confused???

[Hali33]

Cups are neither won nor lost in July, or October, or March for that matter.

I'm not in the prediction business (they take care of that in Delphi), but I always hope for and root for the best. Life's too short to waste time on doom and gloom.

I'm looking forward to seeing a healthy Chara and Krejci, how the new guys work out, the continued growth of Pasta and Spooner. I have to believe they'll do well, because otherwise, why watch?

Different strokes.

On the flip side of things, I can accept them for what I believe they are next season and still look forward to seeing them instead of trying to convince myself everything is going to go right for them and ignore my concerns.

As confused as the OP is of the negativity, I'm just as confused as how someone can see this team as one of the best in the East.

I have nothing against people that choose to respectfully be positive about their team in all situations but it's not for every fan and that's okay. The worst thing for me is not a team that I expect to be bad, it's a team that I build high expectations for that crashes down. Not something I'm going to have to worry about next season as I've adjusted my expectations quite a bit.

 

[Artemis]

Now I can't believe a word that comes out of your mouth.

In all seriousness, I agree with everything you said. To me Krug is the most underrated player on the team. Also, people don't realize how important Krejci is when he's healthy.

Also, I'm a huge believer that Lucic took so many shifts off when he wasn't in the mood. His off ice personality is very similar to the way he plays the game. The problem is, it's his contract year so he's going to have a great season.

Lucic's blessing and his curse was Krejci. When they were both on, they were something to behold (and my God with Horton they were awesome).

Unfortunately IMO Lucic began to depend on Krejci too much, trusting him to deliver no matter what. He got lazy - but I don't think it was a conscious laziness, more like getting into the habit of not going 100 percent because he didn't have to. But Krejci was never himself last year; even when he was in the lineup, he obviously wasn't healthy.

Lucic did show some signs of life when playing with Spooner and Pastrnak, but never totally shook the bad habits he'd fallen into.

I wish the Bruins could have kept him, if he'd been able to get back to his old self, but the cap made that a difficult proposition, and who knows whether he'd renew himself, continue with his struggles, or even regress. I hope for his sake that he does well in L.A. A fresh start and having to prove himself all over again could do wonders.

 

[Mr. Make-Believe]

This mantra that a healthy Chara will help is puzzling to me. Why do people think that Chara is going to be healthy? They already announced that his ligament is permanently damaged and is never going to heal. So off the top, he's automatically not healthy. Maybe he manages the injury better this season because he gained some insight and experience dealing with it last year, but it's not going to be healthier.

The other thing is McQuaid. Even if he's healthy, he's not a top 4 dman, yet that's what he's projecting to be here. That's hardly something to expect improvement on. He's going to be misused and expected/needed to play above his actual abilities.

The best chance for improvement is Seidenberg, IMO, because he'll be 2 years removed from the ACL injury, and by all accounts, that type of injury takes that long to really feel healed.

I think we see things pretty similarly when it comes to how the roster has been compromised.

However

The Bruins finish in the standings aside, there really is no actually getting worse than the sloppy, boring and uninspired play we saw for the vast majority of last season. This year will seem night and day in terms of team speed, physicality, drive and net drive. We have new young players proving their place on the roster which to me, was the source of our only positives last year.

Wherever the Bruins end up in the standings this year, it will be an improvement because it will be (thank ****) INTERESTING. And it will be so with stronger prospect depth and the cap issues dealt with.

 

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

I really don't get it. So many people are writing off the Bruins this upcoming season. Why? There is not too much on the current roster that makes them significantly worse then last season. We finished with 96 points and just missed the playoffs. Highest point total to miss the playoffs in NHL history. If Krejci and Chara are healthy the whole year, then we would of been fighting for top spot in the east.

The was I see it is:
Hayes>Smith
Lucic = Belesky ( though Belesky could be a bust)
Spooner = Soderberg
Hamilton we will miss but he is definitely replaceable for this season.

I think we still are one of the better teams in east. Am I crazy?

anyways....

Hayes>Smith Debatable, but I think Hayes is a better fit. So I'll agree.
Lucic = Belesky ( though Belesky could be a bust) Belesky > Slacking Lucic, Belesky < Motivated Lucic. Beleksy himself is a question mark, so debatable, but I'll agree for the sake of it.
Spooner = Soderberg Possibly, but not definite. For whatever purposes this stands, it's a wash.
Hamilton we will miss but he is definitely replaceable for this season. Absolutely not. Unless we sign someone else or make a trade. We started last off season with 4 top 4 defenseman. We started the last season with 3. And we started this off season with 2. Losing Hamilton hurts with no actual replacement. Players can step up, but until anyone is proven, all we have are question marks and high hopes.

