NHL Notebook: 4 tweaks that helped awaken Bruins' secondary scoring; Patrice Bergeron - future GM?

Given all that we know about this Bruins team — if I mapped out a scenario in which both Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand failed to light the lamp in two straight games, how many points would you predict that Boston scooped up over that short sample size?

Three points? Maybe. But given the lack of tangible firepower from Boston’s big guns, it’d be safe to assume that those points would be accrued via the low-scoring grindfests that leave most fans nibbling their fingernails down to a nub.

One point? No points at all? It’s a disheartening assessment, yes. But given the B’s track record over the years when their top line isn’t shouldering most of the scoring burden — fans have often been conditioned to expect the worst when the onus falls on the rest of the lineup to start landing punches in the O-zone. 

But the last week-plus has been a refreshing change of pace as far as Boston’s scoring output is concerned (even if the actual amount of games played is a far different story as far as pace goes).

Yes, both Bergeron and Marchand have not found the back of the net over the last two games, but the B’s have won both games by a combined score of 10-4 — with Saturday’s 5-2 victory over the Flyers standing as perhaps the most encouraging sign yet that the B’s secondary scoring is finally breaking through. 

In fact, over the span of this current three-game win streak, just one of Boston’s last 11 tallies have come from off the stick of a first-line forward — with the first four goals scored on Saturday night coming by way of a stay-at-home blueliner in Derek Forbort (twice) and both the third and fourth lines.

“Our depth scoring is obviously huge when we're able to get it, but we have so much faith in that part of our lineup and trust in those guys,” Charlie McAvoy said following Saturday’s win. “They push hard. They're tremendous hockey players. So it's nice to see a bunch of them get rewarded tonight.”

Given some of the expected-goal metrics that seemed destined to reward Boston at some point, perhaps this recent secondary-scoring surge was just a matter of time.

But over the last few games, a number of lineup tweaks and reshuffles have played a major role in Boston rolling out a potent supporting cast for the first time in a long time.

Making the most of a five-day break for Craig Smith

For as much as we all love to bash the Bruins’ stop-and-go schedule to open the 2021-22 campaign, Bruce Cassidy did draw one silver lining out of this largely dormant stretch: the opportunity for some key cogs to lick their wounds. 

Even though Craig Smith very well could have played in Boston’s matchups against the Devils and Canadiens last weekend, Cassidy opted to sit the veteran winger out — giving him close to a week between games to recover from a nagging injury that has plagued him for over a month.

It was certainly warranted. Through his first eight games, Smith failed to record a single point — and even though his shot-first mindset largely remained intact, his usual jump and ability to find soft areas of the ice was significantly hindered by his ailment.

The difference between the Smith we’ve seen for most of this year,  and the rested Smith we saw on Saturday, was night and day.

“It was a good week for him. People talk about our schedule, but it helped a guy like Craig Smith," Cassidy said. "He gets his week, a couple of days in between some of those practices to recoup and it looked like it today.”

Even though Smith racked up plenty of points last year on the second line, his propensity to pepper the net and two-way acumen might be better served on a bottom-six unit with Jake DeBrusk and Erik Haula — a sentiment shared by Cassidy that was validated on Saturday.

With an engaged DeBrusk recovering pucks in battles along the boards, Haula conducting the pace and a re-energized Smith putting opposing skaters on their heels (and rifling shots into twine), this line has all of the pieces of a very effective bottom-six grouping. They just need to start stringing together performances like this more often. And that only happens if Smith is healthy and playing at his usual level.

"He's been playing through an injury, was working against him,” Cassidy said of Smith. “Now as a result, he wasn't the same player on the ice — trying to get into practice on a regular basis, find a line. He was with Coyle earlier. Today he's with Haula and DeBrusk, they do a good job. He's a guy that's played well for us here. He's a half-a-point-a-game guy throughout his career. 

“So you know over time, he's going to put up points, he's just got to get healthy and he did this week. Had his usual jump. To go around, I forgot which defenseman it was, like that — that's what he can do and then finish and he'd been lacking a bit of that first step. So he wasn't able to separate, but tonight, you need some scoring down in your lineup and we got it.”

Shifting Zboril to right side

It's hardly been an ideal start for Mike Reilly so far in 2021-22. But even though his indecisiveness and D-zone faults prompted a two-game benching last weekend, Boston's offensive capabilities are best realized if the puck-moving defenseman is in the lineup every day and given some rope to work through his struggles. 

