It has been a topsy turvy season so far for the Boston Bruins.
On the heels of losing the club’s first home game this week against the Edmonton Oilers, the team won on the road for the first time in more than three weeks, beating the New Jersey Devils by a 5-2 score to bounce back in a Saturday matinee. The win relieved some pressure, which had escalated following the B’s blowing multiple leads against Connor McDavid and company.
Fans will always have their scapegoats, often pointing fingers at players who are easy to blame when things don’t go well. Derek Forbort is that low-hanging fruit in 2021-22, and it is understandable given that he’s the lone offseason acquisition on the blue line over the summer.
Against Edmonton, it was fan favorite Brandon Carlo who had a tough night, embodying the old “he giveth, he taketh away” biblical phrase by scoring his first of the season to give his team the lead, only to give the lead away with a miscue that ended up on Leon Draisaitl’s stick. The winning goal, also scored by Draisaitl, happened in part because of soft coverage by Carlo.
So, you see, Boston’s blue line inconsistencies are not simply limited to one player.
There are multiple factors we can point to in the early going. With a schedule that has seen them play the fewest number of games in the Atlantic Division, it has been tough for the Bruins players and coaches to be able to get into a regular rhythm to work out the kinks. The schedule is a condition, and one that will be remedied eventually with 16- and 18-game months in December and January.
The real challenges for Boston’s blue line and getting more positive production lie with the personnel and the systems. One of those can be addressed with relative ease given head coach Bruce Cassidy's willingness to change when things aren't working, but the other will be a tougher equation to solve for head GM Don Sweeney and his pro scouting staff as the season goes on.
Assessing the 'D' after 12 games
In recent years, the focus in Boston was a search to find more scoring to balance the top two lines and have the right punch on all forward combinations.
However, over time, the decline and eventual departure of Zdeno Chara, plus an inability to draft, develop and retain all-around defensemen has led the Bruins to the current iteration, which is a serviceable group who has gotten off to a 7-5 start. It’s a middle of the pack record for a middle of the pack team. The city of Boston, which has enjoyed so many championships across all the major team sports over the past two decades, isn’t okay with middle of the pack.
What exacerbates the problem the defense faces is the growing angst over Boston’s aging core up front, coupled with the lack of a clear-cut No. 1 center who will have to address an unfillable void left by Patrice Bergeron’s eventual departure. When that might be, no one other than the captain knows, but the general feeling is that the defense is the first real domino to fall, as age, trades, expansion and a lack of production at the draft table have all combined to create the current situation.
At the top, Charlie McAvoy is the best example on the back end of draft luck and success. The Long Island native is Sweeney’s first, and to this point, only draft day home run, falling to the non-playoff Bruins at the 14th overall selection in 2016.
After Auston Matthews at No. 1, McAvoy is arguably the next player who would have gone off the board in Buffalo if all the NHL GMs had crystal balls five years ago. He’s the prototype modern NHL defenseman and we broke down his importance to the franchise when he signed his mega-extension on the eve of the new season last month.
With 10 points in 12 games, McAvoy continues to rise to the upper echelon of the NHL’s best blue liners, and we can shudder to think where the B’s would be if just one of those NHL teams picking in front of Boston had seen his raw promise at Boston University. With No. 73 in the lineup, the B’s have a chance each and every night.
After McAvoy, Carlo is the best classic defense-first blue liner the team has. The normally sure-handed and poised veteran of more than 330 NHL games spit the bit against Edmonton, but those moments have and will be few and far between for the tall and mobile Colorado native.
If McAvoy was Sweeney’s first major draft score, Carlo was his first double to right field. The first of three second-round picks in the GM’s first draft in 2015, made the team at age 19, just one year after he was taken, and has been in Boston ever since.
The concern with him lies with his durability. He played all 82 regular season games in his rookie campaign, only to be knocked out of the 2017 postseason by a hit from behind leveled by Alex Ovechkin in game 82. Since then, Carlo has lost time due to head hits, concussions and other upper body ailments. At 24 (he turns 25 on the 26th of this month), he’s an important cog in the B’s machine, and like McAvoy, losing him for any amount of time would be a crushing loss. He’s not had a great start, with just the one goal thus far, and is a minus player for the first time in his career. Carlo and his mates bounced back against the Devils a few days later, but there will be more gaffes and blown coverages down the road. It’s a given.
