This is the sixth article in a series of articles looking at and analyzing the success of the last five teams to raise the Stanley Cup. Be sure to read the first three articles in the series, “Where Have all the Dynasties Gone?”, “Detroit: Setting the Parameters of a Modern Day Dynasty”, “Detroit: End of an Era?” , “Pittsburgh – Needed to hit Rock Bottom before Rising Up”, and “Chicago – Fresh Replacements is the Key“. The objective of this series is to search for the new magic formula to create a champion and whether that champion would be built to stand the test of time.
History
The Boston Bruins franchise has enjoyed its ups and downs over a long and storied history. The Bruins have made an appearance in the Cup finals 18 times winning the Cup in 6 of those appearances. However, prior to its victory in 2011, the Bruins had not won the Cup since 1972, despite all of its efforts to win one for its long serving captain, Raymond Bourque.
The closest the Bruins might have been to being considered a dynasty was in the 1970’s where the club made the Cup finals 5 times during the decade and won the cup twice. In both Cup wins, legendary defenseman Bobby Orr scored the winning goal for Boston. In addition to Orr, during the 1970’s Hall of Famers Gerry Cheevers, Phi Esposito, Johnny Bucyk and Brad Park would lace up their skates for the Bruins making for a great decade of hockey in Beantown.
Bourque would begin his National Hockey league career in 1979 for the Bruins, and for the next 21 seasons would attempt to help Boston get back to the Cup finals, but the club would only manage two trips over that period (1988 and 1990) but failed to win the Cup. The club lost both times to the Edmonton Oilers in 4 and 5 games respectively.
Some consolation to its losses and inability to win the Cup over Ray Bourque’s career was the turning of the tables with its fierce rivals the Montreal Canadiens. Prior to 1988 the Canadiens had won 18 consecutive play-off series against the Bruins. But between 1988 and 1994 the Bruins would win 4 play-off series against the Canadiens.
Over the Bourque era the Bruins also had the opportunity to select the top player in the draft. In 1982 they selected Defenseman Gord Kluzak and in 1997 the Bruins selected twice in the top 10 picks selecting Joe Thornton first overall and Sergei Samsonov with the 8th overall pick. Yet again, the Bruins were only able to show glimpses of greatness without winning the big game. The Bruins appeared to be trapped in the mediocrity state many teams fall trap to where making the play-offs became good enough.
The Bruins would eventually trade both Samsonov and Thornton in separate moves. In at least Thonton’s case, it was not the fact that he failed to live up to expectations as a scorer. How could he, he is still consistently amongst the top scorers in the league each season. The big knock on Thornton is that he cannot take a club to the next level, and flops in the play-offs. Thornton has been unable to prove critics wrong yet as he has not been able to lead his current club the San Jose Sharks to a Cup win either.
Although the Bruins were not truly a down and out type of team during the period, they just could not seem to win enough to win the big games. So what changed in recent years?
Current Era
Anyone who has been following this seasons play-offs even in passing will note that the current Boston Bruins are led in a very large part, pun intended, by captain Zdeno Chara. During the 2011 championship run Chara averaged 27:39 on the ice per play-off game, during this seasons play-off run he is averaging a whopping 29:21 of ice time per play-off game, leading all skaters in that category. So in my opinion the best spot to start the current era of the Boston Bruins success is the spring/summer of 2006, when the Bruins signed the coveted free agent defenseman away from the Ottawa Senators.
After trading Thornton the Bruins took one step back in order to take two steps forward. They would miss the playoffs in 05-06, and in 06-07 only to rejoin the dance in the 07-08 season. From their they have been on a consistent upward trajectory.
Chara, the team’s captain has been a top tier defensemen in each of the years he has put on a Bruins Jersey logging huge important minutes against opponents best players, while also adding goals from the blue line and bone shattering hits along the way. When added to already existing roster players like David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron and Tim Thomas the Bruins had a great foundation to make a play-off push.
