The NHL announced Friday that Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand’s six-game suspension will be upheld, meaning the team’s leading scorer and most impactful player can't return until Feb. 24 in Seattle.
The Marchand suspension is a microcosm of the struggles the B’s have gone through this month after a red-hot January. Once the Bruins lost him and captain Patrice Bergeron (injury) for a few games, fans caught a glimpse into what awaits this team in the future if they don’t find a way to add more impact performers, especially at the center and defense positions.
The clock is ticking.
Bergeron will turn 37 in July, and will be without a contract for the first time in his career since making the Bruins as an 18-year-old in 2003. Boston fans should not fear him signing with someone else as much as they should worry about him walking away from the game. He has little left to prove, the miles are piling up and he could opt to put more focus on his young family.
With the NHL trade deadline a month away, Don Sweeney and his staff face some critical decisions. A quarter-century ago, the Bruins, after an early playoff defeat by the Florida Panthers, lost Cam Neely to retirement and then cratered in the standings the following season when their NHL-record 29-year playoff run ended.
With an aging core, too many supporting-cast types and not enough drivers or top prospects in the system, the Bruins are at a similar crossroads. What they do in the coming weeks could set the stage for them to remain competitive, or lurch dangerously in the opposite direction.
Why the Bruins are struggling
Head coach Bruce Cassidy pointed to the lack of secondary scoring this week as Boston’s biggest issue.
Since the All-Star break, the Bruins have scored more than two goals in a game just once, a 3-2 OT win over Ottawa Saturday night. Absences from Marchand and Bergeron have exposed how frail the scoring balance is up front. Erik Haula showed signs of at least being a capable option at second-line center last month, but his production is not reliable, and his overall play has dipped. The Bruins are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games, but all four wins have come against Ottawa (twice), Arizona and Seattle, all non-playoff clubs.
Boston’s lower lines are gritty and work hard, but without the top six to generate scoring chances at even strength and on the power play, they aren’t good enough.
It’s not just the sputtering offense, however. Boston’s defense has a franchise-type in Charlie McAvoy, with Brandon Carlo a strong cog, both stabilizing the right side. The left side has been a revolving door of matchup plays, a serviceable trio of Matt Grzelcyk (Charlestown, Mass.), Mike Reilly and Derek Forbort mixing and matching without the kind of continuity top teams across the league enjoy. Grzelcyk and Reilly are effective puck movers who can help the power play, but aren’t as capable defensively. Forbort can defend at even strength and on the penalty kill with his size, mobility and jam, but he’s struggled mightily on breakouts. When the game speeds up and Boston needs to push the pace, he’s a liability.
The B's do have a pair of former first-round picks in Urho Vaakanainen and the injured Jakub Zboril, both of whom have showed promise in limited sample sizes this year, but the former isn't going to be a major difference maker on the blue line this season.
In net, Tuukka Rask’s sudden retirement has brought the B’s back to where they were with two solid options between Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman. Solid, unfortunately, is not enough to bridge the talent gap that the B’s currently face at forward and defense when stacking up against the proven contenders. Neither goalie is going to carry this roster to a Cinderella-style outcome in spring.
Avoid the temptation of overpaying in a seller’s market
Without knowing what kind of guidance the hockey operations department has gotten from team ownership, the hope here is that the Boston brain trust can see that this team needs more than trades can fix.
The B’s are competitive for the playoffs, but lack the skill and depth to match up against Eastern Conference powers like Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina and even Toronto. To put it another way, there is no visible path to getting out of conference play, let alone to a Stanley Cup parade in June.
Paying a premium in draft picks or prospects for a useful rental isn't going to make the Bruins more competitive.
The recent deal between Calgary and Montreal that sent veteran Tyler Toffoli to Alberta in exchange for Tyler Pitlick, former 2020 second-round prospect Emil Heineman and multiple picks, including Calgary’s first-rounder in either 2022 or 2023, illustrates the kind of ask that the teams out of playoff contention will be looking for. Toffoli isn’t a top wing, but he will provide important depth for a Calgary club that is currently in first place in the Pacific Division. The prices will only go up.
After years of being players at the deadline and surrendering future assets, the Bruins aren’t in a position to be players in the current trade market without paying a longer-term price.
The Arizona Coyotes are in last place with GM Bill Armstrong collecting a war chest of picks for what are expected to be deep drafts in 2022 and 2023. The Bruins don’t need to burn it down like that, but they also don’t need to expend assets they can’t really afford simply to play at the margins. Flyers captain Claude Giroux is expected to be moved, but he wants to go to a contender and isn’t likely to waive his no-movement clause to go to Boston.
Prospects like defenseman Mason Lohrei and forward Fabian Lysell are the best the Bruins have in a solid but thin system, but so many other clubs around the NHL are more skilled, deeper and have a higher volume of future stars waiting in the wings. The Bruins simply don’t have that, and they need to look at drafting and developing Bergeron’s replacement at center and another top-2 defender who can play the left side to complement McAvoy.
Even if it means a couple of lean years, sticking to a disciplined rebuilding plan without completely bottoming-out like the Canadiens and Coyotes is preferable to frittering away what few pieces the team does have on players who will come at a high cost, but aren’t part of a long-term solution.
Bergeron’s future is uncertain, and Marchand won’t be able to sustain his current production for more than a couple of more years. So now is the time for the Bruins to avoid the temptation of limited additions.
That means staying out of pricey transactions and keeping the focus on finding Bergeron's replacement and adding more horses to bolster the thoroughbred they have in McAvoy.
