Year in and year out, the Boston Bruins have been a regular participant in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This year, they may not be.
While they’re currently in a playoff position, making the postseason is by no means a guarantee for the B’s this season. As unthinkable as that was at the outset of the year, it’s now a possibility that Bruins president Cam Neely says the team must prepare for as the NHL Trade Deadline approaches.
“We’ve got to look at two paths: one that we’re buying and one that we may be just retooling a little bit,” Neely told reporters Wednesday night at the Bruins’ Black & Gold Gala. “We still feel like we have a playoff team here, and we certainly don’t want to jeopardize getting out of the playoffs because we’ve made some moves that may be good for the future but not good for the present.”
The present has been nothing short of disappointing for Boston.
After splurging on high-priced free agents over the offseason, the Bruins expected to be among the league’s top contenders. But all that has amounted to so far is a pedestrian 22-19-5 record that has them sitting in the precarious first wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.
“We feel like we’ve given our team a chance to win every year, and it just hasn’t materialized, so that’s frustrating for us,” said Neely. “We know it’s frustrating for the fan base. Our fans certainly deserve championships. They come out, and they support like no others. We’re aware of the expectations here, and we try to meet and exceed those every year. Right now, it’s a year that we’re not really accustomed to.”
The Bruins sputtered through the first quarter of the season and tried to get their wheels turning by firing then-head coach Jim Montgomery, they’ve experienced marginal improvement under interim bench boss Joe Sacco since then, but clearly not enough to inspire great confidence.
Bruins CEO and alternate governor Charlie Jacobs is well aware of the team’s underwhelming performance and shares in the dissatisfaction. Still, he maintains his belief that Neely and general manager Don Sweeney know best how to lead the organization back to the top, whichever way that may be.
“If you look at Don Sweeney’s stewardship and Cam Neely’s stewardship since 2015, since Don took over, we’ve made the playoffs eight of the 10 years,” Jacobs said. “Listen, I’m not going to measure success in making the Stanley Cup playoffs. OK, let’s be very clear about that.
“Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup, but you can’t win the Stanley Cup if you don’t make it to the playoffs. Our team has done that for the past eight years, and I hope we do it again this year for our ninth, but there have been some trying moments for sure. To watch this team play and know what it’s capable of, and see it perform, and then come out the next night and not be able to do it, it’s a head-scratcher for sure.”
The first and most obvious issue for the Bruins this season has been the widespread lack of offensive production up and down the lineup. They’re scoring a measly 2.65 goals per game while converting on just 13.2 percent of their power play chances, which both rank near the bottom of the league.
Pavel Zacha, Trent Frederic, and Charlie Coyle are all performing well below the standard they established with career seasons last year. The team’s biggest offseason, Elias Lindholm–signed to a seven-year contract worth a total of $54.24 million– has turned out to be a poor investment thus far, with only 22 points through 46 games.
Core members of the roster haven’t looked like their usual selves, either.
David Pastrnak and Jeremy Swayman have only begun turning things on more than halfway through the year. Charlie McAvoy and the rest of the defense, which were supposed to be Boston’s backbone this season, have left things to be desired. Even team captain Brad Marchand has struggled to play consistently.
“We’re aware of the situation we’re in,” said Marchand. “We understand the roads that are in front of us and where they lead. We haven’t performed the way we needed to, and there are consequences that come with that. There are very high expectations with this organization, and we’re expected to perform and do our job and compete every year for a Cup. If we’re not going to do that, then changes are going to be made, so then the team does compete for a Cup.”
Selling at the deadline would be a serious departure from how the Bruins have operated over the last number of years.
Neely made it clear he has no desire to do so now.
He may not have a choice.
“This year has been a little frustrating because we honestly felt, coming out of the offseason, that we had a better team than what we’ve shown on the ice,” Neely said. “Maybe that’s a product of us overvaluing what we have, or just the start that we had was not expected.”
