Bruins facing big offseason questions
Uncertainty surrounds GM, coach and captain
If there is a Holy Trinity of a hockey organization, it consists of the general manager, coach and the captain.
Rarely has there been so much uncertainty surrounding all three Bruin positions heading into an offseason. There may be more smoke than fire in a couple of instances, of course. There is a faction of the fandom calling for the heads of GM Don Sweeney and coach Bruce Cassidy in the immediate aftermath of the team losing in the Stanley Cup playoffs, so you have to take some of the conjecture with a grain of salt.
But the B’s have not advanced past the second round since going to the finals in 2019, and their Game 7 ouster at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes was the first time they’ve been bounced in the first round since 2017. Change for change’s sake is rarely a wise path to take, but it’s been known to happen, especially in the National Hockey League.
Let’s take a quick look at all three situations separately.
Patrice Bergeron. He has only been captain for two seasons, but Bergeron has been the soul of the team for much longer than that. He can still play at a high level. If his name is not announced as one of the three Selke Award finalists, there should be an investigation.
But the signs that he could be done are all over the place. There was the thick-with-emotion postgame press conferences on Saturday, not only from Bergeron but his long-time linemate Brad Marchand. There was the joyous celebration when he hit the 400th goal-mark in his final regular season home game, one that felt more momentous than just the milestone itself.
And his 18 years in the NHL have been a grind. That he plays a 200-foot game is not just hockey pablum. He has sustained myriad injuries over those nearly two decades, including a handful of concussions. Just this year, he suffered a broken nose, a head laceration and a cut just under his right eye that was far too close for comfort. For the last several years, he’s also dealt with a chronic groin injury that forces him to take a lot of practice days off.
If the soon-to-be 37-yearold Bergeron chose this time to walk away, no soul with any sense would begrudge him anything.
But boy, his absence would leave a gigantic hole where the Bruins’ heart has been for many years.
Bruce Cassidy. It could be argued that this was Cassidy’s finest coaching job. The 51 wins are the most regular-season wins since the B’s won the President’s Trophy in 2014. He was given a handful of new players, some of whom seemed to have very particular ideas on how they could succeed, and molded them into the team’s fabric, making the B’s one of the three best teams in the league in the NHL since Jan. 1. He juggled an unorthodox goalie situation with Tuukka Rask’s aborted comeback attempt as smoothly as one could have hoped. And in the playoff series against a team that had owned the B’s in the regular season, he managed to get to a Game 7, and that was after losing his No. 2 defenseman (Hampus Lindholm) for three and half games and his No. 1 blueliner (Charlie McAvoy) for one.
From the glass-halfempty viewpoint, you could argue that if he had dropped David Pastrnak to the second line sooner, maybe a Game 7 would have been in the friendly confines of the Garden.
Like any top level coach, Cassidy is demanding, and not every player responds well to that. But unlike some coaches, he chooses not to insult anyone’s intelligence by pretending a player’s performance is just fine when it’s clearly not. And his tough assessments are doled out matter-of-factly, not spiced with belittling sarcasm, and always given to the player first before his blunt evaluations are given publicly. If a player has a problem with that, I’m not sure I’d want the player.
In short, Cassidy is a damn good coach.
Don Sweeney. The disastrous 2015 draft is an albatross that will forever hang over Sweeney, and it is a critical part of his resume. But it’s not like he hasn’t drafted anyone of consequence. The next great Bruin defenseman (McAvoy, 2016) was taken with the 14th pick and, with the exception of Auston Matthews, there is not a player taken ahead of McAvoy for who you’d rather have than the defenseman. He also drafted what looks like the goalie of the future (Jeremy Swayman, 2017) in the fourth round. Those are two pretty big foundational pieces.
Sweeney has also made some solid moves to retool the roster for the near future. His acquisition of Taylor Hall and Curtis Lazar for Anders Bjork and a second-round pick was a Sinden-esque theft. Lindholm is a solid No. 2 defenseman, either playing with or behind McAvoy.
But aside from the Lindholm pick-up, Sweeney’s acquisitions last summer provided decidedly mixed results. Erik Haula found his groove in the second half of the regular season, but did not provide much spark in the playoffs. Conversely, Derek Forbort had an OK regular season, but was a puck-eating revelation in the playoffs. Linus Ullmark was very much a part of the second half resurgence and at the very least should be a solid 1B to Swayman for three more years. Nick Foligno, who signed a twoyear deal worth $3.8 million, brought character and spunk but very little scoring and he was relegated to a fourth line role. Tomas Nosek was not obtained for his offense, but zero goals since January 2 is not acceptable. It is also fair to find fault in the lack of a depth forward at the trade deadline, especially with how the bottom six failed to produce in the playoffs.
Perhaps Sweeney’s best attribute, however, may be the most important as we look to the future. He has done a good job of locking up his own stars. And Pastrnak has just one more year left at the incredibly team-friendly price of $6.66 million. He can and will get a lot more. But Sweeney has done a good job of coming to agreements with players on fair deals yet without the player looking for every last cent. A Pastrnak extension is the most important big ticket item in the near future, and Sweeney has proven he can get a deal like that done.