Following their 5-3 loss to the Red Wings Tuesday night, the Bruins find themselves tied with the Lightning for third in the Atlantic Division and three points behind the Maple Leafs for second. The Lightning have a game in hand, while the Bruins would hold the tiebreaker (regulation wins) should they finish tied.
The Bruins have been all but locked into a playoff spot for months, and it looks like a fairly safe bet that if they finish fourth in their division, they would be the first wild card team. The second -- the Capitals -- is nine points behind them.
So, what questions do the Bruins still need to answer with 12 regular-season games to go? Here are the top five:
1. Can they get and stay healthy?
The Bruins’ last two games have been a reminder that the most important thing for them between now and the end of the regular season is health. Wins and losses, playoff seeding, home ice, line combos and D pairs -- it all matters, but not nearly as much as making sure the team is as close to 100% as possible come Game 1 of the playoffs.
David Pastrnak and Trent Frederic left Monday’s win over the Blue Jackets and did not play Tuesday. Hampus Lindholm left Tuesday’s loss to the Red Wings and did not return.
We don’t know much about any of their statuses or how much time they might miss. Bruce Cassidy said on Tuesday that Pastrnak was considered “day-to-day” and that he didn’t believe it was anything longer-term. Pastrnak has been dealing with some sort of core injury for a couple weeks, but it’s unclear if the injury he suffered Monday -- when he got tangled up with Vladislav Gavrikov and fell awkwardly -- is related to that or something separate.
Lindholm suffered some sort of lower-body injury in a leg-on-leg collision with Pius Suter. Cassidy said after Tuesday’s game that Lindholm seemed “OK” and that he didn’t believe it was anything too serious, but that they would get more information over the next day or so.
Frederic suffered an upper-body injury Monday on a hard, clean hit from Jake Christiansen. If it’s a concussion, which is certainly what it looked like, it would be his third of the season. He missed a full month after his last one in January. The reality is there’s just no way to predict how much time Frederic will miss, and we probably won’t get much of an idea until he’s able to rejoin the team for practice.
Pastrnak and Lindholm are obviously critical to the Bruins’ postseason hopes. With three weeks left in the regular season and the Bruins in no danger of missing the playoffs, they can afford to let those guys rest up and get as close to 100% as possible before returning to game action.
The same goes for anyone else who gets banged up. While the Bruins would like to win as many of these final 12 games as possible and climb up the standings, getting and keeping guys healthy is far more important.
2. What are their best D pairs?
Obviously this discussion changes dramatically if Lindholm’s injury turns out to be longer-term. But for now, we’ll take Cassidy’s word and tentatively assume Lindholm will be ready to go for the playoffs.
As long as he is, we would expect him to be next to Charlie McAvoy on the top pairing, where he’s been a good fit so far. The second pair will most likely be Matt Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo. Even that top four isn’t 100% set in stone, though.
Cassidy has said he wants to try Lindholm with Carlo at some point just to see what it looks like, although that plan may go out the window if Lindholm misses some time. He also dropped Grzelcyk down to the third pair for the second half of Saturday’s game against Columbus.
The biggest questions are on the third pair. Cassidy liked the way Derek Forbort and Connor Clifton had been playing together for a couple weeks leading up to and just after the trade deadline. But then that pair struggled mightily in last Tuesday’s loss to Toronto, especially Clifton.
Mike Reilly had been an (almost) every-night fixture prior to the trade deadline, usually in a top-four role. Then the Bruins acquired Lindholm and Reilly found himself as the odd man out. He’s gotten back in for the last four games, though, mostly at the expense of Clifton.
For two of those games, he was paired with deadline depth acquisition Josh Brown, who himself is trying to show he deserves consideration for more frequent ice time. For the other two, he started on the right side (his off side) of the third pair next to Forbort. The first attempt didn’t go especially well, and a combination of that pair’s struggles and an off night from Grzelcyk led Cassidy to flip Reilly and Grzelcyk, with Reilly finishing the game next to Carlo on the second pair.
The second try on Tuesday also featured some issues, with Reilly failing to clear the puck just before one Detroit goal, and Forbort overcommitting and hanging Reilly out to dry on another. Lindholm’s injury forced more shuffling in the third period.
Assuming Brown remains more of an eighth defenseman, it comes down to Forbort, Reilly and Clifton for two spots. Cassidy seems to be set on keeping Forbort in because of his penalty-killing abilities (he leads the team with 3:05 shorthanded time on ice per game), even if he’s probably the weakest of the three at 5-on-5.
That would mean it’s Reilly vs. Clifton. Reilly is the better puck-mover and should be able to contribute more in the offensive zone. Clifton is more physical and may be better suited to more defensive-zone starts if that’s how Cassidy uses the third pair. Clifton has played a lot more with Forbort and the right side is his natural one. Reilly probably still needs more reps playing his off side there before this is settled.
