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The month of August has always been a dreadfully silent month in terms of hockey news. Like, to the point where I question what I’m even doing when I open my laptop in search of something new. (At one point, I swear to you that I saw a tumbleweed blow across the NHL.com homepage.) That’s why I’ve decided to try something semi-new, and make August a reader-request month of sorts. If it’s about the Bruins, hockey, or the NHL, and you wanna read it-- tweet it at me (@_TyAnderson), email me (
[email protected]), send a private message, or comment it in the boards of a blog.
Today’s blog comes courtesy of Twitter user @DavidManners, who asks for a line by line breakdown of the Boston Bruins projected forward lineup. Let’s break it down line by line, day by day.
So, we’ve broken down what I think the optimal fourth and third lines should/would be for the 2015-16 Boston Bruins, so it’s only natural to move on to the second and first. (I’ll include the first because deductive reasoning would lead you to the first after reading the second, ‘ya feel me, people?)
When it comes to the second line, you know what you’ll see from both the left side and in the middle: For the fifth straight full season, you can expect winger
Brad Marchand to line up to the left of center
Patrice Bergeron. This much is known. Their chemistry together is simply untouchable for B’s coach
Claude Julien. The right side of that line, however, has seen its share of faces.
Mark Recchi was the original winger. Then
Tyler Seguin took over. And then
Reilly Smith followed in his footsteps. Recchi’s happily retired, Seguin’s in Dallas, and Smith’s in Florida. So once again, that spot has opened up. Assuming that one of
David Pastrnak or
Loui Eriksson do not make a play for that spot, the Bruins have two choices there: Dorchester, Mass. native
Jimmy Hayes or Trade Deadline pickup from a year ago,
Brett Connolly.
In five post-deadline contests with the Black and Gold, Connolly recorded two assists and put nine shots on net. He bounced around the lineup quite a bit as Julien did his best to find a spot for Connolly while also trying to keep the B’s afloat in their unsuccessful chase for postseason play, failing to find a legitimate connection with any B’s centerman. But the 23-year-old did spend a considerable amount of five-on-five time -- 28:48 to be exact -- with Krejci as his center. Together, they put a strong CF% of 59.6% on the board, though 13 of their 23 faceoffs coming in the offensive zone definitely helped.
Still, Connolly has the tools to be a successful winger on Krejci’s line, if you ask me. That comes back to what Connolly brings to the ice on a nightly basis. He has a strong shot and a wicked release, and can play with a physical edge in battles along the wall. Those were attributes that helped make guys like Nathan Horton and Jarome Iginla successful in their stints with the B’s (and to Krejci’s right).
So, if I were picking that top-line winger today, it’d be Connolly.
That would make
Matt Beleskey the go-to option on that line’s left side. And that seems… natural. I don’t think that the Bruins committed the years and money they did to Beleskey for him to be a second-line talent. Following an impressive 22-goal season with the Anaheim Ducks, it’s clear that the Black and Gold front office think that he could hang (and then some) with Krejci on Boston’s first line.
“Obviously, he had a breakout year, he had a very, very strong playoff that he followed up from a breakout year offensively, goal-production wise,” B’s general manager
Don Sweeney admitted in July. “His style of play was something that we identified that we were missing in our group; and it was just a real good opportunity to pursue a player that we coveted.”
Although he’s not as big as the player he’d replace on the B’s top line (the 6-foot-4
Milan Lucic), Beleskey describes himself as a player that likes to collect his paycheck around the front of the net, an area in which the Bruins have been open about in regards to a need for improvement.
Hayes, the Bruins’ other big summer get, was acquired for similar reasons. The Bruins like what he can bring to the front of the net with his 6-foot-6 frame, and a Beleskey-Krejci-Connolly first line would logically put him on the B’s second line with Bergeron and Marchand. That’d be an interesting fit to say the least, you’d think. Historically, the right side of that line has never been the place for a power-forward type talent. As crazy as it sounds, Recchi, who despite a 5-foot-9 frame was one of the league’s best net-front presences, is the closest thing the duo has had to a power forward. It’s almost always been a spot for young, speedy wingers with a bottle-breaking caliber shot. Hayes is not that guy.
But there’s still plenty of value when it comes to Hayes’ game.
When you look at Hayes’ production in 2014-15, almost all of his goals were scored with a putaway rebound chance between the circles to the left of the goaltender.
Vincent Trocheck and
Sean Bergenheim were two guys that really seemed able to get the puck on net and/or near Hayes’ stick for the putaway. Watching those guys (somehow) find a way to get the puck on his tape is a mere teaser to what a guy like Marchand, who will shoot the puck on net from all angles, could do.
So, to recap, that would make my ideal projected Boston lines to begin the year as follows…
Matt Beleskey - David Krejci - Brett Connolly
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Jimmy Hayes
Loui Eriksson - Ryan Spooner - David Pastrnak
Zac Rinaldo - Chris Kelly - Max Talbot
Is it a massive upgrade over last year’s roster? Truthfully, probably not. But there’s depth there.
The Bruins now boast a forward corp with three impact right-handed shots on the right side. I’d argue that they have a complete balance when it comes to the offensive capabilities of the wingers from lines one through three. There's not an elite, 30-goal presence, but it looks very similar to the total package that the club had in 2011, and even 2012. And when you look at what’s made the Bruins successful in the Julien era, it’s balance.
This offense, at first glance anyways, has it.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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