NHL Notebook: Saturday’s comeback win offered a glimpse of what Bruins are hoping to build with their latest lineup reshuffle

The calendar might have flipped to a new slate early Saturday morning, but the product out on the TD Garden ice for most of that afternoon's matinee matchup against the Sabres sure looked awfully familiar to many Bruins fans. 

Despite the extended time off, a significant roster re-shuffle and six days of practice reps afforded to them at Warrior Ice Arena — the 2022 rendition of Bruce Cassidy’s club sure seemed to be following the same, tired script that had this crew on the outside looking in at the playoff picture going into the holiday break.

If you’ve been following along here at BSJ for some time now, you know I’ve played the greatest hits already this year when it comes to chronicling the flaws of this team.

A top-heavy offensive output.
Next to no secondary scoring.
A propensity to pepper the opposing netminder with low-danger shots. 

Based on what played out through the first 40 minutes of Saturday’s contest, it looked as though I was going to have to spin those worn records once more on the airwaves — with Boston trailing, 3-1, to a rebuilding Sabres team playing their third game in four days. 

But for the first time in a long time, the B’s finally began singing a different tune during the third period. And the results, unsurprisingly, finally began to pour in.

For as much as we’ve seen the Bruins beat down on lesser squads like the Sabres countless times before — it’s not too often that we’ve seen Cassidy’s team execute and orchestrate a third-period rally in the fashion it did on Saturday.

The Bruins are still longing for a full 60-minute effort — and a majority of Saturday’s eventual 4-3 overtime victory was still a chore to trudge through for a B's team that still has plenty of work to do.

But after coming up short time and time again in the last few months due to a disjointed and ineffective forward corps — Saturday stood as a major step in the right direction for a roster that desperately needed a shake-up. 

The results sure speak for themselves.

Yes, even with David Pastrnak yanked off the first line in favor of Craig Smith, the Bruins’ top forward trio was still a two-way force against Buffalo — with Smith burying his third goal of the season and Boston holding a 10-2 advantage in shots on goal during the 12:22 of 5v5 ice time that the 63-37-12 line logged.

No surprise there.

What was a surprise were the contributions found further down on the depth chart. 

A second line anchored by Erik Haula was far from a guaranteed recipe for success. But placing a pivot with pace between Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak seemed to be exactly what both wingers needed to settle into more of a groove in the O-zone — with the former burying his first 5v5 tally since Oct. 20 in the third period. 

“The Hall goal is a good job by Erik Haula driving the net, starts with some good D zone, the structure was good, they win a puck back, the D gets it forward,” Cassidy said. “We have a good attack, support and again, structure. So Taylor’s got to execute the shot.”

And even though Charlie Coyle — arguably Boston’s most consistent and effective forward outside of the 63-37-88 triumvirate — appeared to draw the short end of the stick by getting sandwiched between two underachieving offensive contributors in Jake DeBrusk and Nick Foligno, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that a largely rudderless bottom-six unit put together its most impactful showing in months with a proper 3C in place.

Coyle might have been the OT hero with a snipe from the slot just 34 seconds into the extra frame, but it was both DeBrusk and Foligno that helped put Boston in a position to extend the game beyond regulation — with Foligno picking a perfect time to finally get in the goal-scoring column.

Put it all together, and you’ve got a B’s lineup that, at long last, finally seems to have the proper pieces in place to consistently generate some balanced scoring. 

“When you get results, obviously you feel you’ve made the right decision, and when you don’t then you’re always gonna sort of look back at it,” Cassidy said. “And that’s usually the short term, and then you typically — we’ll get on a plane now, head to Detroit, I’ll watch the game again and see who was generating, how the communication was — the support.”

The baseline production obviously stands at the forefront when it comes to assessing some of the offensive breakthroughs found in Boston’s middle-six personnel — but the underlying metrics are also awfully encouraging following Saturday's win. 

