An accelerated return for hockey could limit Bruce Cassidy's ability to tinker with his lineup ahead of playoff push

In a cruel twist of fate, the Bruins’ final matchup ahead of the COVID-19 stoppage — a 2-0 win over the Flyers on March 10 — was perhaps the most intriguing contest of the year as far as lineup construction goes.

With Bruce Cassidy and the Bruins focused on maximizing the return brought on by the additions of Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie to the lineup, Boston’s lines were put in a blender down in Philly — with the B’s even opting to break up the tried-and-true triumvirate of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. 

With Pastrnak knocked off the top line, Bergeron and Marchand skated with Kase for 5:22 of 5v5 ice time — with the B’s looking to get the speedy Czech winger into a groove after failing to light the lamp in his first six games with the new club.

David Krejci was finally granted a dynamic winger to his right in Pastrnak, but Boston’s top-six unit also featured a new face in Sean Kuraly — who earned a look beyond his regular, fourth-line spot and logged 6:01 of 5v5 TOI next to No. 46 and No. 88. 

That re-shuffling signaled a demotion for Jake DeBrusk, but Boston’s strong pipeline of talent down the middle still had the streaky sniper skating next to a puck-dominant pivot in Charlie Coyle for 10:46 of 5v5 TOI, while Ritchie also earned regular reps on the third line. 

Now, it remains to be seen how long such a shuffle would last beyond that 2-0 victory, given that Cassidy is usually more inclined to switch things up mid-game as opposed to, say, splitting up the 63-37-88 for an extended sample size.

But the willingness to switch things up in an effort to find regular roles for Kase and Ritchie signaled the start of an intriguing couple of weeks to close out the 2019-20 season — as Boston’s place atop the NHL standings likely gave Cassidy and his staff plenty of breathing room to tinker with the lineup as necessary ahead of a playoff push. 

Now, given the accelerated timeline teams will face if/when the NHL returns from the COVID-19 crisis, the luxury of experimenting with rosters — especially when it comes to trade rentals and other mid-season acquisitions — seems null and void.



Clearly, there are more pressing issues at hand when it comes to the NHL finding the means to scrap together a conclusion to the 2019-20 season. Aside from the countless challenges and ensuring the health and safety of countless players, staff, coaches, fans, etc., conditioning stands as as a major hurdle out of the gate — with just about every club needing at least a couple of weeks to shake the rust off on the ice before jumping into meaningful games.

But for coaches, having only a few weeks to get their players back up to speed and find out where they might best fit in the lineup for a playoff run is pushing it.

Speaking with the media on Monday, Cassidy acknowledged that the Bruins might not have a lot of leeway when it comes to shuffling around wingers during in-game situations this season, at least before the postseason potentially gets underway. But given the extraordinary circumstances impacting this season, Cassidy is focused more on the sum-of-the-parts viewpoint, rather than harping on each individual forward trio.

"It depends on how many regular-season games we get to play," Cassidy said. "We have the luxury and I use that term loosely because we're in a solid position to tinker a little bit more than maybe another team that's right on the bubble, but I don't imagine we're gonna have a lot of games to play if we don't get right in the playoffs. So I think we're going to have to pin it down right away, get back to going over who we feel is the best with who and again, I think our team strong no matter how we end up moving the wingers around.

"We got some new bodies, we use Richie and Kase as examples — we were trying to see where they best fit. At the end of the day, I do believe come playoff time that our guys will all be committed. All playing the same way — team first. So no matter what lines are out, I still think that we'll be okay in that regard."

Still, it does remain to be seen where the pieces would fall into place if the Bruins do return this season — especially on a second line where Krejci has continued to search in vain for a regular scorer to his right. Keeping a guy on pace for 56 goals in Pastrnak would help a ton in that regard, while getting Kase going remains a top priority for Boston's top-heavy 5v5 offense.

Yes, breaking up the "Perfection Line" (yuck) is viewed as sacrilege to some, but the case remains that any line anchored by Bergeron and Marchand have all fared pretty well over the years.

Let's take a look at some other regular line combinations featuring No. 37 and No. 63:

With Reilly Smith in 1,199 minutes of 5v5 play — 60.96 CF% / Plus-28 goal differential / Plus-241 shot differential / 3.45 goals for per 60 minutes

With Loui Eriksson in 372 5v5 minutes — 62.81 CF% / Plus-3 goal differential / Plus-108 shot differential / 2.26 goals for per 60 minutes

With Brett Connolly in 424 5v5 minutes — 55.23 CF% / Plus-3 goal differential / Plus-49 shot differential / 2.97 goals for per 60 minutes

With David Backes in 335 5v5 minutes — 59.60 CF% / Plus-8 goal differential / Plus-77 shot differential / 3.04 goals for per 60 minutes

With Danton Heinen in 206 5v5 minutes — 53.88 CF% / Plus-6 goal differential / Plus-14 shot differential / 3.48 goals for per 60 minutes

With Lee Stempniak in 186 5v5 minutes — 58.45 CF% / Plus-6 goal differential / Plus-32 shot differential / 2.89 goals for per 60 minutes

With Anders Bjork in 59 5v5 minutes — 58.97 CF% / Plus-3 goal differential / Plus-5 shot differential / 4.02 goals for per 60 minutes

Not too shabby.

Perhaps Cassidy and the Bruins do have a chance to get outside the box in regards to lineup construction during scrimmages and regular-season games — and something just happens to click. But if Boston enters the postseason with the usual suspects in Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak leading the way, the B's bench boss certainly isn't going to complain.

"Clearly, we want to put each guy in the best position to succeed," Cassidy said. "But at the end of the day, we want to make sure we have the 12 best forwards out there that give us the best chance to win. And they'll line up where they line up. In games, sometimes we'll double shift guys, we’ll move guys around. So the majority of our guys are used to that, Ritchie and Kase were getting used to it in their brief period of time here so hopefully that doesn't throw them off. That's the last thing you want as a player to be rattled because you’ve switched lines.

"Like I said, most of the guys have been around and been through it with me so they understand it. So that's how we'd approach it, we would go in with what we feel is our best and from there, depending on the timeline, we would adjust accordingly and it's kind of the best you can do right now. And then you hope you've put the players in the best chance and on the best lines to succeed."