Hey everyone. Been a little while, huh?
It’s been a long-ass time, actually.
It’s actually been 13 years (almost to the day!) since I first signed on with Hockeybuzz to take over as the website’s Bruins blogger. Back when ‘bloggers’ were getting hired everywhere, it felt like. As an 18-year-old, it was an amazing opportunity, and it helped that Boston was ahead of its time and actually credentialing independent reporters and/or younger writers.
It turned out to be the perfect timing, too, as the Bruins went on to win the Stanley Cup that season. Covering the Stanley Cup Final as a teenager? It was truly insane, and the more time that passes, the more I realize how stupidly lucky I was to get the chance. I continued to ‘level up’ from there, parlaying my time with HockeyBuzz into opportunities to write in print, and eventually landing at WEEI here in Boston for a couple of years and then 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston for the last five years. I’ve even made some appearances on the NHL Network, and get somewhat regular airtime on NBC Sports Boston during the season (I apologize for being so ugly, and like Reg Dunlop said all those years ago, “We’re working on it.…)
But none of that happens without Ek and EO taking a chance on an eager 18-year-old all those years ago, or the people here who embraced me and let me find my voice as a writer, and I’ve truthfully never forgotten that. It’s why when EO and I were exchanging texts last weekend, I kinda threw it out there. “Hey man, noticed there’s been a lack of Bruins stuff on HB lately. Need some help?…
And so that’s how we ended up back here, and I’m happy to hopefully see some familiar friends and faces in the comments section. As for what’s to come, it’s probably going to be a mix of the stuff you’ll find on 98.5 The Sports Hub dot com, what you hear on the radio and TV, and some random thoughts here and there.
(I’d also love to help HB find the next eager writer out there in Boston if he or she exists. I think that HockeyBuzz has always been a great opportunity for those out there, especially with how the Bruins operate for those looking to get their boots wet with credentialed coverage and what have you. So, yeah, let’s ride!)
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SOME THOUGHTS AS THE BRUINS REPORT BACK TO ON-ICE WORK
- Talking about the Bruins, you can’t ignore the top-six elephant in the room, and that’s that the Bruins are entering the 2023-24 season without both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. Simply put, a team whose entire window of Stanley Cup contention was seemingly based on having that one-two punch down the middle now has neither player. That is, well, to put it lightly, a staggering loss for Jim Montgomery’s club entering the new season.
Now, there’s some people that adhere to the ‘it’s a bandaid, rip it off’ approach and others who think that’s an absolutely crazy way to look at it. I’m probably more aligned with the latter (I could’ve watched Bergeron play hockey for another 20 years and I think the B’s themselves feel the same way), but I do see the tangible benefit to the bandaid being ripped off. Namely when it comes to that second line, and with Pavel Zacha expected to shift to the middle.
Inked to a four-year, $19 million extension midway through his first season with the club, Zacha can excel playing left wing opposite David Pastrnak. We know that. There’s enough of a sample from last year’s run to convince one that Zacha can be a solid, complementary left wing on a line with Pastrnak. The 26-year-old Zacha also had a strong late-season run as a center with Pastrnak, and had a decent effort at the position during Boston’s seven-game playoff run.But whether or not he can do it for a full 82 remains to be seen, and his ability or inability to hang at that spot could have franchise-altering effects on the club.
If Zacha can prove to be a strong top-six center option, that takes a lot off the mind of Don Sweeney when it comes to building out his 2024-25 roster and beyond. (The Bruins know they’re going to need a high-impact center, but if they only have to add one instead of two be it through a big-money deal or trade, that’s a biiiiiiig difference in a lot of respects.)
Drafted by the Devils as a natural center, Zacha’s first run as a top-six center came with mixed results, and ultimately led to Zacha being moved to Boston in a one-for-one trade with journeyman Erik Haula. That obviously doesn’t happen if Zacha proves capable of being a top-six center.
