Boston Bruins A Team That Was Built To Fail

The Boston Bruins 2015-2016 Is A Team That Was Built To Fail

The 2015-2016 Boston Bruins season was filled of inconsistency and disappointment. This is a team that just three short weeks ago was in first place in the Atlantic division and looked capable of making a post season run. But an epic collapse in the month of March knocked this Bruins team straight out of the playoff picture.

Even with the Atlantic division being weak with no true elite team the Bruins still managed to look like a middle of the road team. Bruins finished the season with a record of 42W-31L-9OT for 93 points, at home the Bruins had a losing record of 17-18-6. Generally, when a team cannot win at home is a good indicator that they are not good. The B’s home record was the 5^th worst in the entire NHL.

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There are some positive takeaways from this season as the Bruins have witnessed the development of David Pastrnak and Frank Vatrano who look like two players that will be able to contribute going forward. The Bruins also had three 30 goal scorers on the team in Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and Loui Eriksson. But outside of the Bergeron line the Bruins lacked offensive production from their other lines for much of the season.

Who is to blame for this season? A lot of people myself included at times will blame Bruins head coach Claude Julien, but Claude is not responsible for all of the issues that are going on with the B’s. This team has talent but many nights they showed a lack of hustle and leadership, both traits that you would expect a Bruins team with Patrice Bergeron and others to have. Why the lack of hustle? To me this has been the side affect from when the team traded Johnny Boychuk before last season, it sent a bad message to the players and they have lacked heart and hustle ever since.

Bruins management has overvalued their players time after time, nothing is more clear than when they traded for Jimmy Hayes in the offseason and then immediately signed Hayes to a contract extension for no reason whatsoever other than them betting on him producing and the contract becoming a good deal. Hayes showed up for maybe a couple of games early on in the season but the Dorchester native has been a no show for the Bruins this season.

The Bruins have been bad talent evaluators ever since Peter Chiarelli was GM and now it seems to be moving on in the same direction with new GM Don Sweeney. They overvalued their three first round draft picks this season thinking they could use them to trade up but no one in the league valued them as high as the Bruins. This constant overvaluation of talent has helped turn this Bruins team from a Stanley Cup contender into a mediocre team filled with bad contracts.

This constant overvaluation of talent has helped turn this Bruins team from a Stanley Cup contender into a mediocre team filled with bad contracts.

Managements other major mistake has been the contracts they have handed out to their players paying them above market value consistently, which ties into the point of them overvaluing their own players.

There are several big contracts on the Bruins roster including David Krejci, Bergeron, Tuukka Rask, and Zdeno Chara. Of those contracts only one stands out as being bad to me. It is Tuukka’s contract which he received after he won the Vezina trophy two seasons ago and now he is getting paid $7 million a year. Rask is a good goaltender when he has a top defense in front of him, issue is the Bruins did not have a good defense ahead of Rask this season. Whenever you needed Tuukka to rob a goal this season or stop a simple save he seemed to blow the opportunity. Rask who is the third highest paid goaltender in the league is not top 10 in any major stat category for goaltenders.

Not all of it is own Tuukka obviously his defense has been poor, but you have to question why they gave him that contract when historically in Claude Julien’s system any average goaltender can do well. Which leads me to believe that Rask’s Vezina season was more on his defense being good than him. $7 million a season is too much to pay for Rask and the Bruins will look to move that contract if possible.

Bad Contracts:

Tuukka Rask: $7 Million with 5 years left on deal

Adam McQuaid: $2.75 Million with 3 years left on deal

Jimmy Hayes: $2.3 million with 2 years left on deal

Management is not the only group to blame as when a team has two seasons in a row with epic late season collapses you have to look at the talent on the roster. Outside of the Bergeron line this season the offense has been sub-par and miserable from players like Brett Connolly, Jimmy Hayes and others who lacked production. The hustle factor could be due to the fact that the team no longer listens to the coaching staff, which sometimes can be more on the players than on the coaches. The players have more talent than they showed and when their effort is being questioned on a consistent basis you have to wonder why.

Maybe the team would respond to a change at head coach, or maybe certain players on the roster are toxic. It is tough to tell but if the Bruin were to move on from Claude Julien the time would be now.

As this season is over it is time to look towards next season and what the Bruins can do to improve the team to try and make a run in the coming seasons. The Black and Gold will have to make a decision on forward Loui Eriksson who is a soon to be free agent and will command top money, will they pony up and keep him? Hopefully not, Loui fits the system well but if you move on from Claude he may not fit as well. Another thing with paying Loui big money is that signing him would take up much needed cap space to try and acquire a top pairing defenseman which is on the top of the Bruins off-season priority list.

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How to replace Loui is simple if they stay within the system the B’s could go with Frank Vatrano or Seth Griffith to fill the role. The Bruins are also connected to local kid Jimmy Vesey who will be able to sign with a team in August after opting out of his contract with the Nashville Predators. Scouts project Vesey as a top 6 forward who can make an immediate impact, something the Bruins need desperately.

Lee Stempniak is also a soon to be free agent and if the price is right the Bruins should consider bringing him back on a short term deal just in case none of the young kids turn out to play well in the top 6. If Stempniak wants to much money the B’s should walk away though. Defense is where the Bruins need to spend money, but the issue is when you look out onto the free agent market the top defensive free agent is Boston native Keith Yandle whose contract is up with the New York Rangers. Yandle is an offensive minded player and the Bruins need a top pairing defensive minded player which Yandle does not fill.

The only other way the Bruins can get a defense-man is via trade potentially for a player like Max Dumba or Ryan Sutter. But going after a top pairing guy via trade will be expensive for the Bruins and they will likely have to part with some draft picks and top prospects at the minimum.

Next: Boston Bruins Slumping At The Worst Time

A disappointing year for Bruins fans and next season has hundreds of question marks that will hopefully be answered in the coming months. One thing is for sure, something needs to change.

Will Claude be fired? Will they re-sign Loui? Is Cam Neely Fired? Just a couple of story lines to keep your eyes on as all of them will be answered within the next month.