The Boston Bruins are one of the NHL’s hottest teams, and could conceivably leapfrog the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the entire NHL with their games in hand upon the conclusion of the regular season.
Boy what a difference a year makes.
On February 7th, 2017, the Bruins announced that head coach Claude Julien would be let go in favour of assistant coach Bruce Cassidy after spending ten seasons in Beantown that included a Stanley Cup ring and another trip to the big dance during the lockout shortened season in 2013.
After Julien was let go, the Bruins went on a 18-8-1 run and qualified for the postseason. Boston ran into a tough Senators team that eliminated them in six games. Although Cassidy and the Bruins didn’t get where they wanted to, the Bruins showcased that they weren’t going to spin their wheels trying to retool on the fly.
Coming into the season, pundits wondered whether Tuuka Rask could lead the Bruins back to the post-season, and if the team had enough secondary scoring behind Bergeron, Marchand and sophomore sniper David Pastrnak.
So far this season, the Bruins have exceeded expectations, and have put up spectacular numbers under Cassidy.
The Marchand, Bergeron, Pastrnak line has arguably become the best two-way line in all hockey. As good as their first line has been, it’s youngsters like Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen that emerged as the new up-and-coming faces of Bruins hockey.
Under Julien, the Bruins deployed a style of ‘heavy hockey’ with the likes of Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton, Zdeno Chara and Brad Marchand leading the way. On paper, it seemed like the Bruins would continue their dominance with their brash style, but the team’s core became battered and worn out, and desperately needed a new generation of players to build around David Krejci, Bergeron, Chara and Marchand.
After the Bruins missed the playoffs for two straight seasons following the 2013-14 campaign, newly hired general manager Don Sweeney made a number of head scratching moves, and ended up with picks 13-15 in the first round where they infamously drafted Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk and Zachary Senyshyn with the likes of Mathew Barzal, Thomas Chabot, Kyle Connor and Brock Boeser still on the board.
Although the Bruins were heavily criticized with the players they selected in that first round, the team quietly stocked up on talent throughout the later rounds and in the next two entry drafts.
The team is now finally reaping the benefits of properly building up their prospect pool and have emerged as the hottest team in the NHL, thanks in large part from the play of Bergeron and Marchand under the tutlege of Cassidy.
Boston blew out the Rangers on Wednesday night by a score of 6-1.
Over their last 27 games, Boston has just two regulation losses and have won 21 of those matches. Since Cassidy was hired a year ago, the Bruins have gone 51-19-9, good enough for 111 points and a points percentage of over .700. Only the Lightning have posted a better record at 55-20-7 while playing three more games.
Bergeron has emerged into a potential Hart Trophy Candidate and trails only Evgeni Malkin for goals scored in the calendar year of 2018. McAvoy has garnished some Calder attention, with Rask generating some Vezina talk.
While it’s highly likely that Gerard Gallant will take home his second Jack Adams trophy in three seasons, Cassidy deserves to be in the coach of the year discussion, and although they’re not the big, bad Bruins of the past, this Boston club is posed to do some serious damage in the playoffs even if the team inevitably cools off just a little.
