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To say that things didn’t go according to plan for last year’s Boston Bruins squad would be a gross understatement when you look at what they were for 82 games. The Bruins were the league’s most dominant team from start to finish -- their 54 wins and 117 points were the tops among any National Hockey League club through the regular season, enough for the club’s first Presidents’ Trophy in nearly 25 years -- but they fumbled every chance thrown their way in a second-round loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Like any postseason exit courtesy of the Habs (though it was just the first time the Canadiens bounced the B’s out of the playoffs since 2008), the sting was there. It also led to the belief that hey, maybe the Bruins’ system, though highly successful for almost half a decade at this point, needed some tweaking.
But after a summer of cap-crunching, (most of) the Bruins are back, and set to drop the puck in search of their third trip to the Stanley Cup Final in the last five seasons. In a two-part season preview, today we look at the defense and what the Bruins have in net.
DEFENSE
Overview: The backbone of the B’s success, the Bruins have committed to their young talents like never before, and while they’re still led by the veteran duo of
Zdeno Chara and
Dennis Seidenberg, the Black and Gold will rely heavily on the growth of
Dougie Hamilton,
Matt Bartkowski,
Kevan Miller, and
Torey Krug to make life easy for their goaltenders.
The biggest loss for this mix of experience and potential will come with the trading of Johnny Boychuk to the New York Islanders, which comes less than a week before the start of the regular season. Boychuk, the team’s No. 2/No. 3 defenseman depending on the situation, was a mainstay on the B’s for the better part of the last five seasons and provided solid contributions in both ends of the ice, making him a definite tough loss.
Additions: Chris Breen (AHL).
Subtractions: Andrej Meszaros (free agency), Corey Potter (free agency), Johnny Boychuk (traded).
No. 27, Dougie Hamilton
2013-14 stats: Seven goals, 18 assists, plus-22, 40 penalty minutes in 64 games played.
2014 playoff stats: Two goals, five assists, 14 penalty minutes in 12 games played.
Contract: Entering final year of entry-level contract with $894,167 cap-hit.
Many are expecting a huge boost from Hamilton this year, and for obvious reasons. The 21-year-old d-man finished his sophomore year skating with Chara on the club’s top pairing, and you can bank on more of the same for the former ninth overall pick (2011). Relied upon as an all-around d-man (much like Chara), and at 6-foot-5, the opportunity for Hamilton to growth into an all-zone threat is clearly there and there’s not a defenseman with a ceiling as high as his. He’s smooth in his own zone, no longer treats the puck like a hot potato (he looked downright scared when the puck was on his stick during the 2013 playoffs), and gives the Bruins’ second power-play unit a much needed point threat opposite forward Reilly Smith.
Hamilton’s still going to go through some growing pains, but it’s not hard to see his offensive game taking off this season, especially with Hamilton’s 3-15-18 in 30 games line to finish the regular season/postseason.
Prediction: 11 goals, 30 assists, plus-25, 46 penalty minutes in 78 games played.
No. 33, Zdeno Chara
2013-14 stats: 17 goals, 21 assists, plus-25, 66 penalty minutes in 77 games played.
2014 playoff stats: Two goals, two assists, 14 penalty minutes in 12 games played.
Contract: $6.9 million cap-hit, under contract through 2017-18 season.
Even at 37 years old, the Bruins know that they can bank on their 6-foot-9 captain to shut down the East’s elite. Just ask a Crosby, Ovechkin, Kessel, Tavares, or Giroux what it’s like to go against Chara. They’ll tell you all about the Slovak’s ability to eliminate time and space en route to separating you from the puck.
But Chara’s human, and no matter his superhuman training regiment that’s brought him to this year in better shape than ever, the Bruins know that they only have a few more years of Chara as an elite shutdown defenseman. Again, he’s human. And by the end of the B’s second-round series loss to Montreal, Chara looked every bit the mortal he really is. Though he was injured, the B’s have talked about their effort to limit the heavy minutes that No. 33 logs on a nightly basis so that he can be fresher for the postseason.
One of those efforts has led to putting the towering blue-liner in front of the net on the power play. And it’s been stupidly effective for the Black-and-Gold, prompting the Bruins to head into 2014-15 with Chara standing in front of the opposition’s goaltenders once again. It’s just too effective at this point.
With Hamilton as his projected pairing partner, expect Chara’s offensive figures to surprise once again.
Prediction: 18 goals, 22 assists, plus-23, 77 penalty minutes in 75 games played.
No. 43, Matt Bartkowski
2013-14 stats: Zero goals, 18 assists, plus-22, 30 penalty minutes in 64 games played.
2014 playoff stats: Zero goals, one assist, 10 penalty minutes in eight games played.
