Bruins Set for Leadership Shift

BOSTON – Milan Lucic admits that some 13 years ago, he wouldn’t have envisioned Brad Marchand donning the ‘C’ for the Black & Gold. But as he sat next to his longtime friend on Monday during the B’s Media Day at TD Garden, he had nothing but good things to say about No. 63’s transformation inito the club’s 27^th captain.

“I think if you told me that when he was a rookie, I think I speak for most guys that they wouldn’t believe it,” said Lucic. “To see him grow as a player and a person, I think he definitely deserves it. Couldn’t be happier for him and I know he’s gonna lead us the right way.”

Marchand, meanwhile, reciprocated that praise, noting that Lucic’s return to the Bruins will help make up for the departures of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci via retirement over the summer.

“With Looch coming back, it kind of lessens that blow of guys leaving,” said Marchand. “Looch came up in that era, that culture, that built early on. The more guys we have around that continue to establish that and lead the way, it helps a lot. But they brought some older guys in that have been around. You can never count out that experience in the room when you go through adversity, when you go through tough times.

“The younger guys have taken big steps in the past couple years and we expect them to do that again this year. But there’ll be other guys that rise up and start leading in different ways to. Pretty excited to see who does that.”

Charlie McAvoy, who along with David Pastrnak will serve as one of the B’s alternate captains, is eager to begin forging his own path toward being a leader for years to come.

“There’s no one size fits all about a leader,” said McAvoy. “You have seen [Zdeno Chara] have a style, [David Krejci] have a different style, David Backes a different style, [Patrice Bergeron], obviously. All these people do it in different ways, you have to do it organically, it’s just who you are every day.

“I’m getting older and trying to define who I want to be really. I think that maybe the biggest thing I have taken from those guys…just stuff that I like and love the most about them that everybody does…you go up to them, they are all good guys, they treat everyone the same way. Those are probably the biggest things that I want to take from them and care for.”

Pastrnak added that the leaders McAvoy listed “couldn’t have prepared us any better” to follow in their footsteps.

“We have been very fortunate and lucky enough to be learning from them every single day,” said Pastrnak. “I am ready to take that step and be a leader. We have a lot of young kids, Bergy was young when he came to the league…I was young. I know it’s going to be hard and there are going to be days when everything is great, but it’s a long season. I’m definitely excited for that.”

Boston bench boss Jim Montgomery declared that “now it’s their team” when discussing the added leadership role that Pastrnak and McAvoy will take on as they supplement Marchand.

“Marchy has been part of that core for a while. You've seen Charlie and Pasta start to get exposed to that, but now it's their team, that's exciting for them,” said Montgomery. “They've learned under great players and leaders. I think there's other players to support them now whether that's [Hampus] Lindholm and [Brandon] Carlo on the back end and you have up front [Charlie] Coyle, [Pavel] Zacha those kinds of players that are ready to be. This is their team now. I think you're going to start seeing that excitement come out Wednesday night.”

McAvoy certainly concurred with his coach, saying that “the next chapter of Bruins history is going to be written by us.”

“We all have something to prove, whether it’s me, Pasta, Brando – none of us have won, we have been right there and have gone as far as we can go and have some experience, but we need to [figure out] what is our legacy going to be,” said McAvoy. “I realize I have a long time left here and I’m extremely grateful for it, and we are going to be building something good.”

Centennial Celebrations

The Bruins are set to kick off their Centennial this week with a number of events, including the ‘Rafters Reunion’ pregame ceremony on Wednesday night and the club’s Centennial Gala, benefitting the Boston Bruins Foundation, on Thursday night.

“I mean, we feel pressure from our fan base virtually every day to try to improve our club,” Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs said when asked about the expectations on the ice this season. “That doesn't change from season to season, the expectation is that we deliver a team that can at least makes the playoffs… and how's the old saying go? It's not necessarily the best team that wins the Stanley Cup, but it's the team that's playing the best hockey that wins the Stanley Cup, and that was certainly true last year.

