The Boston Bruins will enter the 2024–25 season with fewer questions at center than on the wings, and that’s the way Stanley Cup contenders do it.
A rare exception: the best team of the National Hockey League’s 57-year expansion era, the Montreal Canadiens of 1976–77.
With a 60-8-12 record, it wasn’t as if head coach Scotty Bowman was out of options. Coming off the first of four consecutive Cup runs, the 1976-77 Canadiens became the only team to ever win 60 games before the regular season extended. More importantly, they are the only team to lose fewer than 10 games since the Canadiens lost just eight in a 50-game schedule in 1944-45. That was 80 years ago now.
Framed by two series victories, their six-game semifinal against the stubborn NY Islanders even ended 3-1. Only the Boston Bruins (twice – Cup final in 1978, semifinal in 1979) were able to win a best-of-seven series against Montreal 2-2 in the late 1970s.
These insinuations, of course, are a blasphemous insult to the ivory towers of the NHL. The same popes who ordered all teams to retire the number 99 recently declared the 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers the greatest team of all time.
Let’s forget for a second that such “truths” are rightly discussed on balconies and in sports bars by the sport’s promoters (the fans!) and are not the domain of the hockey industry itself. The Gretzky-era Oilers belong in at least a hypothetical conversation.
If hockey were a five-player game on a frozen pond with two boots for goalposts, it would be even more fun to watch Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Glenn Anderson. But whatever championship teams represent, at their core they are a mix, a recipe, a stew, a team.
From top to bottom, the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens had everything except an opening night answer up the middle.
Guy Lafleur’s left winger at the time was Steve Shutt (60 goals in the 76/77 season), but it took Bowman two seasons to decide that Jacques Lemaire was the better match between the two, rather than Peter Mahovlich.
Mahovlich and Lafleur were key players in the third-period comeback that clinched the 1976 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at the Spectrum, and in 1977 it was Lemaire who scored the winning overtime goal on a short-side pass from Lafleur that sent the Habs tumbling off the Boston Garden bench in ecstasy.
As a team, the Boston Bruins congratulated their conquerors, but Gerry Cheevers and defenseman Gary Doak, victims of Al Sims’ fateful puck kick to nowhere, went straight to the Zamboni goal. No handshakes, not even for Ken Dryden (as was Cheevers’ habit after the series).
Montreal’s forward group, built around Dryden and the Big 3 defense of Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard, didn’t have the star power behind Lafleur (especially with Yvan Cournoyer out due to injury), but they were deep and impressive.
Lemaire and Mahovlich were more rugged than spectacular, both capable centers for Lafleur and Shutt; the trio should never have been nicknamed the “Donut Line.”
Donut lines don’t usually win the Stanley Cup, and last season the Boston Bruins, who played without Patrice Bergeron and/or David Krejci for the first time in 20 years, were never meant to win the Cup.
As good and consistent as Charlie Coyle has been at a higher position, the 2023-24 season was an anomaly for a franchise that has traditionally relied on its strength in the middle, so help me Harry Sinden.
Coyle was previously considered the unofficial captain of Boston’s bottom six, but he excelled in a far more demanding role. He took on the toughest matchups and managed to get to within two goals of an even plus-minus. Without his presence as a mainstay and in both directions, the Bruins would never have had a shot at the Atlantic Division, let alone the Presidents Trophy.
The moving pieces behind Coyle were Pavel Zacha (left wing to center), freshman Matt Poitras (moved up from junior), Johnny Beecher (moved up from Providence), Jesper Boqvist (depth support who would become more influential later in the season), and finally Morgan Geekie (see below).
Final regular season stats among those originally projected for the top-9 positions: Coyle 25-35-62 in 82 games; Zacha 21-38-59 in 78 games; and Poitras 5-10-15 in 33 games.
Even taking into account the construction of a team in the backcourt, the 2023/24 season was clearly a transitional season for the Boston Bruins.
Geekie’s postseason effort was not unlike what Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville did after Marian Hossa returned to the team in the 2013 Cup final against the Bruins. Michal Handzus, the typical fourth-line plumber’s journeyman, was second-line center for Chicago, and the Blackhawks never looked back.
With Elias Lindholm on board and assuming the roster is healthy, Geekie will move to one of three spots: right wing on the second or third line, or center on the third line. Geekie is entering the second year of a two-year deal signed in 2023 and may initially be needed more at center while Poitras finds his game again after shoulder surgery that shortened his rookie season.
Zacha is also a possibility as the Boston Bruins continue to explore his potential at center, but Montgomery will surely like to see him back on the left wing with Lindholm and David Pastrnak.
This brings us back to the unanswerable question of how the right will support pasta.
Given management’s investment in him as a first-round draft pick (21st overall in 2021), Fabian Lysell has a clear advantage in one important respect: While the auditions for the second- and third-line right wing position might resemble a revolving door, all other candidates like Geekie, Trent Frederic, Max Jones or Justin Brazeau are viewed as no better than their last shift. Lysell, on the other hand, will have to play his way out of this opportunity.
Lysell becoming a draft hit is an outcome Bruins management desperately wants. Considering how long it took to close the books on the consecutive picks (13-14-15) that somehow became the Carlo/Zacha draft in Boston, it would be fun to sit on the sidelines and watch management speculate on the prospect’s development.
Unless team president Cam Neely is wielding a bug zapper.
Let the experiments begin.
And to think that I spent my summer wondering who would commentate on Boston Bruins games on NESN, when the real question was who would succeed Judd Sirott at flagship radio station 98.5 The Sports Hub.
Sirott, who developed a good chemistry with analyst Bob Beers during their seven years in the radio booth, takes over the television baton from the great Jack Edwards, whose own career was ended prematurely by a mysterious speech impediment that led to what appeared to be hesitation on the air.
Known for his Johnny Most-style emotion and unabashed local patriotism, Edwards is an intellectual in the hockey and sports business, quick witted, but above all, a brilliant researcher. Off-air conversations, when I’ve had the chance, are pure gold. I wish him a glorious retirement and the captain’s armband for the Bruins’ first home game on October 12 against Montreal (or any playoff round).
As studio host for the Chicago Blackhawks broadcasts, Sirott understands the change in style as well as any live commentator. He and Andy Brickley will make an excellent team in the NESN booth.
I’m rooting for 98.5 all-around broadcaster Ryan Johnston to get the radio job, even if it means completely forgetting his Philly roots. That’s the job of professional voices, and Johnston has proven himself to be a stalwart of a high-demanding hockey community. He and Beers already have a head start as 98.5 colleagues on the Saturday morning hockey broadcast and occasional games.
“RJ” (as Billy Jaffe calls him) has earned his chance to play in the top four.