But so far, a third pairing of Reilly and Connor Clifton hasn't inspired all that much in terms of confidence. To further muddy things, Reilly's return on the left side would threaten Jakub Zboril's spot in the lineup. At least, that would be the case if Zboril could only function on the left side. 

But on Saturday, Cassidy tried to appease all parties — starting Reilly once again, while rewarding Zboril for a strong game against the Habs last Sunday by keeping him in the lineup, albeit on the right side.

The results spoke for themselves. 

For the second straight game, Zboril recorded a helper in his 17+ minutes of ice time — setting up David Pastrnak's third-period tally with a crisp feed that highlighted the poise and playmaking potential that the 24-year-old boasts when he's playing with confidence. 

Of course, Cassidy and the Bruins will certainly welcome any and all offensive contributions from the back end when both Reilly and Zboril are moving the puck and making plays. But not at the expense of poor D-zone coverage and ugly miscues down the other end of the ice. 

But on Saturday, the Reilly-Zboril pairing rarely found itself on the ropes — with Boston holding a 7-0 edge in shots on goal during the duo's 7:15 of 5v5 ice time together. 

I have to say, I didn't go into this season expecting a third pairing of Reilly-Zboril to be the most effective grouping so far in that spot on the depth chart. But so far, so good.

Sticking with Anton Blidh on fourth line

Saturday might have been the day where this reworked fourth line of Anton Blidh, Tomas Nosek and Curtis Lazar were finally rewarded for their efforts via a Nosek tally — but this checking unit has been in Cassidy’s good graces for quite some time now. 

Last Thursday, when Cassidy had very few positives for his club after a third-period collapse against the Oilers, the B’s bench boss still praised his fourth line — with Boston holding Edmonton to zero shots on goal when Nosek was matched up with Connor McDavid for almost seven minutes of 5v5 ice time.

And even though Trent Frederic opened the season as the presumptive regular at left wing, Blidh has been awfully noticeable whenever he hops over the boards. Is he flashy? Nope. But he’s making the most of the time allotted to him with Frederic on the mend with an upper-body injury.

And there’s no guarantee that Frederic is an automatic to be penciled back into the lineup once he finally gets the green light to play. 

"They did a nice job for us. It's the right type of goal to score too — where it elevates everybody," Cassidy said. "It's a forecheck situation, where we know against Philadelphia, you gotta make them go 200 feet, otherwise they can really hurt you. So we put it behind them. We get the first contact ... we win the race. Now we got spacing where there's a netfront or a slot guy, got another guy reloading, and we make a play, right? ... They have been good for us.

"I know Lazer missed a game there, he's been a little banged up. But Bleeder has come in and given us energy, like (Karson) Kuhlman, right? When he goes in, he doesn't lose his motor. That's important because he does sit for stretches. And those are things that fourth-line guys have to be able to stay focused and play tough minutes and they did a good job with that."

Letting pucks fly from blue lin

This one isn’t necessarily a “tweak”, per se. Rather, it’s a message that’s been drummed into the Bruins D corps’ ears all season long: Get more pucks on net.

For Cassidy, even something as simple as firing a puck through traffic (so long as a shooting lane presents itself) can often lead to many fruitful outcomes, be it a tipped blast, deflection, rebound or an outright snipe.

And over the last few weeks, the Bruins are getting more and more offensive contributions from the blue line — with six of Boston’s last 21 goals coming off the stick of a defenseman. 

"Charlie (McAvoy) got a couple the other night,’” Cassidy said. “Now you're starting to see us go from scoring two goals a game to now four and five. And I think it's got to be — not saying always by committee, expect your top guys and power play to perform  — but the secondary scoring has to come from the D as well. There's six of them, and we expect them to pitch in and they have.”

Of course, it’s not realistic to expect a guy like Derek Forbort to be lighting the lamp with any semblance of regularity. But Boston’s offensive spike over the last few games is not solely due to McAvoy’s continued development as an O-zone maestro.

Multiple D-men on this team are buying into a more active role on the offensive blue line, and the chances are piling up as a result.  

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Patrice Bergeron - coach? GM?

If the decision were up to Cassidy, he’d pencil Patrice Bergeron’s name into the B’s lineup for years and years to come.

But such a scenario is far from a guarantee, given Bergeron’s non-commital comments regarding his future — and the amount of mileage that the future Hall of Famer has tacked on over 18 years in a Bruins sweater.

But if Bergeron does opt to hang up his skates sometime in the foreseeable future — Cassidy sure hopes that the veteran pivot doesn’t become a stranger around these parts. 

