Boston Globe KPD: What will Don Sweeney do now with this Bruins roster?

[BruinDust]

Bruins didn handle the physicality to a degree agaisnt the Blues but over a 7 game series the Blues didnt look worn down at all. Just looking at the Bruins injuries compared to the Blues after the end of the season. The heavy hitting took its toll.

Absolutely it did, no question. I just think that you can't really deter it, only dish it back out in kind and hope you wear them down more than they do to you. So in that sense your right added physicality in the line-up would be warranted.

The days of Enforcer A looking at Enforcer B and telling him "smarten your guys up or it will be you that pays the price" are long gone. The only determent I can see if from the officials and the league itself. From my perspective, the refs let the Blues take runs at Bruins far to often. Lots of charging, lot of leaving the feet to make hits along the wall. On the flip side they let Krug take a run at a guy in Game 1, so the precedent was already set, so you can't blame the Blues from charging at Bruins to make hits in Game 2 and onward.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

I am very bad at mocking up contracts, but I went to CapFriendly and came up with this roster:

Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
Debrusk-Krejci-Ferland($5M)
Heinen($2.75M)-Coyle-Senyshyn
Nordstrom-Kuraly-Wagner
Kuhlman

Chara-McAvoy($5.5M)
Krug-Carlo($4M)
Grzelcyk-Clifton
Moore-Miller

Rask
Halak

If you can move Backes, that leaves you with almost $2.2M in cap space carrying a full 23 players. Senyshyn could be replaced with Kuhlman or whichever other prospect you fancy.

Willing to hear your feedback, but please go easy on me

So Carlo and McAvoy are taking bridge contracts ?

 

[BruinDust]

So Carlo and McAvoy are taking bridge contracts ?

Wasn't there speculation that a bridge deal was exactly what McAvoy was looking for?

 

[Chief Nine]

McAvoy more than capsule of running your power play.

Try again, on the open market Torey Kug easily rakes in that amount.

Doesn't really matter much what buffalo situation is, they helped set the market on players of Skinners value and a Top offenseive defenseman, who's clutch in the playoffs and plays bigger than he is and with the heart of a lion will get paid 8-10 mil per on the open market. It will be a bidding frenzy, hell if Kovalchuk can get 6 mil per, you really think A Torey Krug isn't going to get at least 8 mil per.

Sweeney can't afford to loose Krug for nothing and I don't believe he'll have the cap space to re-sign him and with the depth and the young kids on the way behind the blue line and the need for a young top center, I wouldn't be surprised st all if Sweeney deals him.

If Torey Krug gets that kind of money then good luck to him. It’s a pipe dream that he gets $$ like that in 2021 unless the cap goes up another 8-10 million.

McAvoy isn’t even anywhere close on the PP to what Krug can do and likely won’t be. People who say this are seriously underestimating how great Krug is

 

[Rubber Biscuit]

So Carlo and McAvoy are taking bridge contracts ?

I'd rather go 8 years on them but it sounds like McAvoy wants to bet on himself. I have no idea what to expect with Carlo tbh.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Wasn't there speculation that a bridge deal was exactly what McAvoy was looking for?

Could have sworn McAvoy turned down $6.5M last year. Bridge would work for me for now.

 

[SanDogBrewin]

I'd rather go 8 years on them but it sounds like McAvoy wants to bet on himself. I have no idea what to expect with Carlo tbh.

What’s the name of your capfriendly armchair ? So I don’t have to search through all of them.

 

[Rubber Biscuit]

What’s the name of your capfriendly armchair ? So I don’t have to search through all of them.

Rubber Biscuit Bruins
Rubber Biscuit Bruins - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

 

[KrejciMVP]

Absolutely it did, no question. I just think that you can't really deter it, only dish it back out in kind and hope you wear them down more than they do to you. So in that sense your right added physicality in the line-up would be warranted.

