Boston Bruins: Patrice Bergeron and Marchand lead Stanley Cup charge
Despite a less than stellar summer, the Boston Bruins still have what it takes to contend for the Stanley Cup thanks to Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand.
The Boston Bruins entered last season with a lot of questions. Most of them got answered thanks to a surprisingly impressive young core of forwards. However, the Bruins eventually fell in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
As usual, Boston was led by Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and Zdeno Chara. That’s nothing new, as this trio has led them for quite some time. But for the first time in a while, the Bruins had a strong supporting cast behind them.
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Rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy was overlooked thanks to a strong freshman class, but still finished fifth in the Calder Trophy race. David Pastrnak built on his strong 2016-17 season to put up 80 points in 82 games.
Defenseman Torey Krug set a career-high with 14 goals, 45 assists, and 59 points. Rookie forwards Danton Heinen and Jake DeBrusk combined for 90 points (47 points and 43 points respectively). Ryan Donato built on a strong Winter Olympics to put up nine points in 12 games.
The Bruins didn’t have the huge offseason everyone expected them to have. They were in the running for star center John Tavares, but he eventually chose the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Bruins enter the 2018-19 season with very high hopes. Can they build on their outstanding 2017-18 season?
Offseason Review
Additions: D John Moore, F Joakim Nordstrom, G Jaroslav Halak, F Sean Kuraly (re-signed), F Chris Wagner
Departures: F Rick Nash, F Riley Nash, G Anton Khudobin, D Nick Holden. F Tim Schaller, F Brian Gionta, F Austin Czarnik
Moore should help fill out the Bruins defensive pairings. He’ll likely be on either the second pairing with Krug or the third pairing with youngster Matt Grzelcyk. Giving Moore a five-year deal is a bit questionable, but his $2.75 million cap hit is reasonable.
Nordstrom and Wagner should provide forward depth, but don’t expect either to see significant minutes. Kuraly did a solid job on the Bruins fourth line and will likely reprise this role in 2018-19. Halak’s job will be to replace Khudobin as Tuukka Rask‘s backup.
Strengths
Elite Talent
You need superstars to win Stanley Cups. The Bruins are extremely lucky, as they have no fewer than two elite players. Patrice Bergeron narrowly missed out on his fifth Selke Trophy and put up the highest points per game total (0.98) of his career. He had his third season with at least 30 goals in his past five seasons.
Brad Marchand had his second consecutive season with 85 points despite missing 14 games. Ever since he signed his huge long-term extension, he’s been bent on proving he deserves it. Marchand’s dirty play makes him a liabliity at times, but he makes up for it a lot more often than he doesn’t.
Pastrnak is a borderline elite talent. He’s not quite elite, but he’s darn close. Pastrnak has seen his point total increase each season and, at just 22 years old, his best days are ahead of him and he should only get better.
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Young Depth
The Bruins have accumulated an impressive core of young players to complement their best players. Heinen and DeBrusk stood out, but even past them, Boston has a number of young, exciting role players.
Their best young player is McAvoy, who did outstanding as Chara’s primary defensive partner. The Bruins trust him a lot at even strength, as he finished 25th in the league in even strength ice time per game. It’ll be hard for him to get more power play time with Krug leading the top unit, but it’s hard not to argue McAvoy is Boston’s best defenseman right now. Even if you think he isn’t, he will be very soon.
Donato, Grzelcyk, Brandon Carlo, and Anders Bjork are some other young Bruins players to keep an eye on.
Weaknesses
Goaltending
Rask has been a solid goalie for the Boston Bruins. However, goaltenders can be difference makers one way or the other in the NHL. Last season in the playoffs, Rask was more of a negative difference maker than a positive one. His .903 save percentage in the postseason was the lowest of his career.
During the regular season, Rask posted a .917 save percentage and had a GSAA of 6.45 during all situations, which put him in the top 25 among goalies with at least 2,000 minutes played. All of this points to him being an above-average goalie, but not a great one.
Last season, the Bruins had Khudobin to serve as his backup. Halak is, on paper, a pretty significant downgrade. Part of his 2017-18 struggles was likely due to the New York Islanders defense, so maybe playing behind the Bruins defense will help his numbers. But if it doesn’t, the Bruins don’t have many internal options.
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Second Line
On paper, the Boston Bruins are going to have a stellar first line (even if Pastrnak isn’t a part of it), an at worst above average third line, and a solid fourth line. However, their second line is a bit of a question mark. And if you look at the recent Stanley Cup champions, each of them has had at least two really good scoring lines. The Bruins only have one.
Perhaps that explains their pursuit of Tavares. After losing Riley Nash, the Bruins will turn to David Krejci to be their second-line center. Injuries aside, he’s a pretty solid player (44 points in 64 games). But the Bruins need their second line to be great to become true Stanley Cup champions.
Burning Questions
Can They Beat Their Division?
The way the playoffs are set up, the Bruins, unless they get a wild card spot, will have to emerge on top of at least one of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning (potentially both) to make it to the Eastern Conference Final.
Back in April, the Bruins topped the Leafs in seven games. However, Toronto has improved significantly by signing Tavares. The Leafs will have a younger and faster team than the Bruins. And even though the Lightning did nothing to significantly improve themselves this offseason, they’re still the team to beat in the Atlantic Division.
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Should They Go All-In?
Last season, the Boston Bruins decided against going all-in for a Stanley Cup. Considering their young players, they were likely smart to do so. But should the Bruins do it this year? That’s the million dollar question.
On one hand, the Bruins have an impressive young group of players that should keep their Stanley Cup window open for a while. And they might be reluctant to make a huge acquisition after trading for Rick Nash didn’t work out in 2018.
But on the other hand, let’s face it. Bergeron and Marchand are on the wrong side of 30 years old. Chara is 40. Neither has been hit hard by old age yet. But how much longer is that going to be the case? The Bruins have a chance to win the Stanley Cup this season. It’s better to go down swinging than to not even pick up your bat.
Season Prediction
The Boston Bruins are bringing back most of the roster that they had last season. Moore is an improvement over their third pairing options from last year, so they’re likely better there. Their forwards are likely slightly better as long as Bergeron and Marchand keep up their elite production. While the Bruins goaltending is worse, that’s likely not a huge deal.
However, with the Lightning being as great as they are and the Leafs improving, Boston might be the third best team in the Atlantic Division. That’s not a good place to be in, as the Bruins would likely have to start on the road in each postseason series.
Despite this, Boston has a pretty well-balanced team. They’ve got an offense that can score at will, a defense that should be pretty good, and (hopefully) goaltending that shouldn’t cost them too many games. If the Bruins’ younger players can take another step forward, that would help alleviate any regression their older players (such as Krejci, Chara and David Backes) might face.
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If they had got Tavares, they’d probably be Stanley Cup contenders. But even as they are currently built, the Bruins are one of the 10-ish teams who could feasibly win the Stanley Cup. Will that be good enough?