Frank Vatrano‘s preseason injury certainly upset the Boston Bruins apple cart this season.
The Boston Bruins had a plan going into the 2016-17 season. Forward Frank Vatrano was going to be one of the breakout young players for the Black and Gold. Unfortunately, a preseason injury to Vatrano’s foot required surgery and that will take him out of action for the next few months.
So now the Boston Bruins need to find someone who can fit the bill. This may mean that the Bruins will have to shuffle up the deck of forwards and place several natural centers on the wings to cover that deficiency early on in the season. With just two preseason games to go before opening night, the Bruins have precious little time to mix and match.
“Frankie Vatrano is hurt, so that’s a winger we thought would make some significant strides this year,” offered Bruins head coach Claude Julien on the B’s current situation. “Even when he comes back, he’ll be three months behind it not even more. So it’s one of those situations where we need to try different things here, and give guys that deserve to make the team an opportunity to make the team. We need to find space and make room for to play in those situations that’s going to make them the best player possible.”
The Bruins could be looking at an all-center top six line on opening night. The Bruins front office have been tinkering with the second line, and have put centers Ryan Spooner and David Backes on the same line as David Krejci. (This would likely mean that it’s a two-man race between Austin Czarnik and Denton Heinen for the third line center position.)
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A Spooner-Krejci-Backes line sounds rather outstanding. With the exception of Spooner’s problems in the faceoff circle, this could be a devastating line for Boston. There is an equal measure of skill and snarl in that line, and this the kind of unit that could really light the lamp for the Bruins.
A certain amount of inspiration for this configuration has to come from the World Cup. The tournament forced teams to place many of the NHL’s best centers on the wing. There was just too much talent at that center position, but it worked out well for several squads.
“We just went through it at the World Cup with a lot of centers playing wing,” offered Julien, who was an assistant coach for the World Cup winning Canadian team. “It was great for faceoffs; one gets kicked out and the other one goes in. They adapted well and it just gave us more flexibility.
“It’s hard to replace a centerman, but it’s much easier to replace a winger. When you’ve got them on the wing and something happens to somebody playing down the middle, then you’ve got somebody to replace them, and feel a lot more comfortable about that. For us, we like our players to be versatile and play different positions when asked to.”
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Having an all-center line would have an obvious advantage for the Bruins. Claude Julien still has a few days to put together the ‘finished product’ for the fans, but that kind of top-six unit could certainly be a tough unit to contain when the season starts next week in Columbus.