Bruins embracing different approach, could enter season without captain

BOSTON -- It has been more than 20 years since the Boston Bruins entered the season without a captain. From Joe Thornton to Zdeno Chara to Patrice Bergeron to Brad Marchand, they’ve seen each season dawn with a fixture -- and likely Hockey Hall of Famer -- at the top of their leadership structure.

But not this season.

Even as captain’s practices begin, with many of the Bruins spending nearly two hours on the ice Tuesday, there was no actual captain in sight. Instead, they are expected to open the season with shared leadership, led by David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, both of whom have long been alternate captains.

“Yeah, it’s different,” Pastrnak said. “But at the same time, if you look at the big picture, it’s the same. It’s always the leadership in this organization is not one guy; it’s been always a group decision, a group of leaders.”

And it seems that approach will be even more crucial this season.

“Maybe instead of the rinse-repeat of what it’s been for a long time, we have to try and build it back up,” McAvoy said. “It’s a completely different group, it’s different individuals so it’s going to look different, but mostly it’s just a great opportunity, really, more than anything, to have that thrust on us to be responsible for it.

“I think it’s something that we look at and we’re excited about. We’re not seeing it as more of a daunting task; it’s something that we’re just honored to be trusted with that.”

Boston is coming off a season that went awry almost from the start, one that saw the firing of coach Jim Montgomery, the trading of half a dozen key pieces prior to the NHL Trade Deadline, including a divorce from Marchand, who went on to win the Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers.

The Bruins finished last in the Atlantic Division (33-39-10), tied for the fourth-fewest points in the NHL (76).

It was in that time at the end of the season when the Bruins knew they were not going to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, when they had been stripped down to a shell of themselves, when McAvoy was out because of an injury sustained at the 4 Nations Face-Off, when Pastrnak perhaps most proved himself.

The 29-year-old forward finished the season tied for third in the NHL with 106 points (43 goals, 63 assists), alongside Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl. It was all the more impressive given that the next-closest player on the Bruins was Morgan Geekie, who had a career-high 57 points (33 goals, 24 assists), thanks to a boost from Pastrnak.

No player had more points than Pastrnak from Jan. 1 on; he had 69 (30 goals, 39 assists) in his final 43 games of the season, with Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov second at 67 points in 46 games.

But it won’t just be him trying to push Boston forward. It will be all of them. And with that, the Bruins have spent the offseason attempting to figure out perhaps a better, more modern way, as they try to “usher in a new group of guys that are from a different generation,” as the 27-year-old McAvoy put it, while laughing about aging himself.

“You can’t do it alone,” McAvoy said. “Maybe from the outside it looked like it was ‘Zee’ and ‘Bergy’ and them, but they leaned on everybody. I think the best groups tend to be the ones that you get it everywhere. You take a lot of that weight off your shoulders and you can put it on everybody else. The group’s better for it.

“Absolutely it will be by committee, certainly to start, and I wouldn’t be surprised though if we continue to bring people into the fold.”

It’s all part of how the Bruins are trying to find their way back to where they want to be, as they get set for their first training camp under new coach Marco Sturm, who was hired June 5 by an organization for which he played for five seasons.

“The main goal for us is to get back to the playoffs and show our fans, show this city, what we can do,” defenseman Nikita Zadorov said. “We’re reading what you guys (the media) are writing and it doesn’t get past (us) in this room.

“So, I think being underdogs this year, being a team that nobody is putting anywhere even close to where we should be, so it’s putting an extra chip on our shoulders for sure.”

However, Zadorov said, it doesn’t just come down to words. It comes down to what they do.

“We’ve got to show it on the ice,” he said. “We can talk all day in here, what we’ve got to change, what we’ve got to do, but we’ve got to go out there and compete for the crest on our chest, for this team, for this city, for this organization.”

It’s what has always been demanded of the Bruins, whether there’s a captain to answer to or not.

“The expectation is always the same here,” Pastrnak said. “You play for (an) Original Six; they are very high and they will always be here. So, whoever is going to dress up in October, it’s going to be a competitive team and that’s the one message we’re going to have.

“We won’t accept what happened last year.”