BRUINS MEDIA DAY OWNER , CEO , PRESIDENT , GENERAL MANAGER AND HEAD COACH Monday, October 1, 2018

SWEENEY On Torey Krug… Torey [Krug] sustained a left ankle injury in the last preseason game, so he’s going to go in a boot for the next three weeks and then will be reevaluated.

On the PTO players from Training Camp… PTO guys, Daniel Winnik has another opportunity he’s currently exploring, so we’re going to be in contact with him over the next few days to see what ultimately is his decision and ours, so we both explore things. The same thing with Lee [Stempniak]. Those PTOs will expire officially on the third as rosters open up. It doesn’t mean Lee won’t stay with us and continue to play with us.

On if it was Torey Krug’s same ankle… Same foot, an ankle, but not related to the previous injury.

CASSIDY On Matt Grzelcyk’s status… Got through practice today, didn’t complete every drill, but he’s progressing well. Better answer tomorrow after practice. We’re hoping he’ll go full-go, all-contact. If he gets through that then obviously he looks good for Wednesday.

On Matt Grzelcyk’s replacement if he is not ready by Wednesday… It would be him [Urho Vaakanainen] or [Steven] Kampfer. Right now, Vaakanainen, three lefts, three rights is kind of the way we’re looking but we’ll make that decision once we hear about Grizz [Matt Grzelcyk]. Vaakanainen’s been very good, so has Kampfer, so whatever direction we go we feel comfortable.

JEREMY JACOBS On his expectations this season… My expectations never lessened so far as this team is concerned. I think they look really, they’re young. We’ve got that on our side and we’ve got a good warehouse of talent. I expect them to improve on last year. We didn’t start as strongly, well I guess it was more finish we didn’t have last year.

NEELY In response to Mr. Jacobs… So, is that 51 wins?

[Laughter]

CASSIDY On the greatest challenge of delivering the same points… Carry through on what we did. I think we need growth from our guys from our first year into the second year. We need good health. We’ve already taken one hit that Donnie [Don Sweeney] just spoke about, so that will catch up to you eventually, as well. Better start than last year, so I’d say it’s more on us. Clearly every year there’s teams that get better and some regress, so we can’t worry too much about them. Take care of our own business.

On if the addition of John Tavares makes the the biggest threat… They added a good player. They subtracted [James] van Riemsdyk and [Tyler] Bozak, two good players as well, so you have to factor that in. Until we see them it’s tough to tell, Kevin, like how good they can be. What they do have, like us I believe, is they have some good young players that you assume will get better. I think that will push them along as much as the [John] Tavares signing.

On the length of Training Camp from a coaching standpoint… Well, from my point of view, it’s not long in terms of the time, three weeks. It used to be much longer, players come in much better shape now, prepared to go. Ours this year was a little disjointed because we had half the group in China, as you know, so it’s not your typical Training Camp. But in general, I think it’s the right amount of time. Do we always need eight games? That depends on team-to-team. Last year it sure helped us because we were looking at a lot of new faces. If your team’s pretty established six is probably enough. But at the end of the day I have no issue with it, the length of it. It works out for most teams. You get your work in, you get your games in, and then hopefully you’re ready to go.

JEREMY JACOBS On the length of Training Camp from a business standpoint… I think that what happened this year with the China trip, the issues they ran into there complicated some of the experience, who stayed home and who left, their interaction was probably was somewhat hindered, but those fellas who did go to China I think had a camaraderie that was interesting. It’s an opportunity. The younger players I know enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. They had a lot of problems with the equipment moving and transportation, so that may have affected Butch’s [Bruce Cassidy] experience with the team together had been.

SWEENEY On the prospects’ recent collective progress… Yeah, as a matter of fact one of the younger players I spoke with today asked me that very question. How do you take the next person’s job if they see a roadblock in front of them? We’ve been consistent all along that performance dictates that and if players get off to a slow start then we feel like we have depth and players that will continue to push. There are areas of your game as a young player you’re still going to have to continue to round out but when you get that opportunity, we’ve already had an injury as we’ve both referenced with [Torey] Krug. [Urho] Vaakanainen’s had a good camp. Maybe he gets an opportunity depending on where Grizzy’s [Matt Grzelcyk] at, and the players that aren’t currently with us - or won’t open the season with us – should recognize that we’re promoting from within, we’ve been growing from within. That speaks to the depth guys, as well. Whether that’s a Colby Cave or a [Jordan] Szwarz, those guys have to recognize through injury, through opportunity when it comes to take advantage of it. I haven’t met a coach that doesn’t play the best guys. We’ll stick with that pattern, so the guys recognize if they can continue to grow their game they’ll have an opportunity.

