5 needs for the Bruins heading into 2017
COMMENTARY
Technically, the second half of the Boston Bruins’ 2016-2017 season begins next Thursday when the Edmonton Oilers come to town for Game No. 41. But we’ll take an early look ahead, join the Saturday night festivities, and ring in the New Year with the five needs of the Black and Gold as they aim to make the playoffs for the first time in three years after missing the previous two postseasons by a scant one point.
Looking back at the start of the season, disappointing performances by first-half duds Jimmy Hayes, Anton Khudobin and Riley Nash were offset by surprise contributions from Brandon Carlo, Dominic Moore and David Pastrnak; while David Backes, Torey Krug and Ryan Spooner need to kick it up a notch.
Aside from these factors, here’s a look at five needs in descending order of importance that must to be addressed to give TD Garden a shot at hosting hockey in mid-April.
Monitor the captain’s minutes
Zdeno Chara turns 40 in March. When management did not sign a No. 2 or 3 defenseman in the offseason, they rolled the dice that his age would not come back to haunt them. So far, the play of Carlo as Chara’s sidekick — not to mention that of Tuukka Rask — and Boston’s overall mediocre defense has kept the team in the playoff hunt.
With eight points and a plus-8 in 32 games while averaging some 25 minutes per contest, Chara leads that effort as the B’s No. 1 defenseman, once again proving his value on Causeway Street. Still, playing at his current pace for the next three months will tax the big guy, not to mention potentially leaving him gassed for the playoffs. Claude Julien needs to decrease Chara’s minutes, with consistent games off.
Get more offense from Bergy
Is Patrice Bergeron playing through an injury from September’s World Cup? Or is he feeling the effects of his long career at the tender age of 31?
Clearly, there is something affecting the reigning Selke winner’s game. The Bruins have scored two or fewer goals in about two-thirds of their games for a 2.3 goals-per-game average. That’s 27th in the NHL.
After putting up 68 points and a plus-12 in 80 games last year, Bergeron has a 6-5-11 total through 35 games this season, putting him on pace for 20-25 points. His faceoff stats have also declined. No way we put the Bruins’ anemic offense totally on Bergeron’s shoulders, but it starts with him — especially at $8.75 million per year.
Keep Rask from derailing
Last year, Rask had the highest goals against average in home games. Last summer, the NHL Network did a review of the Top 10 NHL netminders. Rask was not among the featured group — all after winning the 2014 Vezina Trophy and signing an 8-year deal worth $56 million in 2013.
As Rask goes, so go the Bruins. At 18-7-0-3 and with a 1.96 GAA, Rask is back among the NHL’s elite. Last year, he appeared in 72 games and clearly lost his focus and patience with a porous D and soft goals in games during the stretch run.
Claude Julien’s up-tempo game out of Rask’s end has reduced breakdowns leading to bad goals. That has to continue while keeping Rask focused and periodically rested during the second half. He can’t play in 72 games this season.
Address backup goaltending situation
The Bruins used their No. 1 draft pick in 2012 on goaltender Malcolm Subban. In 2010, they drafted Zane McIntyre who went on to play at one of the best NCAA programs (North Dakota) in the best college league (NCHC), en route to winning the Mike Richter Award as the NCAA’s best goaltender in 2015. Common sense would suggest that either or both would already be developed as a backup and/or heir apparent to Rask. Nope, both have a grand total of five NHL games after being sporadically tossed to the wolves with no wins and now questionable trade value. Instead, general manager Don Sweeney signed a one-year deal with former B’s backup Anton Khudobin, who appeared in nine games last season with a 3-3-0 record and is 1-5-0-1 this year with a GAA north of 3.00.
The only solution now is to move either Subban or McIntyre by the trade deadline for a rental backup.
Play above .500 at home; and win gimme games
Last year, the Black and Gold were 17-18-6 on home ice. So far this season, right on schedule for the same at 8-9-0.
Into the last game of 2016 at home on New Year’s eve vs. Buffalo, they have won seven of 15 games in December. Three of their defeats were regulation losses at home to Colorado, Toronto and the Islanders, six points dropped to the three lowest teams in the NHL at the time. “Gimme” games have to be won, especially at TD Garden. Period. The team has to play above .500 at home. Period.
Missing the playoffs for two years makes it easy to don the 20-20 hindsight lenses to look back at any one of countless games or factors that caused dark nights on Causeway Street after Game No. 82 in 2015 and 2016. The Boston Bruins need to fulfill most above to keep the same from recurring in 2017 and make it a happier New Year in the Hub of Hockey.
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