NHL Notebook: Failure to go all in at deadline could have cost Bruins another deep Cup run

Well, time to come clean.

By the time the dust settled following the NHL trade deadline back in February, I handed out some high praise for the Bruins, who managed to add a pair of wingers to their middle-six grouping in anticipation of another deep Stanley Cup run. 

Sure, Boston's deals for both Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie weren't exactly blockbusters, but given the B's needs and the cost to pry both wingers out of Anaheim, it seemed as though Don Sweeney checked off plenty of boxes when it came to putting this team over the top — and setting itself up for the future.

In Kase, Boston appeared to finally find a solution for the gaping hole on David Krejci's line. Even though Kase carried some uncertainty due to injury concerns and a lack of consistent production, the 24-year-old winger was an analytics darling, with his shot-first mentality meshing well with a pivot that likes to hold on to the puck and orchestrate plays like Krejci. Before heading over to Boston, Kase's 5v5 shots per 60 minutes rate of 10.38 ranked 15th among all NHLers (min. 500 minutes played). The lone Bruins skater that sits ahead of him on that list is David Pastrnak (10.8).

In Ritchie, Boston believed it finally had its big body that could scrap down low AND produce the offensive zone — something that an older veteran like David Backes couldn't consistently (and safely) provide. In place of the versatile, two-way talent of Danton Heinen, Ritchie was expected to be an equalizer against beefed-up teams like Tampa Bay in the postseason, with the former Anaheim forward's knack for hanging out down low serving as a potential remedy for Boston's stagnant 5v5 offense, with his individual 5v5 expected goals per 60 minutes rate of 0.87 ranking 28th overall among NHL forwards (min. 500 minutes played). That was tied for tops among all Bruins skaters with Pastrnak as well.



Add in the fact that the return Boston surrendered to get these two wingers didn't dismantle much of the B's already strong foundation of talent (Backes, Heinen, Axel Andersson and a 2020 first-round selection), the amount of cap space freed up as a result and the luxury of already having an already Cup-contending roster in place, and you could make the case that Boston did more than enough to put this roster in a prime spot for another deep playoff push.

Sure, Kase and Ritchie may not have carried the same impact and panache as other trade targets linked to Boston, such as Blake Coleman, Tyler Toffoli, Chris Kreider and Kyle Palmieri, but when weighing both the costs and potential fit, Don Sweeney said back in February that the moves Boston did make would support the expected production put forward by the B's core of veteran talent.

“These guys are driven to try and win,” Sweeney said of Boston's top players. “We give them as much as we possibly can. There’s never one defining moment of ‘This is our moment. This is our window,’ so to speak. We’re trying to look at last year, this year, next year and they’re a big part of it. They just want guys that are going to be pulling in the same direction as them, as hard as they’re willing to pull it."

And yet, with Boston now sitting on the brink of elimination by a Tampa Bay team that has outscored them, 11-2, over the last seven periods of play — it's only natural for one to imagine how different the B's current predicament would be had the club opted to swing for the fences this past winter.



As far as production goes, both Ritchie and Kase haven't provide the spark that Boston achieved last year when it revitalized its third line by bringing aboard Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson.

Even with a goal in Game 2 against Tampa, Ritchie has failed to provide the impact most expected from him this postseason, with needless and unnecessary hits and retaliatory plays offsetting the value he should bring as a big body that's tough to play against come the playoffs. While Kase (four assists in 10 playoff games) hasn't put his team behind the eight-ball quite like Ritchie, his efforts at peppering the net haven't been rewarded yet — with the shifty winger still without a goal in 16 total games with the Bruins.



The play of Kase and Ritchie are not the sole culprits for Boston's current 1-3 hole in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, considering faulty defensive structure, suspect goaltending and a lack of 5v5 punch from other regulars on this Bruins club have also reared their respective heads throughout this matchup with the Bolts.

If anything, the prevailing thought as we size up Boston's deadline pickups on the cusp of a playoff exit should focus more on the efforts of Boston's top management — who, despite being very cognizant of this core's dwindling Cup window — didn't go for the jugular and really add game-changing talent to this team.

We're seeing firsthand how Tampa's efforts at addressing a significant flaw of their team (toughness) through the deadline have paid off in the form of Coleman and Barclay Goodrow — who have formed a third line with Yanni Gourde that has been one of the most effective forward trios in the entire Stanley Cup Playoffs so far.