The days of Enforcer A looking at Enforcer B and telling him "smarten your guys up or it will be you that pays the price" are long gone. The only determent I can see if from the officials and the league itself. From my perspective, the refs let the Blues take runs at Bruins far to often. Lots of charging, lot of leaving the feet to make hits along the wall. On the flip side they let Krug take a run at a guy in Game 1, so the precedent was already set, so you can't blame the Blues from charging at Bruins to make hits in Game 2 and onward.

checking out these stats it looks like Ferland was at the tops of fighting majors but some of the more physical players like Barbashev and Sudquist who made their marks in the series through hard hits, didnt rank near the top

NHL Fighting Majors Leaders for the 2018-2019 Regular Season

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

checking out these stats it looks like Ferland was at the tops of fighting majors but some of the more physical players like Barbashev and Sudquist who made their marks in the series through hard hits, didnt rank near the top

NHL Fighting Majors Leaders for the 2018-2019 Regular Season

Wasn't really aware of how physical Barbashev and Sundqvist were until we played him. For whatever the reason, the most physical players the Bruins had to play before the Cup Final were total nonfactors; Josh Anderson and Micheal Ferland.

 

[KrejciMVP]

Wasn't really aware of how physical Barbashev and Sundqvist were until we played him. For whatever the reason, the most physical players the Bruins had to play before the Cup Final were total nonfactors; Josh Anderson and Micheal Ferland.

me neither, now they are household names throughout NE and Canada

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Rubber Biscuit Bruins
Rubber Biscuit Bruins - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

“Future considerations” Backes gets “sturmed”

Like it nice n simple. Still want Lauzon and Vaakanainen worked into the lineup.

 

[Rubber Biscuit]

Wasn't really aware of how physical Barbashev and Sundqvist were until we played him. For whatever the reason, the most physical players the Bruins had to play before the Cup Final were total nonfactors; Josh Anderson and Micheal Ferland.

Ferland was hurt, right?

Seemed like Anderson decided to completely ignore his actual talents and focus solely on running guys through the boards instead of playing hockey. That was very strange

 

[Rubber Biscuit]

“Future considerations” Backes gets “sturmed”

Like it nice n simple. Still want Lauzon and Vaakanainen worked into the lineup.

Going to be tough for those guys to get any sort of regular playing time but I'm sure there will be injury issues. it's kind of a weird year for the D. There could be at least 3 openings this time next year.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

Ferland was hurt, right?

I missed that report, but it would explain a lot if he was.

Seemed like Anderson decided to completely ignore his actual talents and focus solely on running guys through the boards instead of playing hockey. That was very strange

Yeah, it was strange. He honestly could be one of the most feared players in the league because when he decides to reach top speed and truck a guy, there is nothing stopping him. He's the next closest thing to Tom Wilson (though Anderson appears to be a much cleaner player).

 

[Smitty93]

I dunno, if there’s one copycat thing I think it’ll be how St. Louis(and Toronto to a lesser extent) really packed it in and stifled their offense with a lead. I think the copycat piece is going to be strong goaltending and sitting on the puck when you get a lead.

Bruins outscored the Blues 24 to 18 if I’m recalling correctly, so I don’t necessarily know if GMs will be sitting in their board room building an entire team strategy around what happened in one game 7.

This is a good point. Only one other time in history (at least going back to the 1950s) did a team win the Stanley Cup while being outscored in the Final, and that's Pittsburgh in 2009 who had a -3 goal differential. Blues were -4 this year (18 to 22).

There's also the fact that over the past 32 years (that's as far back as NHL.com goes with the data) the 2018-19 Blues are tied for the most games played by a Stanley Cup winner. In that time, the Blues also have the lowest playoff goal differential for a Stanley Cup winner. They were at +5, while the next lowest were the 2014-15 Blackhawks at +9.

All of this is to say that, by the data, the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues may be the worst Stanley Cup winner, at least in the last 30+ years. Now, that shouldn't make any of us feel better, but it suggests that copying the Blues isn't exactly a recipe for success.

 

[KrejciMVP]

This is a good point. Only one other time in history (at least going back to the 1950s) did a team win the Stanley Cup while being outscored in the Final, and that's Pittsburgh in 2009 who had a -3 goal differential. Blues were -4 this year (18 to 22).

There's also the fact that over the past 32 years (that's as far back as NHL.com goes with the data) the 2018-19 Blues are tied for the most games played by a Stanley Cup winner. In that time, the Blues also have the lowest playoff goal differential for a Stanley Cup winner. They were at +5, while the next lowest were the 2014-15 Blackhawks at +9.

