With the Bruins' offense continuing to sputter and the club dropping in the East Division standings, Don Sweeney spoke to the media on Wednesday afternoon, covering a number of topics — including the flaws on the current roster and what to expect ahead of the April 12 trade deadline. Here are a few highlights from the afternoon presser:
Offense remains a primary concern for Sweeney ahead of the deadline
Entering the 2021 season, it seemed like a given that the Bruins — despite parting ways with two of their last three first-round picks via deadline deals — would once again be in the market again in order to shore up
But unlike previous trades designed to beef up Boston's scoring (Rick Nash, Ondrej Kase), the writing appeared to be on the wall that the B's were going to need to add to a young D corps in April, especially in wake of losing key cogs like Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug.
And while it may still be the case that Boston is going to have to peruse the market of available blueliners this spring to solidly their defense, that green — and shorthanded — grouping has held up to its end of the bargain this season. Be it the steady play of youngsters like Jakub Zboril, Urho Vaakanainen and Jeremy Lauzon, the continued execution of Bruce Cassidy's zone defensive structure or the continued strides of players like Charlie McAvoy, Boston is still one of the stingiest clubs in the league — ranking fourth in the NHL in goals against per game at 2.35.
No, when it comes to the latest need for Don Sweeney and the Bruins to address — it's the same ol' narrative that Bruins have become accustomed to.
The annual pursuit of top-six help is here, once again.
At this point, the pressure is on for the Bruins to seek outside help in order to shore up a sputtering offense that ranks 27th in the league in 5v5 goals with 39 on the year – of which 20 of those have been tallied by the usual suspects of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. These scoring woes have been magnified by this latest 3-5-2 stretch, with Boston only capturing six out of a possible 10 points in its last five games, despite only relinquishing five goals during that same amount of time.
With their expected second line going into the season (Jake DeBrusk — David Krejci — Ondrej Kase) remarkably still with zero 5v5 goals scored through 23 games, coupled with continued offensive struggles for players like Craig Smith (one goal in his last 14 games) and Charlie Coyle (three goals in his last 16 games), it's pretty cut and dry that this roster — as currently constituted — isn't going to cut it.
And Sweeney is certainly cognizant of said flaws.
"Not at the current rate that we’re going,” Sweeney said when asked if Boston can solve their scoring issues with the roster they currently have. “Clearly we’ve played well defensively in the last five games or so. We just haven’t generated -- or finished, I should say. Five-on-five is just not where it needs to be to consistently win, or to extend leads if you do get them. So, it’s a concern across the board. It’s not so much the top-heavy part of it, but just overall. Injuries have played a little bit of a factor there on the back end, but we’ve also not given up that much. Goaltenders are playing pretty well. So yeah, I think it’s a major concern for us.”
Even though the Bruins may not have a treasure trove of assets like clubs such as the Rangers or Kings, Boston still has plenty of NHL talent outside of its key cogs like its top line and Charlie McAvoy that can be had for the right price, while the B's prospect pipeline does possess some blue-chip pieces that can and should spark the interest of other GMs if included in package deals. The price to acquire a top-six forward and other assets might be steep, but at this point, Boston can't continue to tread water and hope that this current crop of skaters solve their scoring woes.
"We’ve got Providence who's playing this afternoon some guys that have played well, but if we have to shake things up, I think we will do that,” Sweeney said. “I understand that the expectations haven’t changed. Our group has played well, but not quite good enough. The scoring has been the Achilles’ heel up until this point. Hopefully we can find it from within, or I’m going to have to make a move to bring in support.”
“I think things will loosen up because there will be some teams that identify themselves as not necessarily in the position they want to be, and some player movement will happen. Moving across the border is a difficult thing with quarantine. And the health of your group will sometimes dictate how many player transactions will be there. Money is tight. ... Really it’s navigating the unknown right now, but plenty of talks and conversations going on. So we’ll see where it goes in the next couple weeks.”