CASSIDY On the challenges the first power-play unit has to overcome without Torey Krug… Well, the orchestrating part of it. Typically, half-wall is where it starts, so Torey [Krug] was good at running it from the top and getting to the half-wall with his movement, so it allowed Brad [Marchand] to move around who’s not a natural half-wall guy, get to the front of the net. So that’s going to create a bit of an issue. We’ll have somebody young up there, more than likely Grizz [Matt Grzelcyk] or [Urho] Vaakanainen or Charlie [McAvoy], those are our offensive guys, so they’ll be a bit of a learning curve there, so we’ll have to probably simplify it, get it into Pasta’s [David Pastrnak] hands more often. Maybe less movement, more pucks to the net and rely on the other group to pick up some of the slack. David Krejci is a very accomplished player in this league. He’s in charge of the second group, so we’ll rely on that group again to be more productive, and they should have more opportunities, as well. I think last year the first group got so hot that they were out there the majority of the time, so this year might be a little better balanced.

SWEENEY On if he’s come out of camp a bit unfulfilled… Well, we all start back at the bottom, so all teams are in the same boat. I’m sure every other general manager looks at their own roster and cross your fingers you get through camp healthy, and obviously we had an injury there. So, it was a little disjointed as both Mr. Jacobs and Bruce [Cassidy] referenced with players in different locations. Since we’ve come back we’ve had three practices that are very encouraging for how we’re supposed to play and how we intend to play in the regular season, and I think today referenced the same way we’d like to continue to do that, tomorrow we’ll do that. When we’ve had our team together I think they’ve been focused. They’ve gotten through the things they want to do and want to accomplish, and I think tomorrow will be very similar. We saw pockets of it through camp. The other night the second period was one of the better periods, and we didn’t follow it up in the third, so there’s a consistency piece that we certainly have to deal with. And that will start on Wednesday night, but I think our practices as a group with the main part of our team, again Bergy [] is part of that as well who hasn’t been in a game, but I think most guys get through it and wonder if they’re going to be healthy to start the season. Unfortunately, we’re not. Several other teams are in the same boat, but we move forward. We have a strong returning core of guys, and we’ve got some younger players that hopefully have benefitted from last year and they can take another step and other players that are going to have to push through.

On how happy he is with the growth in depth in the organization during his tenure… Well, hopefully we’re going to be in a position where we’re going to be competitive and get back to the playoffs. That’s our ultimate goal, to get back in and be in a position to win. The mandate has always been the same. We don’t change our expectations in how we go about our business in day-to- day. We certainly wanted to grow and deepen our talent pool overall, create the competition you referenced earlier, in terms of younger players and how they push through. That’s exactly what you want. That internal competition that forces players to hopefully elevate their own play and then the group itself elevates. We have some players that are going to continue to develop under a really good staff in Providence that we’re going to give them that opportunity to continue to grow their games and be players. They’ll dictate when they’re ready. Trent [Frederic] went down today and got a first taste of camp and what it’s like to be a pro moving forward and the challenges that come with that. So, we have to continue to recognize that’s the lifeline of the organization and it’s a draft develop and when they’re ready, get an opportunity and hopefully take advantage of it.

On the goaltenders in the system’s development… Well, it was an area that we wanted to address this past offseason that we felt we would have a tandem going into an 80-game schedule, 82-game schedule that Bruce [Cassidy] would be very comfortable playing either one in any situation. We’ve mapped out sort of month-by-month what the work load would be. As referenced, our younger players, I think Daniel Vladar took a real step this past summer. He had an unfortunate training incident last year that limited him starting out. Otherwise he probably would have gotten more games in Providence, but he looks like he’s ready to take another step and push Zane [McIntyre] for playing time in Providence. They’re still inexperienced at the NHL level, so that’s a concern when you have injuries, as anybody would be. Jeremy Swayman had a fantastic year last year at Maine and took the net there as a freshman, real happy with his progress where he was in Development Camp and expect him to have a very, very good year. And Kyle [Keyser] actually had a really good year, as well. A challenging year in number of shots he faced in Oshawa. They should have a really good team. He had a minor injury through camp, so he was a little limited going back to junior, but he’ll be healthy and very, very competitive. So, I think we’ve deepened that part of it, but we’re still inexperienced in that area.

