2010-11 BRUINS PREVIEW;Eyes on prize;Black 'n' gold look to leave playoff collapse in dust
PRAGUE - Never has there been a Bruins offseason as closely watched as the one coming to an end. And rarely has a new season arrived with such a sense of expectation and high hopes.
The last two seasons ended with the B's and their fans enormously frustrated after losses in seven-game, second-round series the team could have and should have won. Blowing a 3-0 series lead against Philadelphia in last season's playoffs was especially tough to take. The feeling was that legitimate opportunities to achieve berths in the Stanley Cup final, at least, had been squandered. The patience of Boston fans was put to a severe test.
Fans want to see results this year, big results, and no doubt owner Jeremy Jacobs would concur. With an (almost) healthy roster, a nice infusion of talent and a slew of young players on the cusp of stardom, the B's boast one of the strongest and best balanced teams in the National Hockey League.
As the Bruins open the 2010-11 season with a pair of games this weekend at the O2 Arena against the Phoenix Coyotes, now is the time for the kind of success that has eluded this team for far too long -- although general manager Peter Chiarelli isn't really interested in placing any Stanley Cup-or-bust pressure on his club.
''Do we need a big year? That's the thought going into every season,'' said Chiarelli. ''I don't think we feel any more pressure to have a good season. But I see the point, about the way the last two seasons have ended.
''We're striving to improve. What is improvement? Well, to get to the third round, at the very least, would be improvement.
''Expectations? Pressure? I mean, we have to continue to improve,'' Chiarelli said. ''You always go into the year looking to win the Cup. So the goal is improvement, with the ultimate goal in mind.''
The most obvious area of the game in which the Bruins desperately need to be better is goal-scoring. The team ranked last in the NHL in goal production, scoring five fewer than 29th-place Calgary. But don't forget that the B's were one of the most potent offensive teams two years ago, so there is every reason to believe the numbers will be far better than a year ago.
''Obviously, we have to score more goals,'' said Chiarelli. ''We're trying to implement a little more speed in the forward lines, and a little more activation from the D. It's been slow in coming during training camp, but it'll come. We want to use our speed. We feel we've got some new speed in the lineup with (Nathan) Horton and (Tyler) Seguin, and guys like (Daniel) Paille and (Blake) Wheeler. We're going to be faster up front and we have to use that to our advantage.''
If there is an area of concern, it is on defense, where the B's have three proven veterans in Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference and Dennis Seidenberg -- but also a group of youngsters in Johnny Boychuk, Matt Hunwick, Mark Stuart and Adam McQuaid who are still striving to carve their NHL identities and levels of play. The B's explored trades for a veteran D-man this summer, and Chiarelli will keep a close eye on how this group performs.
''I'm not perfectly content with the D,'' he said. ''I've got to see how we start. I haven't seen what I wanted to see so far. We've got three guys who are coming off injuries and have rust on their game: Ference, Seidenberg and Stuart. They have noticeable rust on their game. So it's hard to judge it yet. You've got to give it some time.
''But I've said before and I still believe this: I like the strength of the unit. You can always improve it, but I like the unit.''
With the B's seemingly as strong in net as any team in the league with the Tuukka Rask-Tim Thomas duo, the key to the season will be staying healthy -- certainly not the case last season -- and trying to develop the same sort of overwhelming confidence and cohesive team play that made the B's almost unbeatable two years ago.
''Confidence is something that doesn't return easily,'' said Chiarelli. ''Confidence is a big part of it. We've been working on it, working on the team-building part of it.
''How it ended last year and the fact that during the year we scored so few goals, those are two serious dents in the collective confidence. So we've been working on that. But we can do all the team-building and psychological profiling and all that stuff. It helps. But at the end of the day the guys have to find that confidence in themselves.''
The Bruins should be, better be, a team with attitude -- with a lot to prove, with a chip on its shoulder, hungry to show it is better than last year's failures suggest.
''You would expect that,'' said Chiarelli. ''They're saying the right things. But now they have to go out and do it. The season ending last year has been with us and will never leave us. They have to show as a group that they can overcome that kind of thing.''
Starting today.
