The Outlook- The Boston Bruins come into the 2016-17 NHL season having missed the playoffs for a second straight time last season, losing six of their last seven games to lose out on a wild card spot to the Detroit Red Wings.
This year the Bruins will look to replace some key players. Loui Eriksson signed with Vancouver, while Boston also bought out the contact of defenseman Dennis Seidenberg. Chris Kelly re-signed with the Ottawa Senators, and the team also lost the services of back up goaltender Jonas Gustavsson.
Newcomers include David Backes from St Louis who had 21 goals and 25 assists last season with the Blues. Boston also signed a goalie acquiring Anton Kuhdobin from Anaheim to back up starter Tuuka Rask. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand both had solid performances in the World Cup of Hockey for Team Canada and expect to be the main contributors again this season. Marchand had 37 goals last season and may top the 40 goal mark in 2016-17. Boston will also rely heavily on David Krejci, Matt Beleskey and David Pastrnak.
The Bruins however did not address their biggest concern at the blue line. Boston allowed 2.78 goals a game last year, 20th in the league. And with Zdeno Chara turning 40 next March, the Bruins will rely on their star netminder Rask to try to carry the load. The signing of Kuhdobin from the Ducks may lighten the work of Rask if the team expects him to be effective.
The bottom line and prediction- The Bruins didn’t get any better in the off-season for a team that just missed out on last years playoffs.
The team is hoping for a bounce back year from Rask, but how much will it be able to depend on the defense? The absence of Seidenberg and the aging of Chara expect to be a hard thing to overcome.
The 32 year old Backes is a solid player but does not make up for the loss of Eriksson, and also ties up some money in the cap space with the number of six million over the next five years.
I don’t expect the Bruins to miss the playoffs for a third straight season. They will find a way in down the stretch that will be good enough for a seven or eight seed in the Eastern Conference, but more likely as one of the two wild card teams to get in. If the Bruins cannot improve at the trade deadline and help the defense and goaltender, it will be a quick exit for Boston in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Bruins get it all started on Thursday night, October 13th when they travel to Columbus to battle the BlueJackets at 7 p.m.
