BRIGHTON --The Bruins had a disastrous start to the regular season last year, dropping three straight home games right out of the gate while being outscored 16-7. That set the tone for much of what followed over the course of a dissatisfying year, capped by an out-and-out collapse at the end that kept them out of the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
This year starts differently, with three straight road games, and it's not all the B's hope will be different. Those hopes for a better beginning are bolstered by the fact that seven of their players -- if Christian Ehrhoff ends up making the team -- participated in the World Cup of Hockey and are theoretically sharper than they were 12 months ago.
Ehrhoff, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara all had long runs in the World Cup and each played six games at full postseason intensity over the past few weeks. Three others whose teams were eliminated earlier -- David Pastrnak, David Backes and Tuukka Rask -- are still farther along than they normally would be,.
The Bruins could push off to a very strong start if those key players can maintain that edge before the regular-season grind starts to have its effect. At least that’s what the Bruins are hoping plays out in October, in which they have a challenging eight-game schedule.
“The advantage you have there is that these guys are already in ‘play mode'," said Claud Julien. "It’s not just play mode, but it’s playoff hockey mode. Some people will say that they’ll have a letdown after playoff hockey mode, and then then have a slow start. Or they’re going to build on it. Well, knowing our players’ personality, I think they have enough character. They’re excited about what happened [at the World Cup], and they want to continue.
“Even the guys that weren’t there very long: David Pasrnak’s team was there for three games and they were done, and I think he’s skating pretty well [in preseason]. So there are a lot of situations like that I think are pretty good. Chara, Marchand, Bergeron and Backes, and even Ehrhoff, all played a lot of hockey and played big minutes there.”
There are teams that will have even more of a boom-or-bust effect from the World Cup than Boston; for instance, the Blackhawks and Lightning both had 11 players participate. Clearly the Bruins will know for sure once the real bullets start flying on Oct. 13 in Columbus, but the ingredients are there for the club to get off to a much better start than last year.