Despite progress, Neely and Sweeney say Bruins have a long way to go

The Bruins made the requisite progress in Year One of the Great Retool. But they are still a giant step or two away from being an actual Stanley Cup contender.

That was the general gist of 45-minute rehash and look ahead from CEO Charlie Jacobs, team president Cam Neely and GM Don Sweeney on Wednesday at the Garden.

Simply put, they are not good enough now to compete with the top teams in the league who are still playing hockey. Their performance against the Buffalo Sabres in the first round made that obvious.

“We need more talent. We need more speed,” said Neely. “That’s something we have to try to acquire in one way, shape of form. But you look at the elite teams in the league and we’re not there.”

That part of the job will fall upon Sweeney.

The team accomplished much of what management it reasonably could, give the turnover from last season’s trade deadline. The B’s were a tougher out and, in the regular season at least, they made the Garden an unpleasant place to play for most teams. And they had a 100-point season, which exceeded most, if not all predictions, on their way to a playoff berth.

But all season, they allowed more high danger chances and leaned too heavily on excellent goaltending. And in the playoffs, the thinness of the talent showed up. Sweeney talked about needing to make more in-game adjustments now that the foundation of coach Marco Sturm’s hybrid man/zone system has been implemented. More talent would help him to do that.

“(Cutting down chances against) is definitely an area that we have to continue to get better at. It has been a staple of our organization and we had a big change and hopefully our players continue to adapt to it,” said Sweeney, who said the team played to its desired standards at times but not consistently enough.

The talent level is tied to the X’s and O’s.

“That’s part of the process for us to continue to deepen our roster, to add some speed to our roster so that when Marco wants to flip a switch and change the system, he feels more comfortable to do that,” said Sweeney.

One thing they need to find, and Neely laid out on the table, is a number one center. They thought it was going to be Elias Lindholm when they signed him to a seven-year, $54.25 million contract two summers ago. But he has not been able to be that guy.

“We all in this room recognize we don’t have a true number one C. That’s something we want to try to rectify, whether it’s this offseason or those guys (Fraser Minten or James Hagens) growing into it. But it’s something we know is needed,” said Neely.

Sweeney certainly sounded like he was leaning toward developing one in-house, whether it’s Minten or perhaps down the road Hagens. True number one centers, guys who excel at both ends of the ice like a Patrice Bergeron or Anze Kopitar or Sasha Barkov, don’t often change teams.

“When you do make a call about a player of that nature, the guy on the other side says, ‘There’s not even 32 of them in the league,’ ” said Sweeney. “We feel pretty good about this year that, by committee, our guys did a pretty good job. And Fraser spent some time up in that spot, which is not an easy spot to play in. You’re seeing a hell of lot harder matchups, you’re playing with a star player and you’re trying to navigate (your own game).”

It sounded again like the approach with Hagens is to allow him to get his feet under him at wing and then try him at center. How long that takes will be up to him.

“I think it’s fool’s gold to try and accelerate somebody in their natural progression,” said Sweeney.

As for Lindholm, he’s been hindered by a back injury for his two seasons with the Bruins. What is the concern level there?

“Elias talked about what his summer is going to look like and how he’s going to attack that, so right away he’s aware that he would like to train a little differently and adapt to what he needs to do to be healthy enough to make the impact he wants to make,” said Sweeney. “He even referenced that the Olympics, albeit it’s a dream, he might have been able to use that time a little more effectively in terms of recovery and rest … injuries are not a player’s fault. It’s a matter of what you can do in training to counteract that. And he’s willing to put that work in.”

Some other topics of note:

*Sweeney lauded Mason Lohrei’s improvement this season but believes he can increase the urgency in his defensive game.

“There’s a stubbornness there because he’s able to execute some of the skill plays that I wasn’t and you applaud that,” said Sweeney. “Now can he play with the same conviction that you’d want every one of our players, the way (Jonathan Aspirot) would play, and close? That’s the balancing act. Mason’s got a lot of upside.”

*Though not definitive, it sounds like the B’s will be naming a captain. They had pretty much a two-headed captain this season with David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy with Hampus Lindholm wearing the third A.

“Obviously we’d love to name a captain. But we’ve had some great captains here so one of the things we want to do is make sure we’re picking the right guy. Marco’s going to be a big part of that,” said Neely, adding the group has already had discussions about it.

*With two extra first-round picks over the next three years, Sweeney said he’d willing to make an offer sheet to an RFA but was doubtful that the time was right for it this year with the cap going up to $104 million from $95.5 million, giving teams more flexibility to match.

“(St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong) described it very well. If his mom was running another team, he’d still do it. And I think we all have to look at it that way. We’re friendly but we’re not brotherly in terms of how we operate as general managers,” said Sweeney. “You have to execute when it presents. I just think it will be a little more difficult with the cap going up and the space most teams have.”

*Sweeney was non-committal when the subject of UFAs-to-be Viktor Arvidsson and Andrew Peeke came up.

“We’ll explore whether we can bring either or both back,” he said.

*The B’s will be well represented at the World Championships. Hagens, Lohrei and Sean Kuraly will be going for Team USA, Joonas Korpisalo and Henri Jokiharju for Finland and Minten for Canada.

*Sweeney said no Bruin will require offseason surgery.