The Boston Bruins are an interesting team in the sense that just about every spot on the club’s forward core is set. No, honestly. You have your first line featuring
Milan Lucic,
Nathan Horton, and
David Krejci. Then there’s the second line, and perhaps their most dangerous, headlined by defending Selke-winner
Patrice Bergeron and electrifying third-year players
Brad Marchand and
Tyler Seguin. The fourth line, also known as the Merlot Line, features an incredible mix of speed (
Danny Paille), brawn (
Shawn Thornton), and smarts (
Gregory Campbell).
Then, there’s the club’s third line, centered by
Chris Kelly, with
Rich Peverley on one side, and uhh - uhm - somebody on the other.
A spot reserved at one point reserved for 2009 first rounder
Jordan Caron, but opened up due to Caron’s upper-body injury, one that will keep the 22-year-old out of action for
about three weeks, the battle for a spot on the Boston top-nine is sure to become an all out free-for-all when camp opens on (probably) Sunday.
But just who has the edge?
Among the minor leaguers invited to Boston’s week-long training camp, one would point to the only member of the group with somewhat significant NHL experience,
Chris Bourque, as the odds on favorite for the spot. However, that’s not to suggest that Bourque’s competition -
Jamie Tardif,
Lane MacDermid, uber-talented rookie
Ryan Spooner, and (the rumored to be invited)
Jay Pandolfo - will go down without a fight.
In the case of Bourque, the story is simple and rather played out, even without a skate touching NHL ice yet, something I previously believed to be impossible; The son of Boston legend
Ray Bourque, whose No. 77 banner proudly hangs from the Garden rafters, it’s a trip back home that’s lined the 26-year-old up for what many have dubbed “one final chance” at making an impression at the NHL level.
Selected in the second round of the 2004 NHL Draft (33rd overall) by Washington, an NHL career that’s amounted to just one goal and four points in 33 games between the Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins has made the forward your prototypical “bust,” something GM
Peter Chiarelli and the Bruins knew a lot about when they moved fellow bust
Zach Hamill (8th overall, 2007) out of town for him.
Skating at just 5-foot-8, and with stints in the American Hockey League, KHL, and even the Swiss-A League for a season with Lugano, it’s clear that Bourque’s had to get by on more than just his father’s name, and has to the tune of 57 goals and 191 points in his last 154 games in the AHL, split between Hershey (122 games) and Providence (32 games). Bourque, in essence, is your classic in-betweener; Undoubtedly a premier player at the minor league level, the skill-set and pace of play at the NHL level has never been kind to Bourque, whose last NHL game came all the way back on Feb. 11, 2010.
Bourque, for the record, finished that game with a minus-2 rating in just 9:37 of ice-time.
Counting against the books for a mere $550,000 in 2013, and with a two-way deal, perhaps the closest comparable for the Bruins and Bourque would be the Caps’ handling of (now) Capital-turned-Maple Leaf
Keith Aucoin.
A fill-in, journeyman fringe forward throughout his career, the similarly-statured Aucoin got his break with Washington last season, chiming in with three goals and 11 points in 27 games before a postseason run that saw him record two points in 14 contests.
While given his chances to play with the Caps’ top guns at times, Aucoin was used in a complementary role, akin to the one you’d see Bourque in with the Black-and-Gold.
Sure, it’s not impossible to envision a scenario where playing with a speedy Peverley and two-way Kelly would benefit the embattled Bourque, especially given No. 23’s effect since coming to Boston at the 2011 trade deadline. For the proof on the wing, it appeared that playing with Kelly benefited the deemed-to-be-dead
Brian Rolston, who had three goals and 15 points in 21 games with the B’s, and helped revive the career of
Benoit Pouliot, now a top-nine skater on the Tampa Bay Lightning, and very well could do the same for Bourque when the puck drops for 2013.
That is, again, unless the aforementioned competition has something to say about it.
Beginning with the P-Bruins' leading goal-scorer, the 27-year-old Jamie Tardif presents the Black-and-Gold with perhaps the most potent scoring option of the five.
Recording 16 goals and 23 points in 33 games this year, already surpassing last year’s 15-goal output in over 20 fewer games played, and just 11 away from matching a career-best 27-goal year that came with the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2010-11, Tardif’s season in Providence has certainly come with highs and lows.
Fortunately for him, the highs have outweighed the lows. Yes, his sixteen goals are tops among Providence skaters, and double the second-highest goal-scorer (Bourque has eight goals this year), but seven of the 16 have come in just three games. Take that away and we’re talking about a 9-goal in 30-game year. Impressive?
Yeah, but worthy of making you a front-runner? I’m not quite sure.
Yet, it seems silly to punish a forward for having multi-goal games or scoring in bunches, and a December featuring 12 points in 12 games makes Tardif a noteworthy option, especially with the underrated dishing skills of Peverley on the opposite wing.
But is the stat-line of Tardif, a veteran AHLer yet to play a game at the NHL level, enough to leapfrog him over
another candidate without NHL experience? I’m of course referencing the 50th overall pick from 2010, forward Ryan Spooner. Deemed a steal from the get-go, the 20-year-old Spooner wrapped up a solid junior career in the OHL (113 goals and 259 points in 230 games between three different organizations), Spooner’s transition to the American Hockey League has essentially been a seamless one.
Recording 10 goals and 27 points in 34 games with Providence, with seven goals and 20 points in 26 games this year, his first as a full-time member of the P-Bruins, Spooner’s ability to score, dish the puck, and play a responsible game makes him an intriguing option.
Spooner’s versatile skill-set is also in addition to his ability to play both center and the wing, something the Bruins are undeniably obsessed with.
Unlike the redemption story of Bourque, scoring skills of Tardif, and rapid progression of Spooner,
Lane MacDermid sits as the club’s definite ‘energy forward’ option for a spot on the B’s roster. Now in his fourth year with the organization, MacDermid, the club’s fourth round selection (112th overall) from 2009, it’s been an apparent status-quo in regards to his play in Providence. With ‘Mac’, it’s all work; no glitz, no glam. Evident with modest 2012-13 totals that include three goals, five points, and 73 penalty minutes in 32 games. Working in MacDermid’s favor comes a brief-yet-admirable five-game stint in Boston last year that began with the 23-year-old challenging the veteran
Mike Rupp to a fight at Madison Square Garden and hanging with him.
Working against MacDermid? The fact that he’s by all means a fourth liner on Boston’s roster, and his lack of puck-handling skills would eventually require a bump up to the third line for Paille (whose no dangler in his own right), a move that’d break up what many consider to be the East’s most dangerous fourth line.
Then there’s the (rumored) invite that’s been extended out to veteran winger Jay Pandolfo.
First reported by CSNNE’s Joe Haggerty via Twitter (at least from what I saw, sorry to [other person] if I’m wrong), the 38-year-old’s invite to Boston’s camp comes on the heels of a 2011-12 spent with the New York Islanders, where Pandolfo skated alongside
Marty Reasoner and rookie
Nino Niedereitter on the Blue-and-Orange’s fourth line.
With 881 games of big league experience to his name, the Winchester, Mass. native brings a definitive safety net presence on Boston’s bottom-six, but really wouldn’t provide anything over any of the aforementioned talents.
Let the games - well, I guess it's just a game in this case - begin.
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