Bruins Back To Being Contenders Already?

Hockey season is upon us once again! This Wednesday will kick off the 2015-2016 season and the Boston Bruins will begin at home Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets. The Bruins enter this season coming off of a “disappointing” 2014-2015 season, in which they missed the playoffs. The Bruins finished the season with 96 points which was the most by any team in NHL history to miss the playoffs. Boston made many notable trades at the end of last season including; moving star 22 year old Defenseman Dougie Hamilton to Calgary for a first round and two second round picks in this summer's draft. Veteran fan favorite scrapper Milan Lucic was dealt to the Kings for a first round pick in last summers draft, goaltender Martin Jones and Defenseman Colin Miller. The Bruins also fired General Manager Peter Chiarelli and replaced him with the previous assistant GM Don Sweeney.

This is a much different looking team then we saw last season, but will still be led by 38 year old captain Zdeno Chara. Chara suffered from injuries last season and is already on Injured Reserve this season after suffering an upper body injury on September 28th. He was skating with teammates at practice today but being placed on IR requires players miss at least 7 days. Chara unfortunately might not be able to be much more than a vocal leader this season with nagging injuries and his age alone making it hard to keep up. Patrice Bergeron, the man who has been one of the best players in the NHL over the past few years, will be a huge part of the Bruins success this season. Guys like Pastrnak and Hayes will also be big for the Bruins this season. Both guys looked good in the preseason and will be key to a postseason push. Boston also signed enforcer Zac Rinaldo to fill the hole of Shawn Thornton who was traded to Florida following the 2013-2014 season. Although I didn't mind the Bruins moving Lucic, I was not a big fan of the Hamilton trade as I believe he has a lot of potential. Overall, if the Boston Bruins aren't doing well by Thanksgiving or Christmas, my guess is head coach Claude Julien will be fired.

However, I expect the Bruins to have a good season, finish with around 105-110 points, Julien to keep his job, and for this team to make a deep postseason run. I see them winding up losing in the conference finals. The Bruins are contenders in my opinion for sure, as two straight seasons without playoff hockey is unacceptable in Boston.