Boston Bruins Raise Eyebrows with Status Quo Approach

Much to the dismay of many fans, the Bruins decided to go status quo and keep longtime coach Claude Julien and their “core” of veteran players to make another run next season despite missing the playoffs for two straight years.

Those thirsting for a more exciting approach with better talent and dynamism that adapts at a faster rate to NHL trends favoring offense may have to wait.

Rather than making a coaching change or undertaking a major roster overhaul, GM Don Sweeney hopes the team’s young and newer players will grow into bigger roles next year. He will also attempt moderate moves to strengthen the roster via the draft, trade or free agency. “I believe we need to continue to forge depth in this organization,” he said at the Bruins April 14 press conference. “You understand the criticism is coming. The only real way to alleviate that is to get back on top.”

Sweeney said Julien will “absolutely” return as coach for a 10^th year and “emphatically” believes he can lead the team back from what has been a “bumpy transition period.” He said Julien’s defensive structure and what he sees in players aligns well with his own vision of the team.

“We have a very, very bright future with a number of young players that we have and recently added”  - Bruins GM Don Sweeney

Julien said he looks forward to working to help turn the team around. He said consistency was one of the B’s biggest issues, as they dominated some games but collapsed badly in others –particularly on several national stages like the outdoor Winter Classic and in the final game of the year when a win would have secured a playoff spot.

Boston had a good sustained stretch in the middle of the year and finished with 42 wins, but slipped when it counted most - losing nine of their last 12 while too often seeming overwhelmed by more aggressive and talented teams.

Julien said Boston “needed to implement some young players” to move forward as an organization this year, but felt they were still good enough to make the playoffs with deadline trade acquisitions Lee Stempniak and John-Michael Liles also helping in the final push. “Do I understand what the fans feel? Absolutely, we felt the same way,” he said of the disappointment in missing the playoffs.

Sweeney acknowledged the margin for error for teams not in the upper echelon of the league is very small. “Down the stretch we played better defensively overall, but at times we struggled to score,” he said. “The depth of our lineup at times didn’t necessarily bear forth down the stretch. That might be players being put in situations for the first time and they have to learn from and grow from. Defensively we didn’t stop the momentum against us at times as effectively as we need to going forward. Our group wasn’t as galvanized defensively. We didn’t transition the puck as well as we’d like out of our own end and other times our forward group was not shot blocking. It’s a team-wide concept.”

Julien said several young B’s completed their first full NHL seasons and will benefit from the growing pains. “That experience they got this year is going to be valuable going forward. There’s a reason for our team to grow here with those guys having the experience and knowing how to handle those situations better next year,” he said.

A Team Still in Transition, and the 'Auston Matthews Test'

Sweeney said he still considers the team to be in transition and wants to see the younger players emulate the same “internal drive” as the core veterans to help push the team to the next level. He doesn’t regret trading four draft picks at the deadline for two likely rental players or holding onto Loui Ericksson instead of maximizing his trade value. “I still believe we had a strong enough group to get in and challenge there and then you just see what happens,” he said. “But we fell short of that. I take ownership of it. It’s on me. It’s not on anybody else to continue to improve our roster.”

The Bruins also announced that assistant coach Doug Houda won’t return and with the exception of Bob Essensa, all other coaches’ contracts are up and will be evaluated. Providence Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy would be a great candidate for promotion since he has developed several young Bruins, knows the other players on the way and the Bruins’ two-way system well while also bringing an appreciation for offense and NHL trends in that direction.

The Bruins have 14 unrestricted and restricted free agents from the season-ending roster alone with nearly $26 million in cap space, so will need to make some decisions on players. Sweeney said they will have to continue to integrate young players into the lineup and carefully manage what will likely be a flat cap over the next few years with key players like Brad Marchand needing to be resigned after next year and RFA Torey Krug requiring a new contract for the upcoming season. Sweeney said he’d also like to get something done with Kevan Miller and acknowledged that he and Julien would possibly like to do the same with Chris Kelly. He said Kelly’s locker room presence was missed but his recovery from a leg injury and ability to contribute will be carefully evaluated.

But there is a risk in Sweeney keeping the familiar. A fresh perspective may have done the team well after nine years with the same coach, and he may be overevaluating “the core” a bit.

Going down the same old road with players like Kelly, who will be 36 in November and has only 21 goals over the last four seasons, has a familiar ring to it. Sweeney’s mentor and former boss Peter Chiarelli fell in love with his beloved core of veterans often at the expense of superior young talents and also missed out heavily in the draft, and eventually paid the price. Unfortunately it’s not 2011 anymore and if things deteriorate further next year, it’s Sweeney that will be the one to go this time.

Further, while Patrice Bergeron (32 goals) and Marchand (37 goals) were among the few reliable players all year, David Krejci (63 points) missed 10 games again to injury although Ryan Spooner filled in nicely during that stretch. Krejci will also have offseason surgery on his hip (he had a procedure on his other hip a few years ago).  Zdeno Chara, 39, and Dennis Seidenberg, who turns 35 in the offseason, are slowing down and struggle at times along with Miller and Adam McQuaid and some of the defense prospects with turnovers and getting the puck out consistently. Ericksson had his best season in years (30 goals) in a contract year, but will likely depart in free agency. He and Bergeron both turn 31, while Krejci and McQuaid turn 30 this year. Krug (shoulder) and Matt Beleskey (hand) may also have off-season surgeries.

The core’s age puts a lot of onus on young players to ease some of their load. A game-breaking forward with elite level talent and one or two steady young defensemen that can both cover well and get the puck out of the zone efficiently and quickly are among the B’s major remaining holes.

In addition, there is still a trust factor between Sweeney and fans. Ditching Dougie Hamilton in the offseason, missing on top prospects in last June’s draft, resigning number five defenseman Adam McQuaid to a pricey contract, and blowing the Jimmy Hayes and Zac Rinaldo trades raised eyebrows although he fared okay with the Milan Lucic trade and Beleskey signing. 

You could call it the ‘Auston Matthews test’, that is if Boston somehow lucked out and won the top lottery pick in the next draft would they then actually make the no-brainer selection of Matthews as the ultra-talented consensus top-rated future star of the class or instead turn everyone’s heads and miss out by going with a much lower ranked player for say 'positional' need, 'grit' or 'Bruin' traits? This is the concern with Sweeney and current management. Until more trust is earned you just don’t know what you’re going to get. 

The saving grace is the Bruins barely missed the playoffs and have several fast young, skilled players in Spooner, David Pastrnak and Colin Miller, as well as Frank Vatrano, Austin Czarnik, Danton Heinen, Zach Senyshyn, Brandon Carlo, Jeremy Lauzon and Matt Grzelcyk in the system. “We have a very, very bright future with a number of young players that we have and recently added,” Sweeney said. “It’s rightfully so to be excited about that but it’s also imperative to be patient to allow them to be the types of players that hit their ceilings. You need a plan to allow players to develop when they are supposed to rather than force them. [Pastrnak] is a great example of a young player that we’re going to have a tremendous amount of patience with and Claude has that patience with. He’s a very exciting player and a big part of our organization going forward and we need to make sure that we are developing in the right manner.”