Ryan: The 2021 Bruins are a bit different from teams of years past - and that's far from a bad thing

Eight months ago, a solemn David Krejci shuffled up to the podium inside a cavernous Scotiabank Arena and fielding questions doled out via a blank computer screen.

The emotions still raw in wake of seeing another promising year crumble before them off of a quick snap shot from Victor Hedman, Krejci and his teammates did what they could to eulogize the 2019-20 Bruins — a veteran club that seemed hellbent on avenging their crushing loss to the Blues in June 2019, only to have all momentum from their Presidents' Trophy campaign sapped away as the world was ground to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic.

And while Krejci would have been justified if he used his last presser of the season to bemoan the what could have been nature of this team had we not been plunged into global cataclysm, the B's second-line pivot focused his lens toward the bigger picture. Not only was this double-OT loss to the Lightning closing the chapter on this once-fruitful season — it very well could have closed the book on this Bruins core and just how many kicks at the can they'd have left when it came to hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup once again.

“It just kind of hit me after the game that the core group, a few of us, we have one or two, three years left,” Krejci said. “With the pandemic going on, you never know what’s going to happen. I just got a little sad right now. At the same time, I don’t regret coming into this bubble and fighting for the Stanley Cup.”

A few months later, some of Krejci's fears were validated. Torey Krug — Boston's power-play QB and beloved locker-room fixture — inked a seven-year contract with the Blues. Zdeno Chara, Boston's captain of 14 seasons, signed on with the Capitals just ahead of training camp. 

Yes, some of the key cogs responsible for three trips to the Stanley Cup Final in a decade were still in place, but with stalwarts like Patrice Bergeron (35 years old), Krejci (34 entering the 2021 season), Brad Marchand (32) and Tuukka Rask (33) another year older — there was no guarantee that the B's were once again primed for another deep run.

Two hundred and forty five days after Krejci mourned what could have been the Bruins' last viable chance to lift the greatest trophy in sports for some time, Bruce Cassidy sat down in a familiar setting — staring at a computer screen for a postgame presser, this time within the bowels of the Prudential Center in Newark.

But the message this time around was a lot more hopeful.



Even with some of the roster overhaul that Boston has endured over the past offseason, news of the 2021 Bruins clinching a playoff berth shouldn't necessarily have come as a shock to many — even with the Original Six franchise sandwiched in the middle of the uber-competitive East Division. But in a year in which even the most conventional practices have been augmented and/or tossed out the window due this COVID-impacted season, Boston's bench boss not going to pass up an opportunity to commend his roster for accomplishing step one of their lofty postseason goals.

"Well you play for an opportunity to play for the Cup, right," Cassidy said following Boston's 3-0 victory over the Devils. "So we've accomplished the first part of that, getting into the playoffs or the tournament, whatever you want to call it. ... "Our expectations are obviously higher than to just make the playoffs. But it's still an accomplishment in this league — it's not automatic. Ask Philadelphia — who had a real good year last year that won't be in this year. Dallas is fighting for their life. They went to the Final last year, I'm sure they thought they would be in a better position they are. So it's not automatic."

Still, there was reason to believe that, at a minimum, this team was going to at least punch its ticket back to the postseason. After all, this club still had its high-powered triumvirate of Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak ready for deployment, alongside a number of youngsters primed to take major steps forward, such as Charlie McAvoy. 

But just how far they'd go with this group as constituted back in January? Well, that's another matter entirely.

And yes, while guys like Bergeron, Marchand, McAvoy and Rask have their fingerprints all over what stands as Boston's fifth straight trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs — it's pretty evident that the 2021 Bruins are quite different from the teams of the past few years.

But that's hardly a bad thing.

Look no further than this recent 10-2-0 stretch — a post-deadline surge that has kindled the hopes of many fans across New England yearning for another playoff push — as evidence that this far from the same roster that has been felled by the same old Achilles' Heel that dashed previous Cup hopes:  a top-heavy scoring output with little in terms of a supporting cast beyond Bergeron and Co.

Let's take Monday's win over New Jersey as a case study here.

Granted, some of the hallmarks of Bruins teams are still intact — much to the club's delight.

Bergeron and his top line are still a 5v5 buzzsaw, with the B's new captain tallying his 20th goal of this 56-game campaign on Monday. All together, Boston is outscoring opponents by a 30-14 margin when the 63-37-88 line has been out on the ice, and that's still with Pastrnak limited to just one power-play tally over his last 24 games. Rask, now 6-0-0 in his last seven games, posted his second shutout in two weeks against New Jersey, while McAvoy, the new leader on Boston's blue line, is averaging over 24 minutes of ice time a night.

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But this Bruins team — especially over the last month — is not going into the same old bag of tricks when it comes to relying on its top line or Rask to take care of business and rack up points.

