The Bruins at the Halfway Point (Part 2)

If you saw my first report card for the Boston Bruins then I’m sure you’ve been on pins and needles waiting for this: the companion piece. If you haven’t seen my mid-season report card, I’ll first ask: how dare you? And then secondly I’ll point you to find it here.

While your Boston Bruins were enjoying the All-Star Break (even Pasta and Sway looked like they were having fun: and I’m sure by now you’ve all seen Monty celebrating). My dickhead of a boss here at The Morning Skate: Captain Ked (you may know him from the podcast as a nice guy, but he most certainly is not), has been ~~suggesting~~ ~~expecting~~ ~~demanding~~ asking that I get back to focusing on the Bruins and stop looking for hornet nests to whack. He’s very passive aggressive with his demands, it makes you want to burn the TMS office to the ground much like another favorite character from the cult classic movie Office Space: Milton Waddams.

Well here you go. I’ve broken down the statistics, crunched the numbers and I’m ~~completelyfully~~ ~~mostly~~ kinda prepared to give all of these beauties a letter grade on their first halves. As I said in the first installment of this undertaking; this got away from me like so many other blogs have in the past, so I split it in half. Here’s part 2: The Forwards.

Let’s get into it:

Charlie Coyle, Danton Heinen, Trent Frederic and Morgan Geekie
This group is how you want your forwards to play. All of them thrive with puck possession and are relentless in their pursuit of the puck and are willing to play physical along the wall. Heinen and Geekie combined salaries are just a bit more than what Frederic is making and Coyle’s price tag is looking pretty good with his production. Coyle and Geekie will most likely set new career highs in points (Coyle hasn’t had this type of scoring touch since 2016-17), and Freddy is thriving under Jim Montgomery. If Freddy can bring the physicality and the scoring?… I can see the Brady Tkachuk comparisons in his future. While Heinen probably won’t reach a new career high in points, he’s transformed himself into one of the team’s most dependable 2-way players and can play anywhere up and down the lineup. The Heinen signing was def a great move by Sweeney.
Grade for this group: A–

Brad Marchand, James van Riemsdyk, David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha
You could make the argument for any of these (or all 4 of these) players to make the bucket above, however this is not some fanboy analysis. This is a deep dive into the advanced statistics and more than just the “eyeball test”. Zacha is at the same clip as last year when he set his career high in points, but his face-off percentage has fallen off a cliff. JVR wasn’t here last year, and his points total is way down from his career average, but his assists are trending to be the most over his 15 year career. There’s also the fact that he signed a 1-year deal worth $1M which is a bargain for his contributions. Up next is The Captain, Brad Marchand. No one is going to ever question 63’s heart or effort, and he’s on pace to register his 2nd career 100pt season. But why the lower bucket Brownie? Well Dear Reader, Marchand has the 2nd highest giveaways/60 on the team. Granted part of that is having the puck on his stick so much, and there’s sure to be a drop off when Patrice Bergeron hung them up; but in watching the games, my opinion is Marchand is trying to do too much. Not that he’s incapable of pulling off what he attempts, but there seems to be almost a reluctance to rely on his teammates. I mean call it the Bergy Syndrome, but when you played the last 13 or so years with The Perfect Human you can imagine a slight backside. I will say this, too many times this season, Marchand seems to be the only player in Black and Gold engaged and he will try to drag his team into a higher compete level. Which brings us to the Bruins offensive superstar: David Pastrnak. First and foremost, Pasta is an all-world offensive talent and has 72 points at the break; but my gosh is he careless with the puck. Pastrnak leads the team (in a runaway) in giveaways/60 and his uncanny ability to cough up the puck at the WORST possible time is something you’ll hear yelled in every bar from Falmouth to Springfield. With the huge ticket (totally deserved for his offense), I’d like to see a bit more from him on the defensive side to balance out. For some reason HC Jim Montgomery keeps putting him out there defending a lead late, maybe he’s trying to instill some defensive confidence? With these players the expected baseline is higher so the grading is harsher.
Grade for this group: Solid B (flirting with B+)

Jakob Lauko, John Beecher and Oskar Steen
Jakob Lauko is leading the team in hits/60 (and probably the best social media follow on the team) and is making an impact with just over 9min TOI. To come in and be the 4th line home wrecker seems like something he enjoys (and relishes) and he’s doing it every night. Getting players to buy in with lower TOI and to do the dirty work? That’s how you build a team. Which brings us to another beauty who does whatever the team needs: Oskar Steen. This cat has only played 30 games at the break, but never bitches, pisses or moans. He just comes in, skate’s his bag off and hits everything that is wearing a different sweater. Love the way he plays. And then you have Johnny Beecher, (who’s currently in Providence), who benefited from an unsustainable shooting percentage to open the season, but his face-off totals don’t lie. Beecher is leading the team in face-off W/60 as well as percentage and is growing into a respectable 2-way player. The best part of this group? Lauko is 23, Steen is 25 and Beecher is 22 and they make a combined $2.5M this season. Chalk up another W for Don Sweeney. The only knock I have with any of them, is that I’d like to see a more consistent offensive touch. That’s why they’re not graded higher.
Grade for this group: C+ (flirting with B-)

Matthew Poitras and Jake DeBrusk
Oh boy. These two. I’d hate to be Jake DeBrusk’s agent. First he wants out, then he wants in and signs a 2-year deal, then with his contract expiring, the Old Jake has shown up from time to time. Loafing on the backcheck, not finishing checks along the wall and is 8th on the team in points. Not what you want for a burgeoning free agent at 27 years old. This year he has expanded his defensive responsibilities and he is positive in the takeaways/giveaways per 60 (one of only 8 players on the team to achieve that), but he seems to check out for weeks at a time. He’s logging the 5th most minutes of the forward group, seeing PP time and has really become good on the PK, but something’s off. Maybe it’s the looming contract, maybe it’s the junk food that he allegedly scarfs down, but it’s going to be an uphill battle for him to hit 20G. Then there’s young Matt Poitras, who left to l~~ight up~~ ~~dominate~~ woefully underachieve at the World Juniors. Empty netters and goals in routs weren’t what he went over there for. Granted he’s only 19, but he came on the scene like a rocket and then started getting run over on a nightly basis which certainly slowed him down. He led the team in hits taken/60 in the first half, but also led the team in takeaways/60 over that same span. There was no way he was going to keep up the pace that he opened the season with, (check the video below) but I’d like to see a bit more consistency.
Grade for this group: C (with instances of C-)

Well, there you have it. The Bruins opened up the 2nd half by getting shitkicked by Calgary at the beginning of a 7 game homestand, and then get chirped by old friend Nazeem Kadri after the beatdown. But what did Kadri say that wasn’t accurate? FLA chased the B’s out of the first round last year by playing just like CGY did the other night. Will the team as constituted be able to withstand a pack of hyenas? The Bruins have 32 games to figure it out and the best team in the West rolling into TD Garden tonight.