Bruins’ Charlie Jacobs Reiterates Faith In Don Sweeney, Cam Neely

BOSTON — The Boston Bruins currently hold a playoff spot. However, by the time they play again Saturday in Ottawa, they could be on the outside looking in.

The ups and downs of the first 46 games of the season have caused Bruins fans to be very vocal about their expectations — booing the team at TD Garden and playing armchair general manager on social media.

Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs made it clear he disagrees with the masses and continues to have faith in president Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney.

“I feel everyone’s frustration, and I hear it, too,” Jacobs said before the Black and Gold Gala at the Fairmont Copley Plaza on Wednesday night. “But, I feel it because, like our fan base, I am also a fan and I support this team. And I believe in our leadership. I know that’s been called into question quite a bit recently.

“… Our team, in my opinion, has yet to play its best game. I feel like we’ve got it in our system, we’ve got it in our room, and I hope we can find it. If history is any indication of what we can anticipate, if we look at Don Sweeney’s stewardship and Cam Neely’s stewardship since Don took over in 2015, we made the playoffs eight of 10 years. … I’m not going to measure success by making the Stanley Cup playoffs. Let’s be very clear about that. Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup. But you can’t win the Stanley Cup if you don’t make the playoffs, and he’s done it for the past eight years, and I hope we do it again this year for our ninth.”

Despite showing his support for Bruins management, Jacobs knows the team has not yet reached its potential throughout the 2024-25 campaign.

“There’s been some trying moments,” he said. “To watch this team play and know what it’s capable of and see it perform and then come out the next night and not do it again, it’s been a head-scratcher, for sure.”

As far as Jacobs giving Neely and Sweeney directions heading into the March 7 NHL trade deadline, he will let them make the call.

“I have faith that they’ll make the right decisions,” Jacobs said. “I don’t have the playbook for that. I have faith that they will make those decisions, though.”

Neely admitted the franchise might approach the trade deadline differently than it has over the last few seasons.

“We’d certainly like to improve, but we’ll see what happens, what teams decide to do heading into the Four Nations (tournament),” Neely said. “After Four Nations is done, it’s a race to the deadline. We’ll see where we’re at.

“I think right now, we’ve got to look at two paths. One that we’re buying. One that we’re retooling a bit. We still feel like we’ve got a playoff team here. We certainly don’t want to jeopardize getting out of the playoffs because we made some moves that may be good for the future but not good for the present.”

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The former power forward acknowledged the team fell short of its goal to win the Stanley Cup on more than one occasion during his and Sweeney’s tenure.

“It would be nice if we sprinkled in a Cup in ’19 and again in ’23, but that never happened,” Sweeney said. “We felt like we’ve given our team a chance to win every year, and it just hasn’t materialized. It’s frustrating for us; we know it’s frustrating for our fan base. Our fans deserve championships. They come out and support like none other. We’re aware of the expectations, and we try to meet and exceed those every year. Right now, it’s a year we’re not really accustomed to.”