Bruins
Pace up entrance and heft on the blue line has been an indicator of many Cup winners within the final decade.
COMMENTARY
It’s a testomony to each the parity and the unpredictability of hockey that the Presidents’ Trophy — doled out yearly to the group with probably the most regular-season factors — is commonly thought to be a curse, not a blessing.
First-round upsets and implosions by juggernaut rosters are commonplace within the Stanley Cup Playoffs, as Bruins followers can, sadly, attest to this spring.
However even with numerous Cup runs routinely derailed off an unlucky bounce of the puck or a split-second gaffe, the arbitrary nature of hockey hasn’t halted GMs from adhering to a copycat mindset on the subject of roster constructing.
Whereas few groups may boast a Cale Makar on the blue line or an Andrei Vasilevskiy between the pipes, there are a variety of roster-construction developments which have sprouted up over the previous few championship golf equipment within the NHL ranks.
The 2022-23 Bruins do have some similarities with the newly topped Golden Knights.
Each featured loads of depth each up entrance and on the again finish — a necessity throughout the struggle of attrition that’s playoff hockey.
Each have loads of familiarity with Bruce Cassidy as their bench boss.
However trying past the teaching workers, what different classes can the Bruins glean from Vegas’ run to a championship?
Heft on the blue line
The keys to success throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs are inclined to shift over time.
But when there’s been one overarching theme that loads of Cup contenders have adhered to, it’s plenty of heft on the blue line.
Let’s check out the final couple of Stanley Cup champions and see in case you can discover a selected development so far as their beginning D corps for a majority of the playoffs.
2022-23 Vegas Golden Knights
Alex Pietrangelo: 6-foot-3, 215 kilos
Shea Theodore: 6-foot-2, 197 kilos
Alec Martinez: 6-foot-1, 210 kilos
Brayden McNabb: 6-foot-4, 215 kilos
Nicolas Hague: 6-foot-6, 230 kilos
Zach Whitecloud: 6-foot-2, 207 kilos
2021-22 Colorado Avalanche
Devon Toews – 6-foot-1, 191 kilos
Cale Makar – 5-foot-11, 187 kilos
Bowen Byram – 6-foot-1, 190 kilos
Josh Manson – 6-foot-3, 218 kilos
Erik Johnson – 6-foot-4, 225 kilos
Jack Johnson – 6-foot-1, 227 kilos
2020-21 Tampa Bay Lightning
Victor Hedman: 6-foot-7, 244 kilos
Ryan McDonagh: 6-foot-1, 215 kilos
Mikhail Sergachev: 6-foot-3, 215 kilos
Erik Cernak: 6-foot-4, 224 kilos
Jan Rutta: 6-foot-3, 204 kilos
David Savard: 6-foot-1, 235 kilos
2019-20 Tampa Bay Lightning
Victor Hedman: 6-foot-7, 244 kilos
Ryan McDonagh: 6-foot-1, 215 kilos
Mikhail Sergachev: 6-foot-3, 215 kilos
Erik Cernak: 6-foot-4, 224 kilos
Kevin Shattenkirk – 6-foot-0, 206 kilos
Zach Bogosian – 6-foot-3, 221 kilos
2018-19 St. Louis Blues
Alex Pietrangelo – 6-foot-3, 215 kilos
Colton Parayko – 6-foot-6, 230 kilos
Jay Bouwmeester – 6-foot-4, 206 kilos
Carl Gunnarsson – 6-foot-2, 198 kilos
Joel Edmundson – 6-foot-4, 215 kilos
Vince Dunn – 6-foot-0, 203 kilos
Discover any similarities right here?
The Golden Knights trudged their manner by means of the 2023 playoff bracket because of a suffocating defensive system, together with a stout D corps that made life depressing for opponents in Grade-A ice.
Groups may rely closely on a red-hot goalie to hold them by means of important junctures, however the activity turns into a lot simpler if you’ve acquired a pair of huge our bodies in entrance of you who’re greater than able to blocking pictures and conserving skaters to the skin.
In the course of the Stanley Cup Remaining, the Golden Knights blocked 123 pictures from Florida over the five-game collection. Of that complete, 71 of these blocks got here courtesy of a defenseman.
A few of Boston’s finest playoff runs over the previous decade have normally come to a grinding halt (2019 Blues, 2020 Lightning) attributable to an opposing protection that may dole out loads of punishment and defend inside ice on nearly each shift.
The 2023 Golden Knights are simply the most recent squad to execute with the same roster build-out.
Offensive technology from the blue line
After all, some extra context must be added on the subject of how Cup-clinching golf equipment are retooling their D corps.
If Boston desires an overhaul, that doesn’t imply that it has to exit and simply add large bruisers like Luke Schenn and Radko Gudas after which name it a day.
Sure, Vegas and the entire groups talked about above are linked when it comes to their imposing stature on protection.
However crisp transition play from the again finish and a bevy of pictures from the blue line are sometimes foundational items of championship rosters as nicely.
