Buffalo Sabres division rivals’ 2023 offseasons Part III: Trouble in Boston?
The Boston Bruins set records in a regular season that also included outscoring the Buffalo Sabres 14-1 over their final two head-to-head matchups.
The Buffalo Sabres have struggled against the Boston Bruins in nearly every season recently, though they’ve scored a couple of triumphs, including an epic win on New Years Eve this past year. However, despite their dominance, the Bruins don’t look anywhere near as hot going into the 2023-24 season.
They already lost Patrice Bergeron, (most likely) David Krejci, Connor Clifton, Dmitry Orlov, and Taylor Hall, among others. Therefore, the infamous “step back” will occur, but let’s not count out the Bruins just yet, as they still have more than enough talent to make a playoff run.
And, though I don’t like to bring it up, they will continue to have the Sabres number until the Blue and Gold prove otherwise. But despite Buffalo’s bleak record against their Atlantic Division rivals, you can’t help but ponder whether this is the year the Sabres finally get the best of Boston.
Buffalo Sabres are growing while the Bruins try to get organized
Looking at Boston’s incoming players, you can’t help but scoff – Milan Lucic is returning, but he averaged a career low 11:18 minutes per game last year, and that was coming off of 12:15 per game the season before. At this point, Lucic is nothing more than a role player who might give you a solid outing every now and again.
Other additions include James van Riemsdyk, Patrick Brown, Kevin Shattenkirk, Jesper Boqvist, and Morgan Geekie. These additions are either uninspiring role players or younger guys who have received little more than lower line minutes.
Okay, cool, but what about the prospects pool? There has to be something going for them, right? Well, unless something drastic happens, the current state of the Bruins prospect pool is also looking rather bleak.
State of the Bruins prospects pool
If you want to succeed long-term in the NHL, and by long-term, I mean enjoying relevant seasons year after year, and ideally, decade after decade – historically good, might I add – then you need two things going for you:
- Before anything else, you need to draft well.
- And you also need to maintain at least a halfway decent prospects pool.
Boston has done neither of these over at least the last half-decade, but thankfully, the Buffalo Sabres have been building their own pool. And in contrast to the Bruins, Kevyn Adams drafted quite well, as you can see plenty of prospects he’s taken either entering the NHL, or they are at least becoming major assets in the AHL. And nobody summed up the state of the Bruins draft woes better than Mike Harrington of Buffalo News.
“The Bruins may finally be paying the piper for their stunning incompetence in drafting. In the five drafts from 2018-2022, the only one of Boston’s 27 selections to play a single NHL game has been 2018 third-rounder Jakub Lauko, and he has scored just four goals while playing in only 23 games.” – via Buffalo News
Source: Atlantic Division summer outlook: Huge questions surround Bruins, Panthers after their big seasons by Mike Harrington, Buffalo News
This year can easily be Boston’s last stand for quite some time unless they do something to fix this mess that has been unraveling behind the scenes of the greatest regular season run in NHL history. And honestly, the best way to fix it would be to look to at what Adams is doing in Buffalo then try and replicate it.
But it might take a while, as per Ian Kennedy of Yahoo Sports Canada, the Bruins pool currently ranks 27th out of 32 NHL teams. So yeah, it’s safe to say this organization has a long way to go barring anything unforeseen over the next few seasons if 2023-24 is a wash.
The Verdict
The Buffalo Sabres play the Bruins three times for the upcoming season, all before December 27th. This is a team I’d rather play earlier in the year, before they build much overall chemistry given the turnover that has ensued. And yes, this is the one season when the Sabres might just see their fortunes change against Boston and end up winning the season series.
BUT, it wouldn’t be right not to acknowledge that the Bruins still have arguably the best goaltending tandem in hockey with Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman. Brad Marchand is still part of this team, and he will be an excellent leader for the upcoming campaign. David Pastrnak, who put up 113 points, is still in town, as is the two-way Charlie McAvoy.
Buffalo Sabres division rivals’ 2023 offseasons Part II: Leafs falling?. light. Related Story
Therefore, Boston isn’t going to be a pushover by any means, despite the possibility that they may not be a Top 3 team in the Atlantic this season. Overall, their losses outweighed their gains, and Boston’s future is bleak at best. But in the here and now, the Bruins have more than enough to make a serious postseason run.
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)