Boston Bruins Showing That They Are In An Odd Building Period

The Boston Bruins are in a weird state so far this year. Their first game of the new season was a disaster, while the rest have been the polar opposite. During that whole time, the only line that has not seen any changes is the first line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak. Bruce Cassidy has been using the mindset of everyone has to earn their roster spot, the young guys especially.

Game one started with David Backes on the wing and since then he has been moved to his natural center position. It seems to be working out as the third line has looked good. Along with Backes, we have seen Ryan Donato on the 3rd with Backes and also the second line. He also was benched in game three and replaced with Joakim Nordstrom. Along with these guys many others have been up and down and in n out of the roster. Luckily for the Bruins, it seems to be working as they are 4-0 in their games since Washington.

Since the Washington game, the Bruins have not given up more than 3 goals in a game and have averaged 5.5 goals in their last 4 games. Last nights game we saw the Bruins put up an 8 a spot on the Red Wings, who are in a complete rebuilding stage and have struggled the past couple of years. In that game, we saw Pasta score a hat-trick and 4 other players earn their first of the year. Last night roster seemed to be clicking on all lines the roster can be seen below from Jack Edwards tweet prior to the game against the wings.

The Bruins go for their fourth win in a row with Detroit in town for a 3 pm matinee.
Rask back in goal; one change among the skaters — Donato for Heinen at 3LW.
Brick, Alex & I have the game at 3 on NESN.
BEEEEEE THERRRRRRE. pic.twitter.com/0CARFh511H

— Jack Edwards (@RealJackEdwards) October 13, 2018

Look for the Bruins to continue to move lines around until they are happy with what they have. It is still early in the year but Cassidy may have to break up that first line and move Pastrnak down with David Krejci to try and spread some scoring. As we saw last year against the Lightning who shut down that line and the B’s just could not score. Ryan Donato/Anders Bjork may see some time on that top line as it does seem that Krejci and Jake DeBrusk have developed some chemistry. Hopefully, by the end of this month, we will have somewhat of a concrete roster.

UP Next

The Bruins will head out to Western Canada to face the Calgary Flames for the start of a road trip through western Canada. Look for the Bruins to carry the momentum from the last 4 games out west and continue to dominate. Unfortunately, the next games will be all 9:00 pm or later starts as they are on the west coast. The Flames game will be a 9:30 start and will air on NESN.

The Bruins Continue To Make Cuts With The Season Just Over A Week Away

Don Sweeney and Cam Neely have been making some cuts the past few weeks to get their team ready for the season. Just today Sweeney made a few more to inch closer to the 23 players for opening day. Boston is now currently at 42 so they need to cur their roster in half in just over a week. Sweeney will be busy. Sweeney has had some of his decisions made easy as many of the guys so far were drafted this year or have been in Providence to start.

Roster Transactions

Today Cameron Hughes, Emil Johansson, Joona Koppanen, and Zach Senyshyn were assigned to the Providence Bruins. Axel Anderson this year first round pick has been sent back to his Swedish junior team Djurgarden IF (SEL). Also last week Daniel Bukac and Cedric Pare were sent back to their respective Junior teams. Austin Fyten, Olivier Galipeau, Brett McKenzie, Joel Messner, Alex Sakellaropoulos, and Willy Sherman were sent back to Providence.

Even with all these guys being sent back to where they came from there are still a few rookies eyeing a roster spot, although they are limited. As of now, it appears there is two forward spot available.

Players Fighting For The Final Spots

As of writing this article, there are about 20ish rookies left trying to take a spot away from a veteran. The guys getting the looks right now are Ryan Donato, Ryan Fitzgerald (who is due for a breakout ), Jakub Lauko (has been impressing all camp), Jack Studnicka, Jakub Zboril. There are many others, these are the guys that appear to have the best chance at cracking the roster. Also Anders Bjork (still recovering from shoulder surgery)

A rookie making the opening day roster is going to be tough. Bruce Cassidy has mentioned he does not want to lean on the kids as heavily this season. It would be nice to see a rookie on that top line with Patrice Bergeron(if he is healthy come day one) and Marchand. Then that would move David Pastrnak back down to play with David Krejci. We will just have to wait just a bit longer to see who makes the cut.

The B’s will face off the defending Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals on October 3rd in DC. The Caps will be raising the banner that day as well.

Boston Bruins Trade Away Adam McQuaid For A Former Friend With Fellow 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Steven Kampfer Coming Back To Boston

On Tuesday morning the Boston Bruins announced that they have traded away defense-man Adam McQuaid to the New York Rangers in exchange for defense-man Steven Kampfer, a 2019 fourth round pick and a 2019 conditional seventh round pick.

This is rather shocking with the 31-year-old McQuaid being a career long Bruin playing 11 professional seasons with the organization since being acquired from the Blue Jackets back in 2007 for a fifth round pick. McQuaid broke into the NHL and onto Boston’s roster in 2009-10 and became a mainstay on their defense over the past nine seasons.

The long-time Bruin helped lead Boston to the 2011 Stanley Cup and has tallied 13 goals and 53 assists in 462 games with 652 penalty minutes for the Bruins.

As for acquiring Kampfer, he is a familiar face to the Bruins.

The 29-year-old has skated in 166 NHL games in his career with 10 goals and 16 assists with 82 penalty minutes. He was originally selected by the Ducks in the fourth round of the 2007 NHL Entry Level Draft before being traded to Boston originally back on March 2, 2010 in exchange for a conditional fourth round draft pick that was later traded to Carolina who drafted Justin Shugg.

Kampfer made his NHL debut with Boston back on December 9 2010 and appeared in 38 games with Boston in the 2010-11 season. Kampfer had a career year scoring five goals and 10 assists also being part of the 2011 Stanley Cup team with McQuaid.

Kampfer will likely be a call-up option from AHL Providence that has NHL experience. With the current roster build-up the Bruins simply did not need to have McQuaid anymore and making a move now made the most sense.