Rear Admiral's 2016-17 Boston Bruins Season Preview
Watching Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand dominate at the World Cup was fun to watch as a Bruins fan who wasn’t rooting for Canada. If the maple leaf was going to haul ass, I was glad the Bs two best forwards were leading the way with Sid Crosby. But I also got a different, nagging sense. One that said the Bruins are wasting the prime years of two of their best players.
It’s such a shame to have two such heart-and-soul guys have their efforts go for naught like they have the last two seasons, as the Bs missed out on the post-season in both of them. The dynamic duo is the heartbeat of the Bs offense no matter who fills out the trio (David Pastrnak is on tap). They’re the least of what ails the Bruins. But all they can do is get back at it in the hopes of bringing their team back to relevance in an NHL that is getting increasingly younger, faster, and better. Because treading water beneath the playoff teams is below this city’s standards.
The weak link. The biggest concern of the Bruins, stop me if you heard this one before, is the defense. Other than re-signing deadline acquisition John-Michael Liles, the team didn’t do much to improve the blue line and will once again throw a couple of kids right into the fire to see if they can grab a job. The baptism-by-fire was necessitated because of injuries to Adam McQuaid (upper body, day-to-day) and the similarly-skilled Kevan Miller (hand fracture, six weeks). But big boys Rob O’Gara and Brandon Carlo did impress during camp and the organization now gets to see how they fare when the games matter.
Zdeno Chara is a year older. That’s alright in your 20s but not when you’re a 6’9″ defenseman creeping towards 40. Z actually looked OK in the World Cup when he didn’t need to play top pair minutes but the NHL is a different can of worms. Still, a healthy Chara can still be pretty effective when it comes to snuffing offensive opportunities. It’s just that when it looks bad for the captain, it’s magnified due to that fact he’s over 7 feet tall out there. Looks like he’ll be paired with Carlo to start the year.
Torey Krug enters the first year of his 4-year/$21M deal as an offensive specialist who plays much bigger than his frame. Krug gives you everything he’s got and,with three full seasons under his belt, expect him to take on a bit more of a leadership role. He’s expected to skate with Rob O’Gara, who has (at least) seven inches on him.
Liles should provide stability that was lacking early last season and often snowballed into a shitstorm. He’s not a game-breaker but will provide a solid presence and chip in offensively. His partner Colin Miller has tantalizing skills but hasn’t managed to put them completely together with the mental package yet. If Miller progresses as hoped, he can be an offensive weapon. Joe Morrow, playing on a one year deal, will likely start as the seventh defensman after failing to snag an open job last season. The Bs appeared close to signing Christian Ehrhoff after the German’s showing at the World Cup but he balked after he wasn’t guaranteed a spot. It’s something the team could revisit if things start off shitty. Still, I have nightmares about this become a regularity…
The Metalhead Finn. It hasn’t been a pleasant couple of years for Tuukka Rask either. Though the playoff drought can hardly be pinned on the goalie, he also had his two worst seasons despite cracking 30 wins each year. And begging off the last game of the season with the playoffs on the line, even with a legit pissing-out-your-ass illness, is gonna leave a bad taste in people’s mouths. Rask needs to go back to whatever mental approach he used 2-3 years ago. Because when he’s at the top of his game, he’s among the best on the planet. But when his green defense collapses on itself and leaves the tender out to dry over and over, it’s eventually going to have an effect on even great players. Expect a better Rask this year. Anton Khudobin returns to the place he made his bones to back-up once again (and give the Bs a goalie to expose to Las Vegas in the expansion draft).
Forward, ho. Bergeron is going to miss at least tonight’s opener in Columbus and likely to miss a few more games. The team calls it a lower-body injury and it’s a good possibility he re-aggravated the same ankle injury that has already given him issues (this is why we don’t want you fighting, Patrice.) Either way, huge hole to have in your line-up.
But assuming he comes back relatively soon and is fine, the Bs offense should be the least of their concerns. David Pastrnak will fill the right wing on the Bergeron line and this is an interesting year for the young forward. After bursting on the scene late in the ’14-’15 season, the still-very-young Czech struggled to get on track offensively last year and often looked out of sorts. But playing with that tandem should be beneficial to his game because he’ll get set up more than Ellen in high school. He should improve over last year’s 15 goals in a contract year.
David Krejci finally got surgery so his game shouldn’t be as hindered as it has been the last couple years. He certainly didn’t look like a guy making $7.25M during that time but now that he’s healthy, he should be back in that 20-50–70 area. David Backes is playing center until Bergeron returns then he’ll return to the right side of Krejci. In the playoffs, Backes showed that he still has plenty of gas in the tank, snarl in his game, and goals in his stick. He’ll be a huge signing for the team not only on the ice, where 25-30 goals wouldn’t be a stretch, but also in a locker room that has lacked a commanding vocal presence since Shawn Thornton left for Florida. Due to the plethora of centers on the roster, Ryan Spooner has been slotted to the left of Krejci and frankly, he’s better off playing on an offensive line than trying to center a third/checking line. Danton Heinen will skate in Backes’s spot until Bergeron returns. The University of Denver product went pro last spring after two years of school and will make his NHL debut tonight.
Miami-Ohio product Austin Czarnik, a 5’9″ playmaker, may have been the surprise of camp by snagging an opening night job centering the always hustling Matt Beleskey and resident boo-bird Jimmy Hayes. Czarnik was cleared to play yesterday after Flyers dirtbag Radko Gudas hit him high and late during Saturday’s exhibition game (Gudas deservedly got a six-game suspension for the hit). Beleskey did everything asked of him last year and proved to be a great signing. Hayes, on the other hand, had a rougher time. The Dot rat struggled most of the year and the fans got on him pretty bad. Still, he can undo all of that by rebounding with a better year. Jimmy’s a nice kid who can still turn it around here and I imagine that’s all he wants.
Veteran journeyman (and I mean that as a term of endearment) Dominic Moore will anchor the fourth line as well as chip in on the penalty kill. Moore showed with the Rangers last year that he still has a lot to offer an NHL roster. Plus, Claude will love having a vet on the fourth line again. He’ll likely open up the year playing with Noel Acciari, who got a few looks with the parent club last year, and Riley Nash, an intriguing signing who might chip in 10 goals this year. The Bs called up Tim Schaller for an extra body when they found out Bergeron wouldn’t be playing.
The Bruins were a flawed team last year but one area they didn’t struggle was scoring goals. It shouldn’t be a problem this year either.
Rope. Just how much is the front office going to give Claude this season. It was believed he had a short leash last season but a relatively good start kept the grim reaper at bay. But just how much is he going to get after last year’s late collapse kept them out of the playoffs yet again? Who knows when dealing with this front office. But if the team comes out shitting the bed and they’re looking up at the playoff teams before Turkey Day, the Bs may tap his likely replacement Bruce Cassidy who is already on the bench as an assistant. I get the whole “you won’t find a better coach than Claude” way of thinking. But sometimes it’s about whether another guy may be a better match for a team even if somebody else is a “better coach”. Ideally, this won’t be an issue if the team is playing fine. But nothing is guaranteed with this team.
So, what say you? Despite all of their flaws, the 2015-16 still just missed the playoffs. And despite all the negativity, the team is closer to a contender than a lottery. The bet here is that the 2016-17 version, buoyed by a healthy Krejci, a refocused Rask, and an accountability-demanding Backes, will be better than last year’s and return to the postseason. Third in Northeast.
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