Forbort has the most experience of any player in Boston’s defensive group, which to an extent, begins to explain why the collective early season play has been uneven. He’s played just a handful more games than Carlo has after being the 15thoverall selection of the Los Angeles Kings (using Boston’s traded pick for Nathan Horton) in 2010. Interestingly, McAvoy (+6) and Forbort (even) are the only two defensemen on the roster who don’t have a minus next to their names.
Advanced stats will tell you that plus/minus is a limited indicator, but at the same time, it’s a basic indicator that Forbort’s play is not as bad as the social media environment might lead you to believe. His mistakes that have led to goals, magnified in a road loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs early in Nov. have made him an easy target. The reality is, he’s a solid defensive player with size and range who might be trying too hard and is adjusting to the new demands of Boston’s advanced systems and isn’t playing his best hockey right now. In a perfect world, Forbort would have come in and shut it all down, but in a game played by humans, that’s not what happened. At the same time, he has more goals (2) than any other defenseman. It stands to reason that his usage will increase as he gets more comfortable. He was meant to provide the same kind of steady defense on the left side that Carlo provides on the right, but he’s not there yet.
Matt Grzelcyk and Mike Reilly are puck movers whose value lies in their ability to kickstart the transition game and get plays north with speed. The Charlestown, Mass. native and former BU captain has always been a blazing skater and smart player who sees the ice and can distribute pucks to the right areas. Like most every other NHL defenseman under 6-foot in height, he has to play smart to be effective. He can’t physically match up against many of the bigger, stronger forwards, and therefore has to angle and employ an active stick to break up rushes and turn plays the other way.
Reilly, who was acquired at the trade deadline from Ottawa, was seen as a key x-factor coming into the season, and has not passed the eye test defensively in the early going. He showed some initial defensive acumen in his first Boston games last spring before getting exposed in the playoff series loss against the Islanders. He’s contributed positively this season in terms of supporting the rush and producing modest offense in line with his career trajectory. It is not unfair, however, to point out that the Bruins expected more after re-signing him to a three-year extension worth $3 million per season (the same deal Forbort has).
Connor Clifton and Jakub Zboril are the two who round out the group, with Clifton getting the most looks on the right side, playing 10 of Boston’s games. Veteran John Moore, currently in the AHL, has more NHL games than anyone on the Boston blue line and played one game before going down to Providence, playing on the right side as a left shot defender. His cap hit prevents him from being an option in the mix as currently constructed, and he’s currently playing prime minutes in the AHL with Providence.
It all starts with McAvoy, and he’s the staple any team can build around. However, there is not enough talent, experience and depth around him, and should anything happen, there is no safety net to address the gaping hole a McAvoy-less Bruins team would represent.
Are the systems too complex?
Cassidy showed his frustration after the home loss to Edmonton. Blown leads will incur the ire of any coach at any level, but it was the way the B’s went about it.
“We absolutely beat ourselves. 100 percent. I gotta do a better job,” he said. “When a team beats itself that’s on us as a staff. Everybody makes mistakes. But these ones really impacted the game. Some of the mistakes we made are just… a lack of focus.”
As correct as Cassidy may be, winning games is still the exclusive province of the players. They are the ones who have to execute and make the plays that all add up to either two points at the end of the night, or a loss of any fashion.
There is a proven adage in hockey that the best game plans and systems won't help if a team lacks the right personnel to execute them, and that could be part of the issue in Boston.
At the same time, the head coach and his staff’s primary responsibility is to have the team prepared to play and win every night. Cassidy is known for being a detail-oriented, structure-heavy coach with complex systems designed to create layers in the defensive zone that will help to counter the advantage that other teams with lethal offensive talent and depth such as Edmonton, Toronto and Florida possess. In each loss to those clubs in the early going, the structure has broken down at critical points. It isn’t like the Bruins have been blown out of the water in each of those tough losses in which the B’s were outscored by a 14-6 margin. Even in Boston’s first loss of the season, a 6-3 road game in Philadelphia, the team carried a 3-3 game into the final 20 minutes before defensive breakdowns and Jeremy Swayman’s poorest showing in his young NHL career made the final outcome look worse than it was.
