Donnelly: Do the Bruins have enough in their top-six?

It's easy to forget all the question marks that swirled around the Bruins at this time last year.

Expectations were low, and the team was pegged to compete for a wild card spot. Sound familiar?

Obviously, the odds that the Bruins go on another record-smashing run of 65 wins are even longer than they were entering the 2022-23 season. 

With a mass exodus, especially from the forward group, that saw the likes of top-six talents Tyler Bertuzzi and Taylor Hall find new digs via free agency and trade, in addition to Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci's retirements, Boston has holes to fill in the top-six. And after what hopefully should be the final season of the flat-cap world forced the B's into free-agent bargain hunting to fill in the cracks and crevices on the wings and in the depths of the roster. Barring any 11th-hour trades or injuries, it'll be up to internal options like Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha to step into pivotal minutes as top-six centers.

"In my mind, this is our team," Jim Montgomery told the Boston Herald's Steve Conroy. "Ever since Krech made it official, we'd been thinking that this would be our team. Honestly, we were preparing this way since mid-June."

Even with a by-committee approach in the wake of a severe depletion in firepower, it's safe to say the Bruins have their work cut out for them entering training camp, but Montgomery, ever the optimist, is confident they'll be up for the task.

“After our regular season, I think a lot of people forgot all the question marks on our team before last year. I think it’s very similar to this year, that we’re a bubble team, and that’s what people were saying about us last year,” Montgomery said. “What I like is we have tremendous opportunity. I know we have great players, I know we have really good leaders."

Entering his second season at the helm of the Black and Gold, the skipper, per Conroy, appears to be starting camp with the approach we laid out in our Opening Night lineup projection earlier this month, sporting a top-six group of:

Brad Marchand -- Charlie Coyle -- Jake DeBrusk
James van Reimsdyk -- Pavel Zacha -- David Pastrnak

Arrange them in any order you'd like for the "first" and "second" line, but in theory, it's a pair of trios that should offer balance and a decent floor to the top two lines. 

Three of the four wingers are likely to provide plenty of stability to their new pivots. 

Pastrnak needs no introduction on the heels of a 61-goal campaign. As he begins the first season of his $90 million mega-deal, penciling him in for at the very least 40 goals seems like a fair bet. That type of output will only help boost his linemates as well. 

Meanwhile, even if Marchand's recovery from double hip surgery hampered his 2022-23 output, the potential soon-to-be captain still managed to put up 21 goals and 67 points in 73 games. A return to a normal offseason routine this year should help bring him back up to speed. Opposite him is DeBrusk, who's turned himself into a reliable scorer and dependable player in all situations. No. 74 would have hit at least 30 goals if not for his injuries last season, and entering a contract year, he's sure to be motivated to see the 30 mark come to fruition. 

Without Bergeron, DeBrusk and Marchand logged 89:58 of 5-on-5 time together last season, according to Natural Stat Trick. In that span, the Bruins had a 54.66 percent share of shot attempts and a 58.82 percent edge in scoring chances. 

We've already gotten an encouraging glimpse into what Zacha can provide as a top-six center, whether it was down the stretch in the regular season or in the playoffs, especially when paired with his countryman, Pastrnak. In 606:27 of 5-on-5 time together in the regular season, the Bruins outscored opponents 45-24 with Zacha and Pastrnak on the ice, even as the dynamic of their lines, either with Bertuzzi or Krejci, lent itself to trading chances throughout their shifts. 

Specifically when Zacha and Pastrnak were without either Krejci or Bertuzzu for 87:22 together at 5-on-5, the Bruins had advantages in attempts (53.66 percent), shots (56.96) and scoring chances (53.54). 

The B's have been bullish on Zacha as a viable option as a top-six center, even going back to last season when the Czech pivot enjoyed a career year. Boston is compensating him as such, too, as he enters the first year of a deal that will pay him $4.75 million annually over the next four seasons. 

"We're very confident with Zacha in the middle," Montgomery said after Game 1 of the playoffs, when No. 18 moonlighted strongly as the 1C. "We know in the future, he's going to be an excellent top-two center for us, and he showed that tonight."

While Zacha is a bit of a question mark of his own, the true queries lie with Coyle and van Riemsdyk. 

The latter will be an interesting case to see if he can bounce back from a poor season with the lowly Flyers in 2022-23. 

But even if his production both at even strength and the power play slipped, JVR still managed to have passable numbers with a bottoming-out Philadelphia team. The Flyers outscored teams 34-31 with JVR on at 5-on-5, in addition to holding advantages in shot attempts, shots, expected goals and scoring chances. Their most significant edge came with high-danger chances (178-136; 56.69 percent) and high-danger goals (18-11; 62.07). 

It remains to be seen if the dips in his output were mainly a result of the situation around him or his game taking a step back at the age of 34. Both are possibilities for the veteran power forward, even if there's a previously strong track record to look back on. 

As for Coyle, he provided potential previews of a line with Marchand and DeBrusk last season, albeit in very limited samples.

In 42:16 together at 5-on-5 in the regular season, shot attempts were 49-34 (59.04 percent) for Boston, shots were 22-17 (56.41), scoring chances were 26-14 (65) and high-danger chances were 9-6 (60) for the Bruins. In the playoffs, the returns were passable, even more so in Game 3. A Marchand-Coyle-DeBrusk trio would make for a smooth transition in handling two-way assignments in the same manner the Bergeron line did. 

However, in previous years, Coyle and DeBrusk haven't exactly meshed well together. In 678:04 of 5-on-5 time together from 2019 to 2022, the Bruins have been outscored 22-28 while trailing in shot attempts, shots, expected goals, scoring chances and high-danger chances. They're hoping Marchand and DeBrusk's connection, as well as the positive samples from last season, will shine through. 

But Coyle has always been best served as a high-end third-line center with Black and Gold. No 13 has topped 45 points just once in a season and has never eclipsed 20 goals. While he doesn't have to be 60, 70 or 80-point guy like other top-flight centers, the Bruins might not be able to afford him petering out for stretches as he's had a tendency to do, especially in terms of production. In his previous top-six audition, he lost the job to Erik Haula. 

Nevertheless, Montgomery feels both Coyle and Zacha are ready for their auditions. 

"I think [Zacha's ceiling] is significantly higher," Montgomery told Conroy. "Not only is he physically prepared, but more importantly, I believe he's ready for this mentally, for the kind of minutes, the responsibility of having to be played in all situations – which he did really well last year – but they're going to be more important minutes. But I just think he's mentally ready. He believes he can do it. That's the biggest step for a player.

"I have a lot of confidence that our top two lines will be very good because I believe Charlie Coyle knows he can do the job and will do the job, and Pavel Zacha does, too."