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Boston Bruins president Cam Neely, center, listens to a reporter's question, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Boston. At left is team CEO Charlie Jacobs, at right is team general manager Don Sweeney. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)AP
BOSTON — The Bruins couldn’t fix anything on Wednesday.
That much was certain.
When Charlie Jacobs, Cam Neely and Don Sweeney got up on the podium, there was nothing they could say that would have made the fan base happy. Because there are playoffs going on and they’re not in them. The best they could do is make the fans feel heard and understood.
And for the past few weeks since pressing the reset button at the trade deadline, they’ve done a good job operating within that reality.
Last week Neely told MassLive that everything the Bruins do is under examination as they attempt to get better and make missing the playoffs an anomaly instead of their new normal.
“We’ve gotten accustomed to playing meaningful games at this time of year. We haven’t really faced something like this,” he said. “So I think it lets everybody know a lot more about the roster and what we need and where we need to do a little bit more.”
Jacobs issued a mea culpa to the fans, sharing their frustration.
Collectively, the leadership trio thanked the fans, praised their loyalty and promised to reward it.
The most extreme faction of the fan base wasn’t going to be satisfied unless they took the podium, resigned and promised to move to the Yukon never to be seen again.
For everybody else, the smart move was to keep doing what they were doing. Stay on message. Pivot everything to the stump speech. The lottery isn’t far off. The draft will be here soon enough.
The press conference could be the last page of this chapter. Avoid sound bites, anything that would get them on talk radio. Get through it, move on and start looking ahead.
That’s not what happened. Something set off Bruins brass on Wednesday morning, creating some uncomfortably contentious moments.
At one time or another, Jacobs, Neely and Sweeney each took umbrage as they disputed the premise of questions and pushed back. The Bruins’ desire to retain their defensive identity on the ice leaked into their demeanor off of it.
It started off harmlessly enough with Jacobs getting his message out.
“We owe you a better team, and we aim to deliver a better team. I share your disappointment, and frankly, embarrassment on how poorly things played out over the course of this season, and I cannot thank you enough for your continued support. We embrace your criticism because it’s well deserved, and I want you to know it fuels myself and it fuels the two gentlemen to my left to do better, which we will.”
Neely and Sweeney echoed his praise of the fans.
They stopped embracing the criticism about 14 minutes into the hour-long affair.
Sweeney seemed to bristle at a question suggesting he’s been too quick to fire coaches, who’ve then gone on to thrive elsewhere.
Jacobs stumbled a bit when asked a no-win question about ticket prices going up.
Neely, whose personality can sometimes mirror his playing style, was asked about Sweeney’s draft missteps. He challenged the premise of the question and then went through a long, frustrated defense of Sweeney’s drafts that ended with:
“We can be better, there’s no question we can be better.”
If he stopped there, he’d have been O.K. But then came the sound bite.
“But it’s not as bad as everybody thinks.”
That’s not a ringing endorsement.
So now they’ve raised the temperature on themselves. The draft, free agency and next season all face new scrutiny. There’ll be no benefit of the doubt from the fan base.
They have to noticeably improve in a way that indicates the front office did a good job. Or at least to make it seem like things are not as bad as everybody thinks.
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Read the original article on MassLive.
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