Five questions to ponder as training camp opens
1 HOW WILL THE NEW GOALIE TANDEM – OR TRIO – PLAY OUT? Everything begins and ends with goaltending. And the B’s goaltending situation is different in 2021. For nearly a decade, we knew that Tuukka Rask was the No. 1 goalie and, in the last couple of years, Jaroslav Halak was a capable 1B.
Neither goalie will be in the picture to start the season. After being bumped out of the picture by an ill-timed bout with COVID-19 and the emergence of Jeremy Swayman, Halak signed with Vancouver. Rask, the winningest goalie in franchise history and still just 34, remains unsigned while he rehabs from offseason hip surgery. The team will start the season with newly signed Linus Ullmark, whose solid play behind
2 IS CHARLIE COYLE READY FOR FULLTIME SECOND-LINE DUTY? Sweeney addressed needs across the board: goaltending, defense and forward. But when David Krejci decided to go home to the Czech Republic to play at least a season, and then seemingly removed all hope of a late season return to Boston, it made for yet another foundational change every bit as momentous as Zdeno Chara’s departure before last season.
For years, the B’s have boasted an excellent onetwo punch down the middle with Patrice Bergeron and Krejci. No more. Coyle will get first crack at filling Krejci’s skates. He’s coming off a season in which he played through a knee injury that required offseason surgery, so it stands to reason that he’ll be in a better position to succeed. And getting a chance to play with Hall should help him elevate his game. But there are no guarantees.
3 DID THE B’S DO ENOUGH TO BOLSTER THE DEFENSE? After the B’s put in five years of development, the rugged Jeremy Lauzon was snatched up by the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft. Kevan Miller retired after battling knee woes. While Miller was in and out of the lineup last year, the B’s were clearly a better team with him in it. With those two gone, that’s a lot of size, toughness and penalty-killing out the door. The B’s got some (though not all) of it back with the signing of 6-foot4, 220-pound left-shot blueliner Derek Forbort, whose penchant for blocking shots (115 last year, fifth among NHL D-men) should help in decreasing the low-to-high plays that find the back of the net. Coach Bruce Cassidy said in the offseason that he’d like to see how Forbort looks on the top pair with McAvoy, which would break up a mostly successful tandem of McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. Right now the reserves, which no doubt will be tapped at some point, are led by two lefties John Moore, coming off hip surgery, and Jakub Zboril. a bad Sabres team earned him a four-year, $20 million deal, and Swayman in net, with the idea that Rask will eventually re-sign when his health is up to snuff.
But what if Ullmark’s game continues to blossom now that he’s out of Buffalo and Swayman gives management no good reason to send him to Providence, other than that they can do so without exposing him to waivers? Things could get a little sticky.
The team response to that question would no doubt be ‘Well, that’s a good problem to have.’ But it would be a problem nonetheless, and it would come right in the middle of the season. In goaltending, three’s rarely company.
4 HOW WILL THE BOTTOM SIX SHAKE OUT? One of the chief culprits in the B’s six-game loss to the Islanders was the lack of production from the bottom six. Sweeney went about addressing it in the offseason. While he let Sean Kuraly walk, Sweeney acquired Erik Haula, Nick Foligno and Tomas Nosek, all of whom can play wing or the middle. Throw in returnees Curtis Lazar, Jake DeBrusk, Chris Wagner, Trent Frederic, Karson Kuhlman, Anton Blidh plus young hopefuls like Jack Studnicka, Oskar Steen and Cameron Hughes, and we should see a high level of competition for spots. Competition breeds success. And if that competition leaves the team with more capable bodies than openings, the B’s could work the trade market to get more D help.
5 WHO IS THE REAL JAKE DeBRUSK? Those who would trade DeBrusk for the proverbial “bag of pucks” tend to forget he was the second-line left wing with 27 goals on a team that fell one win shy of a Stanley Cup in 2019. Sweeney has surely gotten inquiries on DeBrusk, but so far he’s resisted moving him – and wisely so. Making a rash judgment on such an unusual season with Covid and the attendant restrictions would not make sense unless a great deal came down the pike. And with the way DeBrusk struggled last year (5-9-14 in 41 games), its hard to believe a deal that would be beneficial to the Bruins was sitting on the GM’s table. The B’s need to get DeBrusk right, and that should start with keeping him on the left wing on the third line behind Brad Marchand and Taylor Hall. Then it’s up to the 24-year-old DeBrusk to earn his keep.