The Athletic - Boston Will the Bruins improve? Will Zdeno Chara return? Our fan survey results

[BruinDust]

Chara on the bottom pair is solid, Chara on the top pair is a mistake.

Here comes the issue:

Kevan Miller just signed.
Chara potentially re signs...

Who sits, and where do they play?

I like the idea of one of them playing when Tom Wilson is running our forwards to an early grave.

Depending on the opponent, I would dress both (assuming Miller is ready to play as he stated he felt he would be). Washington like you said being the prime example. Play them together on the same pair if need be. It's not ideal for getting the puck out of the zone, but Chara has lined up alongside other guys that weren't super fleet of foot (Boychuk, Ward, McQuaid, etc.) and even Miller at times. If you can somewhat shelter smaller D-men (like when Gryz and Clifton were the 3rd pair) to protect them against larger lines, you can do it to protect a slower pair like Chara-Miller against smaller, speedier lines.

You could also do Chara-Lauzon or Lauzon-Miller on the 3rd pair against big teams and I think you would be just fine. Even Zboril, he's no wallflower himself, he's not small, he's very strong, and possesses a mean streak at times. In my few viewings of Zboril, a number of times down low he tried to put his opponent through the boards.

 

[BruinDust]

I agree.

We are still in uncharted waters. I don't know how the holiday roster freeze will affect anything because they aren't playing, and I guess I could try and find out.

Personally I think that if training camp starts Jan 3 for teams that were in the playoffs, that an announcement will come before the holidays.

I do know there have been discussions and those discussions were defined to me as intense.

Which tells me the interest on both sides is very serious. I believe this will get done and Chara will be a Bruin for one more year.

 

[DominicT]

Which tells me the interest on both sides is very serious. I believe this will get done and Chara will be a Bruin for one more year.

As long as its:

1) a one year deal only

2) if for some inexplicable reason its 2 years, it does not have a NMC.

 

[VanIsle]

Bruins will decline in overall points pro rated, their new division for this year makes it so. Plus injuries to Marchand and Pastrnak forces this to happen 100%. Chara should play for one last year, but that should be all and not a bad idea in a shortened year with less travel.

 

[nORRis8]

I've been done with Chara for a few years now.
Completely done with Rask.
Done with Debrusk.
Done with Krug and I'm glad he's gone.

The Bruins are small and are hardly physical, never dictating the flow of a game.
We will win piss all until this is corrected.

 

[rfournier103]

Yes, we're going back to being just good enough to suck the fans into the Garden but not good enough to win the whole thing. I think @Aussie Bruin's post nails the situation down.

I don't get it- did Jeremy & Charlie Jacobs learn nothing from the debacle that forced them into firing Mike O'Connell and going outside the former Bruins box to bring Peter Chiarelli in???? Are we going to have to go through this again?? This business of hiring ex-Bruins has got to stop, it clearly does not work.

I agree 1000%.

Some teams have great success with hiring in-house. Others - not so much.

The defense-first mentality only works very occasionally. That’s been the Bruins’ handicap for decades. Besides the otherworldly 2011 playoff performance of Tim Thomas, what would 2011 have looked like without bonafide goal-scorer Nathan Horton? Montreal would have taken their lunch money in the first round. AGAIN.

The other two eras of Bruins glory: the Kraut Line Era and the Big Bad Bruins Era both had offense aplenty. You CAN have talent AND snarl. It’s not written anywhere that you can’t.

Time to get forward-thinking minds in here and stop being handcuffed to the past. One championship in 48 years.

Not enough.

Thank God for 2011.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I agree 1000%.

Some teams have great success with hiring in-house. Others - not so much.

The defense-first mentality only works very occasionally. That’s been the Bruins’ handicap for decades. Besides the otherworldly 2011 playoff performance of Tim Thomas, what would 2011 have looked like without bonafide goal-scorer Nathan Horton? Montreal would have taken their lunch money in the first round. AGAIN.

The other two eras of Bruins glory: the Kraut Line Era and the Big Bad Bruins Era both had offense aplenty. You CAN have talent AND snarl. It’s not written anywhere that you can’t.

Time to get forward-thinking minds in here and stop being handcuffed to the past. One championship in 48 years.

Not enough.

Thank God for 2011.

Irony is put the Julien years together and they were firmly a Top 10 offense over that time frame and the calling card of those teams was that they had the snarl and the talent

 

[yazmybaby]

As long as its:

1) a one year deal only

2) if for some inexplicable reason its 2 years, it does not have a NMC.

I all in for Big Z signing at one year and 700K a year.

 

[BruinDust]

I agree 1000%.

Some teams have great success with hiring in-house. Others - not so much.

The defense-first mentality only works very occasionally. That’s been the Bruins’ handicap for decades. Besides the otherworldly 2011 playoff performance of Tim Thomas, what would 2011 have looked like without bonafide goal-scorer Nathan Horton? Montreal would have taken their lunch money in the first round. AGAIN.

The other two eras of Bruins glory: the Kraut Line Era and the Big Bad Bruins Era both had offense aplenty. You CAN have talent AND snarl. It’s not written anywhere that you can’t.

Time to get forward-thinking minds in here and stop being handcuffed to the past. One championship in 48 years.

Not enough.

Thank God for 2011.

10 of the past 14 cup winners were Top 10 teams defensively in their respective seasons. From 2011 to 2015, the cup champ finished 1st defensively twice, 2nd twice, and 3rd once.

The average defensive team finish for cup winners in the post-lockout era was 7th, offensively was 9th.

The lowest defensive finish for a cup winner was 18th (Pittsburgh 2009). Pittsburgh (2017) and Carolina (2006) were both 17th. Washington was 15th in 2018. Outside of those 4, the lowest finish the other 10 years was 7th.

Meanwhile the Kings won two cups with 29th (2012) and 25th (2014) offenses while being 2nd and 1st defensively respectively. On the flip side, only the Blues and 2015 Hawks won a cup with an offense worst than 9th overall.

We've seen 3 teams win with average defenses and strong offenses (Carolina, Pittsburgh 2009 and 2017). Vice-versa, we've seen 4 teams win cups with average offenses and strong defenses (LA's two cups, Chicago 2015 and the Blues).

Half of the cup champs in this era have had elements of both strong offense and defense.

The Bruins for my money are the best defensive organization of the salary cap era. It's their strong defensive play that has kept them in the mix as a very good hockey team for the past 12 seasons. That being said, almost every cup winner has had a bonafide, home-run hitting goal-scorer.