This second-half resurgence for the Bruins since the start of the new year (18-7-2) has been a breath of fresh air in more ways than one.
Not only have the Bruins managed to finally start gaining some traction in the standings after a stop-and-start fall and early winter, but the manner in which the Bruins have righted their ship has deviated from their usual salvage strategy over the years.
Sure, the Bruins’ offense is still anchored by the usual suspects in Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak.
But since Bruce Cassidy opted to put his conventional lineup in a blender coming out of the holidays, more and more names on Boston’s roster are starting to etch themselves in the stat sheet over a rather consistent clip.
Granted, it’s taken some time to solve the Tetris-like endeavor that was evaluating and maximizing the potential of a B’s forward corps stacked with newcomers. But with eight weeks to go in the regular season, it’s hard to argue with most of the returns that Cassidy is getting, night in and night out.
“You got the constant of Bergy, Marsh, Pasta in here. (Charlie) Coyle's had different wingers. Jake (DeBrusk) is definitely a constant, some other guys have come and gone — so you're trying to find the best fit. Taylor Hall is relatively new, right? He showed up in March. Even though he's an elite player, you got to find out where his chemistry is. Last year, it was with David Krejci. This year, it's with Pastrnak.
“(Trent Frederic) — center versus wing, (Jack) Studnicka was up at center, playing a little wing. So you're going through some of those things that take time. You're still trying to win hockey games. The Bergeron line has won us a lot of games over the years, they were leaders for us and are high-end guys. So to break them up, you wanted to be pretty sure you had someone else going or to the point where I think we were early this year — there's just too many guys that were not on their game yet that needed some different players around them. So that was kind of the thinking behind moving different people.”
At this point, it’s hard to argue with the results. For the first time in a long time, Boston’s extended stretch of strong play has featured numerous complimentary players all pulling on the same rope.
With Pastrnak bumped down to the second line, both Taylor Hall (25 points in 28 games) and Erik Haula (17 points in 26 games) have thrived with a potent sniper entrenched at right wing.
Jake DeBrusk has been on an O-zone warpath for the past week-plus of action, especially now that he’s been promoted to the top line with Marchand and Bergeron. Even Charlie Coyle’s production (10 points in 16 games) has turned a corner as of late.
And on Tuesday night, it was Boston’s fourth line that landed most of the B’s punches (both on the ice and the scorebook) against the Ducks. Nick Foligno broke through with a Gordie Howe hat trick, while his linemate in Tomas Nosek added a pair of helpers.
“Was our best line tonight,” Cassidy said Tuesday of that checking line. “Good for Nick. He's been working hard on his game, especially the last two weeks. He's stayed relatively healthy, so maybe this will give him a little juice.”
Add in Jeremy Swayman (the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for February) locking things down in net since Tuukka Rask’s retirement, and everything seems to be falling into place for this Bruins team ahead of the deadline.
Well, perhaps the apt term is most. Most things seem to be falling into place for the Bruins.
But for as much as the Bruins’ recent surge has been the byproduct of more lineup regulars settling into established roles, cultivating chemistry and putting fourth steady production on the ice — there are still a few gears that are out of sorts in a pretty well-oiled B’s machine.
Tuesday’s disheartening last-minute loss to the Ducks stands as a stark example of just how one or two wonky cogs can make a team’s entire engine come apart in short order.
Charlie McAvoy might have been in the sin bin when Trevor Zegras uncorked a game-winning tally on the power play for Anaheim with 22 seconds left in regulation, but the sequence that proved to be Boston’s undoing was committed just seconds before Boston’s top defenseman was whistled for a hook.
On a night in which Boston turned its own D-zone into a minefield for Linus Ullmark due to a bevy of ill-advised passes and self-inflicted miscues, Craig Smith paced the pack with this turnover near the blue line.
Craig Smith called game. pic.twitter.com/d1CpjKSJCD
— Mr. Tenkrat (@PeterTenkrat) March 2, 2022
Troy Terry easily picked off Smith’s feed and Anaheim swarmed in numbers against Ullmark. McAvoy gets whistled while battling down low in a frantic attempt to put out a fire … and ballgame.
It was a brutal way for Boston to let points slip through its grasp, especially during a game where the team surged back from a two-goal deficit coming out of the first intermission. And to have that back-breaking turnover come off the stick of an 11-year vet like Smith is a tough pill to swallow.
While a majority of Boston’s middle-six regulars have settled into a groove over these last few months, Smith is still desperately looking to regain his scoring touch. Granted, the shot-first winger has regularly potted his goals in bunches, but his baseline numbers at season’s end have been as consistent as they come over the years.
A 20+ goal scorer five times in his career (he also finished with 18 over 69 games in 2019-20 and 13 over 54 games the following year), Smith’s production has gone cold in his sophomore season with the Bruins — with the 32-year-old winger on pace for nine tallies over 71 games in 2021-22.
Even though the optics have been encouraging when it comes to the Frederic-Coyle-Smith line’s ability to possess the puck and make things miserable for opponents in the offensive zone, the Bruins need Smith to start burying the chances that are regularly coming his way on these productive shifts.
Granted, Smith’s D-zone miscue and scoring drought down the other end of the ice doesn’t make him the lone issue on this Bruins roster at the moment.
Be it Trent Frederic’s dreadful backcheck ahead of Adam Henrique’s first-period goal or Derek Forbort’s ugly clearing attempt seconds ahead of Rikard Rakell’s power-play tally, the Bruins had quite a few regulars in the lineup on Tuesday that likely want to burn the game tape against Anaheim.
Perhaps I’m being a bit too dour after one loss — especially in the midst of what has otherwise been a pretty encouraging stretch of play.
After all, hockey is a game of mistakes. And sure, some of the brain fog that came with Boston’s decision-making with the puck against Anaheim might just be a consequence of a team trudging through the second leg of a back-to-back slate.
Still, as promising as the returns have been for Boston as of late, the ceiling for this team is much, much higher than where it’s currently operating at. And they’re going to need to reach that ceiling if they want this success to carry over into the spring.
The likelihood of said ceiling being reached might depend on what moves are made between now and March 21. But guys like Smith getting on a roll certainly wouldn’t hurt, either.