3. Can one of the extra forwards force his way into a job?
We’re talking about Anton Blidh, Jack Studnicka and Marc McLaughlin, all of whom played Tuesday night and all of whom had been practicing as a de facto fifth line. The Bruins’ top four lines had all seemingly been set for a while, but Cassidy wanted to get these three into a couple more games down the stretch even before the Pastrnak and Frederic injuries. Can one of them do enough to make Cassidy and Co. seriously consider keeping them in the lineup even when the team is back to full health?
Blidh seems to always bring some good energy, pace and physicality when he plays, and his nine points in 31 games are nothing to sneeze at. His details and all-around game aren’t as refined as more experienced players like Nick Foligno, Tomas Nosek and Curtis Lazar, but the way Blidh plays could at least position him to be a welcome change of pace at some point in a playoff series.
McLaughlin wrote a fairytale start to his NHL career on Thursday with a first goal in his first game in front of 50-plus relatives and friends. That goal showed off one of his strengths: his shot. He didn’t get a chance to show that off in his second game, as he finished Tuesday night without a single shot attempt.
McLaughlin’s defensive play and physicality fit the identity the Bruins are looking for on their fourth line. If he can get shots off, his finishing ability could help a fourth line that has struggled to finish. He’s fighting an uphill battle considering how much more experience the guys ahead of him have in the Bruins’ system, but the team is keeping him around instead of sending him to Providence for a reason.
Studnicka is an interesting case. His style of play isn’t as natural of a fit in a fourth-line role, and he has struggled to produce at the NHL level even when he’s played higher in the lineup. He has zero goals and three assists in 14 games this season, and is still stuck on one goal in 41 NHL games for his career.
One of these three may have to play if Frederic is out for an extended period of time. They will all get an opportunity to show what they can do, so we’ll see who can make the most of it.
4. Will we see Fabian Lysell?
Don Sweeney didn’t close the door on this possibility when asked about it a couple weeks ago, so neither are we.
Lysell’s Vancouver Giants wrap up their regular season on April 16. They’ve lost their last six games and are now firmly on the playoff bubble with six games to go. If they miss the playoffs, the Bruins could potentially bring their 2021 first-round pick in with seven regular-season games to go and give him a few games to see what they have. If the Giants hang onto a playoff spot, Lysell likely wouldn’t be available to the Bruins until the postseason, though.
Either way, expectations should be tempered. It’s probably not realistic to think Lysell can be a consistent top-six contributor right off the bat. But could he bring some speed, skill and energy off the bench for a game or two here and there? Like a less refined version of Tyler Seguin in 2011? (Remember: Seguin at least had a full NHL regular season under his belt.)
Well, that’s the question the Bruins would be looking to answer if they do bring Lysell in. It would be fun to see him get a shot.
5. What’s the goaltending plan?
On the surface, this seems relatively straightforward: Do whatever you need to do to get Jeremy Swayman ready to be your No. 1 for the playoffs. But it might be a little more layered than that.
For starters, what does Swayman being the No. 1 for the playoffs even mean? The Bruins have grown accustomed to riding one goalie -- whether Tuukka Rask or Tim Thomas -- for an entire postseason. Swayman may be able to handle that kind of workload, but it seems fairly important to point out that he’s never done anything like that.
First off, Swayman has already played more games this season (39 between Boston and Providence) than he ever has in one season at any level. Second, he has yet to start more than three games in a row as an NHL goalie.
On top of that, Swayman’s play has dipped recently. After an excellent stretch that saw him post a .947 save percentage across 11 starts from Jan. 2-March 3, Swayman has had just an .883 save percentage in his nine starts since. He held the opposition to one or zero goals six times during that former stretch, but hasn’t done it once in the latter. We’ve seen him mishandle some rebounds, misplay some pucks behind the net, and get beat on a few stoppable shots, like Jakub Vrana’s tough-angle shot over his shoulder on Tuesday.
We’re not panicking yet. Every goalie tends to run a little hot and cold at times -- for example, presumed Vezina winner Igor Shesterkin is fighting it right now, too. But you do at least wonder if this could be that infamous “rookie wall.” The Bruins would certainly feel a lot better heading into the playoffs if Swayman gets back on track between now and then. If he doesn’t, the debate about who’s the Game 1 starter -- which had seemed settled -- could be opened back up.
Even if Swayman does turn it around, the Bruins will have to decide if he is ready to handle the same kind of playoff workload Rask and Thomas did, or if they’re open to starting Linus Ullmark here and there as well. We’ve seen other teams make use of two goalies during the postseason -- sometimes by choice, sometimes out of necessity -- and Bruce Cassidy has expressed an open-mindedness regarding the idea.