Along with Hall’s 5v5 tally, the Bruins held a 7-3 edge in shots on goal during that revamped second line’s 9:40 of 5v5 ice time. That top-six trio generating some tangible returns with Haula serving as the man in the middle is a very welcome (and slightly unexpected) development. 

But getting the third line going by slotting Coyle further down at 3C is also an essential step when it comes to achieving a more effective offensive output — a scenario that only really becomes tenable if Haula and Co. are pulling on the same rope further up in the pecking order. 

During DeBrusk-Coyle-Foligno’s 7:15 of 5v5 ice time together, the Bruins also held a 6-3 advantage in scoring chances, with a strong showing from DeBrusk, in particular, paying dividends — especially on the netfront drive that generated Foligno’s third-period strike. 

It’s a bit odd to sing DeBrusk’s praises in a column focused on the Bruins’ season-long vision for this forward corps — considering that the B’s are actively fielding offers for the winger in order to satisfy his trade request. 

That being said, Cassidy pointed out the chemistry that Coyle and DeBrusk have cultivated together over limited reps as a key factor in the decision to slot Coyle down to the third line.

And even though DeBrusk may not exactly factor into Boston’s extended plans, getting him rolling can only lead to good things for all parties involved — giving Boston some much-needed production outside of the top-six for now and elevating DeBrusk’s value on the trade market (leading to a much more appealing return). 

“That's the Jake DeBrusk that I've seen before from afar,” Foligno said postgame. “And that's what he needs to bring. I told him that after we scored. I said that whole goal is set up because of you. He moves his feet, flies down the wing. There's not a lot of guys in the league ... that have that kind of ability that he has, and he's shown it. 

“And he has to understand how consistent that has to be and how beneficial it is to our team, first and foremost. But to him, if you start doing that more, you're going to get more confidence from the coaching staff, from your teammates and yourself in general. So I think his whole game can come to life if he just understands that that is such a big component of his game.”

But beyond Cassidy’s tinkering and the gambles that seemed to pay off when it came to Haula and Coyle’s new assignments — Saturday’s O-zone production doesn’t fall solely on the reworked personnel sprinkled across the lineup.

Did adding a guy with Haula’s playstyle to a rush-first duo of Hall/Pastrnak help? Sure looks like it. 

Does bumping a more-than-capable pivot in Coyle down to the bottom-six stand as a pretty easy way to draw more O-zone production out of a largely middling group? Absolutely. 

But for Cassidy, the most encouraging aspect of Saturday’s victory was Boston’s mindset in the third period when it came to generating Grade-A chances. 

Yes, the Bruins have heaps of high-end talent at their disposal. But Boston’s offensive breakthrough wasn’t the byproduct of some dangle-fests or highlight-reel tallies. 

Smith buried a second-chance effort in the slot while falling forward. 

Foligno corralled a loose puck at Buffalo’s doorstep and flicked it into twine via a backhand attempt. 

And Hall — whose offensive totals have been stunted by his pass-happy priorities and propensity to fire in shots from low-danger ice — waited until he was in the low slot before finally snapping the puck past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

There’s a lot to like about this newfound configuration on Boston’s forward lines, no doubt. But those chances don’t amount to a whole lot on the scoreboard if the B’s aren’t bringing the puck into Grade-A ice and juicing their odds of converting on these looks. 

"I think our willingness to get there as the game went along — first period, not quite as much. Then as we got going — obviously had a couple of looks too, where, if we had a little more composure, executed a shot on goal — we could have had a couple more goals,” Cassidy said. “I think Lazar and Cliffy in the second period there had some good looks. So yes, we were inside much more — which is a good thing. I think you need to, to score. We stuck with it. We didn't get away from it. We didn't cheat all over the ice.”

Of course, it’s one thing to relish the results when a new strategy or lineup shuffle appears to pay off. But in a game as fickle and unpredictable as hockey, it’s another endeavor entirely when it comes to replicating that success night in and night out.

There’s next to no guarantee that Haula can really entrench himself as a legit 2C on this team and get the most out of weapons like Hall and Pastrnak. There’s no guarantee that DeBrusk can string together more hard-nosed performances like the one he mustered on Saturday.

