Boston Bruins Details
In 2016-17, the Boston Bruins showed that teams in the National Hockey League can’t be afraid to make midseason changes in order to turn around a season. After a very average 26-23-6 start, Boston fired coach Claude Julien and assistant Bruce Cassidy was named interim head coach. After finishing the season with an 18-8-1 record and a 3rd place Atlantic Division finish, Cassidy was given the job on a permanent basis. The Bruins were not able to make it out of the first round of the playoffs, losing 4-2 to the Ottawa Senators, but the season turned out to be a success.
2017-18 is looking promising for the team playing out of Boston’s famous TD Garden. 40-year-old Zdeno Chara returns as both captain and head of the Bruins’ defense and he’ll be joined by rookie Charlie McAvoy, who made an immediate impact during his debut in last season’s playoffs. Offensively, Boston should be strong once again. Wingers Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak were the top two scorers on the team last year and should be dominant again in the upcoming season. Marchand finished last year with 39 goals and 46 assists, while Pastrnak had 34 goals and 36 assists. Center David Krejci was third on the team in scoring, finishing the year with 23 goals and 31 assists. Add in the solid goaltending of Tuukka Rask, who was 37-20-5 last year, and the Bruins have a recipe for success as long as Cassidy can get similar results out of the team.