What are, what are you expecting to see from him this year, Billy?

Well, he's 30-plus.

I'd like, I'd like to think 35-plus guy now regularly, Ted.

Um, y- you know, he's right now e- establishing himself in the bumper position on the power play, which is different than seeing him on a flank with a heavy shot, but that, that doesn't mean he can't end up rotating to an elbow on the, on the power play or being there for, for one of, one of his one-timers.

But, you know, he's pretty good in front of the net, too, and, and I, I don't see why, whether he's, uh, playing with Pavel Zacha, you know, and Mittelstadt on the second line, basically in essence taking Arvidsson's spot, or there might be times that he just goes back and, and works with, with David.

I mean, you, you know, like, people get very wrapped up in the lines, and the lines, you know, we might see five games in a row where the lines are real good, and all of a sudden two games they don't work, and so Marco and his staff are chase-

Mm-hmm.

Let's see Pavel do that again.

After one game, is there anything that you're seeing that makes you go, "All right, this feels different than what we've had in the past"?

Uh, well, there's a little bit more skill.

Uh, not that Victor Arvidsson, who was there last year, had skill.

It was a different kind.

It was more of an old-school style, um, means getting to the front of the net, scrappy-type player.

I mean, he scored.

But Peterka does bring more skill, there's no doubt about it.

What are, what are you expecting to see from him this year, Billy?

Sure.

Oh, your lips to the hockey god's ears, Ken.

That would be tremendous.

Razor and I would be maybe brewing something else instead of coffee early in the morning then, if that was the case.

That would be great.

I mean, sure.

Is it silicon? I think it, when I say it's a concern, I don't say it's a concern.

You're not injured.

You know what you hope it's going to be, what it could be on paper, but what is it going to be? You're still waiting to find out.

None of us knew last year.

We all thought we knew last year.

Last year, we said collectively...

I would say as a group, let's say of broadcasters and of experts so-called in the market, that the best the Bruins would do is a spot in the East.

And that's going to be hard.

And everything's got to go right.

Can you speak to or talk about the distraction that his contract was, everything that went along, and how long it took him to get back on track and be the goaltender that he is today? It took him a season to get through

Where does the edge go?

Oof.

Well, I would've ...

First of all, I wouldn't have bet on either of these guys to be where they're at seven weeks ago, six weeks ago.

I, I wouldn't because Freddy Andersen is always really good early on in playoffs, and then he starts having issues after the first round, whether it's physical, you know, or kind of, uh, you know, r- getting injured or a little breakdowns type thing.

And Carter Hart was a complete unknown, relatively speaking, and in, in the sense of, you know, he'd been out for a couple a years, and then John Tortorella anoints him the starter.

I do think Carter Hart, at least from my eye test, seems to be on a little bit hotter.

Uh, do you believe in that? And, uh, why do people look at Carolina as a favorite according to the odds?

Yep.

Not just the long goal.

In general, the body language, my uneducated goalie eye, I wasn't a, you know, I'm not a former goalie, but, um, didn't look confident.

And Alex came in, and this is where being a veteran player I think makes a huge difference, comes in and in that game he literally says, "Well, we might lose, but I'm not, you know, I'm not gonna go down without a fight," so to speak.

And he's jawing and whatever, and whether you like that or not, that's, you know, that is who he is.

And he's always, you know, he's always been a very, uh, is ...

There's a good article about it today, just an aggressive-minded type person and player.

Uh, but looking at this, like, is there, is, just is there enough there to kinda get back into this series and, and potentially win it without that lack of scoring? Like, I know they, I know that Boston can be good defensively, but are they good enough defensively to overcome this lack of scoring from a lot of their depth guys?

I'm against

them.

I know, but what I'm saying is you might just want to go out and give all those fans in Buffalo, which it already seemed like they had more than their fair share of whatever, rightfully so.

You can really make friends with them.

Bring them a couple of cases of J.P. Weiser.

And your sponsor might like that too.

I don't know if they need them.

Billy, is that got to be Charlie McElroy and Zdorov, right? I mean, to answer and go up against him, that line in particular?

Billy, is that got to be Charlie McElroy and Zdorov, right? I mean, to answer and go up against him, that line in particular?

Well, you hope.

I mean, it's a hard thing to do as the visiting team on the road, but you hope that you have...

You know, one of those guys out there now, you know, Aspero is not tall and large, but he's thick.

He's like that.

He's like a freezer.

Right.

Like what would, what would you do here for, for this team in game two?

Just a little bit more about their impact.

Well, I mean, Marco, you guys know, I mean, he's so personable, affable, wonderfully direct and honest.

I do think that that's what players want.

They don't want to be given B.S., Uh, you know, I've said all along, he's young enough to relate to the younger guys.

Just, I mean, he's not going to be buddy buddies with the 21, 21 year old Frazier mittens per se, just using him or Murat Houston Dino as an example, but he understands.

you know kids that ages got kids that age himself and he's done so much in his NHL career he played over a thousand games if you combine playoffs in regular season or right at a thousand give or take by a couple so every veteran player looks at him and respects the heck out of them he played is such an honest game when he played and he was always known for being you know somebody's a team like one of the great teammates like everybody's buddy on the team so I think he's had a really good attitude.

You know, Don and Cam look to change the culture.

Who is the player that isn't getting talked about enough and how impactful they've been?

[laughs]

And then you go out and you get a coffee and something bad to eat.

It's like calorie...

It's not deficit or, and you know, it's, you just, you just balance it out.

It's awesome.

Uh, it's a great way to-to start the day.

And then to get to talk with you guys.

Like when he gets into those puck battles in the middle of the ice, he needs to win 9.9 out of 10 of those with his size.

but I'm also wondering, like, it was more about the, are the Bruins, like, really a Trochek away from being a contender? Like, do they think they're a contender right now?

no they don't and that's why that is why every that is why i was i and many people were very happy to hear that they didn't finish the Anderson deal because of no extension, because therefore if, if, you know, Don Sweeney, you know, Donnie, listen, Donnie has gone for it in the Bruins, even with Pete Shirelli days, we know they've gone for, gone for, gone for it.

Didn't always work deals.

Guys got injured.

Others didn't work out, but they've always gone for it because they had teams that were ready to go for it.

We said, I said, we said, I'm going to guess you guys said too, because you know, the biz, uh, We haven't talked about it.

But I'm saying the best the Bruins could probably do this year, I felt, was eighth seed in the East.

Has the market turned around on him as they should? Because this kid, he looks every bit like a national hockey leader right now.