But now, in Boston, and with Pastrnak riding to his right, this may be his best shot yet.
- One of the most common questions I’ve fielded this summer online, on the radio, and in person has been why are the Bruins sticking with the two-goalie system? Or, alternatively, why didn’t they trade a goaltender?
Well, the simple answer on the latter is that the market was never quite there when it came to moving a goaltender.
Halfway through his four-year, $20 million contract with the club, Linus Ullmark‘s value (in theory) was never higher than it was this season after leading the league in wins, goals against average, and save percentage (that made him the first goalie Triple Crown winner since Carey Price) on the way to winning the Jennings Trophy and Vezina Trophy. Again, that’s in theory. Theory doesn’t always translate to reality, and that was indeed the case for the Bruins this summer.
Knowing their cap situation and how they had to ditch money, teams were eager to rip the Bruins off at every stop and turn. (The fact that they didn’t have to throw in a pick to get rid of Taylor Hall’s $6 million salary is probably a miracle, though it explains why the Bruins received two minor-league defensemen in exchange for Hall.) Ullmark also had considerable trade protection, with a no-trade clause that required his consent to be traded to about half the league.
My understanding — and this is through some backchannel rumblings and conversations, so take it with a grain of salt, of course — is that there was one team out there who had interest in giving Sweeney and the Bruins what would you consider a fair, market value return for Ullmark. But that trade would have required a corresponding trade that never happened, and it would have also required Ullmark agreeing to waive his no-trade clause.
As it relates to trading Jeremy Swayman, I don’t think the Bruins were ever all that interested in doing that. I also know that there was a rumor out there that suggested that Swayman wanted a trade to be closer to family in Alaska. What I can tell you regarding that is that Swayman’s parents no longer live in Alaska, and that that rumor is and was “bogus.…
This also brings us to the bigger picture here, which is that the Bruins shouldn’t abandon the two-goalie system because it may very well be their backbone in 2023-24.
Boston’s scoring punch and depth has taken an undeniable hit, and same for their center depth. They may have to win games 2-1, 3-2 with a bit more regularity in 2023-24, and what’s the best way to do that? Having a well-rested, always-prepared one-two punch in net.
What they do with that position in the playoffs remains to be seen (I’m absolutely pro-rotation if it’s what they do in the regular season and how they punch their ticket), but for a full 82, there’s no denying that the Ullmark-Swayman combination works.
- One of the more intriguing low-risk, high-reward signings made by the Bruins this offseason was their inking of veteran wing James van Riemsdyk to a one-year, $1 million contract.
A familiar name to Bruins fans from his time at UNH and stops in Philadelphia and Toronto, ‘JVR’ comes to the Bruins after his scoring absolutely bottomed out with Philly in 2022-23, with 12 goals and 29 points in 61 games played. Both the 12 goals and 29 points were ‘good’ for van Riemsdyk’s second-lowest single-season total, with only his 2011-12 worse in what’s been a 14-year NHL career as a net-front threat.
The struggles were especially ugly on the power play, as the 6-foot-3 wing scored just two power-play goals last season, and in over 130 minutes of power-play time on ice. It was a seven-goal dropoff from his 2021-22 mark, and just nine NHL forwards scored fewer power-play goals with at least 130 minutes of man-advantage action than van Riemsdyk did. But perhaps the Bruins think he’s due for a bounce-back year on the power play, and maybe the analytics are working in their favor with that hope.
Despite his two-goal output on the power play, van Riemsdyk had an individual expected goals for of 4.75 (second on the Flyers), and his 28 individual high-danger scoring chances for was tops among all Philadelphia skaters and ranked 47th in the entire NHL. The Bruins could be looking at those numbers and saying, “Listen, just playing on the same power play as David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand will increase that goal total by a solid five or six with a touch more luck around the net.…
The Bruins are expected to start the 34-year-old van Riemsdyk to the left of Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak on their second line, so the opportunity will be there on both the power play and at five-on-five play.
