is still on the Bruins’ masthead as “Senior Advisor to the Owner and Alternate Governor.” He is the man who drafted Don Sweeney in 1984, and traded for Cam Neely two years later.
Reached on the phone at his Massachusetts home this past week, Sinden was happy to share his thoughts on this year’s Bruins.
Like a lot of fans, Sinden was surprised when the B’s abruptly fired coach Bruce Cassidy last June.
“At the time of the change, I had a little difficulty comprehending it,” Sinden acknowledged. “To be honest, it was a little confusing. But I didn’t question it, because it’s none of my business to question it.”
Local buzz held that Cassidy had been hard on the lads and they wanted a new voice.
“There were some things written about [Cassidy] that were probably a little exaggerated,” said Sinden. “It gave everybody a reason to explain why they changed coaches, and I was a little surprised at it. But players come first and I’m very happy to see how Jim Mont
gomery operates.
“Jim and I talk quite a bit. Nothing really to do with strategy or anything like that. He’s very knowledgeable and he’s been through it all. He was a good replacement. It’s all about results and we always take the side of winning. So, I guess Bruce was too hard on ’em.
“What I like about Montgomery is that he understands how important checking is. He knows that what matters — 75 or 80 percent of the time — is who wins the battles along the boards. Two guys go for the puck — do you come out with it more than they do? If you can control that and understand how important that is, you have a good team. It’s hard to get that across, but it’s just as important as scoring or passing. Jim understands that and applies it to his team. You’ve got to have a pretty good coach to get that across.”
What about the notion that GM Sweeney has drafted poorly?
“Everyone beats the hell out of Don for the 2015 draft,” said Sinden. “Don had zero to do with the 2015 draft because he was general manager of Providence. He didn’t join the team until late May and the draft was a week later. He got blasted for that draft, but it didn’t turn out that bad. [Jake] DeBrusk was part of it, and [Jakub] Zboril, too . . . This is a decent team because Don has built up the areas where we were weak.”
Sinden believes that in playoff hockey, a team needs an edge in three areas: goaltending, power play, and officiating.
1. Goaltending: “When I was coaching, we had [Gerry] Cheevers and Eddie Johnston. They were good, and Cheevers was the dominant of the two. Here, it’s very close and the kid [Jeremy Swayman] has really improved this season. That’s probably the biggest reason for us having the season we are. We have a really good goaltender [Linus Ullmark] and one that’s almost as good. In other years when we won the Presidents’ Trophy and didn’t win the Cup, we didn’t have the goaltending that we have now. It’s like having the quarterback in football.”
2. Power play: “I don’t think we’re getting as much out of the power play as we should. You need six or seven clever players to make a power play work. We have those players, but we’re not getting the results out of it. It does go in spells where it’s great for a while and then all of a sudden you can’t score anymore.”
3. Officiating: “It’s like in football. Ninety percent of the calls could go either way. You’ve got to get the officials to go your way, and it becomes a part of the playoffs. A penalty here or there and you’re out.”
“I like our team,” Sinden added. “We have a very strong defense, two goaltenders, and a game-breaker at any time in [David] Pastrnak. He can score at any time.”
What about the sports-talk-radio notion that Pasta gives up the puck too much?
“That’s probably true,” Sinden acknowledged. “There is something to that. In his own end, he sometimes kind of thinks he’s in their end. But you have to put up with certain faults in some players, because they are so strong in other areas. You have to put up with it and hope it’s not too bad.
“I don’t see a definite weakness with our team. But if you don’t check in the playoffs as well as you did during the regular season, you’re going to be out. All the other team has to do is outcheck you. Puck possession is something that slips on teams and this coach is very aware of that.”
Quiz: Name three current MLB franchises that have never had a regular-season MVP (answer below).
