What felt like an old, geriatric team before the 2017-18 season got started ended with a 50-20-12 record for the Boston Bruins.
The playoffs were supposed to be a continuation of the regular season success story but the Tampa Bay Lightning bounced the Bruins in five games in the second round.
The Bruins were ranked fourth in the league for goals against surrendering just 211 goals for a 2.57 average; the offense was ranked fifth with 267 goals scored for a 3.26 average.
Goalie Tuukka Rask (#40) of the Boston Bruins. File photo by Lewis Bleiman
The penalty kill clicked at 83.7% rate and the power play was fourth on the season with a rate of 23.6%.
The Bruins have done some restocking over the off season and started with the signing of free agent goaltender, Jaroslav Halak, who signed a two-year deal worth $2.75 million annually.
“They have a great team,” Halak said. “A lot of talent; the city is great and obviously fans, as well. Every time we play there, it is exciting to play in that building, and it’s so hard to play against all the time.”
Halak, 33, went 20-26-6 with a 3.19 goals-against average, .908 save percentage with the New York Islanders last season.
Halak comes in as the number two goalie in the Boston stable with Tuukka Rask still the go-to number one.
“We looked at that signing from every angle,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said. “We certainly have familiarity with (goalkeeper development coach) Mike Dunham coming over from the Islanders. Even Jaro’s save percentage taking a drop, most of it can be pinned on the penalty-kill situation, where his numbers as well as the team dropped. We feel like we were third in the League in penalty kill and hopefully it doesn’t drop off. So those are certain areas, his actual [statistics] have always been above his expected for the most part, he’s had playoff experience.”
Boston got a little younger on the back line with the five-year deal they signed with John Moore. The defenseman iced for the New Jersey Devils last season with seven goals and 18 points on the season.
Defenseman John Moore (#2) of the New Jersey Devils. File photo by Lewis Bleiman
“The skating component with John’s game, he’s a bigger player,” Sweeney said. “The last two years in the playoffs we’ve run through [defensemen], it was 10 two years ago, we went through all eight this year, Brandon [Carlo] hasn’t even had a chance to play in the playoffs. I just think the makeup of our group, we felt that the opportunity to add a player of that nature will fit into the way [coach Bruce Cassidy] wants to play, getting back to retrieve pucks, to be able to defend with his feet against faster, bigger, stronger players complements the group that we have.”
The contract is worth $2.75 million annually.
A handful of other signings have been completed this off season with most being prospect and minor league talent on one and two-year deals with two-way commitments with the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League.
The Bruins have $2.9 million in cap space available as reported by capfriendly.com.
A review of last season suggests there is not much wrong with the Bruins’ roster and the moves reflect a confidence in the group they iced last season.
But that was last season. They are now a yer older and leaders of the club are going to to be leaned on even more this coming campaign.
An improvement across the roster, not significant, not would perhaps help get them past the second round this season.
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