Me too. The Bruins are already short on guys that play tough, fully committed hockey with a strong defensive game and a willingness to push back against the opposition, and we've given up first Acciari and now Nordstrom in the space of little over a year. The 4th line suffered last season from Acciari's loss, and now has another hole to fill. Some people think you can basically just plug anyone into the 4th line and away you go, but it's not quite that simple. You want guys that both fit what that line is being asked to do, and will give the whole team some spark, energy and grit. Usually their PK ability is also important, and again Acciari and Nordy were very good in that area.
I get the philosophy - the team wants to see what the likes of Frederic, Studnicka and Senyshyn can do, and it's undeniable that the team has more than enough bottom 6 players. But I question why Lindholm has been retained when Nordy could clearly have been re-signed for similar value. I'm actually in the pro-Lindy camp - I thought he did a perfectly decent job as a fill-in 4C - but Nordstrom gave the team more and had that edge that's otherwise pretty lacking on the roster, so I'd rather have kept him.
But what's done is done. It's now on the prospects to step up, take their opportunity and not just match the performance of what's been given up, but bring the kind of commitment and passion that Nordy did. Same goes for Nick Ritchie really - he's obviously got more offensive talent and a bigger body that Joakim, but unless he starts to find a way to make better use of them on the ice for this team, he'll be contributing less for more money.
