The Boston Bruins have already made one big change this season, firing Jim Montgomery and replacing him with Joe Sacco on an interim basis. And the front office isn’t done, with the next move to come on the ice — at least according to The Fourth Period’s Dennis Bernstein.
“They’re looking for offence… they’ve been looking left and right,” Bernstein said on a recent episode of TFP’s The Latest on Monday. “So look, they’ve never replaced the offence from losing Jake Debrusk (via free agency). They haven’t gotten what they needed offensively from Elias Lindholm – but I’ll be honest with you, on a championship team he’s a 2C, he’s not a 1C.
“I think they need to find offence, but Brad Marchand has to be more healthy and better, Charlie Coyle has to be way better, Pavel Zacha has to be better – it’s been a group effort on why they’ve been so poor offensively.”
The Bruins have fallen back to .500 at 10-10-3 after a disappointing 2-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night at TD Garden. It was Sacco’s first loss as head coach after Boston defeated the Utah Hockey Club and Detroit Red Wings in his first two tilts as bench boss.
General manager Don Sweeney and the front office are in a tight spot; the team currently has under $1 million in cap space to work with, per PuckPedia.
“It’s going to be difficult. They don’t have a ton of cap space to play with. That’s the other thing that’s part of it,” added The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta. “So, whether it’s a Coyle, a Zacha, a (Morgan) Geekie… we know Trent Frederic has generated some interest this season. They’ve got to find ways to swap out the dollars in order to bring in some offensive help. We’ll see if that can pull that off.”
It doesn’t help that the Bruins just cannot seem to put the puck in the net this season.
Bruins struggling mightily to score goals in 2024-25
Boston Bruins right wing Justin Brazeau (55) can’t get to a loose puck before Vancouver Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen (32) covers it up during the third period at TD Garden. Winslow Townson-Imagn Images
This is the worst offensive production Bruins fans have seen from this roster in recent memory. Boston is last in the National Hockey League with just 2.32 goals per game, and 20th league-wide in goals-against per game at 3.18.
If Sweeney hopes to make a floundering roster better, he’ll likely have to trade a player currently on the team; the executive addressed the situation last week.
“We’re going to identify the guys that love being here, love representing the Boston Bruins,” Sweeney said. “And if they don’t, we’ll make some changes as a result of that and performance will drive that.”
For starters, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Pavel Zacha need to get going offensively. The three are all trending towards having one of the worst offensive seasons of their respective careers.
As well, Jeremy Swayman must regain his form between the pipes after finally signing a lucrative contract to remain in the fold for the foreseeable future. His 3.16 GAA and .888 SV% isn’t going to cut it for a club that is trying to make the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
After Montgomery’s firing, it’ll be interesting to see what move Sweeney makes next as he tries to get this squad back to relevance in the Eastern Conference.
This article first appeared on NHL on ClutchPoints and was syndicated with permission.
