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We could sit here, and I could very well give you your standard formulaic season preview of what's on the horizon for the Boston Bruins in 2013. That's not fun, though, and nor will it ever be fun. There's a thousand other blogs where you can find that information, so we won't even bother going down that road. Instead, we're going to talk about the issues facing the B's in a 48-game marathon and how to solve them. Better yet, how you want to solve them.
Without further ado, I present to you, the top 10 questions facing the Boston Bruins in 2013...
10. Just what is the fate of Jordan Caron?
In a messy intersquad scrimmage if there ever was one, a bright spot came with the play of the 26-year-old Chris Bourque. Skating on the wing of the Chris Kelly line, on the opposite wing of the speedy Rich Peverley, the son of B’s legend Ray Bourque had a solid game, and even connected for a goal that squeaked through the pads of B’s back-up Anton Khudobin.
Why’s this relevant to Jordan Caron?
Well, Bourque’s the guy that’s taking Caron’s job to start the year.
If Bourque catches fire playing with Kelly and Peverley, something not completely far fetched given the budding chemistry shown in training camp, Caron’s back to being the odd-man out in the final year of a three-year entry-level contract that’s left the 22-year-old without a solidified spot in Boston’s lineup, or plans for that matter.
Just what’s there with Caron? Is he a legitimate top-nine player in the National Hockey League and for the Boston Bruins, or is he simply fodder for the league’s Apr. 3 trade deadline? Despite struggling with Providence this year, scoring just six goals and checking in with eight points in 31 games before suffering an upper-body injury, Caron’s 2011-12 campaign with Boston came to a solid end that saw the 25th overall pick from 2009 register 10 points in the final 20 games of the year.
(And you thought the Russian kids were enigmatic...)
With Caron, I don’t think the issue has ever been skill, but rather confidence. When put in positions to succeed, Caron’s often capitalized. But when given the slightest bit of a demotion, be it in the lineup or from the roster as a whole (Seriously though, I think this kid’s gone down Route 95 to Providence about a billion times over the last two years), it appears that Caron battles with himself and well, simply put, screws up.
In an abridged year, there’s little time for Caron to battle with his confidence when given an NHL shot, and another lackluster year spent with the Quebec-born forward battling for bottom-six minutes while the Bruins’ other prospects continue to develop could spell the end of his tenure in Boston.
9. Can the Thomas contract be moved?
You’re not going to see Tim Thomas suit up for the Bruins this year. You’re not going to see him suit up for any team, in fact.
Thomas, living with his family in Colorado, is more than content with sitting this season out, leaving the B’s with no choice but to suspend their playoff hero of two years ago. Given Thomas’ age at the inking of his most recent extension, which came just days after his 35th birthday, there’s really not much the Bruins can do with the goaltender’s $5 million cap-hit this year. It just sticks there, an albatross if there ever was one. Or so we’re convinced.
Given the league’s even lower 2013 cap-floor, dropped by a whopping $10 million from last year, there’s nobody that’s knocking at Boston’s door looking to add Thomas’ cap-hit to their books while essentially hanging on to their current roster, but to say the contract is immovable would be a bit presumptuous. If we’re to believe that the Bruins are going to be in the market for an upgrade somewhere at the deadline (My guess would be on the point -- but we’ll get to that later), what’s stopping a cellar-dweller or the B’s from that matter from offering to include their hero-turned-villain in net?
As is the case with any suspended player, if Thomas is to skip out on the entire 48-game grind of the 2013 campaign as we believe, the Bruins (or the team he’s traded to) will have the option to ‘toll’ the contract and keep Thomas and his $5 million cap-hit for the ‘13-14 season.
But can it, and will it, be done? With a shrinking cap on tap for next season, I have a feeling that it 100 percent depends on both the trade on the table, and the respective trade partner.
8. Defensive depth -- what to do?
If an injury strikes the Boston blue-line in 2013, journeyman defensemen Aaron Johnson will be thrown into the lineup. If two injuries strike the Boston blue-line, undersized defensemen David Warsofsky, Torey Krug, or Matt Bartkowski will find themselves suiting up for significant NHL minutes. Is that something B’s fans want to see? With no disrespect to the latter trio, probably not.
On a free agent front, Wade Redden is available and Boston is certainly among those interested in the veteran of 994 NHL games. The interest in Redden comes as an obvious one given his ties to both Zdeno Chara, his pairing partner through much of his tenure in Ottawa, and general manger Peter Chiarelli, the former front-office head of the Sens. However, despite the connections, it’s hard to imagine Redden not receiving a better offer from (more) defensively-strapped teams such as the Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, and even the Dallas Stars, both in terms of dollars and ice-time.
What people seem to choose to forget about Redden is that he’s not a bad defensemen that’s been buried in the American Hockey League for three years ‘cause of his play, but rather a contract that he simply couldn’t live up to during his tenure in New York. And while a chance to revitalize his career may be at its strongest in Boston, where a defensive system and sheltered ice-time would bolster his stock a la just about every ‘project’ that’s played here under the Claude Julien system, it’s probably not exactly what Redden envisions his return to the NHL as.