But Cassidy and the Bruins won’t know for sure until they give this reworked crew an extended look.

And given the production put forth on Saturday afternoon, it sure seems like this grouping deserves a bit of longer leash to see just what they’ve got.

At the very least, it’s a hell of a lot more entertaining than most of what we’ve seen in 2021. 

Could NHL pivot to Summer Olympics?

Even if this ongoing COVID surge didn't scuttle plans for NHL players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, it was pretty much a given that the NHL and its owners would be stewing at the sight of hockey’s top stars heading overseas.

Olympic participation was a concession that the league made when negotiating a CBA extension with the NHLPA back in 2020 — but guaranteeing labor peace for a few more years doesn’t mean that the folks signing the checks weren't going to pout over the headaches involved with accommodating the Winter Games.

Whether it be not getting a slice of the pie financially when NHLers head to the Olympic games, the inconvenience of halting an 82-game season for three weeks in the middle of February or the risks of a star talent getting injured in an international tournament — the league likely wouldn’t be shedding any tears if the Olympics participation was canned for good.

But rather than drag their feet once again when the same issues arrive at the league’s doorstep in 2026 (without the COVID concerns, hopefully), why not think outside the box and instead let NHLers participate in the Summer Olympics instead?

Even though the sight of guys like Brad Marchand and Auston Matthews duking it out in the same international showcase that features beach volleyball and synchronized diving might seem a bit jarring — it might be the best avenue to satisfy the demands of a ticked-off pool of players while also minimizing the challenges as far as scheduling is concerned.

By taking part in the Summer Games, the NHL could avoid having to pause its season in the middle of the winter — with the players that want to take part in the tournament set to battle for gold medal glory in July-August before going right into NHL training camp in September.  

It sure seems like the easiest route when it comes to pleasing all parties — rather than seeing the NHL and the players engage in another game of chicken once the 2026 Winter Games in Milano Cortina loom on the horizon. 

Count Bruce Cassidy — who was set to serve as a coach on Team Canada’s 2022 staff — as a fan of such a scheduling reshuffle.

"I think for something like the Olympics, and every four years — guys would certainly give up a couple months or a month of their summer to train,” Cassidy said. “They're training anyway, but it's at their own sort of discretion. But to go to the Olympics, I do. I think people will watch hockey no matter what, no matter when it's played. So I think it's certainly something that could be put on the table and have a good discussion about it. 

“Where especially, I would think ownership, they don't lose any of their dates in season — you don't have to stop the schedule. There's a lot of pluses with just rolling right into your year in the National Hockey League. So I imagine that, if it hasn't been tabled already,  It should be and then go from there. But again, the players would have to be willing to do that.” 

Marchand to the Czech Republic?

As we covered multiple times this week, Brad Marchand — like many other NHLers — has not been a happy camper when it comes to the NHL’s ruling on the Olympics. And, unlike most NHLers, Marchand has not been timid when it comes to voicing his displeasure with the league out in the open — be it through the media or his own Twitter account. 

And in wake of Marchand’s salvo against the NHL, one team over in Europe managed to have a little fun at the B’s expense. 

In a team release, HC Olomouc of the Czech Extraliga announced its willingness to negotiate a contract with Marchand in order to help him accomplish his Olympic goals. The tongue-in-cheek press statement took note of some of the hurdles standing in the way of Marchand’s potential arrival in Europe — namely, Boston terminating his current bargain of a contract.

Of course, if HC Olomouc sounds familiar … it’s the Czech team that David Krejci is currently playing for — with the veteran pivot now up to 32 points in 33 games with his new club. 

The release noted that if Marchand was to arrive in Olomouc, he would “probably” skate on the first line with winger Jan Kana and Krejci, of course.

“He played a lot with the latter — he worked with him on the Boston Bruins for twelve long seasons,” the release stated.

Good to see Krejci and Co. are having fun overseas.