Part 3
My first question mark of the offseason?
Team speed.
It’s something one could argue we lacked before going into free agency. And something Sweeney himself said was going to be the primary focus going into it. Why did a player like Jesper Boqvist actually look decent (more than a JAG) last season? His footspeed. He’s a JAG and we don’t even have him anymore. It wasn’t addressed. If anything, we got slower.
Solutions to the top nine appear to be Merkulov, Brazeau or Lysell. Of these, only Lysell represents the skillset. Brazeau has the inside track even seeing some powerplay time in his brief stint in 2024, but I don’t want any part of him in that role as it will only exasperate this issue. I like Brazeau (A LOT actually). But he does not fit the makeup of the current roster’s needs in that role.
It may not matter as much as I think it will. Transition game should be improved. My gripe is how do you state this as being your primary goal of free agency and then ignore it entirely? How do you identify speed as being an opportunity - and then go the opposite direction? And how many different players are we going to try squeeze into roles unfitting of them in order to attempt to infuse speed into the top part of the roster?
Sweeney says a lot of things, some of them he follows through on and some he just doesn't. Take the 2020 offseason for example - he said the Bruins needed to improve at getting useful pucks on net from the blueline, which was true. He then let Krug go, who was arguably the best on the team in that area, and while that in itself made sense, he replaced him with nobody with comparable skills nor added any other skill of that type. So the problem simply dragged on and it's still not a strong point for the team 4 years later.
Team speed is a combination of raw pace, ability to read the play and anticipate and get to pucks first, and ability to pass and play quickly. Having the first doesn't necessarily translate into the other two, but it helps, equally the latter two can be achieved without the first, at least to a point. The Panthers team that won the Cup was actually slower, in raw terms, than their teams of 2-3 years prior, but they were much better at being in the right places and shutting down pucks and opposing plays with purposeful speed.
I thought last year's Bruins lacked both footspeed and play speed. They were reasonably good at getting on pucks, but not great at using them with the sort of speed and precision that you need to break down tough defenses and forechecking tactics, absent some other means of doing so such as sheer brute force. As you say, I see no evidence that they've improved purely on the talent front in this area. Substitute Boqvist for Jones, in this sense, subtract DeBrusk who was never outright fast but was good on the burst and probably the quickest in our top 6, maybe add Lysell, and that's about it. So can they play faster despite not being able to skate any quicker? And if not can they succeed despite it?
And just on the increase in size. I get those who say the team has an identity now but it's not quite that simple. Forging an identity, or a culture, takes time, and sheer size in itself isn't worth too much unless it comes with the right attitude and is put to good use. So I appreciate the roster beefing up, but it remains to be seen just what that translates into in terms of the Bruins' play. Hopefully it means good things - I think it will - but we'll have to see how they shape up on the ice.