Familiar foes of B’s in Cup final
Reinforces work Bruins must do in offseason
We all knew that, once the New York Islanders bounced the Bruins in the second round, the aging local team had some roster-fixing to do if it was going to compete for a Stanley Cup next season.
Now it appears they’ll be hardpressed to get out of their division.
That’s right, folks. The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens not only begin a seven-game series for the Cup tonight, they are also playing for bragging rights of the old, soon-to-be-new-again Atlantic Division in which the B’s will once again be a part. Throw in the much-improved Florida Panthers and regular season behemoths Toronto Maple Leafs and the division looks stacked.
Returning his team to elite status, even for just one more kick at the can, will not be an easy task for GM Don Sweeney.
Since they’ve been bounced — and even in the process of being knocked out — it has become clear that the B’s were missing some key elements that both the Islanders and Habs used to get as far as they did — more size and a little bit of nastiness on defense.
The B’s were victimized again by some bad luck on the injury front with first the loss of Kevan Miller and then Brandon Carlo. If they remained healthy, then the B’s very well may have earned the right to lose to the Bolts in the East Finals. Regardless of that fact, the B’s need to add some beef on the back end.
The Islanders’ big boys — Adam Pelech, Scott Mayfield, Ryan Pulock — helped get that team within a goal of beating the Bolts, which was an amazing feat considering Tampa is a super-team that ran a Mack truck through the NHL’s salary cap loophole to keep their power-laden squad together. And as much dizzying firepower that the Lightning have up front, it was their stifling defense led by Ryan McDonagh and Victor Hedman that proved to be the difference.
As much of an uphill climb that the Islanders had against Tampa, even fewer people picked the Canadiens to beat Vegas. While goalie Carey Price is the Habs’ leading Conn Smythe candidate, they would not be where they are today without the work of their back-end bruisers. Shea Weber is close to the player he was in Nashville before injuries derailed his availability and effectiveness in Montreal. Joel Edmundson, whose injury with Carolina was a major factor in the B’s beating the Hurricanes in five games in the bubble playoffs last year, has been a terrific pick up. Both Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry have been very good. All are 6-foot-3 or bigger. Where do the Bruins turn for improvement? There’s the free agent market, always dangerous but even more so in the flat cap world. Still, it might be money well spent. At the head of the class, at least for the B’s needs, would have to be 6-foot7, 255-pound Jamie Oleksiak, who had a good run to the Cup final with Dallas last year. The former Northeastern Husky, 28, is at the sweet spot of his career and will no doubt garner a lot of interest. A cheaper option might be 6-foot-3 Jon Merrill, who played well for a bad Detroit team before being picked up by Montreal at the deadline. Then there’s the trade market. The B’s best chip would be Jake DeBrusk, but they would be selling low on him after a brutal season. DeBrusk is better than what he showed this year, but if it’s determined there’s no place for him on the left side (we happen to think it fit well on the Charlie Coyle’s left, given an extended chance), he’s a chip that should be played.
And that brings us to another issue — the rebuild of the bottom six. We’d be content to see the fourth line built around Curtis Lazar (provided he’s not snatched up in the expansion draft) via in-house competition with Trent Frederic, Cameron Hughes, Chris Wagner, Oskar Steen, Jack Studnicka and Karson Kuhlman.
But the third line will require some outside help. The Isles’ third trio of Kyle Palmieri, JeanGabriel Pageau and Travis Zajac were key difference-makers in their win over the B’s. In turn, that line was outperformed by the Bolts’ third line of Blake Coleman, Yanni Gourde and Barclay Goodrow. Any real Cup contender has to have an effective third line and the B’s did not. Both Coleman and Goodrow are UFAs and Coleman, a left shot but who can play his off wing, could be a good fit with Coyle.
All of this, of course, is contingent on Taylor Hall and David Krejci coming back, and the murky goaltending situation being figured out. The B’s are at a precarious crossroad. They are on the edge of a cliff looking into the abyss of mediocrity or worse.
But they must try to put off a total rebuild as long as they can. Another year or two could give them a chance to draft the next David Pastrnak or Charlie McAvoy instead of the next ... well, take your pick of misses. Another year or two could also get them to a point where the salary cap grows.
But rebuild or not, the B’s have a lot of work in front of them this summer.