Be it in a coaching role down the road or potentially in a management position, Cassidy believes that Bergeron has the intangibles and off-ice talents to thrive in such an endeavor if that’s the course he charts in his post-playing career. And if such plans do come to fruition, Cassidy sure hopes that Bergeron takes that next step with the only club he’s ever played for. 

"I just think he's a guy that exudes Boston Bruins character, so whatever he decides to do in the future — and that future being next year, we all hope it's play. If it's not, then I think everybody — probably speaking for everyone — you'd like him to be with the team in some capacity and lend whatever knowledge he can bring for that particular position,” Cassidy said. “And that's just who he is. Like I said, I know that's my feeling. That won't be my decision.  I would think that other people would feel the same way, that you want Patrice around in some capacity. But that will be entirely up to Bergy and what he wants to do going forward. I hope it's play, personally.”

Granted, it sure doesn’t seem like there’s been much of a drop-off in Bergeron’s game so far this season, with the 36-year-old center still on pace for around 35 goals and 80 points this season.

But if the wear and tear of over 1,100 games played (along with numerous grueling playoff runs) forces Bergeron to call it quits in the coming years — it seems rather inevitable that he won’t be away from the game for very long. 

“I think he can do whatever he wants,” Cassidy said of Bergeron. “I think he thinks the game very well — relates to people very well. The coaching side of it, I think you have to do it before you decide whether you even like it. Because there's just a lot that goes into it. 

"I think there's certain people that are cut out for it. Some that aren't.  And that's a head coach and an assistant, too. ... And then the managing part? I mean, you've seen different guys go in with various amounts of success. Yzerman has done very well, Sakic. Other guys haven't done as well. So that, to me, would be kind of speculative."

OTHER NHL NOTES

Stick tap to Kevin Hayes — who returned to game action with the Flyers last week and scored in just his second game back with Philly on Tuesday against the Flames.

Just seconds after lighting the lamp, Hayes pointed to the sky in acknowledgment of his late brother, Jimmy, who passed away back in August at just 31 years old. 

Cam Atkinson, who was Jimmy’s roommate during their time together at Boston College, potted the eventual game-winner in the Flyers’ OT win against Calgary.

“You could see it on my face. I think everything happens for a reason. I was the first guy to hug him,” Atkinson said of Kevin. “It’s a big goal, not only for our team, obviously, but for Kev. And, like he said, we’ll remember this for a long, long time. It was special.”

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I have to say — it’s gonna be really, really awkward to see John Henry in a TD Garden suite when the Bruins and Penguins inevitably cross paths in the playoffs within the next couple of seasons. 

Of course, plenty of Bruins fans aren’t too happy that the team that has rolled out players such as Ulf Samuelsson and Matt Cooke over the years will now be run by the owner of the Red Sox (among many other ventures).

But if you want real drama - can you imagine if Fenway Sports Group managed to strike the deal on a merger with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (which owns the Leafs and Raptors), as reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman?

The jokes about Boston owning the Leafs would just write themselves.

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Could the Nordiques eventually make their return to Quebec City in the coming years? 

Quebec premier Francois Legault painted such a picture while on RDS earlier this week, noting that the Quebec government was going to hold meetings with Gary Bettman to discuss the possibility of another NHL franchise setting up shop in the province.

They already have a hockey-crazed market at the ready up in Quebec City — along with the 18,000-seat Videotron Centre (built in 2015), primed to host major events.

However, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek injected a dose of reality into this potential scenario on Saturday night. 

“People have mentioned to me, keep in mind here we're one year out of another provincial election and the campaigning may have already begun,” Marek said. Hockey is always a hot-button issue, sometimes it's a hot potato, we expect it to be very much over the next 11 months.

"But you have to check it out. So, I texted with Bill Daly this morning, the deputy commissioner of the NHL, and he said a couple of things. He said: Yes, we did talk over the phone. No, we don't have any meetings planned right now. Yes, we are always interested in meeting and talking but, quote, 'We are obviously pleased with what we have right now.' We'll see where this thing heads."

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After a discussion regarding the validity of candy corn as a tasty Halloween treat threatened to fracture the Bruins' locker room — or rather, just ostracize Nick Foligno as one of the few misguided souls that actually enjoys those inedible pieces of wax — the club opted for a less contentious query for Thanksgiving.

Does cranberry sauce belong on a Thanksgiving table?

This humble scribe is fully on board with the majority opinion presented here — which is that it absolutely belongs on a Thanksgiving table. Canned? Homemade? I’ll take either. It’s great all the same.

Just to make sure, Cassidy checked in with the media corps to see if we were all on board.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!