So we improve a underperforming winger with a local kid. Move Lucic for a more motivated, but historically less impactful player. Hope Spooner keeps progressing. But we lose a top 4 defenseman on an already weak defensive squad. On paper that doesn't sound like enough.

Factor in Chara and Seidenberg didn't exactly have a great year... do they return to their previous form... or are they trending downwards?

Krejci, will and can he be an impact player again?

I think the Bruins are a few notches down from where they were at the end of last season on paper.

The kids need to step up. If they don't, then we are not in better shape.

The team should be hungrier than last year, which hopefully makes them perform better than they look on paper.

 

[Dr Quincy]

Healthy Krejci, Chara, Miller, McQuaid and Seidenberg for starters.

This canard is often repeated by people every year.

Some of your injured players will be healthy.
Some of your injured players will be injured.
Some of your healthy players will be injured.
Some guys will improve.
Some guys will regress.

If your plan on being a better team is simply to hope that a bunch of old guys who were hurt stop being hurt.... it's not much of a plan.

 

[Artemis]

This canard is often repeated by people every year.

Some of your injured players will be healthy.
Some of your injured players will be injured.
Some of your healthy players will be injured.
Some guys will improve.
Some guys will regress.

If your plan on being a better team is simply to hope that a bunch of old guys who were hurt stop being hurt.... it's not much of a plan.

Not planning on anything. Responding to a particular question.

 

[putabergeronthegrill]

the way I see it is pretty simple, we already needed an established top 6 forward and a top 4 D last year. And now we lost Lucic and Hamilton and we need 2 top 6 forwards and 2 top 4 D.

 

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

Bruins top 9 is faster and has added offensive players. The fourth line has been so inadequate that even if it's Talbot and Kelly it's an upgrade.

In my 33 years as a Bruins season ticket holder there isn't any player so overrated as Dougie Hamilton.

These same folks have underrated David Krejci, Loui Eriksson, Torey Krug, Brad Marchand.

Overrated or not, Hamilton is still overall better than all but 1 (possibly 2 at most) of our current defenseman. Unless you disagree with that statement, in which at this current date, we can agree to disagree.

Chara is still good enough, but getting old and not nearly as impactful as he once was.
We traded Boychuk.
Seidenberg was either injured and/or declining.
Krug may top Hamilton offensively, but he's still not that great defensively, and certainly not better than Hamilton (while many question his overall defensive game, Krug wasn't trusted with many of those minutes). In Krug's defense, this is his year to prove himself.
Adam McQuaid tops him defensively, but doesn't have an ounce of the offense that Hamilton brought. Also a big year for him to prove himself.
Kevyn Miller, for lack of a better description is a less big, less injured Adam McQuaid.

X-Factors here are Morrow, Trotman, and Colin Miller.

 

[High five Tom]

Hayes>Smith Debatable, but I think Hayes is a better fit. So I'll agree.
Lucic = Belesky ( though Belesky could be a bust) Belesky > Slacking Lucic, Belesky < Motivated Lucic. Beleksy himself is a question mark, so debatable, but I'll agree for the sake of it.
Spooner = Soderberg Possibly, but not definite. For whatever purposes this stands, it's a wash.
Hamilton we will miss but he is definitely replaceable for this season. Absolutely not. Unless we sign someone else or make a trade. We started last off season with 4 top 4 defenseman. We started the last season with 3. And we started this off season with 2. Losing Hamilton hurts with no actual replacement. Players can step up, but until anyone is proven, all we have are question marks and high hopes.

So we improve a underperforming winger with a local kid. Move Lucic for a more motivated, but historically less impactful player. Hope Spooner keeps progressing. But we lose a top 4 defenseman on an already weak defensive squad. On paper that doesn't sound like enough.

Factor in Chara and Seidenberg didn't exactly have a great year... do they return to their previous form... or are they trending downwards?

Krejci, will and can he be an impact player again?

I think the Bruins are a few notches down from where they were at the end of last season on paper.

The kids need to step up. If they don't, then we are not in better shape.

The team should be hungrier than last year, which hopefully makes them perform better than they look on paper.

Hamilton is so overrated. Sure he may turn out to be great player, but as of now there are a lot of holes in his game. If we end up picking up Cody Franson then id say its a pretty close trade off.

 

[Ladyfan]

I do not have a good feeling about the B's this season.

I hope I am wrong .

I am usually excited about the start of a new season but I am not at this time.

sigh...I guess I will be saving $$$ when they miss the playoffs...again.

