The verdict isn't quite in, but the reality is that the 2021-22 regular season for the Boston Bruins is going to be a series of ups and downs, peaks and valleys.
Make no mistake: this is a good hockey team. Some might even argue that it is a very good hockey team. But is it a great team? Is it a serious contender for an NHL championship come June? The realistic answer to that question is no.
Sure, the top of the roster at every position is strong and gives the B’s a chance to win each and every night. With the exception of goaltending, which has a potential trump card in the form of Tuukka Rask making a return to the NHL at some point in the not-too-distant future, the team has multiple players who are near the top of the league statistically. The biggest issue the Bruins have is with the depth up front and on the blue line.
The fanbase had to hold its collective breath Wednesday night in Buffalo when Charlie McAvoy was hit from behind by forward Zemgus Girgensons with about 6 minutes remaining in the third period and left the game with an apparent head injury. He was the none the worse for wear, requiring some stitches, but didn’t miss any games. McAvoy is the one player the Bruins cannot afford to lose. The linchpin of a middle tier defensive group, the play from the backend flows through No. 73, and it would be a catastrophe if anything happened to him. He dodged a bullet with the Girgensons hit, and Taylor Hall even scored a nice power play goal to cap off a decisive 5-1 win on the road.
However, a few days later, we caught a glimpse of what is likely to unfold as the season rolls on.
Take the first period against Boston’s (score) post-Thanksgiving matinee game against the New York Rangers as a prime example of what this team is capable of when firing on all cylinders. The B’s held the potent Rangers attack without a shot for nearly 9 minutes and held a 17-3 shot advantage late in the period, but team play down in the period’s final seconds. The fourth line and defensive pairing of Mike Reilly and Jakub Zboril got lost in a series of Rangers switches in Boston’s end, letting Ryan Strome go right to the front of the net and rip a shot home to tie the game, after carrying the play for most of the first 20 minutes. A 2-2 tie going into the 3rd period was lost on a couple of defensive breakdowns that allowed Artemi Panarin’s winning goal in an eventual 5-2 loss of a winnable game.
There are no quick fixes for this Boston team. Even if Rask were fully healthy and on the team with Jeremy Swayman, the results would not look all that different from Boston’s current 10-7 record. The B’s will continue to match up well against middle tier and lower-end clubs in the NHL, but against teams that have a lot of speed, skill and can transition and counterattack rapidly, it will be a nightly adventure. The 6-13-2 Vancouver Canucks are in town Sunday night for what should be a chance to get back into the wins column, but there are no easy games in the NHL, so Boston’s defensive zone play will need to be better than it was against the Rangers.
Zboril finding a groove
The Czech native has taken a lot of time to get his game together after being Boston’s top pick in the oft-maligned 2015 NHL Entry Draft (from a Bruins perspective), but he’s showing signs of the promise he showed in the QMJHL.
He’s playing pretty effective defense right now, after beginning the new season as a spare part and healthy scratch most nights. Able to get back on retrievals and then move pucks quickly up and out of his own end, he’s also holding his gaps, employing an active stick and ending plays physically along the walls. With 3 assists in 7 games, Zboril is not going to be a top point producer in the NHL, but he can be an effective two-way player if he embraces his current identity and builds on it. It’s encouraging and though he’s still looking for his first NHL goal 51 games into his career, with his hard point shot, that milestone should happen soon.
His last two assists have been of the primary variety, a nice feed to David Pastrnak in the win against the Flyers on Nov. 20 and a shot from the blue line that created a big rebound Reilly put home for his second goal of the season are a strong indicator that Zboril can make plays in the offensive end.
“Every game Zboril seems to generate a chance for himself by moving his feet,” Bruce Cassidy said recently. “Jakub threw his weight around the other night. He ran into (Kyle) Okposo, who’s a big man, but he’s willing to finish his checks and let people know that he’s going to be a competitive player.”
Zboril’s recent emergence has been a key development for Boston’s defensive depth, as he was looking like an afterthought that the coaching staff did not trust to even put into the lineup earlier in the season. Now, he’s serviceable and appears to be getting more confident as the games go on.
It wasn’t something many would have predicted coming into the new campaign, but Zboril has become one of the more interesting storylines to follow on this Boston team going forward. He's no longer an afterthought, and if he can continue to build his confidence and make plays, it bodes well for the team's ability to manage adversity when the schedule gets more demanding and injury risk increases with the volume and frequency of games in Dec. and Jan.
Haula in major slump
After a promising preseason, free agent Erik Haula has been a significant disappointment dropping from third-line center to the fourth line in recent games. His game against the Rangers was an example of how tough a run it has been for him up the middle.
He was on the ice for Strome’s goal late in the opening frame, seeming to get lost in a series of switches the Rangers effectively made in Boston’s end, designed to cross up the coverage, and it worked, as Strome (that line’s center and Haula’s man) got free and was alone in front of the net to beat Swayman with a quick release.
The more egregious breakdown by Haula happened in the second period, when he vacated his coverage in front of his own net to drift to his right (the strong side) where there were multiple Bruins nearby. That inattention to detail and loss of situational awareness allowed undrafted free agent Dryden Hunt to pick up a fat rebound and fire it into the open side of the net to erase the lead given by Patrice Bergeron.
The point is not to pile on or scapegoat the veteran forward, but the reality is that he cannot make these kinds of plays and expect to have a prominent role on this team. Cassidy is known for his structured, disciplined systems that require every player to read, react and make the right decisions. The center has the most responsibility of any of the three forward positions, and as such, is why not every forward can play center effectively. The old adage that says you can take a center and make him a pretty good winger, but can’t always take a winger and make him an effective center looks like it is true for Haula. His -5 is second only to Craig Smith (-6) as the lowest mark on the team, and while it doesn’t tell the whole story, is an indicator of Haula’s struggles on both sides of the puck this season.
He’s not a lost cause, but as a player the team was banking on to help replace some of the lost offense created by David Krejci’s departure, it is telling that Tomas Nosek has gotten the opportunity to replace Haula’s role on the third line. Cassidy told New England Hockey Journal that Nosek has exceeded expectations for the season, even with a modest 2-2-4 line in 17 games, more reflective of his initial role as the fourth line’s pivot to begin the year.
“I just feel like he’s been a good player no matter where we’ve played him and who we’ve played him with,” Cassidy said. “He’s had a bunch of different wingers, he’s had a bunch of d-zone starts. He’s good and he’s competing in the circle. He’s made plays when we’ve moved him up to different kind of flavors of wingers. So, I just think he’s been a real good add for us.”
Haula has much more natural skill and offensive flair than Nosek does, but the latter clearly enjoys the trust of the coach right now, so it won’t be easy for No. 56 to break out of the slump. He’ll have to find a way.
