Boston Bruins: Getting to Know the New Division Opponents for 2021
New Jersey Devils
It feels like the Devils have been in rebuild mode for years. This season, things shouldn’t change.
They do have young star Jack Hughes to build around, while center Nico Hischier and right wing Kyle Palmieri are other forwards to keep an eye on. The 19-year-old Hughes had seven goals and 14 assists in his first pro season in 2019-20 in 61 games. Hughes also had four power play goals and five power play assists.
Palmieri in five seasons with the Devils has 132 goals and 117 assists. Keep an eye on him when the Bruins and Devils play as he could be a trade target for Bruins general manager Don Sweeney at the trade deadline this season if the Devils are struggling again.
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New Jersey signed former Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford to a two-year, $7.8 million contract to take over the netminding duties for the next two seasons.
Like Buffalo, the Devils did little to address their woes on defense. Last season, New Jersey had the fourth-worst goal differential in the league. Only the San Jose Sharks, Senators, and Red Wings were worse. They are hoping that Crawford could lower them from a minus-41 differential, but he can’t do it alone.
New Jersey is three years removed from their last playoff spot in 2018 when they lost to the Lightning in five games in the First Round, but things still don’t seem to be trending in the right direction in 2021.
This is another team that the Bruins would be wise to collect as many points as they can to help them in the standings.
New York Islanders
To say that the Islanders surprised over the summer at the Toronto bubble would be an understatement.
They took care of the Florida Panthers in the Qualifying Round before dispatching the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. After taking down the Philadelphia Flyers in the Semifinals, they ended up losing to the Lightning in the Conference Final. Still, under coach Barry Trotz, the foundation is there to be tough to play against this season.
They are led by forwards Mathew Barzal, Anders Lee, Jordan Eberle, Brock Nelson, and Anthony Beauvillier. They acquired Jean-Gabriel Pageau from the Senators at the trade deadline in February and promptly signed him to a six-year contract extension. In the playoffs, the Isles got what they needed from Pageau who had eight goals and three assists in 22 games.
In net, the Islanders signed Semyon Varlamov to a four-year, $20 million contract in 2019. He went 11-7 in the postseason with a 2.14 goals-against average (GAA) and a .921 save percentage (SV%) in the Toronto and Edmonton bubble. The former Colorado Avalanche will return and has the capability to steal a game on any given night.
Trotz won the Stanley Cup with Capitals in 2018, before leaving following the season to coach the Islanders. In two seasons in Brooklyn, he is 83-50-17 and has the Isles a frustrating team to play against with their defensive style.
Despite going 2-0-1 against them last season, the Bruins will have to ready for a rock fight each night the two teams battle. On paper, the Bruins are the better team and can play the same style against the Isles and be successful.
New York Rangers
Of all the new opponents on the Bruins schedule this season, the Rangers might be the most intriguing. At the Return to Play in the summer, they were swept in the Qualifying Round by the Carolina Hurricanes, but in reality, they became the winners.
The Rangers were awarded the top pick after winning the second draft lottery of the eight teams that were eliminated in the Qualifying Round. With that pick, they got the prized top prospect in Alexis Lafreniere. He will be joining veterans Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, and Artemi Panarin.
Last season, Zibanejad scored 41 goals and had 34 assists in just 57 games. Panarin finished third in the Hart Trophy voting after scoring 32 goals and dishing out 63 assists in his first year in the Big Apple. In his eighth season with the Blue Shirts, Kreider had 24 goals and 21 assists.
Leading the way on defense for the Rangers is Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren. In goal, New York moved on from Henrik Lundqvist and are going with the young tandem of Alexander Georgiev and Igor Shesterkin.
Former Boston University coach David Quinn begins his third season behind the bench for the Rangers after two sub-par seasons. The talent is there for the Rangers to be good and score a lot of goals. Their defense, however, after Lundgren and Fox, have enough questions that they could be the group that holds them back this season.
Philadelphia Flyers
Prior to the season pause in March, the Flyers were the hottest team in the league and had their nine-game winning streak snapped by the Bruins on March 10 with a 2-0 loss. In the Round Robin in Toronto over the summer, they claimed the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs after winning all three games over the Bruins, Capitals, and Lightning.
After beating the Canadiens in the First Round, Philly lost to the Islanders in the semifinals. Since leaving Toronto in August, there has not much turnover on the roster heading into 2021.
Defensemen Matt Niskanen retired and Philadelphia replaced him with former Calgary Flame Erik Gustafsson on a one-year deal. Upfront, the Flyers returning Sean Couturier and his 22 goals and 37 assists, as well as Jacob Voracek who had 12 goals and 44 assists. Claude Giroux enters his 14th season with Philly after scoring 21 goals and dishing out 32 assists in 2019-20.
In goal, 22-year-old Carter Hart broke onto the scene full-time last season going 24-13-3 with a 2.42 GAA and a .914 SV%.
In his first season behind the bench, Alain Vigneault was a big reason for the Flyers turnaround from a .500 season in 2018-19 to a 41-21-7 regular season. He was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award for the top coach in the league with the winner Bruce Cassidy of the Bruins and John Tortorella of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
As usual, the Flyers will be a tough and physical opponent for the Bruins, who will need to be ready each time they take the ice against each other.
Pittsburgh Penguins
In the first prospered alignments, the Penguins were not in the Bruins division as they were in the Central Division, but they were swapped in with the Hurricanes being swapped out. That is a swap that Boston would like to have back.
Sidney Crosby will be entering his 15th season with the Pens and 16 games short of 1,000 for his career. Last year in 41 games because of injuries, he had 16 goals and 31 assists, while Evgeni Malkin had 25 goals and 49 helpers in 55 games. Malkin will begin his 14th season in Pittsburgh.
In late August, the Penguins traded for Kasperi Kapanen from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a six-player deal. Last season with the Leafs, the 23-year-old Kapanen had 13 goals and 23 assists, but a change of scenery should do him some good.
On defense, Kris Letang returns and the Penguins upgraded on defense when they signed former Maple Leaf Cody Ceci and they made their big splash in free agency when they got defensemen Justin Schultz to leave the Capitals for two years and $8 million.
Despite some changes, the Pens return Crosby and Malkin, which makes them Cup contenders again in 2021. The Bruins will have their hands full with Pittsburgh and their offseason additions that will test their young defensive grouping.
Washington Capitals
If there is one team that has had the Bruins number over the years, it’s the Caps. The Black and Gold have lost 17 of the last 19 games to Washington and having the Caps in their division and on the schedule will be fun to watch.
The matchup pits the Maurice Rocket Richard Award co-winners from last season, David Pastrnak of the Bruins and Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals. They finished tied for the league lead in goals at the end of the season with 48.
The Capitals underachieved under coach Todd Reirden the last two seasons and they made a change in the offseason that brought in Peter Laviolette and the first-year coach will no shortage of talent on the roster with Ovechkin.
Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie, and John Carlson return as the core pieces for the Capitals.
In net, Braden Holtby left in free agency for the Vancouver Canucks. Lundqvist joined the Caps after 15 years with the Rangers and 752 regular-season victories, but he announced last week that he is opting out of the upcoming season because of a heart condition. Youngster Ilya Samsonov, who many see as the long-term answer in Washington should see a majority of the time between the pipes.
These will be the toughest games on the Bruins schedule this season and sooner or later, they have to solve the Caps. It would go a long way for Boston to be able to at least split the games with Washington while taking care of business against the teams they should.
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Regardless of what happens, this should be an entertaining season, one that the Bruins should hopefully end with a long playoff run in the spring and into the summer.