The Golden Knights’ protection could be hefty, however they have been additionally expert down the opposite finish of the ice. The Bruins have been usually reduce from the identical material when it got here to puck play and offensive expertise, till their breakout fully unraveled towards Florida’s forechecking strain.
The 2022 Avs have been related, and that’s trying past the on-ice cheat code that’s Cale Makar.
Of the 213 NHL defensemen who logged at the very least 500 minutes of 5v5 ice time in 2021-22, the Avs had 5 within the prime 85 when it comes to pictures on aim per 60 minutes of play.
Erik Johnson (6.85 pictures per 60 minutes – fifteenth general)
Cale Makar (6.76 pictures per 60 minutes – seventeenth general)
Devon Toews (5.99 pictures per 60 minutes – thirty seventh general)
Bowen Byram (5.09 pictures per 60 minutes – 67th general)
Josh Manson (4.77 pictures per 60 minutes – eighty fifth general)
Including a bunch of huge our bodies to your blue line actually helps within the postseason.
However with the intention to thrive in in the present day’s NHL, you additionally want a D corps able to jumpstarting your offense by means of pictures from up excessive within the offensive zone.
One of the best offense in in the present day’s NHL is normally probably the most versatile one. A group can’t rely solely on the cycle recreation or possibilities off the frenzy with the intention to persistently win within the spring. Having a slew of blueliners able to leaping into the play and peppering pictures off low-to-high performs must be a part of the equation.
Pace up entrance
Whereas many Cup contenders are beefing up their blue traces, the other is going on up entrance.
Fleet-footed energy forwards like Tom Wilson are nonetheless coveted in in the present day’s recreation, however gone are the times the place groups are loading up their ahead corps with a variety of 200-pound bruisers.
Within the fashionable NHL, velocity kills. And the Golden Knights are simply the most recent roster that made life depressing for opponents by wreaking havoc in transition and on the forecheck.
Despite the fact that the 2022-23 Bruins had an explosive offense, they didn’t essentially have burners up entrance past Jake DeBrusk and Taylor Corridor.
Distinction that with the Golden Knights, who had straight-line speedsters like William Service, Keegan Kolesar, and William Karlsson within the bottom-six grouping and the 5-foot-9 Jonathan Marchessault doing injury on the highest line.
The Panthers additionally had gifted skaters like Anthony Duclair and Sam Bennett do injury on the frenzy and on the forecheck. The Carolina Hurricanes’ frantic forecheck doomed Boston final season, and has been an indicator of Rod Brind’amour’s system for years now.
However extra than simply turning the ice right into a observe meet (a somewhat unsustainable offensive technique), velocity creates each alternative and flexibility to your offense.
On the frenzy, having gamers able to placing opponents on their heels can result in Grade-A appears to be like in transition or can immediate a panicked hook or journey from a defender. However having a variety of gifted skaters in your roster additionally permits you to increase your offensive strategy on the fly.
The Golden Knights, very like the Bruins, did most of their injury throughout the common season on the frenzy. Oftentimes, these possibilities are inclined to dry up within the playoffs when inside ice is locked down and groups ratchet up their strain towards your breakout.
The Golden Knights had the velocity in place to tweak their assault by ramping up their very own forechecking strain, utilizing their straight-line acceleration to pressure turnovers and create havoc of their opponent’s finish of the ice.
The Bruins merely didn’t have the horsepower obtainable to comply with the same formulation.
Whether or not it’s incorporating children with closing velocity like Jakub Lauko and Johnny Beecher into the underside six or including extra ability through trades, the Bruins must inject extra tempo into their ahead grouping in 2023-24.
Goaltending could be a coin flip
If the Bruins proceed to roll out a goalie tandem of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman subsequent season, they’ll boast arguably the very best 1-2 punch in your complete league.
It’ll additionally possible value them someplace between $8-9 million, provided that Swayman is due for a pleasant pay increase as a restricted free agent.
And whereas that mixed cap hit continues to be beneath what some netminders like Sergei Bobrovsky ($10 million cap hit) and Andrei Vasilevsky ($9.5 million) are costing on the books, Vegas’ run with the personnel that they had in web provides validity to the idea that such a hefty funding isn’t wanted on the place.
It would sound loopy given the significance of goaltending in any Cup run, however the Golden Knights’ run provides proof that play in web may finally be a crapshoot.
After a confirmed star in Vasilevskiy anchored two Cup titles for the Lightning in 2020 and 2021, the final two Cup-winning goalies have been Colorado’s Darcy Keumper and Vegas’ Adin Hill.
Hill, who began the 12 months as Vegas’ third-string goalie and entered the postseason as Laurent Brossoit’s backup, casually went out and posted two shutouts and a .932 save proportion in 16 video games throughout this playoff run.
Keumper completed his 2022 playoff run in Colorado with a .902 save proportion over 16 video games. Even Jordan Binnington has largely fallen again to Earth after his inconceivable run with the Blues in 2019.
If the Bruins do must commerce certainly one of Ullmark/Swayman this offseason searching for cap reduction/belongings, they could discover solace in the truth that the very best goalie on paper (at the very least in October) has hardly ever been the one main his group to a title in June.
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