Coleman, who was also linked to Boston ahead of the deadline, may not possess the frame that Ritchie boasts (6-foot-2, 230 pounds), but the agitating winger would have been the perfect blend of skill and snarl that just about every club in today's NHL is looking for — with the 28-year-old forward well on his way to tallying 20 goals and recording 200 hits for the second year in a row before COVID-19 halted the 2019-20 season.

Even if the cost to acquire Coleman was steep (a conditional first and a top prospect in Nolan Foote), it certainly doesn't seem like that Tampa has any regrets now, nor will they next year when Coleman is back with the club for another season at the low cost of just $1.8 million.

Even if Boston sacrificed its 2020 first rounder to Anaheim in order to get most of Backes' contract off the books, the club still possessed plenty of other draft capital, Providence talent and young controllable assets (Heinen, Jake DeBrusk Anders Bjork, Jeremy Lauzon and many others) that could have helped Boston add another bonafide impact player to this team — with Palmieri standing as the one that potentially got away, given the veteran's proven two-way play. 

Even last year, a season in which Boston CRUSHED the deadline by fleecing Minnesota with Ryan Donato for Coyle and adding Johansson, you could make the case that Boston could have gone all in and thrown just about every available asset to try and pry Mark Stone out of Ottawa.

Ultimately, Boston and many other Eastern Conference clubs balked at the reported high demands for Stone, who might just be the most underrated forward in the NHL. As such, it was the Golden Knights that eventually scooped up the top-six winger and 2019 Selke Trophy finalist — all for the exorbitant price of ...

Defenseman Erik Brännström (ranked 19th overall among drafted NHL prospects by The Athletic)
Forward Oscar Lindberg, who literally signed to play over in Europe ahead of the 2019-20 season
A 2020 second-round pick.

... OK. Brannstrom should develop into a nice player for the Sens, but that doesn't seem like a cost that Boston couldn't come close to matching or exceeding, even if it would have required a youngster like Jack Studnicka to swing such a deal. Would that be a tough pill to swallow to give up a prospect like that (if it even would have taken the young pivot to seal a deal)? Almost certainly.

But considering Boston came 60 minutes short of a Cup title last year, and seems to be bracing for a second-round exit again with the same aging core, you tell me — would a guy like Mark Stone make a difference?

Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 when comes to second-guessing moves like these, especially ones struck (or not struck) within the last year or two. But, as Boston's contention window continues to dwindle down — with their latest potential exit being handed out by a team that truly went for it at the deadline — it's tough to ignore that this talented bunch might have been just a trade or two away from two or three more Stanley Cup championships.

Bringing back the bubble? 

Despite the challenges involved with getting the “Return to Play” plan in motion, it’s hard to argue against the NHL’s “Bubble” system being a complete success — with zero positive tests being reported since clubs made the trek up to Toronto and Edmonton.

And while the likelihood of seeing through the 2019-20 campaign is not all assured, the 2020-21 campaign is a bit more complicated — especially if the NHL is committed to playing all 82 regular-season games, even with a later starting date.

In a recent interview with NHL.com’s Dan Rosen, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly noted that the NHL is considering a number of options in order to get the new regular season off the ground in the coming months, especially if ongoing restrictions due to COVID-19 forces travel restrictions or capacity limits in arenas.

One potential solution? Implementing more bubble environments to open the new season — albeit on a grander scale than the two current hubs in Toronto and Edmonton. 

"I don't want to rule out anything because I think there are so many alternatives and possibilities and ways this might play out," Daly said. "I can't tell you we've thought necessarily about a divisional bubble. I don't think our current format for bubbles would work for the regular season, particularly because our objective is to play a full season and I'm not sure how we do that in the format we're currently utilizing. It's already a significant amount of time just to complete our playoffs in that type of bubble format. I don't think it's going to look like what we're currently doing, but could it be a variation of what we're currently doing. I wouldn't rule that out any more than I would rule out any number of other alternatives."

Putting together a contingency plan involving bubbles isn't much of a surprise, especially considering the NBA is also considering a similar route to open the new regular season. Obviously, the best-case scenario would involve bubble environments being a relic of just the summer of 2020, but with the new NHL season tentatively scheduled to get resume regular-season games by the start of December, it makes plenty of sense for the league to explore all possible avenues when it comes to getting hockey back by this winter.

It's certainly something to keep tabs on, especially given the amount of resources that would need to be allocated in order to make a bubble system work during the regular season. And, of course, the biggest hurdle would be approval from the NHLPA, given that players won't be thrilled at all with potentially being separated from their loved ones for an even longer stretch of time.