Shinzawa: Move David Pastrnak off No. 1 line? It's a...
Water is wet. The desert is dry. David Pastrnak plays well with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron.
Yet for as much as Pastrnak’s finishing touch amplifies the rabidity of his linemates’ puck pursuit, the right wing’s spot on the first line is not guaranteed next season. If the unit has a shortcoming, it’s in how it creates deficiencies further down the chain.
The Bruins learned this the hard way in the playoffs. Lines 2 through 4 could not help extend Boston’s season beyond Round 2.
So as general manager Don Sweeney considers how to proceed with Rick Nash, an unrestricted free agent in less than a month, he may be chasing a right wing to play with Bergeron instead of David Krejci.
“It’s a prolific line,” Sweeney said of Pastrnak with Marchand and Bergeron. “It’s very difficult to stop with the chemistry they have created. We had three people at the World Championships [in May] that came back and said, ‘Boy, Krejci and Pastrnak played really well together.’ Those things filter back to the coaches. We know that’s an option for us.”
It leaves Sweeney in a delicate position: Either don’t touch what’s not broken, or look for his toolbox anyway.
its pure dumb not to experiment during the regular season {and definitely during training camp} but the final decision on this cant be made without viewing the results of our experimentation
would playing pastrnak with krejci for 5 games... 10 games... even 15 games cost us a playoff spot? I laugh... no
would it make us a better team though for playoff time? its a question we just don't know the answer to. its a question we need to find out what the answer is.
should marchand/pastrnak be left together? should it be Bergeron that ends up moving to the second line? honestly Bergeron seems the weak link offensively on that line. should Bergeron be used to create a 'second line' who is responsible for more of a 'checking role' while able to provide secondary scoring and should marchand/pastrnak just be allowed to get some guy like riley nash to cover up for them as they weave their offensive magic?
last year marchand and pastrnak didn't slow down 1 step when Bergeron wasn't with them... the line just wasn't as good defensively... but it really doesn't need to be
should we bring riley nash back specifically to play with marchand/pastrnak? should we let backes/Heinen play with Bergeron as a second line with some punch? and that allows krecji/debrusk and maybe donato to have the luxury of 3rd line matchups which should make them more dangerous
with donato and Bjork both being filled with so much offensive potential... we stand a very good chance for 1 or both to become true options for us this season. we need to put it to a test under game condition. we wont know anything sitting here in the off season other than we have a very good regular season team to begin with and are really just concerned about playoff time.
so... experiment... try to see if other combinations will spread the offense. if it doesn't work we can always go back to status quo. pastrnak/Bergeron/marchand tore things up this playoff and we still lost. obviously we aren't good enough unless we find a way to get more out of the rest of the team. will that happen organically just because everyones a year older? or do we need to spread the top 3 out a bit to elevate the other guys? it requires some experiement to get us our answer
specifically, the bolded.
