The Boston Bruins lost game 6 of the Eastern Conference semi finals to the Florida Panthers and have been eliminated from the playoffs. It was a hell of a season for the Bruins. They finished second in the division and had 109 points on the season. They beat their old foe, the Toronto Maple Leafs, in the first round, costing the Leaf’s coach his job, and put up a fight against the division winning Florida Panthers. Let’s look at where the Bs stand as their season comes to an end.
I wrote most of this before Game 7 of the Toronto series. Not because I expected them to lose, but because I wanted to be ready if they did, and because nothing has changed with this team all season and I figured nothing was going to change in the next series, or how ever far then ended up going.
Coming into this season the Bruins had flaws. They knew they had flaws and were unable to fix those flaws as the season went on. Before the season started Sweeney and Neely talked about this season like it was a bridge year. Before a game was even played this season, they talked about the cap space they would have this coming offseason and the moves they would be able to make to improve the team. And that’s exactly what this season was, a bridge year. A very good, very entertaining. bridge year. The team actually performed better than I think they expected, which is why they tried to trade Ullmark at the deadline to try and make them a better playoff team.
While not an apples to apples comparison due to goaltending’s role in hockey, this season reminded me of the Isaiah Thomas lead “Bridgie” Celtics. They had one guy who was an offensive weapon and a bunch of good but not great guys around him. And over achieved all season. The players outside of Thamas were players that didn’t suck but were basically average players. Guys who could, and would, help teams win but who couldn’t make up a winning team. Pastrnak played the role of The Little Fella and the rest of the Bruins offense were the average guys. What this team needs are better offensive players. They need to upgrade a couple of their average guys to all-star level guys.
Just look at the playoffs. The First game against the Panthers they scored 5 goals after Florida had a week off waiting for the Bruins series against the Leafs to end. After Florida shook the rust off, the Bruins scored no more than 2 goals in any of the next 5 games. Their game 5 victory was 2-1. 8 goals in 5 games is just not getting it done. In the Toronto series, where Samsonov struggled in goal until he was benched, they scored 5 goals in a game one victory. In the 3 games they lost, they score 2 goals, 1 goal, and 1 goal. In the games 3 and 4 they actually scored more than 2 goals and won them both. Game 7 was a 2-1 overtime thriller where Pastrnak came through. If you take out the 2 game 1s, The Bruins scored 21 goals in 11 games. That is why Florida will be taking on the Rangers instead of the Black and Gold. You can win a lot of regular season games just because unlike most teams, you are icing a Vezina level goalie every single night. But that doesn’t work in the playoffs when the other teams number 1 goalie is in net every night. As Monty said in the presser after game 6 “The lack of our ability to score in the playoffs. You can’t win every game 2-1, you know?”.
Speaking of the head coach, I think Montgomery did a hell of a job this season. This team just isn’t that good. I expected them to be a playoff team but to be fighting for a playoff spot, not have a 109 point season. I feel that Monty got the most out of his team and the fact that they made it to the second round of the playoffs should be celebrated. I believe Montgomery is headed into the last year of his contract. The Bruins need to extend him. For 1, I think he’s earned it, and for 2, you can’t have a lame duck coach. That hardly ever ends well.
Now back to the guys with the ice skates. It’s not all bad at all. Obviously Pastrnak is great. Marchand is still good but not the player he used to be. He is no longer a top line guy but he is still above average. I really like Morgan Geekie and think the 25-year-old could become a really good player. Trent Frederic is someone else I really like going forward. His production has gone up every year and he is one of the few guys on the Bruins who can play the physical game. Matthew Poitras showed a ton of potential before getting injured. The rest of the guys, they can all be upgraded. They don’t all have to be upgraded but any of them can be. (I will get to DeBrusk in a bit).