 

[DoubleAAAA]

I'm guessing Beleskey played with Perry/Getzlaf? How much more can we expect with Krejci?

I expect 15 foals and 30 points from him, which is nowhere near what Lucic brought.

I like him and the signing but our D is worse and forwards overall are worse.

We could make a push for the playoffs but I think we hover around 8-113th in the east.

He played primarily with Kesler, so offensively Krejci will be an upgrade.

 

[DoubleAAAA]

How are we better than Detroit, they got better and have lots of young talent who will only improve.

Floridas top talen youngster will only improve and so will Ottawa's.

Our forward group is good enough to challenge but the D oi D.

They also have a lot of older guys getting worse. Datsyuk is supposed to miss the beginning of the season. Their young guys are young and full of potential, but they're still exactly just that ... as much a question mark as our young guys. Their d isn't anything to write home about even with Green. Goaltending is also questionable at best.

 

[BB88]

I think we see things pretty similarly when it comes to how the roster has been compromised.

However

The Bruins finish in the standings aside, there really is no actually getting worse than the sloppy, boring and uninspired play we saw for the vast majority of last season. This year will seem night and day in terms of team speed, physicality, drive and net drive. We have new young players proving their place on the roster which to me, was the source of our only positives last year.

Wherever the Bruins end up in the standings this year, it will be an improvement because it will be (thank ****) INTERESTING. And it will be so with stronger prospect depth and the cap issues dealt with.

We have a chance for that but we aren't there just yet, I'm dreaming that Sweeney can nail those 1-2 roster spots so we can see that.

 

[DoubleAAAA]

FWIW - There aren't many teams in the Metro I think the B's are ahead of, but aside from Tampa, I don't think there's another team in the Atlantic that's significantly better.

 

[wintersej]

FWIW - There aren't many teams in the Metro I think the B's are ahead of, but aside from Tampa, I don't think there's another team in the Atlantic that's significantly better.

I think this is fair. The Bruins have a Krejci and Bergeron up the middle and Rask in net. Those are real competitive advantages over most other teams.

I think not having Krejci for much of last year and never having him at 100% is mind bogglingly overlooked on this board. Adding a top 15 player at the most important position in hockey for 20 minutes a game is a huge deal.

The question is how good the D and wingers are. I feel pretty good about the wingers. Its not like this team has ever been rocking it on the winger front. They are good enough and have upside to be more than good enough.

The D is obviously full of question marks. But there is cap space, and there are a lot of guys who COULD step up and be good enough...its not like they are just relying on Bart to be a top 4D and thats it.

If everything goes wrong, they will miss the playoffs. If everything goes right they can challenge for tops in the conference. They are a pretty average team with some youthful upside and cap space and it will be interesting.

 

[BB88]

They also have a lot of older guys getting worse. Datsyuk is supposed to miss the beginning of the season. Their young guys are young and full of potential, but they're still exactly just that ... as much a question mark as our young guys. Their d isn't anything to write home about even with Green. Goaltending is also questionable at best.

We are looking at possiblity of Irwing+Trotman being in our top4, it's worse than Detroit's situation.

So are our guys like Chara+Seids who will still be logging top2 minutes and Chara will have nothing left on the 2nd half with the minutes he is going to have to play.

And my point was that they were ahead of us last year and have added Green and C depth help, we haven't added top4 D help.

 

[Neely2005]

I think that our forwards are a little better and our defense is worse. However DS may not be done adding to the defense yet.

As to the most points and not making the playoffs it is true that 3 point games contributed to that, however 3 point games have been around for over a decade now so it's not like it's something new.

 

[DKH]

I do not have a good feeling about the B's this season.

I hope I am wrong .

I am usually excited about the start of a new season but I am not at this time.

sigh...I guess I will be saving $$$ when they miss the playoffs...again.

Seriously who told you last year Bruins would come in 9th by a point and we would save playoff money and get rid of Chiarelli?

Well this year 100 plus points and second round knock out

 

[Samsonov14]

The defense is pretty suspect at this point. I'm not trying to be jerk here, but if you think Hamilton won't be missed, I'll call you a little crazy.

Belesky is a decent pickup, and I liked the Lucic trade, but Lucic does a lot of things that Belesky can't. He's significant downgrade.

I'm excited to see what Conolly can do, but wouldn't be surprised to find that he is a non-factor next season.

All in all, I think this year's team is a little worse on offense. I'm okay with that because I'm happy to see Spooner and Pasta progress.

The defense, again, is really pretty bad. Chara is winding down, and Seids is still one of my favorite players but I think he's winding down too.

