The Boston Bruins may not have made any huge splashes at the trade deadline, but they didn’t need to; the roster is already practically perfect.
Of course, the Boston Bruins aren’t the perfect team – sometimes we lose and sometimes it’s by blow-out scorelines like the 9-3 result against the Vancouver Canucks. There things happen, especially in a league build around a degree of parity.
However, looking to the construction of the Boston Bruins’ roster and despite operating within the same salary cap as everyone else, you can make a strong argument that we’ve got it near-perfect.
Starting in net; the closest comparison in terms of goaltending depth would be the new tandem in Vegas; the Golden Knights added Robin Lehner as a partner to Marc-Andre Fleury. However, they would be paying more for that pairing if there wasn’t retained salary balanced between two other organisations.
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We don’t yet know though whether that duo will mesh when competing for the starting spot. Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak, by comparison, appear to have struck the right balance between competition and co-operation.
Moving onto the defense; the top four featuring young upstarts that have already cemented their roles in Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo, coupled with a grizzled veteran in Zdeno Chara and an elite offensive threat in Torey Krug is as good of a foursome as you’ll find.
Looking further down the line-up; you’ve got Matt Grzelyck and John Moore, both of whom could step into top-four duties if injuries were to occur.
Finally, throw in Connor Clifton and Jeremy Lauzon, the latter who has broken through and is showing a great physical presence, even though he still needs a little work on defensive plays in general. As bottom-pairing guys, they still match some other teams’ second pairings.
Let’s not also forget that should Kevan Miller return from injury this year, the Boston Bruins have another bottom-pairing physical player ready to go.
Moving onto the forward group, there’s very little to be said for the trio of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. There is a reason they earned the moniker of the ‘Perfection Line’; they defend the puck as well as they attack it – Bergeron is a multiple Selke Trophy winning center after all.
Add to that the league’s top goalscorer and the league’s sixth-highest point scorer on either wing and their name really is the truth.
Moving to the second line, the trade deadline changed it’s make-up for the better. Ondrej Kase should be a better fit than any of the players we’ve played there previous. The Boston Bruins second-line right-wing problem may finally have it’s solution.
David Krejci still hasn’t lost his game even as he gets older, while Jake DeBrusk is still scratching the surface of his true potential. Kase should hopefully thrive next to his countryman Krejci; something to be said for a shared first language, maybe.
Scary good is the new third line; Anders Bjork and Charlie Coyle, since being partnered on a line have been properly dominant in terms of controlling the puck and limiting the other teams scoring chances.
The Boston Bruins’ trade deadline addition on the other wing, Nick Ritchie will offer more physical presence and a willingness to throw his body around while not being a bad scoring option either.
With all the movement further up the Boston Bruins’ line-up, the fourth line has a few options but each one can check and make plays; the perfect combination in the bottom-six.
Sean Kuraly is highly underrated for the work he does, while any combination of Joakim Nordstrom, Par Lindholm or Chris Wagner offer strong defensive game. Add to that group, the speed and tenacity of Karson Kuhlman and it’s going to be very easy to rotate the players to suit the opponent now.
Need simple plays; plug in Joakim Norstrom. Need a bit of pace; plug in Karson Kuhlman. There are now options on the fourth line with the rest of the roster shuffles, which in turn makes the Boston Bruins even better than last year’s Stanley Cup Final runner-up.