Greedy NESN’s quick cut to commercial at the end of every Red Sox halfinning is an insult to every fan who ever invested time, emotion, and money in the Boston ball club. It is worse this year than ever. Play-by-play man Dave O’Brien is regularly in mid-sentence when we suddenly are watching a commercial. Never seen anything like it in any market. Boston’s great baseball fans deserve better.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are getting rave reviews for “Air,” their new film about the evolution of Air Jordans and Nike’s world dominance. I had a conversation with Damon and Affleck in which they talked of driving from Boston to Los Angeles, back when they were right out of high school.
Affleck: “Larry [Bird] was it for us. We had watched the VHS ‘Larry Bird: A Basketball Legend’ video that Daniel Stern narrated hundreds of times. When we moved to LA, we drove to French Lick and pulled up to a bar and said, ‘Where does Larry live?’ ”
Damon: “They saw Massachusetts plates on our car, so they rolled out the red carpet for us. They were like, ‘You all here to see Larry’s house?’ We go, ‘Yeah.’ So they were like, ‘You all go down this street and make a right.’ And I was like, ‘Well, how will we know which house it is?’ And the guy said, ‘Nicest house in Indiana.’ It had a fullcourt basketball court.”
The nice young boys from Boston didn’t see Bird that day but got to know him a little after they became famous with an Oscar-winning film in 1997.
Affleck: “After we sold ‘Good Will Hunting,’ I reached out to Larry to get him to inscribe something for Matt’s birthday present. There was a quote from that video that I wanted Larry to write. It was from a game when he’d pulled up at the 3-point line to beat Dallas with a shot and the announcer talked of ‘the wonderful arrogance of Larry Bird! Two to tie, 3 to win!’ I asked Larry if he’d inscribe all that to Matt and he just said, ‘Too long,’ and wrote, ‘Matt . . . best . . . Larry.’ ”
In the first hours of Passover, the Celtics on Wednesday night presented Jaylen Brown with the Red Auerbach Award.
This from Monday’s Irish Times: “A consensus has formed among Liverpool fans that the rot can be traced back to the owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), who through a combination of miserliness and misjudgment have starved their own team of the resources they need to compete. All the anger and confusion felt by Liverpool fans at the collapse of their once-great side has condensed into the slogan: FSG Out!”
Anybody else had enough of LSU’s ever-disrespected Angel Reese? Earlier in the week, she said she didn’t want to go to the White House because First Lady Jill Biden made the clunky suggestion that the losing team from Iowa join LSU (a bad idea that thankfully never got off the ground). “We’ll go to the Obamas,” Reese said on a podcast. Later in the week, she agreed to go to the Biden White House.
Meanwhile, we have LSU’s coach, Kim Mulkey, who was allowed to stand on the court for most of the championship game and make contact with an official without drawing a technical. Mulkey recruited nine players out of the transfer portal, including all five starters.
Notes on future stars who were at Fenway to start the season: Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, who went 5 for 5 Opening Day and had six consecutive hits to start his season, once tackled Christian McCaffrey. Rutschman was a kicker at Oregon State and tackled Stanford’s McCaffrey after a 22-yard kickoff return. Treetop Pirate Oneil Cruz is the tallest shortstop (6 feet 7 inches) in baseball history and is named after former Yankees slugger Paul O’Neill.
Veteran Pirate Andrew McCutchen has been on the receiving end of two of the fastest recorded pitches in baseball history. In 2010, McCutchen saw 105.8 miles per hour from Reds lefthander Aroldis Chapman. This past week, he saw 105.2 from Reds righthanded starter Hunter Greene. Both at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
UConn NCAA champ Alex Karaban becomes the second-most-famous sports star who once played for Algonquin Regional. No. 1 has to be the late Mark Fidrych.
Terry McDonough, the former Arizona Cardinals executive who has filed an arbitration claim against owner Michael Bidwill, is the son of former Globe sportswriting legend Will McDonough and the brother of ESPN’s Sean McDonough.
Florida’s Sandy Alcantara beat the Twins, 1-0, on Tuesday, a complete game that lasted 1 hour, 57 minutes.
Congrats to Andover native David Hixon for his election to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Hixon coached Amherst College for 42 seasons, winning 826 games and two Division 3 national championships.
Quiz answer: Mets, Rays, Diamondbacks.