It should be obvious by now that the Boston Bruins are good, and looking for revenge. They got screwed with a four game western road trip to start the season. They came out 3-1. That alone is enough to be satisfied with the start that this team has had. If they win 3/4 road games all season I will definitely not be complaining. The Boston Bruins’ week one was overall a good one, but did leave with some questions. Before getting into that, let’s look at the games.
The season-opener against Dallas wasn’t the most glorious win, but it was the kind of win that Bruins fans have to get used to if they want to see a successful regular season from this team. A little bit of offensive production plus 60 minutes of solid Bruins hockey is going to have to be the formula to win against lots of inferior teams this year.
In game number two against the Coyotes, it felt like Boston wanted to win this game 1-0 the whole time. They got solid goaltending from Jaroslav Halak for the whole game and didn’t make any egregious defensive mistakes. Apparently that combined with a Brad Marchand goal is enough to overcome the Arizona Coyotes.
The Bruins defense was just not good enough to shut down the talented Vegas offense. Because of this, it was time for the Bruins offense to show that it can match up to a high-powered offense. Any doubt seemed foolish by the end of this game, as the Bruins stormed back from a 0-2 deficit with 4 unanswered goals against the Golden Knights.
An evenly fought game against Colorado resulting in a loss reminded us that this team is, in fact, beatable. With a complete road trip in the books, there are a few Bruins storylines that can be addressed.
The 2nd line still doesn’t have an identity.
I have no idea how the DeBrusk-Krejci-Kuhlman line is going to score.
Obviously, like everyone else, I can see the individual numbers and I can see how talented each of these players is, but I don’t totally understand how they’re going to work together. By looking at them, I’d say that Krejci holds the puck while DeBrusk drives to the net. While this is happening, Karson Kuhlman… also drives to the net?
See, this is what doesn’t make sense to me about this line. David Krejci is a puck handling, play making center and always will be. Jake DeBrusk’s identity has become a guy who gets to the front of the net, using his big frame to get positioning. This is fine on its own. Combined with David Krejci’s style of playing slowly and holding the puck, this has proven to be an effective strategy. The problem is that the Bruins have never been able to find a right winger in their system that complements these two.
This line’s problem is that Karson Kuhlman is great with David Krejci, but not with Jake DeBrusk. Karson Kuhlman is an excellent skater without the puck, who creates space for himself on the fly with his speed and offensive instinct. The problem is that Kuhlman is neither an elite finisher or passer. His best chacnes are going to be created off driving to the net.
Basically, with this line you have a playmaker and two guys who love to crash the net. I don’t see a reliable method for these three to score goals. It isn’t like the Bergeron line where you know that between the three guys the line could score from anywhere. I don’t think they have enough offensive threat to be a reliable second line.
After a slow first two games, the Bergeron line looks like the Bergeron line.
It wasn’t just that the line of Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak accounted for just one goal in the first two games of the season. The lack of playmaking from this line early on was somewhat concerning. They weren’t flying through the neutral zone or making clean tape-to-tape passes like we’re used to seeing. The first line was looking uncoordinated and lethargic through two games.
It was easy to say that it’s just two games and these three could just be knocking the dust off. It’s even easier to say that now that they’ve started to look like their dominant selves. We can’t forget that this top line started to fall off a little bit during the 2019 playoffs, especially down the stretch. Because of this, I had an extra eye on them to start the season, and I’m starting to breathe a little easier.
In the third game against Vegas this line came to life. Once again, I am not just talking about production. Their playmaking was night and day compared to the first two games. Even in the loss to Colorado they looked more like they should. When this line is on its game, it feels like they have the potential to score at any time on any given shift. They create chances out of absolutely nothing.
It felt like this line started to control the game like we’re used to. The numbers support this feeling. We can’t be certain yet, but for now it seems like we can expect the perfection line to keep on being their dominant selves this season.
The Bruins goalies are going to make things easier on this team.
The Bruins have the best goalie tandem in the league in Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak.
The benefits of this are obvious. Apart from a better goalie performance when the Bruins start their backup, Jaro Halak does even more for the team. Rask and Halak push each other in practice, making both goalies so much better. Halak’s reliability also allows Rask to have to play less regular season games, which we saw the product of last April through June. However, there’s one benefit of having two solid goalies that is unique to this year’s team.
I’m never a fan of being dependent on a goalie to get a win. The thing is, the Bruins played two and a half months extra hockey of the highest intensity last summer. There will be nights where the full effort just isn’t there and there will be nights where a game just needs to be stolen. So, while I would prefer the team not rely on its goaltending, it’s nice to know that when the legs get heavy, there will be nights when the team can afford to lean on its net minders.
Looking Ahead…
Looking ahead, the Bruins have the Devils, Ducks and Lightning at home in their next three games. I would love to see this team continue to pick up easy points against inferior opponents in their games against New Jersey and Anaheim. If Boston picks up four points going into their game against Tampa, you better be watching to see how these two teams match up.
Just like last season and the season before, the two most important matchups for this team in order are Tampa Bay and Toronto. You might think it’s too early to consider a game important, but the Bruins need a better showing against the Lightning this season. Last season’s 1-3-0 record against a team they should’ve had to beat to get to the Eastern Conference Final is just not good enough. I would much rather see the potential to beat Tampa out of the Bruins than just hope that someone else upsets them in the first round. Plus, it sure would be nice to win the Atlantic this year and maybe not have to waste a ton of effort on beating Toronto in 7.