[Edit: As of 2 p.m., Wade Redden is off the market by way of a one-year deal in St. Louis.]
Outside of the free-agent realm, it would appear as if the only way a defensemen comes to Boston is through a trade, returning us to the Jordan Caron point and what the Black-and-Gold consider to be a reasonable asking price for depth.
The answer to that, however, remains to be seen.
7. Is Dougie Hamilton really ready for the NHL?
In case you couldn’t tell by some stumbles and fumbles in the Bruins’ scrimmage against Providence on Tuesday, let me confirm to you that Dougie Hamilton is a 19-year-old defensemen that’s learning how to play in the NHL at a breakneck speed.
Unable to reap the benefits of a month-long training camp that should’ve began in September, the ninth overall pick from the 2011 draft class isn’t likely to head back to juniors this year, giving the 6-foot-5 blue-liner a true baptism by fire this year.
Expected to skate on the Bruins’ second pairing with Dennis Seidenberg, just what are the expectations of a player that’s recorded 25 goals and 88 assists in his last 82 games in the Ontario Hockey League? Well, not that. “If anything he really is poised and he sees the passing lanes, and you saw some of that tonight,” Claude Julien said after the scrimmage on Tuesday. “But there were times when he really fought the puck a little bit and realized that the play probably closes a little bit quicker here than at the level he came from.”
While adjusting the pace of play will be Hamilton’s biggest obstacle at first, the good news is that many of his gaffes can and will be covered by the Bruins’ German Wall of Defense in Seidenberg, who somehow managed to let Joe Corvo finish with a plus-10 rating last year.
Related: Joe Corvo was not a plus-10 player last season.
6. Will the power-play finally connect?
This will be the third year since the Marc Savard era of the Boston power-play came to an abrupt end. An absolutely unbelievable play-maker, Savard worked the half-wall like nobody this club’s seen in an incredibly long time. Everything was smooth, and it was downright magical at times. But alas, the days of Savard dishing it out to teammates are over, sadly. And thus far, the power-play replacements have failed.
Despite the Cup, the Tomas Kaberle experiment was a disaster. Joe Corvo was even worse, and now it appears that the Bruins are thinking outside their six when it comes to solving their man-advantage woes.
In what’s going to be their only game action before Saturday, the Bruins’ top power-play unit featured a rather unusual take this past Tuesday night. Up front, the Bruins overloaded the front of the net with big-body forwards Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic, had Zdeno Chara’s cannon set up on the point, but had center David Krejci on the opposite point with the 20-year-old Tyler Seguin along the half-wall.
Of course, having a forward play the point isn’t exactly foreign to the B’s, who used to have Patrice Bergeron man the point across from Chara, but this will seemingly be the Bruins’ first crack at giving that opportunity to David Krejci.
Why Krejci? Well, why not? It’s been made clear that Krejci, while talented and while holding the title of Boston’s first line center, is not Savard, and never will be, especially along the half-wall. A mere 37 of the Czech-born center’s 176 points in the last three years have come on the power-play, and it’s more than evident that a change does have to come with the Bruins’ power-play philosophy.
Most notably, however, will be the changes the unit brings to the Black-and-Gold’s second power-play unit, which looks to be loaded with speed on the wings with Peverley and Marchand, Bergeron in the middle, and the Seidenberg and Hamilton pairing at the point.
5. How does Claude Julien work this team?
I couldn’t help but laugh when reporters arrived at camp last week and told us that Milan Lucic wasn’t in “game-shape.” Yes, astute reporters, that is what happens when you do not play in a game for months. Lucic was one of just a few B’s skaters that didn’t find lockout work overseas, and it was entirely reasonable. Lucic and his wife got married, and were expecting their first child -- born yesterday, in fact.
But I did find the analysis interesting, because I couldn’t help but wonder how the Boston coaching staff will get everyone back in shape and keep them at 100 percent (or as close to it as possible) for this 48-game grind.
With seven back-to-backs, and with a stretch that’ll see them skate in four games for three weeks in a row in March, it doesn’t take a dummy to tell you that there’s going to be some bumps, bruises, and minute-managing by the B’s.
At least that’s what Julien’s history in Boston tells me.
In New York, coach John Tortorella has wasted no time in telling the media that he’s going to “play the hell out of” defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi this year, while Lindy Ruff anticipates goaltender Ryan Miller playing in almost 40 games. You won’t hear those words, or those expectations, leaving Julien’s mouth any time soon. For better or worse, Julien rolls four lines at an almost constant rate, but will that be enough to keep this team fresh for a playoff run?
4. Does Chris Kelly come back down to Earth?
Nobody felt dumber watching Chris Kelly play last year than me. A trade I slammed from the get-go, the 32-year-old Kelly spent his first full season in Boston establishing a career-high in goals (20), points (39), plus/minus (plus-33), and shooting percentage (.164).
Not bad, right?