Contract: Entering final year of contract with $1.25 million cap-hit.
While many expected Bartkowski to be the one traded out of town to trim some fat off the B’s cap, the 26-year-old defenseman ‘survived’, and has earned himself a top-four role with the club. At least for now.
Everybody knows that it takes longer to develop a legitimate top-four defenseman, and the Bruins have experienced that first-hand when it comes to their handling of Bartkowski. Let’s be honest-- the Pittsburgh, Penn. native was thrown into the fire last year. A veteran of 20 (twenty!) NHL games prior to the start of last season, Seidenberg’s season-ending knee injury made Bart a top-four by necessity. The results were mixed -- sometimes good, sometimes utterly unwatchable -- but that’s
exactly what you should’ve expected.
I maintain the belief that Bartkowski can be a top-four defender in the NHL, but I do think that he requires a bit more seasoning, and maybe a pairing that puts him with Seidenberg gives him just that. Like I’ve said for a while now, I think that Bartkowski is a guy that you’d love to have on your defense corps based on his versatile style -- he skates well, has a solid shot, and isn’t afraid to throw his weight around -- but his game does need more fine-tuning. (At the same time, find me a defenseman that doesn’t need more of that.)
Slated to begin the year on the second pairing with Seidenberg, you can fully expect Bartkowski to be in the middle of every trade rumor if the Black and Gold are in the market for a blue-line upgrade at the deadline.
Prediction: Two goals, 16 assists, plus-18, 38 penalty minutes in 69 games played.
No. 44, Dennis Seidenberg
2013-14 stats: One goal, nine assists, plus-11, 10 penalty minutes in 34 games played.
2014 playoff stats: Did not play (torn ACL)
Contract: Entering first year of four-year extension with $4 million cap-hit through 2017-18 season.
No loss caused more damage to the 2013-14 Bruins than the loss of Dennis Seidenberg. Period.
The rock behind Chara, the German-born defenseman’s torn ACL suffered in late December really put added pressure on the B’s penalty kill (which struggled mightily without No. 44), and forced guys like Bartkowski, Meszaros, and Kevan Miller into roles that may have been above their skill-set. At the end of the day, the Bruins were not able to replace Seids’ production, and that was on full display in the postseason.
But he’s back, and ready to return to form after a year he admits was not his finest.
“It was a pretty rough start, but I think that was a little bit expected,” Seidenberg said of his training camp. “I improved from game to game I would say. But again, I’m never satisfied and always want to improve.”
Less than a year removed from tearing his knee, it’ll be interesting to see just how (and if) the Bruins manage the shorthanded load that Seidenberg prides himself in logging throughout the season.
Prediction: Three goals, 12 assists, plus-14, 28 penalty minutes in 74 games.
No. 47, Torey Krug
2013-14 stats: 14 goals, 26 assists, plus-18, 28 penalty minutes in 79 games played.
2014 playoff stats: Two goals, eight assists, six penalty minutes in 12 games played.
Contract: Signed one-year deal worth $1.4 million in late September.
Undersized puck-mover Torey Krug proved that his 2013 playoff run was no fluke. The kid can play.
Skating as the play-maker supreme on the B’s first power-play unit last season, the Michigan St. alum added another dynamic to the Boston offense, and really lessened the blow that came with taking Chara’s booming slapshot off the point on the man-advantage. Krug even bested rookie scoring marks set by Bobby Orr!
Unlike Orr, though, Krug is a third-pairing defenseman that benefits from offensive zone starts. He’s not the two-way defender that Hamilton projects to be, nor is he an unmitigated disaster that you can’t start in his own end. It’s just an obvious preference not to given his skills in the attacking zone.
But the secret’s out at this point. People know that Krug can pass, and they know that he can score. Penalty-killers will likely be more aggressive when they see the puck on No. 47’s twig, and that alone makes for an interesting storyline when it comes to projecting his play in 2014-15. That,
and the potential trickle-down effect that comes with the loss of
Jarome Iginla on Boston’s first power-play unit.
With all that said, Krug still has the personnel and talent to light the lamp at will once more, I think.
Prediction: 14 goals, 28 assists, plus-15, 23 penalty minutes in 80 games.
No. 54, Adam McQuaid
2013-14 stats: One goal, five assists, plus-12, 69 penalty minutes in 30 games played.
2014 playoffs: Did not play (multiple injuries).
Contract: Entering final year of contract that comes with $1.56 million cap-hit.
Like Bartkowski, many seemed to think that McQuaid could have played his last game with the Bruins prior to the Boychuk trade. But with the Spoked-B for at least the start of the season, McQuaid knows that nobody’s irreplaceable at this point. In his case, that may be doubly true given the development of Miller, a defender with a similar bag of tricks to that of the veteran from Prince Edward Island.
