Boston Bruins: B’s keep experimenting to find success.

Oct 11, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins head coach

(C) covers his mouth as Boston Bruins right wing

(18), center

(23), and left wing

(17) look on from the bench during the third period at TD Garden. The Capitals won 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Bruins (1-3-0) have decided to take a Rubik’s Cube approach to finding the right sort of lines to make their team click.  To do so, they’ve once again made some changes in order to find the right mix to pull off another win in Boston. This time around, they decided to extend a one-year contract to experienced veteran Simon Gagne. This one year, six hundred thousand dollar deal is not only cap friendly, but it may prove the spark the team needed.

Leave it to the guy who pulled the trigger on the Bruins playoff run in 2010 to help find them on ice success a few years later.

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The Boston Bruins chose to send Bobby Robins and Jordan Caron back down to Providence.  I’ve never been a general manager or a coach of a hockey team, but it seems the Bruins have done an injustice to Jordan Caron here.  (Ok, I can hear the “You’re crazy! He sucks!”in your head already.) Jordan Caron had a good enough camp to make the Bruins team. He should have been put on the fourth line in Shawn Thornton‘s place or kept as the thirteenth forward.  He’s not been amazing, but he hasn’t made the severe mental errors that certain players ( Matt Bartkowski) are STILL making.

The Bruins have now decided that skill now trumps grit and sent Robins back to the AHL. Robins had a good performance in the season opener, but wasn’t really present (or dressed) in the other games. He put a solid number of hits (and fourteen minutes in penalties) in his three performances.

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“We’ve got some young guys in different places, so there are still opportunities there. We’ll hopefully put that puzzle together to the extent that we really like it at some point, but I think we’re still experimenting. Sometimes you have to do that as a team. Just because you have training camp doesn’t mean you have all the answers. We’re trying to get those answers.” – Bruins head coach Claude Julien

Seth Griffith is currently in the right slot for the Bruins top line.  While it shows that the B’s are willing to put a lot faith in him, that might be a bit too much pressure for him. It would make more sense to put him with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. (Let’s face it, Bergeron makes everyone he plays with a better player. Especially when it comes to the box score.) Bergeron has an intuitive leadership that makes it easy for younger players to work with him (Look what he did with Marchand and Tyler Seguin in 2010-11.).

The Bruins should be giving someone like Reilly Smith a shot at the top line. He did well enough on the third to get promoted up to the second after Loui Eriksson was injured. The strength of his performance kept him on that second line through the season.  The  B’s should experiment with moving him up again. It’s early enough in the season where the Bruins can make the moves and quickly climb the division and conference ladders.  Smith has been very adaptable in his playing style. He would do well with Milan Lucic and David Krejci.