As the front office pointed out, the Bruins will have a lot of cap space this off season. However, what they don’t point out is that they only have 10 forwards and 1 goaltender under contract for next year. And Fabian Lysell counts as one of those ten forwards. Obviously Swayman needs to be signed to a long-term contract. Last season Swayman made 4 mil. After that performance in the playoffs where he was pretty damn dominate and easily the Bruins best player, he is going to make at least twice that. Carey Price is the highest paid goalie right now at 10.5 mil. Bobrovski makes 10 mil, Vasilevshiy makes 9.5, Hellybuck makes 8.5 and Sorokin, who has also been great in the playoffs, is making 8 mil. My guess is Swayman comes in some where in the middle of that. All of those guys, except for Hellybuck, got 8 years. My guess for Swayman is 8 years, 9 per. That would be a great deal for the Bruins. So let’s say that’s where Swayman comes in. That leaves the Bruins with about 11 mil in cap space. Not nearly as impressive as the 20 they are bragging about.
1 million of that cap space, I feel, should go to Pat Maroon. I think Maroon plays a role that is vastly needed on this team. And seeing him play on a regular basis I feel he is more than just a goon. He is very good at using his big body to win puck battles and protect the puck when it’s on his stick. He also seems to be a pretty good passer. In his exit interview he said he would like to come back (pretty much everyone says that) and that he felt the Bruins didn’t get the best version of him as he was coming off of surgery for a back injury. He also said he would like to be a mentor to the younger players. I think Maroon fits in very well with this roster and should be re-signed. I figure he made 1 mil last season so it probably won’t take much more to keep him in the black and gold.
So there is 10 million of the 20 the Bruins started with. If they are going to upgrade the roster they are going to have to make some trades. Some of those trade will have to be salary dumps. Salary dumps are a perfectly good move in a salary cap league. Salary cap space is a commodity and trading guys for it is a smart move. You have to think about it as trading the guy for whoever you sign with the cap space, not the preverbal bag of pucks you actually got for them.
The first thing the Bruins have to do is trade Linus Ullmark. Don’t get me wrong, I like Ullmark and if he was the Bruins number 1 goalie, I would be OK with it. But he is not the Bruins best goalie, Swayman proved he is. And he is younger than Ullmark. Paying Ullmark 5 million dollars to open the bench door every game in the post season is a bit of an over pay. Sure, Ullmark still has his partial no trade clause but you would think the Bruins will make it clear to him that there is no more goalie rotation and Swayman is the number one goaltender and he is the back up. Hopefully this will inspire Ullmark to being open to a trade to a team that will want him to be the number one goalie. It just makes sense for everyone.
Speaking of making sense for everyone, my dream trade for Ullmark is to Toronto for Mitch Marner. Toronto is top heavy with wings and needs goaltending. Hell, Samsonov is even a free agent. Trading Marner for Ullmark would not only give them a Vezina trophy winner to tend their net but also would free up 5.9 million in cap space they can use to upgrade the rest of their roster. In Marner the Bruins get a guy who even only playing in 69 games this season would still have been second on the Bruins in assists and points and third in goals. A year ago, he scored 30 and the year before that, 35. He was a plus 21 this year and last year was 3rd in Selke voting. He is just the type of guy they need. He is 27 years old, the same age as Pastrnak, and coming into his prime. Of course, he is only under contract for one more season but the Bruins don’t really have anyone else to pay so resigning him would be a no brainer. On the other hand, Toronto has a lot of forwards to pay so not having to extend Marner after this season is even more reason to trade him. Like Pastrnak, he is a right winger so they wouldn’t skate together but that’s fine as you want a second scoring line to go with Pastrnak. They can always skate on the PP together. I wanted the Bruins to make this trade before this season. It makes just as much, if not more sense now.
