The opening night lineup for the Boston Bruins this coming season, with the first game now officially taking place at home on Tuesday, Sept. 29 against the New York Rangers, is going to be a bit muddled no matter what. Charlie McAvoy will be serving a six-game suspension for chopping Zach Benson with his stick at the end of last spring’s first-round playoff series against the Sabres, and there are still some very real questions as to which defensemen are still even going to be with the team at the end of training camp.
But there is more than enough to start piecing things together as NHL.com did this past week in spitting out a projected lineup for the Black and Gold once everybody is healthy and cleared to play in games.
It’s an interesting first stab at putting together lines and pairings, and it’s very notable that it doesn’t include Henri Jokiharju or Mason Lohrei as part of Boston’s projected back once the full group is together. There are most definitely moves to be made on the blue line with a group of 10 players with a legit claim to NHL playing time for just six spots, and one of them being a 22-year-old Frederic Brunet that the Bruins are actively looking to get into the lineup for Boston this upcoming season after a strong year in Providence.
“D zone exits are going to be an area that we have to be better at. Part of that, I should say, starts up the ice, and Marco’s [Sturm] pointed out that we’ll probably have to forecheck a little differently, and create anxiety up the ice. [That creates chances for] some of our D having the opportunity to surf the neutral zone as opposed to maybe back up and retrieve,” said Don Sweeney. “So we have to continue to evolve…everybody does. There’s only one [Stanley Cup] winner, and nobody’s really copying that exact form, but there are bits and pieces that I think have to be malleable as a group.
“That’s where our group is hopefully getting to. [Frederic] Brunet is a good example, with the mobility and puck skill that he’s applied in Providence, and how is that [skill set] going to translate to the National Hockey League this year? There’s a good chance we’re going to find out.”
The real burning question on the back end is whether 27-year-old Jonathan Aspirot is going to be able to continue handling top-pair minutes after a strong rookie season where he finished with a plus-30 in 61 games along with three goals and 13 points. Aspirot was a solid, no-nonsense stay-at-home defender who allowed McAvoy the freedom to roam a little bit more as an offense creator and impact defender, but the pairing ran into problems late season and during the playoffs with some pretty costly breakdowns.
Outside of that, it’s a no-brainer that McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm and Will Borgen will be the top 4 defenders to start with Nikita Zadorov and Connor Clifton looking like rough-and-tumble bottom-pair guys to start things off. Borgen should be an all-around upgrade over Andrew Peeke, who struggled when given a top 4 workload in Boston last season before signing a one-year, $1 million contract with the Utah Mammoth.
How Lohrei fits into all this after finishing with the second-most points (26) among Bruins defensemen last season remains a question mark, and one of the big unknowns in the middle of the summer.
Up front, there will undoubtedly be a bevy of different combos that Marco Sturm and the coaching staff will be looking at, but one would suspect that JJ Peterka and David Pastrnak will get first looks together based on their elite offensive skill sets. A playmaking Pastrnak could really open up scoring chances for Peterka, and in turn the German winger’s presence could allow No. 88 to score a little more than he did with just 29 goals last season.
The question is whether a veteran center like Pavel Zacha or Elias Lindholm should be the guy in the middle between those two wingers, or whether 22-year-old two-way center Fraser Minten gets the call after an impressive 200-foot rookie season in Boston.
Also, the B’s second line will be remade this year with the
