Micheal Aldred

Sudbury, ON • Canada • 27 Years Old • Male

Preview: Boston Bruins

Primary Staff: Peter Chiarelli (GM) Claude Julien (Head Coach)
2009-10 Stats: 82GP 39W 30L 13OTL 91PTS
Place: 3rd Northeast, 6th East, 14th NHL
Top Scorer: Patrice Bergeron – 19G 33A 52P
Captains: Zdeno Chara (C), Patrice Bergeron (A)

OFF-SEASON MOVES

OUT:

Denis Wideman (Dealt to Florida)
Vladimir Sobotka (Dealt to St. Louis)
Dany Sabourin (Signed with Washington)

IN:

Nathan Horton (Acquired from Florida)
Gregory Campbell (Acquired from Florida)
Tyler Seguin (Selected 2nd Overall)

The Boston Bruins always seem to be a clutch team that manages to put it all together despite their frequent and unfortunate injury woes. Over the last few seasons, significant stars such as Milan Lucic (finger/ankle), Marc Savard (concussion) and Patrice Bergeron (concussion) have all been listed on the injured reserve list. That said, the team has had success with their goaltending performance and have thus competed in the last three straight Stanley Cup playoffs.

The biggest question surrounding this team is whether or not they will be healthy enough to make another post-season push. The addition of Nathan Horton should be an excellent power forward replacement for Phil Kessel on the right side, but his health is also a concern as he has missed 32 games over the last two seasons. If he can stay in the line-up, he could be the steal of the summer after completed a 65 game year with 20 goals and 57 points. To put that in perspective, an injury-laden Nathan Horton out-produced both Patrice Bergeron (52 points) and David Krejci (52 points) in a collective 22 games less played on a much weaker team.

Goaltending should remain consistent this season, with Tuukka Rask relied upon as the number one goaltender, and with Tim Thomas actively battling to live up to his hefty $5M cap hit and regain the top position in net, the club will only benefit by the goalie duel.

Second overall pick, Tyler Seguin, is expected to compete for a role with the club in the upcoming season, but if he’s unable to secure a spot on the top six, he’s better off spending another year in the juniors. There’s no rush to insert him into the line-up and it would not be beneficial for him to spend the majority of the game on the bench. Seguin needs top line minutes and a long leash to let him to his thing. Anything less would be a lack of proper development.

Prediction: 1st Northeast, 3rd East

BRUINS DEPTH CHART

Marco Sturm – Marc Savard – Nathan Horton
Milan Lucic – Patrice Bergeron – Mark Recchi
Blake Wheeler – David Krejci – Michael Ryder
Daniel Paille – Tyler Seguin – Shawn Thornton
Gregory Campbell
Trent Whitfield

Zdeno Chara – Dennis Seidenberg
Johnny Boychuk – Matt Hunwick
Andrew Ference – Mark Stuart
Adam McQuaid – Andrew Bodnarchuk

Tuukka Rask
Tim Thomas
Nolan Schaefer

For more articles by Micheal Aldred, visit http://www.thecheckingline.com