“Anything can happen,” McQuaid, a veteran of 220 NHL games (all with Boston), said after the Boychuk trade was made official on Saturday. “Just because that one move is made doesn’t mean that more moves can’t be made. You want to prove yourself every day and do what you can to be a part of this team.”
The beef on the B’s third pairing (and safety net for the riskier Krug), the 27-year-old McQuaid’s biggest obstacle has been his own style of play, as he’s missed nearly a hundred games since the start of the 2011-12 season with various injuries. But when healthy, McQuaid is a blood-and-guts guy your backend needs.
And with
Shawn Thornton out of town after seven years with the Bruins, McQuaid, no stranger to dropping the gloves, may find himself engaging in even more of that in 2014-15.
Prediction: One goal, six assists, plus-9, 85 penalty minutes in 59 games.
No. 86, Kevan Miller
2013-14 stats: One goal, five assists, plus-20, 38 penalty minutes in 47 games played.
2014 playoff stats: Zero goals, two assists, eight penalty minutes in 11 games played.
Contract: Beginning year one of a two-year extension with a $800,000 cap-hit.
An injury gave California-born Kevan Miller an opportunity he didn’t strike out on. Instead, it was a bruising and downright mean style of play that earned the undrafted product of the University of Vermont a two-year extension to keep his locker in Boston. It’s not pretty, but damn, did the Bruins and their fans love it.
However, while you could bank on Miller throwing his weight around with every shift, there’s a bit of hesitancy when it comes to analyzing his game and future with the Bruins. Even at his absolute best, the Bruins rarely trusted him to go against another team’s top line, and he was another beneficiary of favorable zone starts (though that may be a product of Krug more than a product of Miller, all things considered).
So, what is Miller? We’ll have to find out in 2014-15, as he battles against several others for minutes.
Prediction: Zero goals, four assists, plus-7, 32 penalty minutes in 38 games played.
GOALTENDING
Overview: Whether it’s a product of a defense-first system or just the talent of their crease, the Bruins have always gotten by on stellar goaltending. And 2013-14 was no exception. Rocking a tandem featuring
Tuukka Rask and
Chad Johnson, the Bruins allowed the second-fewest goals in the league (171), while Rask beat out
Ben Bishop and
Semyon Varlamov for his first career Vezina. With Johnson now with the Islanders, the Bruins will rely on two-year Providence Bruin
Niklas Svedberg to be the guy to give Rask a breather about 25 times throughout the regular season.
Additions:
Niklas Svedberg (up from Providence Bruins),
Jeremy Smith (AHL).
Subtractions:
Chad Johnson (free agency).
No. 40, Tuukka Rask
2013-14 stats: 36-15-6 record, .930 save percentage, 2.04 goals against average, seven shutouts.
2014 playoff stats: 7-5 record, .928 save percentage, 1.99 goals against average, two shutouts.
Contract: Beginning second year of eight-year contract with $7 million cap-hit through 2021.
Many consider Rask to be the best in the game. The numbers could certainly back that up, too. But with Boychuk gone and with the B’s giving their inexperienced defense the keys to the zone, it’ll be on the Finnish phenom to once again stand tall in the B’s crease. Is he up to the challenge? His last two seasons say yeah.
Rask may honestly be the only certainty on the entire B’s roster this year. Take comfort in that.
Prediction: 37-17-6 record, .927 save percentage, 2.09 goals against average, six shutouts.
No. 72, Niklas Svedberg
2013-14 stats: 25-15-4 record, .910 save percentage, 2.63 goals against average in AHL.
2014 playoff stats: 4-5 record, .905 save percentage, 2.70 goals against average in AHL.
Contract: Signed one-year contract worth $600,000 at NHL level.
The NHL isn’t foreign, albeit not quite familiar either, to Swedish talent Niklas Svedberg.
As you may recall, the 25-year-old had a cup of coffee with the Bruins last season, stopping 33 of 35 shots faced in an overtime win against the Nashville Predators. But after two seasons with the P-Bruins, recording 62 wins in just 93 games at the AHL level, Svedberg is set to try and audition for jobs likely outside the B’s organization like his predecessors,
Anton Khudobin and Chad Johnson.
With Svedberg, the mechanics are there, but it’s adjusting to a much, much lighter workload that’ll pose a real challenge for a goaltender that hasn’t suited up in fewer than 45 games in a year since coming overseas.
But, a goalie-friendly system will probably iron out any kinks that Svedberg is dealt in his first NHL gig.
Prediction: 12-7-3 record, .920 save percentage, 2.35 goals against average, one shutout.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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