Every Thursday for leading up to the start of the 2013-14 NHL season, Ryan Porth examines the one club that is a true contender to hoist the Stanley Cup come June. The Boston Bruins are one of 10 Teams that Can Win It All.
A week after stating our reasons why Chicago is one of 10 teams that could win the Stanley Cup in 2013-14, we take a look at the team they beat in June to win it all. The Boston Bruins were minutes away from potentially seeing sweeping changes to its stable nucleus. Then they miraculously beat Toronto and came within two wins from a second Stanley Cup in three seasons, showing glimpses of the Bruins team that topped Vancouver in 2011 in the process.
Despite experiencing postseason success once again, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli didn’t shy away from making bold moves in the off-season. He traded 21-year-old Tyler Seguin to Dallas for Loui Eriksson in the summer’s biggest blockbuster and signed Jarome Iginla one day later to a one-year contract. Boston did lose Nathan Horton and Jaromir Jagr, but Chiarelli was able to lock up Patrice Bergeron and Tuukka Rask to eight-year extensions.
Will these changes help the Bruins win another Cup? Here are three reasons why they will and will not:
Why the Bruins can win it all
1. Improved for 2013-14
By trading Seguin for Eriksson and replacing Horton with Iginla, the Bruins got older — but they also got better in the short term.
The Bruins have guaranteed themselves steady production in the form of Eriksson in place of the great unknown surrounding Seguin, who does have superstar potential. Eriksson has three 70-point seasons on his resume and could easily record more in Boston. Meanwhile, Iginla can still produce at a high clip. In terms of durability and consistency, he’s an upgrade over Horton on the top line alongside David Krejci and Milan Lucic.
One could definitely make an argument Boston gave up on Seguin too early and that the trade will be a victory for Dallas over time. That very well may be the case, but the addition of Eriksson makes the Bruins better in the present. Further, he and Iginla make the Bruins clear-cut favourites (on paper) to win their division, if not the conference.
2. Claude Julien
Coach Julien’s job was in jeopardy as the Bruins’ season was slipping away in Game 7 against Toronto. Instead, the underappreciated bench boss is back for his seventh tour of duty after leading the B’s to the playoffs in each of his first six seasons with the team.
Though he has always been a target for criticism – fairly or unfairly – Julien has certainly figured out the formula for his Bruins to be victorious come playoff time. When clicking, the Bruins play a stifling brand of defensive hockey few teams can overcome. You can also count on them finishing among the league leaders at even-strength play, a good barometer for which teams are built for playoff success.
Nothing that happened this summer would suggest the B’s will stray from their identity. And with Julien calling the shots, they should be in great position come April.
3. Dominant back end
This is a team that should contend for the Cup as long as they have Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask building a wall in front of the opposition. To build off the last point, the combination of Chara and great goaltending (whether from Rask or Tim Thomas) is the reason why Julien’s tenure in Boston has been a good one.
At the same time, Julien’s system makes the Bruins’ defence corps greater than the sum of its parts. Dennis Seidenberg and Andrew Ference (now an Oiler) have played their best NHL hockey wearing a Bruins uniform. The defence could get even better if 20-year-old Dougie Hamilton continues to progress. Another reason why the Bruins are so tough to play against is the two-way nature of their top centremen, Patrice Bergeron and David Krecji.
The best part of Boston’s stellar defensive play is that they possess an offence that can back it up.
Why the Bruins can’t win it all
1. Rask’s increased workload
Rask’s new eight-year, $56 million contract comes with more of a burden than the 26-year-old netminder has been accustomed to in the NHL. He did appear in 36 games in the lockout-shortened campaign and started all 22 of Boston’s playoff games, but prior to 2013 he had never played more than 45 contests in a single season.
There’s little doubt Rask can handle being “the guy”{ in net for a full 82-game slate, but this season has a caveat. Rask is a candidate to backstop Finland’s national team at the Sochi Olympics. Further, Chad Johnson will take Anton Khudobin’s place backing up Rask, which is a downgrade.
Rask could end up starting almost (or more than) 70 games not including potential Olympics participation. In the eight seasons since the 2004-05 lockout, only two goaltenders have won a Cup after playing in 60-plus regular season games (Marc-Andre Fleury in 2009 and Jonathan Quick in 2012).
2. Cup final hangover
Everyone always talks about the Stanley Cup hangover for the winning team, how they’ll spend all summer partying, and before you know it, training camp is ready to commence. The same can be said for the losing team.
Boston losing to Chicago doesn’t mean they’ll have any more time to rest up before the new season. They also will have less than three months between the final and the start of camp in September. That was a banged up Bruins team that saw Chicago win Game 6 in spectacular fashion to raise the Cup, so it is a short off-season to heal the bumps and bruises that come along with a long playoff run.
To prove it’s difficult to bounce back: Of the last 16 teams to come up short in the Stanley Cup final, only one has advanced beyond the second round the following season (Pittsburgh in 2009).
3. Lack of depth scoring
Though we mentioned the subtractions of Horton and Seguin being overshadowed by Eriksson and Iginla, the Bruins still lost Jaromir Jagr and Rich Peverley. Despite combining for two goals in the postseason, both players were valuable in their own right last season. The underrated Peverley is the bigger loss of the two, as he has three 40-point seasons to his credit.
Boston hasn’t replaced the production and depth lost in Jagr and Peverley. Reilly Smith, 22, came over from Dallas in the big trade but is unproven. Daniel Paille, a useful winger, is probably better suited for a fourth-line role. Perhaps Carl Soderberg, a point-per-game performer in Sweden the last eight seasons, can help in the secondary scoring department.
In the end, this is a minor issue for the Bruins that could easily be resolved as the regular season moves along.
Prediction: Boston will stave off Detroit and Ottawa to win the new-look Atlantic Division. As long as Eriksson and Iginla mesh with the rest of the forwards, the Bruins will buck the aforementioned trend and again find themselves representing the Eastern Conference in next June’s final.
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