On Monday, it was also a revamped third line of Nick Ritchie, Sean Kuraly and Charlie Coyle that both left welts against the Devils and etched their name into the scoreboard. Ritchie, once though of as a training-camp causality after a disastrous postseason up in the Toronto bubble, matched his career high with his 14th tally of the season during the second period — and should take home the 7th Player Award later this week. While Boston has failed to find traction with Coyle and that third line for most of this season, they might have finally find the winning with this hefty, puck-possession unit — given that they've already combined for four 5v5 goals in under 40 minutes of ice time together.

"They're a big line, they're hard to play against," Cassidy said of Boston's third line. "So maybe there's something there. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. Still early, which would be similar to the Cup run, where we got scoring from our top three lines and our fourth line chipped in. I remember that (Joakim Nordstrom) scored a big goal for us — I think was Game 7 against Toronto. It was the first or second goal the game. So that's one thing that is a little different maybe from last year and two years ago. This is a little more spread out scoring throughout the group."

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Elsewhere, a Bruins D corps that has only rolled out its usual suspects in McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk, Brandon Carlo and Kevan Miller together in a game six times (!) all season due to a slew of injuries, has held its own with new additions and an injection of youth.

Kevan Miller set the tone on Monday by knocking A.J. Greer back to his collegiate days on Comm. Ave with a thunderous hit. Jeremy Lauzon logged 22 minutes of ice time and Grzelcyk lit the lamp for the fifth time all season. Jakub Zboril notched the primary helper on Ritchie's tally, while Connor Clifton came to the defense of Zboril and dropped the gloves with Greer after the winger buried Zboril into the boards.

Boston's D corps might have been decimated by the injury bug this season, but it's rounding into form at just the right time — with Brandon Carlo slated to return on Tuesday night alongside Mike Reilly — who has served as a playmaking conduit from the blue line since Don Sweeney plucked him from Ottawa back in May.

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And even though they were kept in check on Monday, perhaps the biggest difference with this team is that Krejci, at long last, has a lethal group of wingers at his disposal — with the additions of Craig Smith (via free agency) and Taylor Hall (via a complete fleecing of the Sabres in April) giving Boston its most lethal top-six combination since the days in which Krejci landed punches with Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic.

With Hall-Krejci-Smith serving as a two-headed monster along the Bergeron line — coupled with recent contributions from this third line and numerous contributors across the blue line and the lower levels of the depth chart — what was once a fatal flaw on this roster (even-strength scoring) has now become a strength, with Boston outscoring opponents by a 35-13 margin at 5v5 play since the deadline.

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And there are more names worth mentioning — Jeremy Swayman, who went from a pro rookie with just nine games of experience down in Providence to Boston's new backup netminder in the span of a month. Fourth-line contributors like Chris Wagner and Curtis Lazar. Jaroslav Halak, Jake DeBrusk — the list goes on and on.

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"We've battled all year," Bergeron said. "I'm really proud of the way that we stuck with the ups and downs of a season. Being through it with the experience I think that we have in this locker room — I thought we handled that pretty well knowing there's gonna be some ups and downs, some good and bad and you don't get too high, don't get too low. ... Proud of the way, the adversity that we faced — guys coming in and out. Lots of injuries, everyone stepping up, chipping in, lots of depth. I think it speaks volumes of the quality of players and guys that we have in this locker room to always to find a way, basically."

Of course, as we all know — a lot can go wrong come the postseason that can undo even the most promising runs. The road ahead will be much tougher for this team once it's down knocking around tomato cans like the Sabres and Devils, and there are still areas that Boston must address (a slumping power play, getting players like DeBrusk rolling) if it wants to emerge from the East and face off against other contenders like Vegas, Colorado, Toronto, Carolina and Tampa Bay.

But the more things change, the more they might stay the same, at least within the B's locker room. While COVID-19 protocols have limited the amount of off-ice interactions on a roster with new additions and youngsters sprinkled into the mix, that level of disconnect hasn't led to radio static when it comes to a room full of men all buying into the same goal out on the ice.

"They're a together group — that hasn't changed," Cassidy said. "Guys that come in here tend to enjoy the players here, the camaraderie. Obviously with COVID it's limited a little bit with what you can do. But guys have spent time together on the road, they still have their dinners. They're in the room together, going through battles, practices, all that stuff. So I like that part of it. I don't think that we're a cliquey group at all. I don't think there's anybody that's an outlier. Everyone has their own business and their own personalities — certainly can be themselves. But I think as a group they understand the common goal."

So yes, some of the familiar faces are gone that we've all become accustomed to seeing when playoff hockey arrives and Audioslave blares over the TD Garden speakers. And much like last year, all it takes is four losses to potentially put us back at square one — in which we ponder just how much more gas is left in the tank when it comes to this veteran core. But through all of the departures, injuries, postponements, shutdowns and more, the mission hasn't changed for the 2021 Bruins.

"We know what our ultimate goal is here," Sean Kuraly said. "And we've seen — the last four years, we've seen different things happen. Went all the way to the end, you win a President's Trophy. And you realize that there's not one way to do this thing, but you just try and play your best hockey at the right time. And I think we're headed in the right direction. We've got some work to do, but I think you got a locker room that's starting to get pretty excited."

And they shouldn't be the only ones.