Plenty to answer for
At playoff time, B’s beg questions
For the first time in three years, it’s OK to feel good about the direction of the Bruins. With some high-end prospect talent knocking on the door, the B’s were able to pull off the rebuild-on-the-fly this year, making the playoffs while still retooling. GM Don Sweeney’s faith in Bruce Cassidy has proven to be well-placed. All that’s left for the GM to remove the “interim” tag at season’s end to erase any notions of instability.
Don’t let the tremendous job Cassidy did in turning this team around in a short period fool you, though. If you really think they’re a .750 team, then God bless your Black-and-Gold heart. We, on the other hand, see plenty of questions with this roster, ones that go beyond the very iffy health of Torey Krug. If the B’s can find some positive answers, then they might have a chance to be more than a one-and-done team. This is hockey, after all, and strange things happen.
1. What can we expect from the “second” and “third” line?
We insert those quotes because those lines, especially the one led by center Ryan Spooner, have been surpassed at times by the nominal fourth line of Dominic Moore-Riley Nash-Noel Acciari in minutes. The B’s need more. In the playoffs, teams’ first two lines often cancel each other out and the team with the better third unit survives. Spooner is without an even-strength point since March 15, a span of 12 games. He is still very valuable on the power play, where he can use his speed to his advantage, but he’s got to step it up on 5-on-5.
It’s not all about Spooner, though. (Frank Vatrano is 16 games without a goal.) The construction of the units has been troublesome, too. The best fit as the third-line right winger has been Drew Stafford, but he’s been pulled up to the second line and forced to play left wing because the B’s all season have not been able to find a suitable natural left shot for the David Krejci line.
2. Can Brandon Carlo keep it up?
The 20-year-old rookie, who has spent most of the season on the top pair with Zdeno Chara, hasn’t had too many “uh-oh” moments lately. The Colorado kid has been pretty darn impressive down the stretch with his assertiveness and aggressiveness, but the playoffs are a different matter. Every little mistake, and he’ll make a few of them, becomes magnified. But perhaps he’s among the certain players who raise their game when the playoffs begin.
3. Is David Pastrnak ready for his closeup?
Pastrnak enjoyed the breakout season everyone knew he had in him, even if it did come a little earlier than expected for the 20-yearold. Time and space to create are a lot harder to find in the postseason, though. Just take a look back at Evgeny Kuznetsov’s 2016. He had had a spectacular sophomore season in North America, posting 20 goals and 77 points, but managed just a goal and an assist in 12 playoff games. You never know until it happens, but Pastrnak does not seem like the kind of player who’ll shrink from the big moment. The game he played last week against Tampa Bay, after Victor Hedman rammed his face into the glass, was impressive.
4. What role, if any, can the New-B’s play?
Sweeney has left the option open for defenseman Charlie McAvoy and center Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson to play. Could JFK supplant Spooner as the third-line center? Spooner brings value on the power play, so you wouldn’t think so, but you never know. Would they shoehorn McAvoy into the lineup? They would probably have to move Kevan Miller to the left side to insert the right-shooting McAvoy, which would weaken Miller’s game, but the B’s believe McAvoy’s a high-end talent. His first couple of games in the AHL have done nothing to dispel that.
The player who would best fill a need, however, would be Anders Bjork, whose Notre Dame team was knocked out of the Frozen Four on Thursday. A gifted leftshot winger, he would fit in perfectly with Krejci, which in turn would allow the B’s to drop Stafford to the third line and to his natural side. Whether or not he’s ready won’t be known until he’s signed and tossed in the mix.
5. Does Tuukka Rask have a Conn Smythe run in him?
Rask is like most goalies in that his play has usually waxed and waned with how his team performed in front of him. Special netminders can elevate their teams to be something that they’re really not. It’s a good bet that the Montreal Canadiens would have been scrapping for a playoff slot with the B’s if they did not have Carey Price. If the B’s want to go far, they will need Rask to step up like he’s never done before. He took them to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals in 2013, but that was with a much better team.
Vesey just regular rookie
The Bruins have many promising prospects, but it’s best to temper your immediate expectations. Not every kid is a phenom.
Just look at Jimmy Vesey. The young Harvard grad, who had most NHL teams begging for an opportunity just to talk to the free agent last summer, had an OK first season with the Rangers — 15 goals, 26 points and a minus-11 going into the weekend. He has struggled down the stretch, scoring just one goal in 22 games, and last week got the healthy scratch treatment.
All part of the early education of a young player, just not one that got the superstar treatment.
In hindsight, the North Reading native was probably wise to turn down his hometown team. No doubt his current struggles would be magnified here.
Ringing in discontent
NHL owners and their agent, commissioner Gary Bettman, had to have known they’d get some serious backlash from their decision not to send players to the Olympics in South Korea next season, but you have to wonder if they knew just how hard the players and their own formidable agent, Don Fehr, would dig in. Fehr did some serious saber-rattling in a Toronto radio interview last week.
“If the notion is that players will just say, ‘Oh well, the CBA didn’t provide for it’ or ‘We wish it were different’ — and we could just go on with life as usual or as if this hadn’t happened,” he told Sportsnet 590, “I think that’s a very, very, very unlikely possibility.”
Alex Ovechkin is already saying he’s going to the Games anyway. His Capitals teammate and Russian countryman Kuznetsov echoed that. Does the league really want to risk the PR disaster of a mass exodus next winter? This fight is not worth it.