This Bruins team is similar to last year’s. Will their outcome be different?
The roster that opens the season Thursday night against the Dallas Stars is deep and well-rounded enough to return to the Stanley Cup Final and take care of the business they left unfinished last June.
COMMENTARY
On June 21, 2003, the Bruins made one of the savviest draft-day decisions in Boston sports history when they selected 18-year-old Acadie-Bathurst center Patrice Bergeron with the 45th pick of the NHL Draft.
We didn’t know then that he would become the epitome of everything fans desire a Bruin to be. We just knew, per the Globe write-up on the draft, that he was young, drew an Adam Oates comparison for his creativity, and said he hoped to be a Simon Gagne-type of player.
No, the big local sports story that day was the Red Sox “closer by committee’’ bullpen blowing three different leads against the Phillies, wasting a Pedro Martinez start and a 6-for-6 day by Nomar Garciaparra. Where have you gone, Rudy Seanez?
On July 1, 2006, the Bruins made two huge signings (one literally) in free agency, adding 6-foot-9-inch Senators defenseman Zdeno Chara on a five-year, $37.5 million deal and bringing over nifty center Marc Savard from the Thrashers on a four-year, $20 million contract.
Savard’s career would be abbreviated by concussions, but he was as advertised before a dirty hit by Matt Cooke, the Vontaze Burfict of hockey, changed everything.
As for Chara, all he did was shift the franchise’s fortunes for the better, becoming a revered captain while lining up behind Bobby Orr, Raymond Bourque, and Eddie Shore on the elite list of the finest defensemen in Bruins lore.
The Bruins took David Krejci with the 63d pick of the 2004 draft, 30 picks after Bourque’s son Chris went to the Washington Capitals.
Tuukka Rask was acquired from the Maple Leafs in June 2006 for fellow goalie Andrew Raycroft, who last played an NHL game seven years ago and is now a NESN analyst.
Brad Marchand was the 71st pick in 2006 — boy, what a pivotal year in franchise history that was — taken 66 picks after the Bruins’ No. 1 selection, Phil Kessel.
The Bruins have added some outstanding young players in recent seasons — David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo for starters — and the roster that opens the season Thursday night against the Dallas Stars is deep and well-rounded enough to return to the Stanley Cup Final and take care of the business they left unfinished last June.
But the aforementioned five players are the heartbeat of this hockey team, and have been for a long time. Part of the reason why it feels like the new season is beginning so close to the conclusion of the last one is because what the Bruins bring back is so familiar.
Offseason acquisitions Par Lindholm and Brett Ritchie are the only newcomers that could be in the lineup for the opener. Everyone else was here for the Game 7 loss to the Blues, and it’s that veteran core that is going to help them overcome it.
Par Lindholm is one of only a couple of few faces in the Bruins’ lineup this year.
It’s a bummer to flash back to it, but this is not the first time the Bruins have had to deal with the hangover of a crushing loss in the Stanley Cup Final. The 2012-13 Bruins lost in six games to the Blackhawks, with that ending even more abrupt than the one endured in June.
The next season, 2013-14, Rask won the Vezina Trophy while the Bruins finished first in the Eastern Conference, leading the NHL in points. It ended with a second-round loss in seven games to the dastardly Canadiens, but it was a fine season, and the loss in the previous Final didn’t linger.
The players that make up this Bruins core, the players that set the culture around the team and led the way in 2010-11 to one of the most satisfying championships among Boston’s dozen this century, are of course at different career stages now.
Zdeno Chara is back for another season.
Chara is 42, five months older than Tom Brady, and still steady, if considerably slower. Bergeron is 34 and still extraordinary, though injuries are a concern, as they are with Krejci, 33, who is dealing with a lower-body issue that leaves him iffy for the opener.
Marchand, 31, is coming off his first 100-point season, as brilliant at playing the game as he is at agitating opponents. Rask, 32, is still a premier goaltender, but one still waiting to put his name on the Stanley Cup as the starter rather than the understudy.
It would be premature to suggest this is the last go-round for this group. But the Bruins do have 10 free agents after the season, including Charlie Coyle and Torey Krug.
Some important things will change. But right now, they’re built to win, especially if the aging core that has made this a mostly rewarding era to be a Bruins fan can keep working their wonders for one more year — and perhaps this time, one more win in June.