“Again, the pressure, the expectation – we’re the Boston Bruins, we’re an Original Six team, we're celebrating our 100th anniversary. I think everyone here understands the gravity of the opportunity, and the gravity of what we have in front of us for this upcoming season.”

As part of the festivities throughout the 2023-24 camapign, many of the club’s alumni will be around the team, something that Montgomery plans to take full advantage of when aiming to impart the history of the franchise on to some of the younger and newer players on the roster.

“I think the opportunity to have some of the legendary players that have worn the Spoked-B, they're going to be around a lot more this year, have them integrate with our players and maybe speak to the team, I think will help with that,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery. “But with the great job that you all do with social media and remembering the great days of Bruins history and tradition, I think they see that a lot, because today's players, they're part of social media as part of their upbringing.”

Marchand said that this current version of the Black & Gold owes it to the players that came before to honor them not just this season but for the entirety of their Bruins careers.

“To be part of this organization is a really big honor and when you see the guys who have come through and built the culture and built the history here you love to be a part of that and you love to talk about it,” said Marchand. “We don’t forget about those guys. They built the road that we walk on today. We owe the previous players a ton of credit – the amount of pride that we have to wear this jersey and to walk in this room every day, we’ll do whatever the team needs us to do.”

Wait, There’s More

• Bruins general manager Sweeney said there are “ongoing discussions” with Jake DeBrusk and his camp about a contract extension. “That's all I will comment on at this point in time.”
• Sweeney said that the strong camps of Matt Poitras and Johnny Beecher played into the decision to waive Jesper Boqvist, who was signed to a one-year contract back in July. “We liked Jesper and the role he played in New Jersey, he has versatility to his game, has speed in his game. Bottom line is that both Matt Poitras and John Beecher both had really strong camps –we've always been committed as an organization not to rush players…but when players have made impact in our lineup, they deserve an opportunity. They’ve earned an opportunity. It’s not about deserving one. Makes really hard conversations with veteran players, and it's not an easy business in that regard at all. And it's very uncomfortable, because you do have really good conversations when you're talking about bringing a player into the fold and where you see it. And then you have little unpredictability as it relates to younger players taking advantage of their opportunity. But again, it’s earned.”
• Boston’s GM also said that blue liner Mason Lohrei, who was assigned to Providence on Monday evening, made it a “really difficult” decision on the club when determining the makeup of the back end. “He's played well…he's logged a lot of minutes. We continue to work on his habits without the puck. I think everybody starts to see the talent and the vision that he has the creativity, the confidence to be able to execute offensively. Whether that's from his own goal line or the offensive blue line. The biggest adjustment to the National Hockey League is really defending against the top players and any players in the National Hockey League because they lean on you, and they press you. Mason's going to have to continue to go through that.”
• Jacobs said the Bruins were in discussions with the NHL to play in Australia this fall, but that the club’s Centennial made it difficult logistically. “We've raised the hand a few times as a franchise to participate in, whether it was a kickoff series in Europe – we had some discussions in fact about even going to Australia this preseason. Given all of the moving parts of our Centennial celebration, we elected not to participate…Cam and I talk about this often, how do we get on the radar for the next event? Maybe that's next fall, who knows? I don't have a crystal ball. But we'd love to participate and help grow this game beyond the United States and into Europe and possibly other areas.”
• Jacobs added that the club is also eager to host other league events in Boston: “We'd love to have an event…we've had a number of special events, including the Winter Classic last year here, in Boston. So, we raise our hand for those type of events as often as we can with the league. And frankly, last week, the National Hockey League, when we were at the Board of Governors [meeting], mentioned that they're trying to, perhaps, rethink the Draft. I may get in trouble for saying this – I’m not sure if that’s public yet. And if that's in fact the case, there are opportunities…this is such a hockey centric market and such a rich history here. Any opportunity that we can find to bring the sport here, we'll do it.”