Can this year's team be as good as the 2010-11 Bruins?

Maybe the Boston Bruins really do believe that David Krejci and Tuukka Rask will come back in time for the playoffs and that the summer's roster shakeup will launch one more swing at the fences of glory.

If the brain trust is less than convinced after two straight second-round playoff ousters, its members see the current path as their best chance in a salary-capped world of x-factors and puck luck.

Then there is an emerging reality to consider for a franchise founded on a constitution of, whatever else, strength down the middle so help me Harry Sinden.

Neither Krejci nor Rask are signed. Krejci, who will turn 36 before the 2022 playoffs, is playing before family and friends in his native Czech Republic, and Rask (35 come playoff time) is rehabbing from labrum surgery. Patrice Bergeron turned 36 this summer.

If the Bruins go deep, Brad Marchand will play this season at 34. Free-agent signee Nick Foligno turns 34 on Halloween.

Boo!

None of this seems to scare the Bruins, whose belief in gray playoff beards is based on the knowledge that today's athletes learned professionism as teenagers and were reared with all the advantages of modern medicine, nutrition, training and protective gear. But that's still a lot of miles and these guys are not the 2001-02 Red Wings.

Can they be as good as the 2010-11 Bruins?

The 10-year anniversary now past, that bygone era feels especially distant when faces more familiar to the generation of fans spun out of that glorious run are fast disappearing in General Manager Don Sweeney's quest to assemble a hockey team that works like a Swiss Army Knife.

The cumulative effect of watching this deck get shuffled, reshuffled and cut is Bruins Nation may not have noticed that half the 2019 team that went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup is gone.

Krejci and Rask have joined Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug, Kevan Miller, Danton Heinen, Marcus Johansson, Sean Kuraly, Noel Acciari, Joakim Nordstrom, Jaro Halak, David Backes and Steve Kampfer as former Bruins.

If some of those names are starting to feel like yesteryear, it's time to embrace Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and whoever might emerge as the current-not-future foundation for Cup contention.

Not to put pressure on all 6-foot-4 and 219 pounds of free-agent signee Derek Forbort, but championship rosters faithfully fit one of two basic templates: two centers who are really number-one's or a "big three" defense, the ultimate blueprint being Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard on the 1973-79 Montreal Canadiens.

Lou Lamoriello's Devils won three times with great Scotts Niedermayer and Stevens and either Ken Daneyko or Brian Rafalski as the third wheel. In the cap era, Chicago won three times on the backs of Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Brent Seabrook. And -- I know this one hurts -- St. Louis won because Boston's forwards could not beat Alex Pietrangelo, Colton Parayko and Jay Bouwmeester when it mattered.

After an extraordinary 11 years, the Bruins are no longer a Bergeron-Krejci team. But they are one dominant, left-shot defender away from becoming a McAvoy-Carlo-? team. Forbort's size and Matt Grzelcyk's skill would complete that picture in spades, but the two left-handers unfortunately cannot partner with McAvoy on the same shift.

Buried in everyday detail, real-life hockey managers are not given to blueprints and history lessons beyond what happened last spring, but even recent history inspires decisions.

Forbort, who played heavy minutes last season with the Winnipeg Jets, will turn 30 before the 2022 playoffs. Seattle will unfairly benefit from Jeremy Lauzon's sometimes-rocky development here, but Forbort's experience in the same role will be a difference maker for Boston.

Rask, meantime, could very well rehab only to be told "we're good" because Linus Ullmark is a terrific goaltender and Jeremy Swayman is the Bruins' future if he isn't already their present.

Foligno, the former captain in Columbus, is son of former Sabres sniper Mike Foligno, whom Bruins fans of the 1980s loved to hate. Hockeywise, Foligno replaces Nick Ritchie, but no one replaces Krejci.

Charlie Coyle, good to go after knee surgery, will get first dibs at centering Taylor Hall and Craig Smith, and Erik Haula (another former Nashville Predator) is versatile.

Jake DeBrusk? Still a Bruin. Fun fact: All three of those 2015 first-round picks are scheduled to compete for spots when camp opens at Warrior Arena.

Mick Colageo writes about hockey for The Standard-Times. Follow on Twitter @MickColageo.