It is also a good starting point as in the 2006 entry draft the Bruins selected Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand. Each player has proven to be invaluable to the club in his own way.
Lucic, although streaky at times has provided the bump and grind that only a power forward can, and helped orchestrate this seasons first round miracle come from behind win against the Leafs in game 7.
Marchand is the super pest every team would love to have and every team hates to play. Unlike many who play similar roles Marchand does the pest role while also providing scoring, this season he led the Bruins in points. His pesky play has led to bad penalties at times and even suspensions, but given what he brings to the game the Bruins would have it no other way.
Kessel’s contribution to the Bruins 2011 Cup team as well as the current play-off run is not in his own play, but in what he brought to the Bruins in the form of assets. Kessel proved to be a key part in the current Bruins formation when in September of 2009 the Bruins traded the former 5th overall draft pick and 30 goal scorer to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a package of draft picks which would eventually net the Bruins Tyler Seguin, the 2nd overall pick in the 2010 draft, Jared Knight, the 32nd overall pick, and Dougie Hamilton the 9th overall pick in the 2011 draft.
What I have liked about the Boston franchise throughout time is the fact that they seem to know when it is time to cut a player loose. They have historically done this in respect of benefiting the club (Thornton, Kessel), but also to the benefit of a player (Bourque). This characteristic I believe is vital for a club to possess in order to have any hope of creating a dynasty. Some of these decisions are very difficult to make, but have to be made in order to be successful.
The current version of the Bruins did just that in 2009 with Kessel, who has gone on to have three 30-goal seasons to compliment the 20 goals he had in this shortened season for the Leafs. The Bruins measured his value by comparing scoring in the form of signing a very good player compared to the contract he was demanding after a 36 goal season in Boston, and the cap space and flexibility that Cap space brings as well as the future picks they would receive in a trade. The team that would win the 2011 Stanley Cup was probably the best two-way team in the league that season, if not one of them. Kessel did not fit that mold as he has been considered a very one-dimensional player throughout his career, this fact also may have made it easier for Boston to part with him when they did.
Now Boston would have had no expectations that the Leafs would play so poorly as to allow the Bruins to restock the shelves with two top line potential prospects and a solid 3rd line NHL prospect at the time they pulled off the deal, however even the cap space saved helped create the team that would go on and win the Cup in 2011. The additions of Chris Kelly, Rich Peverley and Tomas Kaberle, would not have been possible with Kessel on the roster.
Seguin would go on to contribute 7 points in 13 play-off games as a rookie during the 2011 Cup run, along with big performances by Thomas and Krejci the Bruins finally raised the Cup again.
Now here we are two seasons removed and the Bruins are once again back in the Stanley Cup finals. So lets break down the current team.
Leadership
As mentioned above it would be hard to find as good a leader in the league as Chara has been in Boston. Chara won the Mark Messier Leadership award in 2011. Chara leads not only with a strong voice in the locker room but leads as well as by example on the ice. The club also has a strong front office that has not only preached a strong two-way game but the club enforces it. He is supported in the leadership department by Patrice Bergeron, one of the best two way players in the game.
Management: Another strong reason to state that the current Bruins era began in 2006 is that the team’s general manager Peter Chiarelli began his tenure as Bruins general manager in the spring of that year. Since then the team has seen a marked improvement, which can be attributed to Chiarelli’s philosophy of building a quick team that can hit, get into the dirty areas of the ice while showing character both on and off the ice. In 2008-09, the Sporting News named Chiarelli the top Executive in the NHL after leading the Bruins to a 116-point season.
Coaching: After being chased out of Montreal and New Jersey, Claude Julien found a good home as the bench boss of the Bruins. I am sure one of most satisfying coaching days of Julien’s career was the 2008-09 first round sweep by the Bruins of the Montreal Canadiens.
