The honeymoon is over Bruins fans the 2011-2012 season has begun and the NHL will crown a new champion in June unless the Black and Gold can defend their crown. Remember fondly though last year when the ageless wonder and proud catamount Tim Thomas told the puck club and all the bandwagon fans to hop on his back from April thru June and brought home the Cup for the spoked B for the first time in 39 years. Last year the Bruins rode a hot goaltender, spectacular team defense from the backline to the forwards, the pesky play of Brad Marchand, the wizardy of David Krejci to the summit. The question for this year is will all of those things continue to happen for the entire 2011-12 season? The Bruins had holes during the season and playoffs last year stemming from their inability to score on the power play (thanks a lot Tomas Fagerle) and get a consistent effort from their top ‘scoring’ line. If the Bruins can get a consistent scoring effort from their top two lines the defense will continue to be solid led by Big Z and the emergence of Dennis Seidenberg and the goaltending pair of Thomas and Tuukka Rask is arguably the best in the NHL (Vancouver gave up the least goals in the league last year but we all saw the true Roberto Luongo last year. Guy is like a wet paper bag come crunch time.). Enough about this jibber jab lets take a look at this years roster from top to bottom.
Forwards
Centers: David Krejci (currently injured), Patrice Bergeron, Chris Kelly, Greg Campbell, Tyler Seguin is a natural C and is most comfortable there but he’s been playing on the wing for the better part of his young career
Wingers: Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, Rich Peverley, Jordan Caron, Shawn Thornton, Daniel Paille, and Benoit Pouliot
The key to their entire offense is the top line of Lucic-Krejci-Horton. Last year Lucic found his scoring touch potting 30 goals but he got away from what made him dominant the prior years: his Cam Neely tendency to get into a fight, slam someone into the boards, grab the puck and pot a goal. The Bruins had their best scoring line in years when Savard was feeding Kessel with Lucic keeping people off of them allowing the true playmakers to do just that. I’d be content with his taking a backseat on the goal scoring if it meant keeping the ice clean for Krejci and Horton. Horton is a scorer thru and thru. He shoots in volume and is accurate. The Marchand-Bergeron-Peverley line has been the most consistent early in the season (4th game is tonight) with Bergeron being the team’s best centerman, Marchand driving the other team nuts with his effort, and Peverley can do both. Campbell and Kelly do a great job of centering the Bruins bottom 2 lines. They don’t bring much offense to the table but they are two of the best defensive forwards in the league and are dynamite on the penalty kill. As far as the power play is concerned Krejci and/or Seguin need to step up and be the playmaker along the halfboard a la Marc Savard. The power play will continue to stall until one of them steps up.
Defenseman
Pairings: Zdeno Chara-Dennis Seidenberg, Johnny Boychuk-Andrew Ference, Joe Corvo-Adam McQuaid with Matt Bartowski and Steven Kampfer (currently on injured reserve) waiting in the wings
Big Z is rock solid and has been for years. He’s one of the top 3 defenseman in the league and is the heart and soul of the Boston Bruins. He’s 6’9” of defensive stalwart. Last year in the playoffs Dennis Seidenbeg raised his hand and became the first guy in a while to be able to consistently play alongside Big Z. I vote that he continues to be that same guy this year that he was last year in the playoffs giving the Bruins solid defense and a smattering of offensive contribution. The big editiong in the offseason was Joe Corvo from Carolina who swapped places with Tomas Kaberle signing a three-year deal with the Hurricanes (morons that’ll bite em in the ass sooner before later). The Bruins basically paid the Maple Leafs back for the Phil Kessel deal when they traded for Tomas Kaberle at the deadline last year. The prevailing thought was that Kaberle’s bounty soft hands would lead to better passes and ignite the Bruins pitiful power play. Wrong. The power play still sucked and Kaberle was constantly out of position but can’t really complain because the Bruins ended up hoisting the Cup in the end. Hopefully Corvo’s big blast from the point and ability to take a shot at any time will help elevate the Bruins power play. The Bruins will be solid all around defensively thanks to the coaching of Claude Julien. Julien doesn’t know dick about offense but the man has a great defensive scheme and he has for years. The defense will not suffer a Stanley Cup hangover you can be sure of that.
Goaltenders
Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask
This pairing was solid all year last year and has been for the past two years. Expect to see Tuukka Rask a little more this year to help keep Thomas fresh for the stretch run and the playoffs. He’s going to be 38 and after winning his 2nd Vezina Trophy in 3 years the Bruins want to keep him in top shape to help the cause. Rask is a future number 1, which he was just two years ago while Thomas was injured. The kid can play and will provide great backup insurance hell he’s not even a backup he’s a 1a. Not much else to say other than the Bruins are going to be solid in net all year.
OUTLOOK
The Bruins have a solid team from top to bottom but unless David Krejci steps up to the level he played at in the 2010 Winter Olympics or Tyler Seguin blossoms this year into the superstar he’s bound to be the offense will struggle to put points on the board. They’ll win their fair share though with their defensive system and goaltending being elite. They might have trouble taking down the Sabres or Canadiens for the division but they will definitely be suiting up in April and May for the playoffs but I don’t see a second Stanley Cup coming down the pipe this year.
Prediction: 42-30-10 (94 pts) good for 2nd in the Northeast Division and the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference.
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