NEELY On his expectations this season and what it’s going to take to win the Cup… Well, for me it’s, I like the growth that I saw from players that played in the playoffs for the first time against Ottawa and we lost that series. I felt like a guy like David Pastrnak certainly played a lot better in this past playoffs, and my hopes are the players that played in the playoffs for the first time are certainly going to understand what it takes to continue to get round-by-round and ultimately get into the finals and win again. Our regular season last year was pretty impressive. I don’t want us to look at our point total and how many wins. I want us to look at are we playing the way we want to play, are we playing the way the coach would like us to play, are we competing in a way that gives us chances to win every game and are we getting better as the season progresses as we get into the playoffs. No game’s an easy game. Our division is very difficult, and there’s a lot of good young players in our division, and we’re certainly not going to surprise anybody ourselves. So, we’ve got to be ready to play at the drop of the puck.

On China… Well, I said I wasn’t going to complain about Boston traffic anymore, but that lasted until this morning [laughter].

CHARLIE JACOBS On China… My dad alluded to it a bit, but there was an element of bonding that occurred amongst players and frankly front office officials during the trip for the two weeks that I don’t think would have occurred had we stayed say here in Warrior. It was a good opportunity. The games themselves were by in large sold out. I could tell you my experience is that I think we probably had a lighter crowd in the third period than we did the first two. I’m not sure if the event-goers understood that hockey was a three-period game. Maybe they thought that two and it was done, like a basketball game perhaps, but I do think there was significant interest. A very, way warm welcome, and I think it’s great for our sport to get exposed to such a large population.

NEELY On China… I thought that there were a few hiccups when we got to China and we had to expect the unexpected. I thought our players and our coaching staff handled it really well. We had to scrap a practice the first practice we were going to have. We had to scrap that, so that was frustrating for everybody, but I think the players really enjoyed themselves on the trip. They did bond well, and they did a lot of activities together, and I think it was a great opportunity for them to get to know some of the new players.

CASSIDY On Patrice Bergeron’s status for Wednesday… Did very well in practice today, no setbacks at all, participated in every drill. I’m anticipating he’ll be ready to go Wednesday.

On if Patrice Bergeron’s experienced enough to not need to play in a preseason game… I would suspect he would’ve preferred to play a game or two. I think that’s human nature to shake the rust off. I think he also understands that when you have injury you have to make sure you get yourself ready to go for the regular season, much more important than an exhibition game or two. Listen, I think that he’ll get up to speed in a hurry. That’s just the type of player he is. He’s detail- oriented. He’s been able to participate now in two full practices, I believe, so he’s getting some of the rust off there.

CHARLIE JACOBS On the Hub on Causeway project… Regarding the ongoing construction project, well I should thank every event goer– both Celtics and Bruins fans alike– for their patience during this process this past 24 months. We will be wrapping up this fall. I was reminded five or six times before I got up here not to give a completion date, so I’m going to say this fall. We will have the core and shell turned over to tenants, so I would say, and I’m told it’s going to take another 9-10 months to complete the project after we turn it over. So, yeah, some more headache in terms of getting in and out of TD Garden and for commute-goers alike. When it’s finished there will be nothing like it in the United States, and it’ll be all ours, but there’s going to be some growing pains for the next year.

NEELY On the Hub on Causeway project… But we plan on, with our media department, plan on really giving our fans the appropriate information of getting in and out of the building and what maybe some of the changes may be coming up, so there will plenty of communication to let our fans know what’s going on out front.

CASSIDY On Patrice Bergeron’s effect on him and the other three centers… Well, for me he’s consistently reliable, productive, trustworthy, so you know when he’s out there good things generally happen. You don’t have to sweat very often. The effect on the other three centers, I don’t know how it affects Krech [David Krejci] He’s going to play his minutes. He’s got some young wingers on his side that I think he’s excited to play with. What it did affect last year was our fourth-line center, it happened to be [Sean] Kuraly. He got a lot more defensive-zone starts. That was by design. We moved Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] into more of an offensive role to save a little bit of the wear and tear because we thought that line could handle those matchups. It’s hard minutes over the course of 82 games. Wasn’t every night, he still played against really good players every night, but it wasn’t every shift every night. So that’s the effect it has on some of the centers down the lineup. They’re asked to do a little more of the hard lifting in terms of defensive play.

On if that system will stay the same this year… If they’re up to it, right? That’s kind of, Noel Acciari probably starts as our fourth-line center with, say, [Joakim] Nordstrom and [Chris] Wagner as a fourth line if [Sean] Kuraly’s a third line. They’ll be asked to do a little bit of that. The other night looked like it’s exhibition, the first time they’ve been together as a line. They look like they can handle it, and part of being productive in that role is protecting the puck in the other end of the ice, forcing the better offensive players to go 200 feet and defend first. And they did a real good job with that, so that would be a real positive for our team and a real good thing for Bergy’s [Patrice Bergeron] health and stamina through the course of an eight- month season.

