This week, the Boston Bruins joined 15 other teams in the nearly two-month-long quest to claim Lord Stanley’s hallowed cup as champions of the National Hockey League. After winning the President’s Cup with the league’s best record, the black and gold are cruising into the playoffs rested, relatively healthy and set to enjoy home ice for the duration of the campaign. In order for the team to advance to its third championship series in four years and win its second title in that stretch, it must stay focused on the qualities that got it this far. That and a fortuitous playoff landscape should be enough to allow Zdeno Chara and company to raise another banner on Causeway Street.
The Bruins’ greatest strength come this time of year can be found between the pipes. Tuukka Rask, who won a ring as Tim Thomas’ backup in 2011 and was stellar during the postseason run last year, is a finalist and the odds-on favorite to win the 2013-14 Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender. After signing an eight-year, $56 million contract during the offseason, the 26-year-old Finn earned every penny of his annual salary by posting a 36-15-6 record, 2.04 goals allowed average and .930 save percentage. These numbers are almost identical to those Rask put up in last year’s lockout-shortened season.
Following that effort, he upped his game for the playoff run last season, increasing his save percentage to .940, lowering his goals allowed to 1.88 and recording three shutouts. Even without a similar uptick in play, Rask’s ability to provide a consistently stellar back line of defense is the first reason the Bruins are favored to take home some hardware.
While at certain times during previous postseasons Rask has seemed superhuman, depth on the blue line means that the job of stymieing opposing offenses will not be entirely his. The team will be without the veteran presence of Dennis Seidenberg, who will miss the playoffs after having surgery to repair both his ACL and MCL. But the Bruins nonetheless feature an enviable mix of youth and experience. Anchored by the captain, Chara, the group has combined with its goaltender to make the Bruins the second-highest-rated defense in goals allowed and the eighth-ranked penalty-killing unit.
Torey Krug, who made headlines with big plays in last year’s series against the New York Rangers, is joined this year by another dynamic rookie, Dougie Hamilton, the two of them serving as complements to mainstays Adam McQuaid and Johnny Boychuk. The addition of Andrej Meszaros at the trade deadline has helped mitigate the damage from the Seidenberg injury, and the Bruins enter the playoffs with one of the deepest defensive units in hockey.
This past offseason, after trading away their mercurial former second overall draft pick, Tyler Seguin, and neglecting to re-sign Jaromir Jagr or Nathan Horton, the Bruins found themselves exceptionally thin at the wing position. The problem was quickly remedied, however, and the position is now one of the team’s areas of strength.
This conversation necessarily begins with Jarome Iginla. Last year, the future Hall of Famer spurned Beantown at the trade deadline, instead opting to join the Pittsburgh Penguins. After being unceremoniously swept out of the playoffs by the B’s, Iginla took a mulligan on his decision and came on board for this year’s campaign. He lived up to the superstar billing he earned in 15-plus seasons in Calgary, amassing a total of 61 points for his new team. Additionally, he has contributed immensely to the emotional culture of the team, as winning Iggy his first Cup has become a stated goal of his teammates.
Loui Eriksson and Reilly Smith, imported from Dallas as part of the Seguin trade, have also played big roles in shoring up the wings. Though slowed by injury this season, Eriksson is healthy again and is the best third-line wing in this tournament. Smith, an afterthought at the time of the trade, has been a revelation this season. The 23-year-old scored 21 goals and added 30 assists in his first full season in the NHL. He’s a rising star for the franchise — look for him to have a coming out party in these playoffs similar to the display Brad Marchand put on in 2011.
Perhaps the best thing the Bruins have going for them is their conference affiliation. Compared to a stacked Western Conference featuring cup contenders in the L.A. Kings, Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks, St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks, the Bruins’ only real challenger in the East at this point is the Penguins. A perennial powerhouse led by phenom Sidney Crosby, this iteration of the Penguins is somewhat less formidable given the staggering 500-plus man-games their players have missed due to injury.
While any Western contender will have to run the gauntlet of teams built for the second season, Boston will face a young Detroit Red Wings team that nearly missed the playoffs in the first round and, should it advance, would not face a team without major flaws until Pittsburgh in the conference finals. Though the playoffs are a highly unpredictable time where anything can happen, the Bruins certainly face a friendlier road to the cup than the league’s other elite teams.
Elite goaltending, depth at both forward and defender and a favorable playoff landscape will all work in the Bruins’ favor over the course of the next few weeks. The x factor will be the fact that many of the players on this roster have been in just this position in years past and as a result know what it takes to win it all. Emblematic of this team’s grit and willingness to do whatever is necessary for the team, assistant captain Patrice Bergeron played through broken ribs and a punctured lung in order to finish the final game of last season. The Bruins have the talent that made them the top-tier regular season team. Combine that with all their other pieces and you have a Stanley Cup champion.
Jack Blasberg ’16 may not have written this column with broken ribs or a punctured lung, but he’s pretty confident in his prediction. You can reach him at john_blasberg@brown.edu.
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