Équipe: 2023-24 Bruins de Boston

Date de création initiale: 23 avr. 2024

Publié: 23 avr. 2024

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

Bruins lack of talent is glaring after game 2. That was with Marner not producing and Nylander out... B's are in for a tough series if they want to win. Here are some changes I'd make to the lineup:

1: Heinen does not work on 1LW. He was a PTO singing, cool story for the regular season, but he's a bottom 6 guy. This won't work in the playoffs. The Frederic/Geekie/Lauko line is struggling to produce (obviously) so it's a low risk move to put Frederic on 1LW. Worth a shot, low risk moderate reward.

2: Ullmark was great, so the rotation is on!

3: Peeke is out for the series in my mind. You don't just get hit in the hand and not come back, that has to be a broken finger or broken hand. Luckily Wotherspoon has played decent, so he seems like the obvious replacement for the series/playoffs. If Peeke is back sooner, cool, but not getting my hopes up on that...

4: Fourth line also not gonna produce much, so Boqvist might be able to elevate his skill with Heinen and Geekie. That's a capable third line. Not great, but capable for sure. Lauko isn't a top 9 forward, so I do think taking him off that line helps offensively. He and Beecher can make up for Maroons lack of speed as well.

5: Grzelcyk and Shattenkirk have short leashes imo, so if they lose game 3 or one of them plays poorly, Lohrei is in for game 4. His offensive production is better than those two, even if defense is roughly equal. No brainer for me in this situation, but I'd be fairly patient with this since I do think Griz/Shat have slightly higher ceilings defensively. 3 games is a good enough sample size for me.

6: Stick to the basics! Toronto will win 10/10 times if it comes down to a skill focused game. Keep it simple, get to inside ice, and actually challenge Samsonov. Relying on Ullmark/Swayman to bail you out in high danger scoring chances isn't sustainable. Toronto WILL generate more, it's ok to accept that, but don't let it get out of hand like game 2.