Bruins Looking To Emulate Capitals' Turnaround

The Boston Bruins have been inching towards a collapse like the one they had last season for years. The retirement of key veterans who were there for a long time and the eventual trade of Brad Marchand solidified it. There was a little more hope coming into this season with a healthy team, but the lineup still looked weak up front.

The Bruins started 3-0-0 and confidence built, but that quickly fell right off and the team sits at 6-7-0, out of a playoff spot early. That can quickly change, but there are a lot of teams in the mix and not many players to carry that weight.

According to Pierre LeBrun, "They don't want to go in a full rebuild. They're trying to do the Washington-esque...type retooling. They view Zacha as a guy that's part of that. They don't really see the point of dumping him."

This makes perfect sense in that Pavel Zacha is on a good deal and signed through next season as well. Especially if the Bruins aren't blown away by an offer, which they likely won't be, there's little reason to move a top-6 player who has been productive at both ends of the ice when Boston hasn't given up hope.

That is something Boston can't do, though, give up with players like David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy. Those are elite players who are extremely difficult to find and, without extensively trying, can't be traded. The Washington Capitals were on a downward spiral and then an amazing offseason, combined with excellent drafting, all culminating in a stellar season. That has carried forward through to this season as well, since the pieces are in place.

The first thing Boston has to start improving upon is drafting and developing. They aren't at the same level as Washington or many other teams and they haven't really had to be. As a contender for so many years, they would trade their prospects and assets before any of them had an opportunity to come to fruition.

There are plenty of pieces to build around in Boston, but the moves throughout this season and next offseason have to be a lot better than adding someone like Tanner Jeannot on a five-year contract at $3.4 million AAV. Washington not only brought in players in need of a change of scenery, but they did it for cheap. Boston worked the other way. It is going to be very difficult to turn things around to the extent that the Capitals did, as every single move worked out, but it's not impossible.