The Current State of the Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins currently sit at fourth place in the NHL’s East Division. The third-place New York Islanders hold a one-point lead on the black and gold while the fifth-place New York Rangers trail the B’s by just four points as the Broadway Blueshirts attempt to make a final playoff push. With just eight games remaining in the 56-game regular season, let’s take a look at how the Bruins look in all three phases of the game.
Offense
Since the addition of Taylor Hall, the Bruins have looked like a team rejuvenated. Before acquiring Hall, the offense was clicking at a rate of 2.72 goals per game which was good for 19th in the league. In the nine games they’ve played with him, the Bruins have scored 3.22 goals per game – tied for ninth in the NHL over that stretch. David Krejci, Craig Smith and Hall have arguably been the Bruins’ best line as of late.
The first line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak looked like their old selves after a monster game on Tuesday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins. According to Natural Stat Trick, the three outscored the Pens 1-0 and held a 6-1 advantage in high danger scoring chances. Marchand and Pastrnak continue to produce at better than a point per game pace while Bergeron leads the NHL with a 61.6 face-off winning percentage.
Although head coach Bruce Cassidy has jumbled the third and fourth lines in recent games, the fourth line has looked much improved with the addition of center Curtis Lazar. The main concern of the offense is the third line. Charlie Coyle hasn’t scored in two months and Jake DeBrusk was a healthy scratch on Tuesday.
The third line was the lifeblood of the Bruins’ offense during their run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2019. It sure wouldn’t hurt to have a trio in the bottom six that is equally as effective.
Defense
Considering the fact that Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk, Brandon Carlo, Kevan Miller, Jeremy Lauzon, and Jakub Zboril – the six starting defensemen for the Bruins on opening night – have all missed time with injury this season I’d say the defense is in pretty good shape at the moment.
Mike Reilly has fit in nicely with the group and has inserted himself into the top four as a strong puck-moving defenseman, Grzelcyk and McAvoy continue to do their thing as they boast the second-best Corsi For Percentage (60.23%) among qualified defensive pairs and Miller has filled in wherever he’s been needed.
Lauzon and Zboril have certainly seen their fair share of struggles and with Reilly now in the mix, Carlo (hopefully) nearing a return and Connor Clifton seeing some more time, both could find themselves watching games from the stands come playoff time.
Goaltending
After getting pulled in Friday’s loss to the Buffalo Sabres, netminder Tuukka Rask responded with a strong performance in Tuesday’s 3-1 victory over the Penguins, stopping 25 of 26 shots. The only goal was scored on a perfect shot from Jeff Carter that ricocheted off the post and in.
With Rask back to full health the real question becomes this: who should be the backup? Rookie Jeremy Swayman has been unconscious this season, tallying a .946 save percentage and a 1.57 goals against average in seven games. Halak on the other hand has just recently returned from COVID protocol. He saw his first action in 20 days on Friday when he replaced Rask and gave up an ugly goal that turned out to be the game-winner.
With the way Swayman has been playing it’s difficult not to say that he should be the backup. That being said, Halak does have 39 games of playoff experience under his belt. In the end, I expect Halak to be the backup heading into the playoffs as the Bruins don’t want to rush the 22-year-old Swayman who is destined to become the Bruins’ next number one goaltender.
Prediction
In my season preview that I wrote in January, I said that the Bruins would take home the Cup. They undoubtedly have had their ups and downs this season but I’m sticking to it. The Boston Bruins will be your 2021 Stanley Cup Champions.
