Bruins’ lack of depth will catch up to them eventually
No matter how much we analyze and project, the NHL never seems to go as planned. Heading into this season, the Atlantic Divison looked to be a race between a few familiar favorites. The Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, the defending division champion Toronto Maple Leafs, or the decorated Tampa Bay Lightning all seemed like good bets to take the Atlantic this season. The young, upstart Montreal Canadiens or Ottawa Senators were even available as hipster picks. Very few, if anyone, thought the Boston Bruins would be serious contenders.
And yet, now almost a quarter of the way into the season, the Bruins lead the Atlantic Division with 24 points in 21 games. The Bruins have surpassed expectations despite center Elias Lindholm having yet to play in November due to a lower-body injury, but the injury bug is starting to bite even harder in Boston. Star defenseman Charlie McAvoy left Saturday’s 3-2 win over Montreal after taking a puck to the face, with no timetable for his return. Forwards Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson, along with defenseman Jordan Harris, were moved to injured reserve on Monday.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed Boston’s surprise start, and whether they can keep up their winning ways despite a depleted lineup.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Where are you at on the Boston Bruins? They’re getting good contributions from David Pastrnak. They’re another team that’s been hit hard with the injury bug down the middle. Marat Khusnutdinov is holding down top-line minutes for them as a center. As much as he’s a fun name to say, he’s not a fun name to see at the top of your depth chart. They’re banged up right now. The Charlie McAvoy thing looms large. I feel like the Boston Bruins, even though some of the metrics are fine and encouraging, they might be a team that at some point are going to lose seven of eight, and we’re just going to be like “Yep, there it is.”
Carter Hutton: Yeah, and they’re a team that did that. They’ve been a bit Jekyll-and-Hyde. They started well, dropped a ton of games, then got on a winning streak. That consistency factor, I worry about, because when you think about good hockey teams, something that was always preached in every locker room I was in was good teams find a way to string wins together, and when you do lose one you find ways to bounce back. I do worry about this team’s depth. These are the repercussions of years of trades and pushing to make Cup finals with where they’re at. They have a few good young pieces there. Some guys that are getting good exposure, getting good minutes at the NHL level. But what I worry about is when teams start to get healthy, Florida would be the one for me, when they get healthy and when they start nipping at your heels. If you haven’t created enough seperation at this point, when the big dogs in the Atlantic start coming I don’t know if they can hold them off.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…