To put it simply: this is the year they very likely start to decline... Krug's gone, Bergeron's 36, Krejci's 34, Rask will be 34 by the end of the season and Marchand's 32... I'm not saying they'll be as awful as SJ was last season but I am saying they'll decline.
When I look at their lineup, I see good top end talent with of course Pasta, Bergy, Marchand, McAvoy and Rask. Yet Pastrnak will miss the first month of the season and Marchand's still a ? for the beginning of the season. I'M telling ya, if both of them don't play at the beginning of the season and the team struggles big time without them, this could end their season, especially considering the strength of their division.
The defense is the huge question mark. McAvoy's an elite number 1, Carlo will do fine as number 2 IMO and Grz is a very underrated top 4 d-man. BUT, after that there are huge question marks. Miller is a number 7, Clifton is a number 6 at best, Moore is way overpaid and isn't very good and I don't see Lauzon becoming anything more than a number 5. Now, I often hear Boston fans saying that one of Vaakanainen/Zboril will come in and fill that top 4 gap but still, there is a big question mark regarding that defense, which leads me to my 2 x-factors for them:
-they MUST keep their head out of the water while one or two of Marchand/Pastrnak is/are out of the lineup
-someone needs to step up in that defense department, anyone.
IF those 2 things happen, they could maintain form for another season. If they don't happen, forget it, they'll likely miss the playoffs.
Oh, and one last thing: I'm looking forward to see Studnicka this season, IMO he has a great shot at making their team.
Here's the starting lineup with Marchand:
Marchand-Bergeron-Studnicka
DeBrusk-Krejci-Smith
Bjork-Coyle-Kase
Lindholm-Kuraly-Wagner
Grzelcyk-McAvoy
Lauzon-Carlo
Zboril-Clifton
Rask
Halak
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