JEREMY JACOBS On his feelings towards Boston after being a franchise owner in the city for many years now… I think this is a great community to evolve in and develop and continue to invest in. It has grown faster and more vitality in a shorter period of time than in any location I can think of. There are certainly parts of the world I don’t see, or I do business in, but it’s a great place to do business and continue to do business in. It’s something that we’ve been in investment mode for the last 15 years or so here, and I don’t see us changing our direction. We’re very happy with what’s going on here, and we see it, from the Jacobs family, continuing to grow here.

SWEENEY On Urho Vaakanainen earning his spot… Well, he hasn’t played in an NHL game yet, a regular-season game, so there will be some challenges associated with that and you go through camp and there’s always a progression. Urho’s [Vaakanainen] played against pros the past two years in an elite level in Finland, played a lot of minutes in a lot of situations, was not protected at all last year in those situations. So, we tracked that pretty carefully last year in knowing that he could make the jump this year, be it with us or in Providence and play back in those situations. He’s got poise, patience, great skater, covers a lot of ice, so he’s got to continue to get stronger and understand the physicality that he’s going to face if and when he plays. Has he passed other players? He’s performed better than some of the other players and some of the other players have been injured through this process as well and missed some time as a result. So, the jockeying begins as it does in every position, and again nobody’s boxed out it’s just a matter of he’s taking advantage of the opportunity that he’s been given and good for him. And the other guys understand it and need to continue to work and round out their games accordingly.

CASSIDY On the players that really surprised him during Training Camp… [Urho] Vaakanainen is one. I think, as Donnie [Don Sweeney] alluded to, he did play against men, so we figured that he would be a little bit ahead in that regard in terms of not being intimidated in that environment, but I think his ability to get back on pucks and his composure and poise in a smaller rink, in a more physical game has been very good. We’ve used him in a few offensive situations. He’s made good decisions with the puck, so maybe there’s a little more to his game there than what he was able to show overseas that you’d like to see out of a top pick, so there’s one guy. Axel Andersson is a young defenseman, very similar as an 18-year-old came over. I walked in the room, because I was in China, and I thought someone had brought their son to the rink that day [laughter]. He looks like he’s about 13-years-old, and he’s out on the ice playing that night. He gets a bloody nose, cuts his wrist, but still goes out, gets sewn up, gets back out, scores a goal, wants to practice the next day. He’s a hockey player. So, I think those two are a couple of young guys that were very good. The guys we have here, you’re judging them a little bit differently. More about, I’ll evaluate them a little better Wednesday and Thursday. They’re preparing for the season opener. [Ryan] Donato was good. That’s why he’s still here. He’s got some things to learn, but he’s competing and he’s putting the puck in the back of the net, so those guys were all good and that’s why two of them are still here.

SWEENEY On if his targets from the offseason were addressed… Well, given the fact that Torey [Krug] is starting injured I think that adding John Moore was a benefit to our group and deepening that. Obviously with Urho [Vaakanainen] you’re trying to do projections as to where players might get to based on what they’ve done last year as opposed to they didn’t get the opportunity last year. So, the middle of the ice was an area that we went over to China with really four young centremen, and they got to play in situations that were completely unprotected, so we saw some growth in their games as well, and we’re fortunate right now that [Patrice] Bergeron is healthy and will start. So those guys can go and continue to play, and we’ll fill in the gaps there. Our fourth line did a really good job for us last year, very productive. Thirty goals out of the fourth line. They all kill penalties, so it was an area we needed to have continuity, whether or not it was the same players or whether or not we had players come in and fill similar roles. They haven’t had an opportunity to play very much together, but they were very effective the other night, and hopefully they’ll continue to be as such and as advertised because they all kill penalties, they all play with pace, there’s some physicality there. They can start in defensive zones, so they’re responsible players that coach can trust. Another area that we had to be spot on and hopefully we’re right about. While allowing some of the other players, be it Ryan [Donato] or Danton Heinen and certainly evolving Jake’s [DeBrusk] game to go into productive roles, and they have to be productive. Otherwise the [Peter] Cehlarik’s, some of the other players knocking on the door, may bump them out. It’s nice to see Anders [Bjork] get back into a game last night after a long process for him. So the internal competition begins. There’s still some unknowns in terms of younger players in that regard, so you cross your fingers to some degree, you plan as much as you can and try to address and those needs as to what we met as an organization, what we’ve drafted and tried to develop. And then you have to integrate them, and last year it went pretty smoothly for long stretches, and we’re right back down to the bottom of the hill, so hopefully we take steps forward.