David Krejci might be serving up saucer passes and orchestrating scoring chances overseas these days, but the remnants of a potent second line that outscored opponents, 13-1, in 16 games last year remain in place for Boston during the 2021-22 season.
With both Taylor Hall and Craig Smith likely penciled into the same top-six spots that they carved out for themselves last spring, the potential is there for Boston’s second line to wield plenty of firepower and supplement scoring when the Bergeron line is taking a breather.
But the gap between potential and tangible production can stretch very, very far – especially on this Bruins roster.
Because as promising as this second line can be, the lack of a proven top-six pivot capable of stepping into Krejci’s shoes and driving that line is shrouding that forward unit in plenty of uncertainty entering camp.
But don’t count Smith among those fretting over the loss of Krejci — at least to open the season.
“I wouldn't say that my game is gonna change,” Smith said Monday of adjusting his game with a new pivot in place on the second line. “But I will say this — every year is a little different with players and you got to kind of recreate yourself a little bit.”
“Every year, the game changes slightly, and then you gotta change with it to make adjustments accordingly. So playing with different players and the feel and the way things are going, you make small adjustments on what you're going to do and those adjustments are according to what's best for the team too, sometimes. So depending on how we're feeling going into season and depending on how things shake out, or who you’re going to be playing with or who's going to be playing with is, it'll be determined in camp. But the plan is to keep doing the same thing I've been doing and just having fun playing hockey.”
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the 32-year-old winger isn’t harping on the personnel on his line — considering that the shot-first winger has managed to string together a pretty consistent stat sheet over the years regardless of the supporting cast around him.
With 13 goals and 32 points over 54 games last season, Smith was more or less in line with his average production over an 82-game pace — with the winger surpassing the 20-goal mark in five of his last six full seasons (he had 18 goals in 69 games during the COVID-impacted 2019-20 campaign).
With his knack for peppering the net from just about every angle — and a solid two-way game — Smith was often an unheralded addition that fit perfectly on the second line last year, especially once Taylor Hall joined the club and turned the Krejci line into a 5v5 buzzsaw.
Now, Charlie Coyle is not the same playmaker as Krejci — and even though the Weymouth native does have some factors working in his favor with this new role (a healthy knee, a stronger set of linemates), the jury still seems to be out on whether or not Coyle is the right man for the gig.
When looking at Smith’s production last season — and the performance of the B’s as a whole — it was rather evident that the veteran fared much better with Krejci in the top six, rather than bumped down to the third line with Coyle.
Craig Smith w/ David Krejci: 352:19 of 5v5 ice time / 60.63% shot share / Boston led in shots on goal (231-138), goals scored (21-3) and scoring chances (183-118)
Craig Smith w/Charlie Coyle: 223:39 of 5v5 ice time / 51.16% shot share / Boston led in shots on goal (111-106), goals scored (7-6), but trailed in scoring chances (78-96).
Now, you could try to narrow the gap between the two lines by noting that the third line was largely a mess all season — with guys like Jake DeBrusk and Nick Ritchie not necessarily helping to put that bottom-six grouping over the top, either. And the Smith+Krejci duo were also handed 67.81% of their face-offs in the offensive zone, but some of that sentiment is also wiped out by the fact that Smith+Coyle also had plenty of favorable ice handed their way (59.26% O-zone faceoff percentage) .
Simply put, that third line as a whole wasn’t good enough last year.
But if Smith believes a new season offers a chance for an individual to re-invent his game, such sentiment might extend to a new line as a whole.
Ultimately, the success of that second line will likely come down to whether or not Coyle can right the ship and play more like the player that Boston saw in 2019-20 when it handed him a six-year contract. What you see is what you get with a big-bodied pivot like Coyle, but he can still make his mark by getting back to his trademark game of playing keep-away in the O-zone — opening up Grade-A ice for his talented pair of wingers in Hall and Smith.
Krejci’s production and ability to elevate the talent around might have been taken for granted during his time in Boston, but with Boston bolstering the talent on the wing over the past two offseason — Smith is still confident that the B's still have the means to deliver a potent 1-2 punch with its forward corps.
"We're excited to do something special. I think if I was sitting here telling you we weren't going to do something special, there'd be something wrong," Smith said. "But I'm extremely excited with this group. Coming off last year and definitely something to prove and you can see it — it's just Day 1. Everybody's back for the most part and everybody was working, everybody's on the ice and trying to get to know each other as best they can with the short time we have here together before the season. So it's exciting. You can feel the energy in the room and you feel the energy with the guys."
B’s announce roster for 2021 Prospects Challenge
Fabian Lysell is set to make his debut in a black-and-gold sweater later this week, as the 2021 B’s first-round pick will headline Boston’s list of participants for the 2021 Prospects Challenge — a round-robin tournament set to get underway on Friday at LECOM HarborCenter in Buffalo.
The Prospects Challenge — hosted by the Buffalo Sabres — will take place from September 17-19 and will feature three teams in the Bruins, Sabres and Devils.
Here is Boston’s roster for the showcase:
Forwards: Samuel Asselin, Marc Boudreau*, Matt Filipe, Jesper Froden, Curtis Hall, Brett Harrison, Jacob Hudson*, Jakub Lauko, Fabian Lysell, Ian McKinnon, Oskar Steen, Eduards Tralmaks, Alex-Olivier Voyer
Defensemen: Jack Ahcan, Victor Berglund, Noah Dorey*, J.D. Greenway, Brady Lyle, Ryan Mast, Andrew Peski, Nick Wolff
Goaltenders: Kyle Keyser, Jeremy Brodeur
(*Player attending on an invite basis )
Lysell will draw plenty of intrigue as he looks to adjust to the North American brand of hockey, but there will be plenty of other noteworthy prospects worth keeping tabs on, such as fellow 2021 draft pick Brett Harrison and AHL regulars like Jakub Lauko and Brady Lyle.
Fred Stanfield passes away at 77
Fred Stanfield, a key cog on two Bruins clubs that hoisted the Stanley Cup in 1970 and 1972, passed away on Monday at the age of 77.
Stanfield served as second-line center for the B’s during one of the franchise’s most fruitful eras, skating as the man in the middle on a potent line next to Johnny Bucyk and Johnny "Pie" McKenzie while logging reps on the top power-play unit.
Even though those ‘70s-era B’s clubs were paced offensively by names like Esposito, Hodge, McKenzie and a fleet-footed blueliner from Parry Sound — Stanfield regularly stuffed the stat sheet in his top-six spot, posting 409 points over 448 games with the Bruins. During Boston’s two Cup titles in 1970 and 1972, Stanfield recorded 32 points over 29 combined postseason games.
Stanfield, who was brought to Boston in a highway robbery of a deal with Chicago back in 1967 that saw Phil Esposito and Ken Hodge also moved to the B’s in exchange for Gilles Marotte, Pit Martin and Jack Norris, ultimately logged six seasons with Boston before getting traded to the Minnesota North Stars after the 1972-73 season for Gilles Gilbert.
The former B’s pivot still ranks 28th all-time in Bruins history with his 409 points — while his 274 career assists also rank 20th in franchise history.