Is it time for the Bruins to reset their management?

Don Sweeney, the Boston Bruins general manager, has been the subject of many heated debates between fans and some players. He has been the Bruins’ general manager since May 20, 2015. While he has been a great general manager in the past, in my opinion, his downfall began at the end of last season when he traded Linus Ullmark, one of the Bruins’ goalies, to the Ottawa Senators. I feel that after trading Ullmark, Sweeney kept making negative trades that did not help the team at all.

I feel that the Bruins need to fire him and replace him with someone better as soon as possible. I think this because he has only led the Bruins to their downfall this season. While I felt that some of his trades the past season could have had some reason in them, the trade that caused me to have such strong feelings about Sweeney was when he traded Brad Marchand, the Bruins’ captain, not long before the playoffs. Sweeney used the excuse of wanting to give Marchand one last championship before he retires. While this would have been a good reason had Marchand wanted another championship, Marchand made it clear that he wanted to end how career with the Bruins, whether or not that meant a championship. Before the trade of Marchand, I was not fond of Sweeney because he traded Linus Ullmark at the end of last season. Marchand’s trade was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’.

 I interviewed my friend Mia Puglisi, a college student who has been following the Bruins since she was a little girl. I asked Mia what she thought of Don Sweeney. She refers to Sweeney as “a piece of work.” She explains that “half of the time [she doesn’t] think [Sweeney] knows what he’s doing.” Mia believes that the Bruins “should get rid of Sweeney.”

Puglisi “believes the Bruins should get rid of should get rid of Sweeney” the reason behind this being that “the trades that [Sweeney] made this season and the end of last season did nothing for the team. [The Bruins] got rid of players just to get players who don’t t know what they’re doing.”. Finally, because Mia has been a Bruins fan since before I was born, I asked her to compare the past seasons to this season. Mia explains that “just looking at two seasons back and comparing it to this season, there is an insane difference on how well [the team] played and how how well [the team] worked together” she continues and reflects on how Don Sweeney was a good player but that doesnt mean hes a good general manager for the Bruins. She finishes by saying, “Looking at this past season, the Bruins looked like ballerinas on ice. Yes they had a couple good games here and there but overall [she thought] that the season sucked. [Mia thinks that if the Bruins] get a better general manager for the next season, [they] might have a chance at winning another Stanley Cup.”. I agree with everything that Mia said when I interviewed her. I thought that she provided a well-detailed explanation while still getting to the point rather quickly.

I also interviewed another one of my friends, Arianna Pollawit. I asked Arianna to summarize what she thought of Don Sweeney and why he should or shouldn’t be fired from the Boston Bruins. This was her response:

“Don Sweeney, the Bruins’ general manager, needs to be fired. He has done nothing for the Bruins, but break them apart and lead them to [their downfall].” She says that she feels that “He has no idea what he is doing.” She explains that the entire time he has been general manager, the team has not won a single playoff game. Arianna continues, saying that Don Sweeney “says he will ’embrace the responsibility’ that comes with being a manager, and yet fails to do so.”. Arianna connects this back to one the couple of trades that seemed to affect the team most, “[the] trading [of] the captain of the bruins team, Brad Marchand.” She makes it clear that she felt Marchand had made it clear to Sweeney that he does not wish to leave the Bruins until later, even if this means he does not win another Stanley Cup. She explains that “the Bruins’ key player and captain was traded to the Florida Panthers. Why? It’s still a mystery that Don Sweeney would play forth with this call.” Arianna’s thought on why he did this is because “ His intentions [were] probably to break the Bruins [and that] Don Sweeney has made promises, [that he] hasn’t followed through with.” 

To bring it back to the Bruins’ former captain, Brad Marchand, he was traded around the middle of the season. Therefore, his stats should be around the same for both teams, right? Wrong. If you compare Marchand’s stats from this season with the Bruins and this season with the Panthers, you will see that the majority of his stats are better when he played with the Bruins. For example, the total number of goals that Marchand scored from this year alone was 21 with the Bruins and 2 with the Panthers. For assists, Marchand had 26 assists with the Bruins and only 2 with the Panthers. There is a significant difference in these stats when there was a similar number of games played for each team. This proves that Marchand played significantly better when he was with the Bruins.

In conclusion, I feel, along with many other Bruins fans, that Don Sweeney, the Boston Bruins general manager, should be fired. This is mainly because of what he has done this season and the end of last year’s season. While in the past years he wasn’t the worst general manager the team has had over the years, he certainly wasn’t the best. However, this year he seems to have gotten anything right. He made a horrible trade in the middle of the season that led to a lot of players losing hope for making the playoffs. Since the players lost hope, they had no motivation since they already thought they weren’t going to make the playoffs. If Sweeney continues to manage the team like this, I can’t imagine the team winning any Stanley Cups anytime soon.