All of this is to say that, by the data, the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues may be the worst Stanley Cup winner, at least in the last 30+ years. Now, that shouldn't make any of us feel better, but it suggests that copying the Blues isn't exactly a recipe for success.

a lot of opinion out there are saying they copied the Bruins

 

[Bruinfanatic]

This is a good point. Only one other time in history (at least going back to the 1950s) did a team win the Stanley Cup while being outscored in the Final, and that's Pittsburgh in 2009 who had a -3 goal differential. Blues were -4 this year (18 to 22).

There's also the fact that over the past 32 years (that's as far back as NHL.com goes with the data) the 2018-19 Blues are tied for the most games played by a Stanley Cup winner. In that time, the Blues also have the lowest playoff goal differential for a Stanley Cup winner. They were at +5, while the next lowest were the 2014-15 Blackhawks at +9.

All of this is to say that, by the data, the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues may be the worst Stanley Cup winner, at least in the last 30+ years. Now, that shouldn't make any of us feel better, but it suggests that copying the Blues isn't exactly a recipe for success.

I really believe the Blues are the Hammond Senators,but obviously they went all the way.I really don’t expect much from them next season.

 

[Rubber Biscuit]

I really believe the Blues are the Hammond Senators,but obviously they went all the way.I really don’t expect much from them next season.

I think the team itself is fairly talented. There's a reason it was such a shock to see them at the bottom of the standings. Don't know what to expect from Binnington, though. He gave up a shit ton of bad rebounds and had issues moving laterally. Wouldn't surprise me if he was a flash in the pan, but maybe he works hard enough to correct those things

 

[Bruinfanatic]

I think the team itself is fairly talented. There's a reason it was such a shock to see them at the bottom of the standings. Don't know what to expect from Binnington, though. He gave up a **** ton of bad rebounds and had issues moving laterally. Wouldn't surprise me if he was a flash in the pan, but maybe he works hard enough to correct those things

Yeah to me he had one game really I thought in that series where he was the difference maker,and unfortunately it was game 7 ,it was my biggest fear going into game seven that he would have 1 game where he was better than Rask and it materialized.Rask was going to have to pitch a shutout for the Bruins to win that game.I hate game seven’s and should never have come to that.

 

[BruinDust]

Could have sworn McAvoy turned down $6.5M last year. Bridge would work for me for now.

I would say it was 6.5 on a long-term deal. Looking at what top D-men are being paid now, guys like Subban making 9 million +, can't blame McAvoy for wanting to hedge his bets on a bridge deal and sign a massive contract coming out of it.

 

[BMC]

I like Miller but just too injury prone. Perhaps a guy like Boychuk who can stay healthy can be acquired

Unfortunately Boychuk has had injury issues since joining the Islanders, he was even a healthy scratch during the playoffs this year

 

[BruinDust]

checking out these stats it looks like Ferland was at the tops of fighting majors but some of the more physical players like Barbashev and Sudquist who made their marks in the series through hard hits, didnt rank near the top

NHL Fighting Majors Leaders for the 2018-2019 Regular Season

Even Barbashev was considered a bit of a skill-guy but he had total buy-in during the playoffs as far as being a physical player.

 

[TCB]

If Torey Krug gets that kind of money then good luck to him. It’s a pipe dream that he gets $$ like that in 2021 unless the cap goes up another 8-10 million.

McAvoy isn’t even anywhere close on the PP to what Krug can do and likely won’t be. People who say this are seriously underestimating how great Krug is

I don't think know one underestimates how great Krug is on the PP and its not only on the PP he's one of the top offensive defenseman in the league and he's shown in this years playoffs that he's also very dependable in his own end and has a compete level that doesn't stop. Its far from a pipe dream that he'll get 8 mil per. It will be nice to to revisit this thread in his contract yea or when he re-signs.

As far as McAvoy, I guess the same thing goes there, because I see a future stud written all over him in every aspect of the game including being one of the top PP specialist in the league. As good as Krug ?maybe, maybe not, but he'll be dam good and his emergence along with Carlo's and the pipeline of defenseman on the way and the fact that I feel Krug will get 8 mil per or more,will make Krug a valuable asset to acquire some much needed forward help, preferably a center. Now if Krug is willing to sign for 6 mil or less, that would be great but I think that's more along the lines of an actual pipe dream

 

[TheReal13Linseman]

I’m sold on McAvoy. Not yet sold on Carlo. People seem to frequently lump them together as though they’re equal.