HALL PRIMED FOR NEXT CHAPTER WITH BRUINS
Former Hart Trophy winner happy to escape NHL purgatory
‘Taylor Hall is a Boston Bruin.” If you are a citizen of the Bruins’ Twitterverse, you’ve no doubt come across that sentence, typed occasionally by fans.
It’s not meant as just a simple declarative sentence; it’s more of a “pinch-me, isit-really-real” articulation to convey the joy that the B’s not only obtained the onetime Hart Trophy winner for a very minimal price from the Buffalo Sabres, but that he then also signed a quite reasonable extension that will pay him $6 million annually for the next four years.
MVP-type of players still in their prime — Hall is only 29 — usually come at a much steeper price, on both the trade and the free agent market.
But Hall never bothered with free agency. Since he arrived here with Curtis Lazar for Anders Bjork and a second round pick at the trade deadline last year, Hall has made it clear he wants to be a Boston Bruin. He knows what it’s like to be in the searing spotlight from his formative years as an Edmonton Oiler. He knows what it’s like to play in a hockey outpost as a Coyote short-timer. Everything about the Bruins’ situation seemed just right for Hall.
And as of now, as the B’s are about to open the 202122 season at the Garden on Saturday night against the Dallas Stars, it seems as if Hall himself could be the one typing that aforementioned fanboy sentence.
“First and foremost, I’ve wanted to be on a team like this, a team where we’re expecting to get 100 points, expecting to be in the playoffs and do some damage when we’re there. I wanted to be on a good team, a team that can have some sustained success,” said Hall earlier this week at Warrior Ice Arena.
“And then when I got here, I just saw the level of camaraderie between the guys and how good the guys were in that locker room. Once I saw those two things, and combine that with how nice the city is, and I like playing in the East, I like the travel schedule, a market like this is pretty appealing to me and from there it was pretty easy.”
Since signing just prior to the opening of free agency, Hall has settled in as a Bostonian. He moved out of his temporary place near the Garden and bought a home in the Seaport with his fiancée Rachel, giving him a settled-in feeling he says will make him “more clearminded and, most of the time, a better athlete.” After a nomadic couple of years — after winning the Hart in New Jersey in 2017-18, he was dealt mid-season in 2019-20 to Arizona, then signed a one-year deal in Buffalo before last season — stability was very important to him.
Hall also got a taste of what being a pro athlete in Boston can be like, throwing out the ceremonial pitches at Fenway Park on Sept. 24 with teammates Nick Foligno and Craig Smith before a Red Sox-Yankees game.
“It’s an awesome city,” said the 2010 first overall pick. “It has so much to offer for myself, my fiancée, everyone that comes in. Myself, Foligno and Smitty to be doing that, we all kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Wow, this is awesome.’ Just a bucket list kind of thing. And I feel like when you play in a city like Boston, those opportunities are out there for you that might not be available in other cities. And obviously they care about the Bruins a lot here. That’s a cool feeling to have. But it’s different than in Canada. In Canada, they’re college football-crazy about their hockey teams. Where in Boston, they’re passionate fans and they’re knowledgeable. But at the same time, when you’re out walking around town, it’s not overbearing. We know how much support we have in the city and I think it’s a great balance between the two.”
Hall skated last spring with elite level playmaker David Krejci and the Bruins still got bounced in the second round. Now Krejci is back in the Czech Republic, and it’s hard to rationalize the B’s are better for it. There’s also the question of the goaltending. Is rookie Jeremy Swayman ready? Will Linus Ullmark show himself to be the player the B’s management thought he was when they dropped $20 million on him over four years? Will Tuukka Rask reenter the mix at mid-season?
The issues don’t stop there. The B’s sunk a fair amount of money in bolstering the bottom six, hiring Foligno (2 x $3.8 million), Erik Haula (2 x $2.375 million) and Tomas Nosek (2 x 1.75 million) and it’s not yet clear where all the pieces fit.
But perhaps the most urgent question facing the B’s is whether Charlie Coyle is the right fit to step up a rung in the lineup and fill Krejci’s shoes between Hall and Smith. The hope is that Hall’s immense talent will be able to take some of the focus off Coyle so they can both succeed.
“(Hall) adds an element on our left side with speed and certainly hockey sense and creativity,” said team president Cam Neely. “I think he can drive a little more offense than necessarily needing a centerman like the one he lost in Krejci.”
While not placing too much importance in the one preseason game in which they played together — and looked quite copacetic — Hall is confident that this pairing will work.
“I know Krech is a great player and has been a great Bruin. But I think a lot of Charlie Coyle as a player, even before I got here. We were in the same draft, I played against him for a long time,” said Hall. “And whoever the centerman was going to be, I think Smitty and I have some versatility to our game that we can play a rush game, we can play a cycle game, and I feel like Charlie fits both of those.”
Hall will also be able to take a healthy bite out of a situation that he only was able to nibble at last year — playing behind an All-Star in Brad Marchand and his explosive line with Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak. Hall’s line should get more favorable matchups and in turn boost the productivity.
“That’s our job as the second line,” said Hall. “A lot of first lines around the league, they don’t play against the other teams top lines and maybe they get the cushier matchups. But here with (Patrice Bergeron), Pasta and Marchy, they play against the top lines, the top D pairs and then most of the time they have success against them. And that allows us to not necessarily play against weaker competition but maybe take advantage of matchups that are in our favor. I feel like we did that last year with Krech on the line and I don’t see that being a problem this year with Coyle.”
It worked last year. While the offense stalled in the playoff series against the Islanders, Hall helped the B’s solidify a playoff spot down the stretch by notching 14 points (8-6) in the final 16 games. In the first round, he scored a huge, gritty goal late in the third period of Game 2 against Washington, changing the complexion of the series that the B’s won in five games after losing Game 1.
Once Hall put on a Bruins sweater, it didn’t take long for him cast aside the confidence-deficient shell of himself that he himself described to Boston reporters upon his arrival from Buffalo. In 37 games he had just two goals and 17 assists for the Sabres. Hall said he didn’t even want to examine how he was able to turn the page so quickly.
“It’s in the past and I feel like I found my game, so it’s not much to think about. There was a lot of things in Buffalo that you just want to forget, right? And move on,” said Hall. “Not everyone’s career is Brad Marchand’s and Bergy’s, a constant rise. There’s a lot of ups and downs that you have to face and you come out of those usually as a better person and better player. I’m happy to be here. I feel like it was a good fit for both sides. I think we both benefited from that and to sign a decently long-term contract at the end of the day was all I was looking for.”
And there’s a fandom eager to see what’s next for Taylor Hall, now that he is indeed a Boston Bruin.