Camp Notebook: Could Bruins strike gold with a new trio of ‘misfits’ on third line?

BRIGHTON — It’s been four years since the Vegas Golden Knights opened camp for the first time as the NHL’s 31st franchise — with a group of cast-offs beginning to set the foundations on a miraculous run that ended in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final against the Capitals. 

And four years later, finding the root cause of what spurred Vegas’ Cinderella story continues to confound many in the hockey world. 

Did George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon just see something in a group that dozens of other GM’s could not? Was it analytics? Or maybe it was just plain, dumb luck.

Erik Haula, one of the on-ice architects of that fruitful season out in the desert, doesn’t seem to have a clear-cut answer either. 

But when it comes to roster construction, sometimes the most effective ingredient for success is simply corralling a lot of skaters with something to prove in the same room. 

“I'm sure that is something that a lot of people wonder, what really happened with Vegas that year,” Haula said on Friday at Warrior Ice Arena.  Nobody was really setting expectations for our team, and all of a sudden we're in the finals. It’s just a lot of things, a lot of things happened. 

“It was just one group of guys who were so-called misfits that just came together like no other team that I've ever been part of that quickly, had a ton of fun, believed in themselves and overachieved in some sense, but also gained the confidence level that’s not that easy to do. And there wasn't this one guy, it was every single guy there, and every single guy had something to prove. So when you combine all those things, you can do something special.”

Four years later, Haula does find himself on a bit of a different squad in the Bruins — where expectations are certainly much higher than the ones that were (or were not) set for an expansion club like the Knights. 

But when it comes to charting Haula’s potential fit on this B’s roster, perhaps that “misfits” moniker does hold some truth still. Because if Bruce Cassidy does indeed settle on the trio of Haula, Jake DeBrusk and Nick Foligno on Boston’s bottom-six unit, there will be no shortage of personnel in place with plenty to prove.

Every player enters a new season with a clean slate — but their own slew of personal motivations designed to help carry them through the ups and downs guaranteed over an 82-game slate. 

And there are motivations aplenty when it comes to a DeBrusk-Haula-Foligno line — beyond just the team-centric objectives of forging chemistry out on the ice. 

For DeBrusk, the internal drive is pretty easy to map out after the season he had in 2021. 

After a breakout first season with Vegas (29 goals, 55 points) in 2017-18, Haula missed most of the following year with a knee injury and has subsequently bounced around the league — logging stints in Carolina, Florida and Nashville over the last two campaigns. In Boston, the 30-year-old is looking for some stability — both in terms of his moving habits and his spot within the lineup.

And although Foligno's reputation as a leader remains sterling across the league, the 33-year-old forward is also looking to prove that there's still plenty left in the tank in terms of his ability to impact the score sheet. 

It's a shakeup that offers plenty of intrigue, especially in terms of how both Haula and Foligno's skillsets will complement one another – and draw more out of DeBrusk's game. All three forwards may not be the flashiest out there, but the grouping does all excel when playing a simple, straight-game. That could benefit DeBrusk, with Foligno's forechecking ability and Haula's north-south game opening the door for multiple drives to the net — and a chance to light the lamp with more regularity than what fell his way last season. 

"I really liked our line," Foligno said following another day of reps with DeBrusk and Haula. "I think Haula is obviously just a hard worker and a skilled player and a responsible player and Jake has got that skill and that ability to make plays and you just try to complement that. If that's one of the groups we go with, I think we can do some damage and be a reliable line. "

Of course, building chemistry will be a key component in getting that line off the ground, with Foligno — never one to shy away from a chat — already impressed with the rapport he's built with his new linemates, especially DeBrusk. 

"I can tell you — he has a ton of potential," Foligno said. "A ton of talent and he wants to be a great player. I think it's just a matter of understanding what that takes. A lot of times everyone thinks it's just a snap of the fingers and a guy figures it out. Sometimes it takes a little bit of a step back to realize, 'Okay, that's not the way I want to go about doing things.;' And I'm sure he's hungry to prove to people that he is the player that we all envision and he envisions. I think he has higher standards for himself than a lot of people realize. So I'm looking forward to helping him in that regard."

Ultimately, much like the failed attempt to chart out Vegas' Cup run — it's sometimes a crapshoot when it comes to projecting the production of a line. Sometimes they hit it right off the bat, like Hall-Krejci-Smith last season. And sometimes it takes a while to develop, with the last effective B's third line of Johansson-Coyle-Heinen only hitting their stride once the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs commenced. 

As such, patience will need to be prescribed when it comes to determining this potpourri of a line with a veteran stalwart, hot-and-cold winger and journeyman pivot can spark on the ice together. But Foligno believes the pieces are in place. 

"I think it's just a matter of making sure that I'm doing what's necessary to help our team win and finding that role," Foligno said. "Bergy talked about that at the start of camp with a speech to guys and it was so true. You got to own your role, whatever you're needed to do is what makes the team successful and I think that's why this team has always had success — guys find a role and they own it, they stick to it and play the way the team needs that to play and I'm just looking to do that for this group as well."

Froden impresses early in camp

It's always important to view lines and other personnel moves with a grain of salt during the first few days of training camp, but you can take such a pragmatic look while also acknowledging the play of some overlooked contributors. 

And so far, Jesper Froden has been awfully impressive while skating on a line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. While it’s to be expected that the 27-year-old was going to pace the rest of the pack at the 2021 Prospects Challenge, that strong debut sure seems to have not been a flash in the pan.

Of course, the likely scenario here is that Froden cuts his teeth down in Providence this season, and given his age, it’s unclear just what exactly his ceiling is at the NHL level. But he’s definitely caught the eye of Cassidy over the first few days of camp. 

"I think he's a smart player who reads off two elite players and hasn't slowed them down at all. In fact, looked very well there," Cassidy said. "We knew a little bit about that. He was a little bit farther along than some of the younger guys in terms of playing against men and having success.  We didn't know how it would translate over here. We still don't. But so far, the results are pretty good. He showed that in Buffalo on the power play and 5v5. Usually that's the first step . 

"Now he's been in practice with these guys and I'm hearing from our guys that, 'Hey, this kid's pretty good.' And that's when you know. The eye test is good, but feedback is better from the linemates that have been in the league, because they'll know the little details of stick position and strength on the puck. ... I'm not going to anoint him into our lineup or anything like that. But he's here to make progress and build everyday and he's done that."

Bergeron makes convincing pitch

When the time comes for Patrice Bergeron to finally hang up his skates, a career in an NHL front office might be in the cards. After all, Boston’s captain sure seems to have quite the track record when it comes to recruiting talent and making convincing pitches at the start of free agency. 

In the fall of 2020, Craig Smith acknowledged that Bergeron gave him a call as part of Boston’s courtship of the shot-first winger, while Nick Foligno shared a similar experience when recalling his decision to sign with Boston back in July. 

Whatever spiel Bergeron presented must have been pretty appealing for Foligno, considering it beat out whatever Foligno’s younger brother, Marcus, was selling in terms of a reunion on the Minnesota Wild. 

While Nick has been open about a desire to play with his sibling at some point before he wraps up his NHL career, Marcus’ pitch sure seems to have come up short when compared to Bergeron’s. 

“Bergy's got a few more accolades up on the wall. Sorry, Marcus,” Nick Foligno said. “One day you'll get there. Poor kid. What a jerk for saying that. 

“It was hard. Like I said, it was a tough decision. Obviously I've always made it known that I want to play with my brother — but just the fit here and the timing. ... I'm pumped to be here. I'll have to make a phone call to Marcus."