Will The Boston Bruins Get A Little More Defensive?
Missing two high-powered centers may alter the way the B's go about winning hockey games this season
BRIGHTON, MA – The Boston Bruins aren’t under any illusions about this upcoming season’s team and its prospects within an improved Atlantic division, the Eastern Conference and the league itself.
Sure, they still have a lot of talented returning players and some scoring punch on the wing with guys like David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk around. But the Boston Bruins are without a lot of high-end talent down the middle with the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, and their biggest strengths headed into this season will be their defensemen depth and their dynamic hugging goalie tandem of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.
Last season the Bruins finished just second to the high-powered Edmonton Oilers while averaging 3.66 goals per game, and their power play lived up to its name as a dangerous special teams unit.
The offensive prospects for this season are still good, but it would be really surprising if the Black and Gold are in the top-5 in NHL offensive categories like goals scored, goals per game or even power play proficiency.