The Boston Bruins’ time in the Toronto NHL Bubble was cut short on August 31 when they were defeated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the playoffs, bringing a pandemic-riddled season to a disappointing end. In a very similar fashion to their 2018 second-round series against the Lightning, the Bruins took the first game only to lose the next four, as they were unable to keep up with Tampa’s high-tempo offense or find rhythm against a well-oiled defense.
The Bruins dealt with a good amount of controversy going into the playoffs, starting with an 0-3 record in the Round Robin tournament and landing a fourth-place seeding despite winning the President’s Trophy in the regular season. Two games into their first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes, starting goaltender Tuukka Rask, a Vezina Trophy finalist this year, opted out of the playoffs to attend to a family emergency. This brought in backup goalie Jaroslav Halak, who held a .919 save percentage in 31 regular season games. Through 9 playoff games, Halak had a .902 SV% and faced an average of 28.4 shots per game.
It may feel like Boston’s loss this year was different than others. There is speculation about the future of the team’s veteran core, with captain Zdeno Chara turning 44 in six months. Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, and Rask are all reaching their mid-thirties. This group of players, who have been together since Boston’s 2011 championship, now have an increasingly small window to win the Stanley Cup. In addition to an aging core, the Bruins are also on the verge of losing Torey Krug, a key player in their locker room since 2013 and one that has proved to be a highly valuable defensemen and leader in the NHL. Krug is set to be an unrestricted free agent this season, and has made it clear that he is looking for a much bigger contract than what the Bruins can afford with a flat salary cap. While Boston has a healthy reserve of young, skilled defenseman like Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk to fill his shoes on the blueline, the loss of a player like Krug will undoubtedly sting.
There are many other roster decisions facing Boston’s management this offseason. Jake DeBrusk and Grzelcyk, important players in the team’s youth movement, are restricted free agents this summer and expecting pay raises. There is talk in Boston media about what a trade with DeBrusk would look like, and Grzelcyk is projected as one of the top targets for the upcoming Seattle Expansion Draft in 2021 if he does not make the list of protected players. In addition to Krug, Joakim Nordstrom and Chara are UFAs, the latter of which would most likely see a demotion from his first-line defensive pairing with McAvoy if he returns for another NHL season. Overall, the Bruins’ front office has no shortage of decisions to make when it comes to next season’s roster, not only tasked with evaluating what failed this past season, but also to judge if this current set of players is capable of another Stanley Cup contention.
The team’s outlook for this offseason is not all doom and gloom, however. Bruce Cassidy was named the NHL’s Coach of the Year when he was given the Jack Adams Award on September 9, a testimony to how he has turned this team around after taking over behind the bench in 2017. Despite inconsistent showings from second-line wingers DeBrusk and Ondrej Kase, there was strong evidence that the two of them will match extremely well with their centerman Krejci, finally filling a hole that has existed on the second line for years. Not only did the trio show sparks of chemistry in their brief stint together, but the wingers seemed to bring Krejci’s game to life in the playoffs, with the centerman producing 12 points in 13 games and making more than a few highlight reels. These playoffs also hosted admirable performances from McAvoy and several of the team’s young players. McAvoy was the team’s leader in ice-time throughout the postseason, averaging over 25 minutes per game, and once again proved himself to be the future of Boston’s blueline.
The Bruins will face a few changes in the upcoming months, but there is a strong hope that the team can build off of the roster they have and address the flaws that ultimately got them booted from the 2020 playoffs early. With a flat salary cap offseason looming, it will not be easy to find solutions to the team’s lack of goal-scoring finish or reinforcements for the defensive group. But considering the circumstances that surrounded this season, it is also possible that many players on the Bruins’ roster will perform better next season in a pandemic-free environment, allowing secondary players like DeBrusk, Kase, Charlie Coyle, and Anders Bjork to meet the high expectations of their roles. What remains to be seen is which players from this season’s roster will carry over, and which players will no longer be on the team going into the 2020-2021 season.
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