Boston Bruins: Time To Fix The Blue Line
The Boston Bruins held their final press conference of the 2015-16 season today. Bruins President Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney had another post-mortem of the Black and Gold’s inability to make the playoffs for the second straight season. Bruins owner (and head of the NHL’s Board of Governors) Jeremy Jacobs was part of this final press event, and he expressed his feelings about the Bruins up-and-down season.
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“It looked like it was growing to be a great finish,” said Jacobs of the B’s disappointing performance. “I know periodically I’ll be talking to the Commissioner [Gary Bettman] and he says, ‘What just happened?’ He said, ‘You guys were winning, then you’re losing, now you’re losing, you’re winning.’ We were very streaky this year, and I think if not for those downward movements, we could have been very much a contending team.”
“I was told going in, it was going to be rocky, because there were some serious changes that took place, as we know. So I would say that it was a group that worked its heart out on it and tried as best they could from a management level, but they had some tough chores. I think they’ve got some great opportunities ahead of them.”
So, what exactly are those opportunities moving forward?
The Bruins have to clean up their blue line. It’s clear that Bruins went into the season with only two top-four defensemen. At the start of the season, it looked like Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg would be the only top defensemen they had. As the season progressed, it was clear that neither of the veteran blueliners were at 100 percent. As the season went on, Torey Krug did step up and plug some holes (and prove he could be part of the solution moving forward) for the Black and Gold, but there was still too much inconsistency when it came to defense.
That turned out to be especially damning on a team that prides itself on two-way defensive-minded hockey.
The Bruins were hoping for more from their pool of young defensemen. The Bruins couldn’t find a player that would fit the bill for them this season. The Bruins consigned Matt Irwin to the Providence Bruins for the season after two games. They didn’t choose to use Colin Miller enough, instead leaving the very hit-or-miss Kevan Miller on the ice for too many games. (That Sweeney added Kevan Miller to his list of players that had a great season in the B’s previous press conference is still a little odd.) The Bruins never settled in permanently on Zach Trotman or Joe Morrow either.
“We had hoped some of them would improve a little bit more than they did,” said Neely of the young blueliners. “You never really know. It’s a tough position, as you all know. You see them develop, and you hope that they will continue to develop and make an impact on your team. I think we would have liked to see a little more of that, yes.”
The Bruins will have their work cut out for them in the offseason. The Bruins only have three defensemen under contract going into next season, and they are Chara, Seidenberg, and Adam McQuaid. The Bruins are very likely to sign Torey Krug to a contract, but that will still leave room for at least two blueliners. The Bruins will need to start the shakeup there. Hopefully, the new look of the Bruins defense will help the team move forward next season.