Pundits proved wrong
B’s strong play defies early predictions
It’s always fun around this time of year — now that NHL teams have filled holes, answered their questions and established just what kind of team they are — to look back at previews made just three months earlier.
Where the Bruins were concerned, many prog- nosticators didn’t expect a whole lot this season. Take, for instance, the B’s preview from The Hockey News.
“It could be a tough climb back into the postseason without any additions,” opined THN, which noted that the team’s key addition was defenseman Paul Postma.
Now, just to be clear, yesterday was a snow day in Boston that will be remembered for a long time. It’s
rare that a Bruins game is postponed, like last night’s against the Florida Panthers. There’s no game but that doesn’t mean no story to write.
So we take a look back at the predictions commonly made about this team, most of which weren’t very positive or optimistic — and which turned out to be so wrong.
The B’s have exceeded expectations and built a 2210-6 record to rank second in the Atlantic Division in yesterday’s NHL standings. Since mid-November, this team that so many experts believed was too thin has merely gone 16-3-2.
The identity Bruce Cassidy’s team has built has been so admirable: One that works hard in all three zones night after night, with players who play — and fight — for each other, a club that plays solid defense all over the ice and gets scoring balance from four lines and the back line.
And is one that still has more talent waiting in the wings at AHL Providence.
Goalie Tuukka Rask is playing like a Vezina Trophy contender, and backup Anton Khudobin has been sensational.
So taking a look back — when not looking at the snow pile up in the driveway — hardly any experts saw this coming.
Our apologies to our friends at The Hockey News for reminding readers of their predictions. There certainly have been innumerable not-so-brilliant prediction stories written under this byline. But again, snowy day. So take a look at what THN expected:
“How,” the venerable publication asked in mid-September, “can a team that barely made the playoffs and bowed out in the first round in the weak Eastern Conference expect to improve after doing virtually nothing to its roster in the offseason?”
The Hockey News pointed to a lack of scoring depth, and looked askance at B’s goaltending: “It boggles the mind to consider that GM Don Sweeney did nothing to upgrade the team’s goaltending from last season, a year when the absence of as reliable backup seemed to wear Tuukka Rask down.”
THN also criticized defenseman Zdeno Chara, writing, “Chara is 40 and simply not as effective at either end of the ice as he once was.”
The bottom line for the publication:
“The Bruins are skewing younger these days and nobody really knows how that experiment is going to turn out. If you’re not moving ahead in the NHL these days, you’re falling behind. This looks like a group that is relying on a small core of players to do more than it’s capable of doing.”
Had the Bruins relied only on Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Krejci, David Pastrnak, Rask and a few other veteran core guys, that prediction might have proven 100 percent accurate.
But Sweeney’s plan for three years has been to stockpile draft picks and young talent, and bet the B’s future on the ability of the youngsters to be valuable contributors. As they reach the season’s midpoint next Saturday in Montreal, that bet has paid off handsomely, as Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk, Danton Heinen, Jake DeBrusk, Sean Kuraly and others have drastically reshaped the B’s present and future.
Turns out the Bruins were indeed moving forward, even if not everyone understood that all these youngsters were valuable additions to the roster.
And all those predictions the B’s would miss the playoffs, or at best be first-round cannon fodder, aren’t looking so smart.