Boston Bruins: Just how long can this core group keep going?

The Boston Bruins have an ageing core group of players; there’s absolutely no denying this fact. Just how long will they manage to keep producing the goods; that’s a question we’re not sure how to answer?

Looking at the core group of players for the Boston Bruins; you’d probably be listing off the likes of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, David Krejci, Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask. Disheartening fact is, with that group at least, only Pastrnak is under 30.

Of course, you could make a very valid argument that we’ve purely listed the core group that was responsible for the 2011 Stanley Cup win and then played in the 2013 and 2019 Stanley Cup Final losses. This is a fair point; there is a new core group of players emerging – the likes of Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Jake DeBrusk and Torey Krug all come to mind. Of those, only Torey Krug was in the Boston Bruins line-up for any Cup Final prior to the most recent.

I guess, what is key here is the fact that the Boston Bruins’ point production, in the regular-season at the very least, was heavily reliant upon names listed in that first group.

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The Boston Bruins relied upon the likes of Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron to both score more than 30 goals last season. Granted, David Pastrnak also achieved this feat with 38 goals and is still a part of the youth movement at only 23 years old, but it’s still 68 goals from guys over 30.

Likewise, in terms of points production; the top four point producers for the Boston Bruins last season only feature Pastrnak as an under-30; David Krejci being grabbing the fourth-most for the team last year.

Now, you’d like to say we’ll get another ten years out of Brad Marchand, just like the captain Zdeno Chara, but we’d be foolish to ever assume or expect it; wingers don’t tend to have that sort of longevity, especially one that couldn’t necessarily rely upon his immense reach to limit his flaws as he ages.

Having been quite smart with their drafting and developing, the Boston Bruins often have NHL-ready prospects ready to graduate, having done their time with various NCAA programs. This is only going to prove more and more beneficial as the group ages.

Right now, the window is definitely closing on the current core; the blending of a new core with it is likely giving them some more kick and life, but realistically I’m not seeing too many more seasons out of Patrice Bergeron, nor David Krejci and I believe if the Boston Bruins had won the Stanley Cup this past season, we’d definitely be seeing just one last victory lap around the league with Zdeno Chara playing.

I have no doubt that we’re still going to get point production above the fifty point mark from all of the big-names on the first line and think that Jake DeBrusk lends a hand to David Krejci in ensuring continued production, at least for now, on the second line.

Likewise, Tuukka Rask, being a goalie that can now rest for thirty games a season, will continue producing the goods. Their slow-down is generally more predicated by ongoing injury concerns than the defensemen and forwards than tend to drop off the cliff more obviously with age.

Can this core group make another crack at it? Absolutely.

Will they have many more shots left after this one? It’s seeming unlikely.

Veteran core groups are vital to a team’s success and it’s hardly like the Boston Bruins have a bad one. We’ve just got to hope that the average performance we saw in the Stanley Cup Final from a lot of them was pure exhaustion and a build-up of injuries, as opposed to a downwards trajectory.