But is the offensive flair Kelly showed fans the new norm, or should we expect a dip when the puck drops? There’s no doubt, in my mind anyways, that Kelly is closer to the 15-goal/30-point player that his career averages indicate, but the third line center’s ability to mesh all over the Boston lineup has undoubtedly opened up the topic for discussion.
Even with bottom-six minutes, what Kelly’s been able to do for the Boston offense is give them flexibility to spread their scoring out up and down the lineup, particularly when it comes to his own goal-scoring and its meaning to the Boston offense. Whether it’s considered coincidence or not, the Bruins are a perfect 24-0-0 since the 2011 playoffs when Kelly scores.
The Bruins, for one, hope it lasts.
3. Can the bottom defensive-pairing stay in one piece?
When healthy, the Bruins’ third defensive pairing of Andrew Ference and Adam McQuaid brings a welcomed mix of speed, physicality, and defensive smarts to the ice. Unfortunately, it’s been keeping them on the ice that’s proven to be more difficult than the Bruins wish. While the 33-year-old Ference has skated in at least 70 games for two straight seasons now, the risk of an injury to the Bruins’ alternate captain always looms, and heavily given the Bruins’ noted struggles with No. 21 out of the lineup.
As for McQuaid, the concerns rest with a noggin that runs the risk of being concussed with each fight that the 6-foot-4 blue-liner is never going to shy away from.
Need proof? The dude fought his own teammate in a scrimmage. A scrimmage!
But it’s not an attitude that concerns the B’s bench-boss.
“He’s a guy that’s going to grind his way though because he didn’t play in the playoffs last year and, you know, those kinds of things,” Julien said of McQuaid showing some aggressiveness. “He’s got a lot of catching up to do, and what he went through, you know, this past fall is another reason for him to be a little bit behind. But I like the fact that he had the right attitude and the aggressiveness, and he had at least some emotion to do something about it.”
I’m not sure how much he’ll like it if McQuaid’s forced to watch more games from the press-box.
2. Will Nathan Horton return to form?
In Dec. ‘09, the B’s saw top-six forward Patrice Bergeron go down with what would be his second significant concussion in 14 months.
Missing the next two months, the ultra-talented centermen returned to the club and finished the year with four goals and 17 assists in the next 33 games. It wasn’t until late in the year that people finally felt as if the Bergeron of old was on his way back. That, while a bit different from a timeframe standpoint, should be what people expect to be the case with top-line winger Nathan Horton this year.
Missing the final 36 games of the regular season and all seven of the B’s playoff contests against the Washington Capitals last year with lingering concussion symptoms, it’s simply nonsensical to envision the 27-year-old returning to the ice and scoring at will.
While the ice-time will be there, it’s going to take Horton a week or maybe even a month before you’ll really notice him regain the tendencies and style that made him such a feared postseason player two years ago. Of course, however, you won’t hear him say such.
“If somebody hits me hard, that’s fine to me,” Horton said earlier this week when pressed about the thought of getting hit and over-thinking the game, adding, “I’m just going with it. I’m not trying to think too much. I just want to have fun. When I’m having fun and smiling and enjoying myself, things happen. It’s usually good for me.”
What’s been good for Horton has been good for the B’s, as No. 18 enters a contract year with 43 goals and 85 points in just 126 games with the Bruins.
1. Is Rask ready to be this team’s No. 1 goaltender?
This, my friends, is by miles the most important question that we don’t have an answer to.
If Tuukka Rask decided that tomorrow would be his last day in the National Hockey League, and that retirement was the way to go, what would he be most remembered for? If you think it’d be as a Boston Bruins star prospect that never worked out, you’re wrong. If you say it’d be for having a wicked skill-set that couldn’t go from good to great, you’d be wrong. Rask, like it or not, would be best known as the goaltender that led the Bruins to their three-games-to-none choke-job against the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010.
That, in three years of fulltime service at the NHL level, is what his legacy is. For now.
Signed to a one-year contract that will pay Rask $3.5 million, this is by all means Rask’s best choice to establish and prove himself as Boston’s face of the crease. Not since 2009-10, when the then-rookie Rask finished the year with the league’s best save-percentage (.930) and goals-against-average (1.97), has the role been Rask and Rask’s alone.
Held to a combined 52 games since the start of the 2010 season due to both injuries and a two-year stretch of insanity by Tim Thomas, the questions don’t necessarily center around Rask’s skill-set, which has always been considered one of the best in the game, but rather his durability to stay healthy for a full season. Limited late in the 2010-11 season due to a knee injury, and missing the final 19 games of the regular season with a groin/abdomen injury last year, the concerns are valid, especially when looking at Rask’s style. At a lanky 6-foot-3, the spry goaltender is your prototypical butterfly goaltender, and with a lingering groin issue, things can get dicey extremely fast for both Rask and the B’s.
Behind Rask, Anton Khudobin sits as the club’s back-up option, and honestly nothing more at this point in time. It’s show time for Rask, and that can’t be stated enough. The question, however, is whether or not Rask is up to the task of filling Thomas’ shoes.
And no, that’s not going as easy as everyone seems to think.
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