The Bruins are going to be a bubble team. That's cool though. Been watching for more than 3 decades now, and sometimes you need to shake things up. I'm not optimistic for next season, but I'm hoping this team can get back to being a consistent threat in the next three years or so without going though an ugly rebuid.

 

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

Hamilton is so overrated. Sure he may turn out to be great player, but as of now there are a lot of holes in his game. If we end up picking up Cody Franson then id say its a pretty close trade off.

IF we sign Cody Franson.

Again, as overrated (as you claim) Hamilton may be, he was still one of our top 2 defensemen last season. Krug, Mcquaid, Miller were not better. And Seidenberg was easily a question mark. We haven't improved that position (yet).

 

[TCL40]

I don't think the team is finishing in the bottom 10 league wide-provided they stay relatively healthy.

I also don't see them as a top 8 team in the league.

I think they finish just in or just out of the playoff picture.

I think Hayes and Beleskey are big question marks.

I think they are going to miss Dougie a lit and I'm not sure the defense they have now will be better at the transition game than the one they had. To truly compete and contend the defense has got to have a better transition game and right now they don't look better. Some prospects may change this though but they have to crack the roster and make other players expendable.

 

[vjcsmoke]

Never been sold on Rask? LOL. He has only put up top 5 GK numbers for the past 3 years now. And he won the Vezina trophy for top GK in 2014. What more does he need to do? Stand on his head while stopping shots?

As far as the defense goes, we need a healthy top 4 defender to help out that unit. Preferably someone with some experience. I have no idea why we have never explored a Keith Yandle trade. Nor why we dumped Boychuk for just a pair of 2nd rounders, that we turned into Connolly -- who promptly injured himself for the remainder of last season.

Going to guess that we pick up Franson on a 2 year deal to shore up that ailing blue line. If this team remains relatively healthy, I see them easily getting into the playoffs as a bottom half seeded team. Bridge year, doesn't necessarily mean you miss the playoffs.

Looking forward to seeing how Pastrnak and Spooner up their game this season. Those guys have high ceilings and finally will be slotted for starting minutes on the ice.

I can't say the D doesn't scare me and I have never been totally sold on Rask so they do need to improve there.

Do I think they are a cup contender as currently constructed? No, but I like the way they are trending.

 

[Mpasta]

Lucic's blessing and his curse was Krejci. When they were both on, they were something to behold (and my God with Horton they were awesome).

Unfortunately IMO Lucic began to depend on Krejci too much, trusting him to deliver no matter what. He got lazy - but I don't think it was a conscious laziness, more like getting into the habit of not going 100 percent because he didn't have to. But Krejci was never himself last year; even when he was in the lineup, he obviously wasn't healthy.

Lucic did show some signs of life when playing with Spooner and Pastrnak, but never totally shook the bad habits he'd fallen into.

I wish the Bruins could have kept him, if he'd been able to get back to his old self, but the cap made that a difficult proposition, and who knows whether he'd renew himself, continue with his struggles, or even regress. I hope for his sake that he does well in L.A. A fresh start and having to prove himself all over again could do wonders.

I have to agree with you... for once.

The only thing I can't get behind is that Lucic wasn't conscious about his laziness. He MUST have heard from the media/fans that people have been calling him lazy for some time. He had an attitude that showed on and off the ice and when he didn't get his way or wasn't in a good mood, he would coast.

For some reason, when he was put with Pasta and Spooner he stepped it up. I think by that time he finally realized that he can't get away with it anymore.

Also, just to make sure nobody thinks that I dislike Lucic, he was one of my favorite Bruins when he gave a ****. Lucic-Krejci-Horton was one of my favorite lines of all time. I just like to call somebody out when they deserve it.

 

[finchster]

Seriously who told you last year Bruins would come in 9th by a point and we would save playoff money and get rid of Chiarelli?

Well this year 100 plus points and second round knock out

I called this team as a bubble team to make the playoffs after we traded Boychuk and was summarily laughed at . It was a time I wish I was dead wrong

 

[OutspokenMinority*]

Cups are neither won nor lost in July, or October, or March for that matter.

I'm not in the prediction business (they take care of that in Delphi), but I always hope for and root for the best. Life's too short to waste time on doom and gloom.

I'm looking forward to seeing a healthy Chara and Krejci, how the new guys work out, the continued growth of Pasta and Spooner. I have to believe they'll do well, because otherwise, why watch?

Cups are technically neither won nor lost until the buzzer sounds at the end of the 4th victory for the winning team.

Unfortunately that leaves very little time for discussion for the other 29 teams.

Good talk.