The 2021-22 NHL season is officially underway. The Bruins open their campaign Saturday night against the Stars at TD Garden.
Before they do, here’s a look at the seven biggest questions facing Boston.
1. What does the goaltending split look like?
We know the Bruins are unsurprisingly rolling with Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman as their two NHL goalies. We think that things will eventually settle into something relatively close to a 50/50 split, but that’s not a 100% given.
Swayman clearly outplayed Ullmark in the preseason. He has seemingly earned the opening night start, but the Bruins haven’t actually announced that yet. It’s possible they could still choose to defer to the veteran (and higher-paid player) in Ullmark.
Beyond opening night, it will be interesting to see how the Bruins split starts. Coach Bruce Cassidy has said the rotation won't be as strict or as scripted as it was with Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak in past seasons.
If they ride the hot hand, what does that look like? Just a back-to-back start here and there? Or could one of these goalies -- and Swayman would certainly be the hot hand right now -- reel off three or four starts in a row?
The Bruins will be mindful of the big picture, and know they must avoid overworking either goalie. Swayman has never played more than 35 games in a season at any level, while Ullmark has never started more than 34 at the NHL level across his six professional seasons.
Yes, a potential Tuukka Rask midseason return could lighten someone’s workload in the second half if needed, but the Bruins can’t just assume that will definitely happen.
2. Can Charlie Coyle prove he’s a capable No. 2 center?
Coyle has recovered from offseason knee surgery and looked good in his first and only preseason game playing between Taylor Hall and Craig Smith.
One game is one game, though. We won’t really know for sure if Coyle is going to be a good long-term fit at second-line center until the games and consistency start to accumulate.
No one is expecting Coyle to be exactly what David Krejci was, but the Bruins are expecting him to complement Hall and Smith and produce much more offense than he did last year, when he had 16 points in 51 games while playing on an ineffective third line and, yes, battling that knee injury.
Coyle has looked more explosive early on, and he had a goal and an assist in the one preseason game he played. If that continues, the Bruins will be quite happy.
If it doesn’t, the calls for Jack Studnicka to get a shot there will start to pick back up. Speaking of which…
3. When will we see Jack Studnicka again?
Studnicka looked very good in training camp and preseason, including when he played with Hall and Smith in Coyle’s absence. He certainly gave the Bruins something to think about, but they ultimately still decided to send him down to AHL Providence to start the season.
It feels like it probably shouldn’t be long until he’s back, but that would of course require something happening that opens up a spot for him. Bruce Cassidy has made it clear he views Studnicka as more of a second- or third-line option and not an ideal fit on the fourth based on how he plans to use that line.
That means it might take an injury to someone in the top nine, or one of those nine struggling. Everyone will get some leash early on, but it may not be a long one with Studnicka breathing down their collective necks… assuming, of course, that Studnicka keeps playing well in Providence and doesn’t suffer some sort of emotional letdown after not making the team.
4. Is the Jake DeBrusk bounce-back real?
DeBrusk and Cassidy had to find some “common ground” after last season, and they say they did. DeBrusk says he has wiped last season -- as well as everything else before then -- from his mind. The 24-year-old left wing looked good this preseason, playing with the assertiveness he’s had during his best NHL stretches and developing good chemistry with new linemates Erik Haula and Nick Foligno.
All those signs point to a bounce-back season, but now it actually needs to translate to regular-season action on a consistent basis. The offensive numbers are almost secondary for now. What the Bruins really want to see is a consistent effort and dedication to doing the little things. The points will follow if DeBrusk plays the right way.
If DeBrusk does bounce back (and that doesn’t necessarily mean jumping all the way back up to the 27 goals he had in 2018-19), it will go a long way towards helping the third line be a strength this season after being a weakness last year. If he doesn’t, the Bruins will have to once again consider other options, including the aforementioned Studnicka.
5. What is this fourth line?
The idea was that Trent Frederic, Tomas Nosek and Curtis Lazar would be a responsible two-way line that could handle tough defensive assignments while also playing with some pace (especially from Nosek and Lazar), forechecking aggressively and providing more offensive pop than the Bruins got from last year’s various fourth lines.
Things haven’t quite played out that way so far. While Nosek had some good moments this preseason, the line as a whole has struggled, especially Frederic. They committed too many turnovers, got pinned in their own zone too much, and didn’t generate many good offensive chances.
Add onto it that Lazar is now week-to-week with an upper-body injury suffered in the final preseason game. Karson Kuhlman is expected to replace him to start the season. Anton Blidh is on the initial opening night roster as well, possibly to provide some competition to Frederic.
It’s one thing for Cassidy to know what he wants his fourth line to be; it’s another for the line to actually be that. And right now this feels like a group that hasn’t really found an identity yet. That doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t -- just that there’s some work to do.
If the struggles continue into the regular season, you wonder if Cassidy would consider going for a different identity with more skill there. That could mean changing his mind about trying Studnicka there, or perhaps putting Studnicka higher in the lineup and dropping one of the current third-liners down.
6. Will Derek Forbort stick as Charlie McAvoy’s D partner?
The reality is that Forbort and Matt Grzelcyk will both see time next to McAvoy at five-on-five depending on game situation and score, but it certainly looks like Forbort is going to get more time there early on.
The thinking is that Forbort will provide a bigger, more physical, more defensive security blanket that will give McAvoy more freedom in transition and on offense. The trade-off is that Forbort is much more limited in those offensive areas than Grzelcyk is. The hope, of course, is that the safety net Forbort provides at one end outweighs those offensive zone limitations.
The Bruins like to have McAvoy on the ice at the same time as the Patrice Bergeron line a lot. When Grzelcyk joined those four last season, the results were excellent, with them executing and cycling like a true five-man unit in the offensive zone.
Forbort will play a simpler, less mobile game than Grzelcyk. If that ends up limiting the quality or quantity of chances McAvoy and the top line can generate, the temptation to use Grzelcyk with McAvoy more would surely increase.
Of the 108 D pairings around the NHL that played at least 200 minutes together at five-on-five last season, Grzelcyk-McAvoy ranked second in goals-for percentage (74.1%), first in shots-for percentage (67.7%), first in Corsi (63.3%), and second in expected goals-for percentage (66.4%). Results like that are kind of hard to ignore.
7. Can the defense stay healthy?
Duh! Obviously staying healthy is key for anyone anywhere in the lineup on any team. But it feels especially important for the Bruins’ defense after all the injuries that group had to deal with last year.
The Bruins should have a solid top six if everyone’s healthy, even if it’s still missing the elite all-around left shot everyone was hoping for. Things could start to get dicey with even one longer-term injury, though.
The next man up would be either Jakub Zboril or John Moore. Both have had encouraging preseasons, and you’d probably be fine plugging either in for a couple games here and there, but it would be hard to be comfortable with either having to play regularly.
The two D under the most scrutiny when it comes to staying healthy would be Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo. Both have lengthy injury histories, including last season. A lot of that is not really their fault (like Tom Wilson leaping into Carlo’s head, for example), but both have also had a habit at times of getting caught in vulnerable positions and not being able to safely absorb hits.
Both have talked about putting themselves in better positions and being better prepared for contact. Cassidy would also like to see Carlo utilize the reverse hit more. Now it’s time to see if they can put that into action. Grzelcyk and Carlo are just too valuable to this team to miss significant time.
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