The Boston Bruins Are Simultaneously A Powerhouse And An Underdog.
In the 21st century, the city of Boston has become synonymous with sports success- with the NHL’s Bruins being no exception. Over the past decade plus, they have been one of the league’s consistently strongest teams. In 2011, they took home the Stanley Cup, defeating the Vancouver Canucks in a seven game series. This gave the Bruins their first title since 1972, when the team was headlined by the greats like Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. And although they have not replicated that feat in the near decade since 2011, they have accomplished nearly everything else a team can in the league.
Since Bruce Cassidy became head coach of the team in 2017, the Bruins have won at least 100 points in every season, with their offense led by their elite “Perfection Line” of center Patrice Bergeron, left wing Brad Marchand, and right winger David Pastrnak. These three players each bring a unique element- Bergeron’s stellar mix of offense and defense, Marchand’s combination of playmaking and physicality, and Pastrnak’s top tier goal scoring abilities. On defense, the Bs have been anchored by their towering captain Zdeno Chara, and for the past several years their net has been guarded by stalwart goaltender Tuukka Rask.
In 2019, the Bruins returned to the Stanley Cup final, only to fall in a seven game epic to the St. Louis Blues. Falling so short of taking home a second title in a ten year span can only have been a crushing disappointment, but the 2019–20 season saw the team come back arguably even stronger. The Bruins boasted the league’s best regular season record at the time of the COVID-19 induced shutdown. Entering the playoff bubble several months later, the Bruins were naturally one of the favorites in the tournament, but were hampered by a multitude of factors.
The first was the fact that Rask would not be in their net- citing the lack of motivation to be on the ice as opposed to with his family, the goalie controversially left the bubble. Furthermore, Pastrnak found himself beset by injury, missing multiple games in the postseason. It has since also been revealed that Marchand had been playing with a severe sports hernia, one which required surgery in the offseason. Although the team played admirably, they fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the eventual Stanley Cup champions, in five games in the second round.
Although there is no shame in losing to the eventual champions, as the offseason went on, questions began to build up about the Bruins in spite of all of their recent success. Troubling signs began when both Pastrnak and Marchand announced they would be undergoing surgeries to treat their injuries from the previous season. Marchand has recovered more quickly, and is currently back on the ice for the start of Bruins training camp- however, Pastrnak, who tied for the NHL lead in goals last season, will miss at least the start of the 2021 campaign. Torey Krug, the team’s top offensive defenseman last season, departed for the St. Louis Blues in free agency.
Not only will the Bruins be without their leading goal scorer to start the season, but they will now be without their captain for all of it. Throughout their entire run of the past decade plus, the team has been under the leadership of Zdeno Chara, but he was an unrestricted free agent after the 2019–20 season. In a shocking turn of events, the six foot seven defenseman signed a one year contract with the Washington Capitals, leaving Boston after fourteen years.
While Chara, at forty-three years old the NHL’s oldest player, was far removed from his statistical prime, the loss of a captain can have repercussions beyond the scoresheet for an NHL team. The 2018–19 San Jose Sharks were one of hockey’s best, reaching the Western Conference final and losing to the eventual champion Blues. But the departure of captain Joe Pavelski led to “turmoil” in the San Jose locker room, which may have played a role in the team’s collapse into one of the NHL’s worst in the 2019–20 season.
Boston will hopefully not suffer that same problem this year- Bergeron and David Krejci are alternate captains and longtime veterans who were with the team when they won the Stanley Cup- the team will need them more than ever to provide a stabilizing force on and off the ice. On the other end of the spectrum, the Bruins will also need their young players to step up. Without Chara and Krug, twenty-three year old Charlie McAvoy will have to step into the role of no.1 defenseman- he has shown signs that he is capable, but now needs to prove it full time.
On the offensive side, top prospect Jack Studnicka will slot in on the top line with Bergeron and Marchand, in place of Pastrnak to start the season. The team also acquired twenty-five year old winger Ondrej Kase in a trade last season from the Anaheim Ducks. Kase has shown flashes of scoring ability but has yet to put together a consistent, healthy season- Boston will need that from him this year more than ever. And Bergeron and Marchand will at minimum need to continue, if not surpass, their previous near-MVP levels.
Last season, Boston coach Bruce Cassidy took home the Jack Adams Award, given each year to recognize the top coach in the league. If the Bruins come even close to replicating their performance from last year, Cassidy will deserve a repeat win and then some. Going into the season the team is facing the most adversity it has in its entire tenure, with some observers even speculating that this is the beginning of the end of the team’s competitive window. Their mission this year will be to prove wrong this unprecedented level of doubt, but if anything, the whispers of a closing window may be just the fuel these Boston Bruins need.
