And here we go….
Maybe they’ll ride a boost of new-coach energy from a rejuvenated Jim Montgomery, who’s grateful for a second chance.
Maybe Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Matt Grzelcyk will return and play as if they never had major surgeries.
Or maybe that’s all merely more fantasy, on the night on the NHL calendar where every team, even the Stanley Cup champion Avalanche, is guilty of dreaming a little too big.
Right now, it looks this way for the Bruins: They are in danger of falling to the middle of the pack, appearing like a team going the wrong direction, as a few other Atlantic Division teams seem ready to cycle out of their down years.
On a night when the Senators made the biggest move of the offseason so far, pulling two-time 40-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat from the Blackhawks on Friday, and the Red Wings, Sabres, and Canadiens continued to add to their sizable collections of young talent … the Bruins, who dealt their first-rounder to Anaheim in the Hampus Lindholm trade last February, remained on the sidelines.
“You look at some of our players, it’s hard to say we’re going to tear this down,” team president Cam Neely said before the draft opened. He pointed to David Pastrnak — in the last year of his contract, and yet to be signed to a long-term extension — Marchand, Lindholm, McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Linus Ullmark, and Jeremy Swayman long-term core pieces. “We’ve got guys we feel we can build around right now,” Neely said, “and hopefully keep this train rolling.
“But,” he added, “when you go through what we did from 2011 all the way to ‘22, when you’re in that window and firing off assets and picks, you know you’re going to pay for it. And that’s coming. But hopefully we can find a way to build around those guys … we still feel we have a competitive team, we just have to find the right pieces to help supplement the roster.”
That hasn’t been an issue for the non-playoff Atlantic teams, who have taken their lumps and are making the moves to make Boston sweat.
Ripping off a Chicago team diving headfirst into rebuild mode, Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion stole DeBrincat for the seventh and 39th overall picks this year, and a third-rounder in 2024. To put that return for Chicago in perspective, DeBrincat has 160 goals to his name over the last five years. Pastrnak has 181.
The Senators are building for sustained success, with captain Brady Tkachuk (22), Tim Stützle (20), Drake Batherson (23), Josh Norris (22), Thomas Chabot (25), and Alex Formenton (22), all of whom ranked among their top seven scorers. They have exciting 19-year-old defenseman Jake Sanderson coming. In the coming months, they might build a new arena downtown.
The Red Wings’ stock of talent is similarly enviable, and at some point, GM Steve Yzerman is going to shift his automobile into contention mode. Yzerman has made seven top-15 picks in the last six drafts, Calder Trophy-winning defenseman Moritz Seider (sixth in ‘19) and high-energy, high-IQ Austrian center Marco Kasper, chosen eighth on Friday.
The Sabres felt a buzz at the end of last season, after dealing Jack Eichel to Vegas, and on Friday pulled high-scoring Matthew Savoie out of the WHL Winnipeg at ninth overall. Things are looking up there.
The last-place Canadiens have the longest way to go, but they had a heck of an evening.
Montreal won’t wait that long for its next Cup, will it? Will Buffalo? Detroit? Ottawa?
Now, what about Boston?
