We’ve all heard the pundits avow that the NHL is changing. It’s getting younger. It’s getting faster. It’s becoming even more of a speed game North and South. More teams are scoring off the rush courtesy of quick shots, youth, and overwhelming speed. The trend subsequently evolved to the blue line. Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman is 6-foot-6 and has tremendous speed and physicality with a textbook offensive-defensive shot. The point is, the NHL is evolving into a speed/youth package deal.
To say the Bruins’ current fourth line will be competitive with opposing lines would be a farce. Coach Claude Julien is ardent about his fourth line grinders. Meanwhile, other coaches are following the latest trend.
As it stands, the Boston Bruins are prepared to roll out one of the oldest and slowest fourth lines in the league. Joonas Kemppainen (27) and his future with the team is ambiguous. If Boston sticks to Julien’s notorious scheme, he’ll send out a de facto fourth line of grinders. Projected lines allude Chris Kelly will be paired with Max Talbot on the left wing and Zac Rinaldo piloting the right wing.
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Oh the irony.
While teams are eluding the past archives of once fourth lines, when the league was dominated by grinders, the Bruins are subsequently playing the conservative card. What makes matters worse, the B’s are shelling out a combined $4,750,000 to Rinaldo, Kelly, and Talbot next season. Boston is paying nearly $5 million against the cap to three bottom-tier forwards who, frankly, don’t belong on this team.
We all know Kelly is an overpaid ($3 million against the cap in 2015-16) 34-year old slowmoving center who hasn’t scored 20 goals since the team last won the Cup. Peter Chiarelli seemingly overvalued him, and has left him muddling on this roster. Talbot has played a fourth line-style game his entire career, alongside Kelly, and makes a rational salary figure of $900,000. Rinaldo, who only seems to drop the gloves, makes nearly as much as Kevan Miller, $850,000. This talent is simply not worth fundamentally $5 million against the cap next season.
Puck Prose
Look at last year’s Stanley Cup Final opponents. The Lighting and Blackhawks are prime examples of where the league is headed. They have two solid fourth lines that don’t necessarily flaunt glamourous stats, but accomplish the goal of a fourth line. Both have an average age of 25 on their respected lines, too.
Chicago’s Andrew Desjardins, Marcus Kruger, and Andrew Shaw combined for 27 regular season goals last year. Boston’s current fourth line tandem of Talbot, Kelly, and Rinaldo tallied 13 combined goals. Chicago’s fourth line costs them $4.2 million against the cap. They produce more for less. They’re younger. That’s the business, folks.
The Blackhawks have a group of fourth liners who are anything but a group of grinders. They play in their own zone well. They stack up against opposing offenses sufficiently. Chicago climbed through a talented Western Conference against great offenses, including Tampa’s in the Final.
The Lighting post a parallel fourth line to that of Chicago. Cedric Paquette, Brian Boyle, and J.T. Brown make up Tampa’s structured final forward line. The group totaled 30 combined goals last season. We know that goals on a fourth line don’t mean much because we use our eyes and see that they are sent out to skate hard and eat minutes. That’s it. Their salaries are generous, to say the least. They have a combined cap hit of $3,583,333. Chris Kelly only makes roughly $600,000 less than Tampa Bay’s fourth line. That is bad business on Boston’s part.
hicago and Tampa have proved that young, relatively speedy fourth lines help bring balance to a roster. More importantly, they have proved that this blueprint of a fourth line can compete with talented offense.
Boston continues to be plagued by a wildcard of a fourth line. Their coach has not helped matters the slightest. Julien says he isn’t changing his ways. General manager Don Sweeney will fire Julien if his Old Time Hockey ways taint the team in 2015-16. Kemppainen could start the Bruins fire on the fourth line by granting him the opportunity to showcase his play, something Julien has been wary of doing with young talent.