The second thing they have to do is choose between Coyle and Zacha. This is the perfect example of what I mean by their players all being the same. That’s what these two guys are. They are not bad players but you do not need both of them. One of these center spots needs to be upgraded. I really don’t care which one they keep. Coyle might be the slightly better player but he is 5 years older and costs a little more and Zacha is locked up for and extra year. I would probably go with Zacha but again, it doesn’t really matter. They just need to dump one of them. Trade them for a draft pick or some mid-level prospect or maybe they can put them in the Marner trade to even up the money. Either way one of them has to go so they can use their money to get back to near 10 mil in cap space. (Marner makes 5 mil more than Ullmark makes). That way they can sign their upgrade or trade some prospects and/or draft picks for him. Even if Marner isn’t the trade for Ullmark, they have to upgrade one of these guys. Trading for an upgrade at wing and sign an upgrade at center, or vise versa. They have to move Ullmark and either Coyle or Zacha to get this done.
Who should they upgrade their center spot with? I don’t know. I have no idea who could be available in trade and at this point we do not know who will actually make it to free agency. The obvious guy to suggest, if he does become a free agent, is Elias Lindholm seeing as the Bruins keep trying to trade for him. Lindholm did not have a good season this year but is redeeming himself in the playoffs. So I have no idea if Vancouver is looking to re-sign him or not. From what I have heard, money wise, it might not work for the Canucks. If he does hit the market the 29-year-old, who is good on the dot and came in second in Selke voting 2 years ago, seems like he would be a good fit. He had his best years skating between Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau. That’s a bad sign as I could have a great season skating between those two and I can’t ice skate. Then again, putting him next to Pastrnak might be what he needs to get back to that production. Lindholm should make about 8 mil per season in free agency. That will pretty much eat up the rest of the Bruins salary cap space.
This brings us to DeBrusk. I have always liked DeBrusk. He is a good winger and usually performs well in the playoffs. Because of this, he is probably going to price himself off of the Bruins. Especially if the front office is serious about upgrading the roster and not just bringing back the same team again. Ty Anderson believes it will take about 6 mil a year to keep DeBrusk and that seems right to me. With my dream of trading for Marner, that really doesn’t work. Well, it doesn’t work unless they can find a way to trade Hampus Lindholm. Lidholm, whom the Bruins have locked up for 6 more years, is a good defenseman but has one fatal flaw. He sucks in the playoffs. It’s been three years now. As they say, Fool me once… I like Lidholm and the first half of last season he looked to be the Norris trophy winner. He’s a good player. But for what ever reason, he just disappears in the playoffs. If you are trying to win the Cup, you can not have players like that, and you definitely can’t pay them 6.5 mill a year. I would see if I can find any takers for the D-man and use that money to bring DeBrusk back into the fold. The Bruins can afford to lose Lidholm because they will still have McAvoy and Carlo and I thought Peeke played well for them. Wotherspoon is solid and cheap and, the most important thing that happened for the Bruins in the playoffs, Mason Lohrei broke out. It won’t be the greatest D core of all time but with Swayman behind them, it should be good enough. I would actually love for them to upgrade a guy on the back end but you just can’t do everything in one off season with a salary cap and the offensive upgrades are much more important. They will have to fill their 6th D with a cheap guy in free agency or a rookie. And obviously it is something they can look to upgrade at the deadline if need be.
If the Bruins were to make these moves they would be a much improved team from last season and much more built for the playoffs. Here is what they would look like…
DeBrusk Lindholm Pastrnak
Marchand Geekie Marner
Zacha Poitras Frederic
Maroon Boqvist Lauko (or one of their young guys like Lysell or Merkulov)
Lohrei McAvoy
Peeke Carlo
Wotherspoon ??
Swayman
Bussi
Obviously they can mix and match the line combos to find the best chemistry but that’s a starting point. I think this team would be a major upgrade from the one they iced this season.
Now, will this be their team next year? I’d be shocked. I do think there is a good chance they sign Lindholm. Aside from that I expect them to bring back the same team as they had this season. They probably won’t even trade Ullmark. I hate to get upset about something a team hasn’t done yet, but I have no reason to expect the best from this front office.
Furball's Sports Page 