Belief can be a fickle thing.
It can both soar and dip with every new minute that is drained off the scoreboard. It can be skewered based on one play — both good and bad.
It’s difficult to measure such a thing when dissecting the makeup of a team. For all of the advanced statistics poured into hockey, none provide an accurate barometer on what belief can actually bring to a club. Even those that wring their hands about the clichéd intangibles of the game of hockey — gritty, hard to play against — might find it far too abstract to measure.
Just don’t question the 2019-20 Bruins about the role belief can play in a locker room. Much like any inquiries framed around June 12, 2019 — you’re not likely to get a good answer.
It’s hard to fault this B’s roster for placing belief so high up on a pedestal when it comes to what sets the club apart from the other 30 clubs vying to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup in June.
In total, 21 of the 23 players on Boston’s 2018-19 Stanley Cup Final roster are back in the fold this season.
Many of those skaters were here from the outset of the regular season, when Boston was dealt its worst season-opening loss in franchise history by way of a 7-0 drubbing at the hands of the Capitals.
But Boston’s belief never wavered.
Bruce Cassidy rarely enjoyed the luxury of utilizing his full complement of players, with Boston accumulating 253 total man-games lost to injury during the regular season — forcing the Bruins’ to press rookies like Connor Clifton and Karson Kuhlman into service.
But the leaders in Boston’s room didn’t lose faith.
That belief was soon rewarded.
First, a 26-6-5 run orchestrated over the second half of the regular season. Then another seven-game triumph over the Maple Leafs. A victory over the Blue Jackets. A Prince of Wales Trophy.
And finally, an opportunity to lift the greatest trophy in all of sports fell right into the Bruins’ lap.
But a few hours after the puck dropped on the TD Garden ice on June 12, the 2018-19 Bruins had every reason to refuse to believe what had just transpired during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup.
You know the story by now, and the 2019-20 Bruins aren’t interested in revisiting it. There’s no point in ignoring the obvious — Boston laid an egg in what stood as the franchise’s best chance to capture a Stanley Cup in … well, ever.
But the 2019-20 B's aren't dwelling on it. For them, all of it is dead and buried at this point.
Even the moments that should have been etched in highlight reels for decades going forward: Torey Krug obliterating Robert Thomas, Zdeno Chara drawing a thunderous applause from the Garden crowd — just minutes before playing Game 5 of the Cup Final with a shattered jaw.
All of it is gone.
But that belief remains.
“I’m not trying to carry it with me, really,” Charlie McAvoy said of Game 7. “Look, it is — it’s gone. You can’t go back and you can’t change the past. But what we do have is an opportunity to dictate our future here.”
Cassidy and his players can see the writing on the wall when it comes to Boston's Cup hopes in 2019-20. They've heard it all before.
They'll never get a better shot at it. Their championship window is closed. The competition is too tough.
Indeed, the road back to the Cup Final is poised to be much more daunting for Cassidy's crew. A buzzsaw of a Tampa Bay Lightning club will be poised to go scorched earth in 2019-20 after getting embarrassed by the Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs. For once, the Maple Leafs' defense may boast bodies more competent than the cardboard cutouts the Original Six foe has usually rolled out in years past. The Capitals and Braden Holtby are back to haunt your dreams, Bruins fans.
The Bruins' retort? Meh.
"I think everybody is starting right at dead zero," Don Sweeney said. "I think you have to prove that you’re worthy. You have to get in the playoffs, and it’s a hard process to get in. If you take it for granted, you can get kicked in the ass. So, for me, as a group, we respect our players a lot and the approach that they take every day. We’re only worried about the next opponent and getting ready for that, and I think our coaches do a great job of looking at it that way, and I think our players respond to it."
No team in NHL history has ever won the Stanley Cup the year after losing Game 7 of the Cup Final. Only one team in the past 20 years — the 2008-09 Penguins — have won the Cup the year after falling in the Final the previous season.
But the 2019-20 Bruins, once again, aren't letting the past cloud what should be a bright future.
The team's veteran core is another year older, yes, but the pieces of a Cup contender are still in place.
Patrice Bergeron, on pace for a 100-point campaign at age 33 in 2018-19, will be allowed to focus more of his efforts in the O-zone and away from the energy-sapping duties in Boston's own end — due in large part to a deep roster designed to eat up some of his PK minutes and defensive duties.
Tuukka Rask, who boasted a goals-saved above-average mark of 5.97 during the playoffs, should once again benefit from the lighter workload provided by Jaroslav Halak's services in net.
Torey Krug still has the keys to a power-play unit that cashed in 32.4% of its chances during the postseason. Brad Marchand has averaged 36.5 goals over the last four years. Charlie Coyle was a man possessed during the preseason when it came to puck possession. David Pastrnak was a healthy thumb away from a potential 50-goal campaign at just 22 years old.
Need we go on? How about the other youngsters on Boston's roster?
- Even amid a pair of cold stretches in which he tallied just three goals and five total points over 26 games, Jake DeBrusk still managed to light the lamp 27 times in his sophomore campaign.
- Brandon Carlo's 5v5 goals against per 60 minutes rate of 1.48 was pretty damn good in 2018-19. In fact, among NHL defensemen that logged at least 1,200 minutes of 5v5 TOI last season, Carlo ranked first amid a pool of 87 blueliners.
- Even with his potential far from fully realized, Charlie McAvoy's 5v5 primary points (goals or primary assists) per 60 minutes rate of 0.92 ranked ninth overall among NHL defenseman (min. 500 minutes). The only players in front of him — Kris Letang, Morgan Rielly, Tyson Barrie, Brent Burns, Mark Giordano, Shea Weber, Vince Dunn and John Carlson. Pretty sweet company.
- Danton Heinen's 5v5 goals against rate per 60 minute mark of 1.33 ranked second among all Bruins forwards — with the 24-year-old winger closing out the regular season with 21 points — 17 of which came at even strength — over his last 28 games.
- Matt Grzelcyk was in the 97th percentile when it came to possession exit percentage — with the fleet-footed blueliner standing as one of the best of the business when it comes to carrying the puck out of Boston's zone.