- Personally, I wasn’t expecting a resolution on this front to come before the players started to report back to Boston, but Tuesday will see the Bruins go through a ‘captains practice’ without an official captain on their roster.
Training camp could also come and go without the naming of a new team captain. But the fact that the question still remains is an interesting one to follow. I said it a little while back and I still believe this to be the case, but if there’s a captain to be named this season, I think it’s really between either Brad Marchand or Charlie McAvoy.
In the case of Marchand, giving the ‘C’ to the longtime assistant captain would represent the natural continuation of the culture that Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron helped establish during their time in Boston. Marchand has shown tremendous evolution and progress as a positive on- and off-ice presence for the Bruins, even if he is prone to occasionally losing his mind, with his last notable incident of such coming in 2021-22 with his run-in with the Pens’ Tristan Jarry.
If there’s a ‘downside’ to giving the captaincy to Marchand (and I don’t think his suspension-heavy past is the biggest red flag to the Bruins), it’s that he probably only has another three years or so left in his career, and perhaps the Bruins aren’t overly interested in a game of hot potato with the captaincy and having that much turnover there.
McAvoy, meanwhile, seems like an obvious choice should the Bruins fully embrace the idea of moving ahead with the ‘next generation’ of the franchise with David Pastrnak as his running mate as their one-two punch. But perhaps there’s something to be said for McAvoy coming into that role naturally, and the Bruins giving him the ‘C’ when there’s absolutely no doubt that this is his team and that he’s completely ready to wear all of the responsibility that comes with it. That’s not to suggest that he can’t handle it now, but maybe they feel it’s best not to rush his development as a leader.
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DOES HAGEL EXTENSION GIVE B’S A BLUEPRINT FOR DEBRUSK?
Some good news as it relates to the Bruins: Jake DeBrusk, by all accounts, wants to stay with the Bruins beyond this season. And the Bruins may have been given their ideal blueprint for a potential DeBrusk extension with Brandon Hagel’s recent extension with the Lightning.
Starting from the date of Hagel’s move from Chicago to Tampa Bay (Mar. 18, 2022), and focusing on their five-on-five numbers, DeBrusk holds an edge over Hagel in goals per 60 (1.26 compared to 0.94), points per 60 (2.14 for DeBrusk and 1.88 for Hagel), and DeBrusk also holds the edge in individual scoring chances per 60 (9.05 to 8.14), and individual high-danger chances per 60 (5.02 compared to 3.94).
When assessing these rates, it’s important to note that Hagel has played almost 400 more five-on-five minutes than DeBrusk, and that DeBrusk averaged more offensive-zone faceoffs, increasing his odds of making an impact on the scoreboard.
Both players benefitted from playing with all-world talents, too, as DeBrusk skated with Bergeron and Marchand while Hagel played on a line with Kucherov and Point.
Delving deeper than their scoring rates and chance-generating rates, Hagel was one of the more ferocious players to go against a year ago, as his 92 takeaways were the second-most in all of hockey. Hagel also averaged 1:58 of shorthanded time on ice for a Bolts shorthanded group that finished in the top half of the league.
DeBrusk also contributed on the penalty kill, though not at a necessarily comparable clip, with Hagel averaging over a half-minute more than DeBrusk on the kill. (DeBrusk’s 1:22 of shorthanded time on ice per game was still a career-high, however, and was a staggering 40-second per night increase from his previous career-high, set in 2021.)
In other words, these guys are awfully close.
It’ll be interesting to see how aggressive the Bruins get when it comes to getting DeBrusk re-upped. The Bruins have been proactive in the past (Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy come to mind here), but have also been willing to negotiate in-season, with the David Pastrnak extension being the most recent example of that.
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Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. He has been covering the Bruins since 2010, and has been a member of the Boston chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, HockeyBuzz.com or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter/X: @_TyAnderson.