Bottom line, the B’s have been competitive and close in just about every loss thus far.
Better play and some breaks their way, and that 7-5 record could be 9-3 or even better, but in the end, they haven’t executed when it matters most in the losing efforts. The immediate solution might lie in Cassidy and his staff adjusting the structure to simplify things and reduce the responsibilities on the back end. It may all be easier said than done, but the lack of collective experience on the back end might be creating unintended pressure, as younger players tend to try and do more in structure rather than keep things simple. In the NHL, if you’re thinking too much, you’ve likely been beaten to your spot or are behind on the play.
On Saturday, Boston got a big boost from its big guns, with Brad Marchand and Bergeron combining for three of the team’s five goals. Erik Haula got off the schneid with his first goal as a Bruin. With the chances he’s had in the schedule’s first 11 games, he had to break through at some point. This was a big win for the B’s, and the defense appeared to play steadier game, limiting low percentage plays and holding gaps. Granted, they weren’t facing a fully healthy Devils club who was without former first overall pick Jack Hughes, but the victory prevented them falling to .500 just in time for the arrival of the Montreal Canadiens for a Sunday night rivalry game at the TD Garden.
The Habs aren't the nemesis of old or even last year's Cinderella squad at 4-10-2, but the 2021 Stanley Cup final team presents a trap and danger game against the Bruins. The Boston defense will be tested each and every night regardless of their opponent.
What next for the defense?
There are no easy fixes on the trade front.
Good teams aren’t going to trade top defensive players to a club like the Bruins. Trying to address personnel concerns via making a deal at this stage would likely involve robbing Peter to pay Paul, so the fix will have to be internally, by making personnel and systems adjustments to keep the B’s blue line moving forward.
As the season goes on and teams begin to fall by the wayside in the standings, then the trade market tends to heat up. That will require some patience and opportunity for the GM, and until then, you can only hope that the hand is not forced by any unforeseen circumstances like injuries.
The team might be looking at how to get Moore back into the lineup, but that will take some moving around of players and cap dollars to make happen. The coaching staff might be breaking it down to figure out how to dumb things down a bit to get the most out of this group for the time being.
There aren’t any young prospects coming along who can save the day, however. If the B’s had faith in Urho Vaakanainen being part of a solution, we would have seen him by now. Brady Lyle is not ready and has a lot to learn yet in Providence. Zboril is proving himself to be a far cry from what the club hoped when making him a top-15 selection in 2015. He’s played a couple of games with limited minutes, but it is clear that the coaches don’t trust him in an expanded role.
So, for now, the defense will have to play above themselves while getting the offensive support from the top of the lineup.
This is a playoff-caliber team so long as everyone stays healthy, but simply making the playoffs is no longer the standard in Boston, especially given the circumstances.
Remembering Colby Cave
The B’s paid tribute to another former player who left us far too young in a pregame ceremony Thursday against Edmonton. After honoring Dorchester’s Jimmy Hayes on Oct. 30 in a shootout win over Florida, the team recognized Colby Cave’s widow, Emily, and honored the undrafted free agent’s legacy who died suddenly in April, 2020 at age 25. Cave played 67 NHL games for the Bruins and Oilers after signing with Boston in 2015 out of the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos. He played just 23 games for the B’s in 2018 and 2019 before moving on to the Oilers, but was well respected in Boston and Providence for being a rugged, hard-working forward and respected teammate and leader.
https://twitter.com/NHLBruins/status/1458823238033846282?s=20
Emily Cave has been open about the devastating loss of her husband during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and grateful for the outpouring of love and support from both the Bruins and Oilers organizations, calling them her “families.” Cave had close connections in Boston with Marchand, Bergeron and in Providence with Zach Senyshyn, who tallied a hat trick against Lehigh Valley the night after the ceremony at TD Garden, with Emily in the building to drop the ceremonial first puck.
With some of the negativity surrounding hockey and the NHL, don’t forget to take time to appreciate that there is still far more good in the game than bad.
https://twitter.com/emilyljcave/status/1459721589910552577?s=20