Over his tenure with the Bruins Julien has a record of 133-78-35 and won the Jack Adams award as top coach in the 2008-09 season. Julien has done a good job with allowing the young players on the roster grow into their roles with the big club and was not afraid to let Seguin take a larger role in the 2011 Cup run.
On Ice: In addition to captain Chara’s leadership, the Bruins are also led on the ice by assistant captain Bergeron who is one of the leagues top penalty killers and face-off men as well as a lead cast of other veterans like Chris Kelly, Andrew Ference, Lucic and Krejci, all who have worn the “A” from time to time, but regardless of whether they have one or not have always provided leadership.
Roster
Chiarelli has preached about creating a roster that consist of a mix of youth and veteran players and in 2013 the club has again appeared to succeed at creating a solid mix.
In goal, the team has finally walked away from veteran Thomas and handed over the reigns to Tuukka Rask who has excelled in stepping up to be a starting goalie in the National Hockey League (another Leaf head scratching trade from the past). At age 26 Rask has yet to reach his prime and should remain Boston’s starter for years to come.
On defense the Bruins on the one hand have steady veteran players like Chara, Ference, Wade Redden and Dennis Seidenberg while mixing in prospects like Hamilton, Matt Bartkowski and Torey Krug. The support of management to create a mix has paid big dividends already this post-season when Seidenberg, Ference and Redden were sidelined with injuries the younger players were ready to step up their game and helped the club reach the conference finals.
As mentioned earlier on in this article, the Bruins also have a strong mix of youth and veteran players at the forward positions and when one player is struggling another player steps to the front and leads.
According to capgeek.com the Bruins have 18 players under contract for the 2013-2014 and has a little over $5,800,000 in projected cap space to fill out its roster. This does not include any buyout the team may choose to make in the off-season.
After the goal of winning the Cup this season, the next pressing need for the Bruins is to use what cap space they have left to sign its goalies. Rask will be looking for a raise from his last contract as well as some job security, so look for the team to try and sign him to a long-term deal possibly in the range that Detroit gave Jimmy Howard earlier this season. The club will also need to make a decision on whether to re-sign Ference and or Nathan Horton to contract extensions. Given the current space remaining, it is unlikely the Bruins will re-sign recently acquired Jaromir Jagr to a new deal and unless the club makes a few moves I believe Horton will likely be looking for a new club as well.
To get an idea of what Boston has in its system to possibly fill the holes left by some of these departures check out LWOS July 24, 2012 series Top Shelf Prospects.
The long-term problem Boston may face that the other three conference final teams may not (at least not as soon) is the need to replace the key players. Unlike Pittsburgh and Chicago that have captains who are already all-stars and are only 25 years old, Boston will eventually have to replace Chara who is now 36 years old.
First off I do not believe Chara will retire or see his play significantly decline for at least a few years, so there is no need to panic yet. And secondly, I am sure when the Bruins made the decision to trade Bourque away, many people said the Bruins would never be able to replace him. I am also sure those same people would now agree that if not a complete replacement, Chara has helped ease the teams blow from losing a player like Bourque. That said, someone will eventually pick up the torch and replace Chara back on the blue line. From a leadership and points perspective that player very well may be Hamilton. However, every team eventually must face the same music, it is tough to replace a player, it is even tougher to replace a leader both on and off the ice like Chara.
Other than Chara, the Bruins top veteran players right now are on average about 2 years older than those on the other conference final teams with Krejci and Bergeron both sitting currently at 27 years old. When you add in the youth of Seguin and Hamilton to the ranks and you have a team that looks like it will continue to play well for years to come.
The Bruins while showing they have the other main ingredients to become a dynasty, drafting well, being a place people want to play and leadership, they really excel in the areas of setting a team philosophy and sticking to that philosophy. The club also is not afraid to make the big decisions and have moved top ranked players like Thornton and Kessel when faced with difficult decisions. These moves have paid off for the Bruins. If the club can continue to do this well they should be at the top of the Eastern Conference for years to come.
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