As easy as it might be to chalk up the Bruins’ 13-1-2 start this season to their elite goaltending, such steady success can’t be attributed to just one segment of the roster.
Star players like David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy have delivered under heavy minutes. An impromptu youth movement has injected a much-needed spark on the ice.
And Don Sweeney’s free-agent spending spree in the clearance section has yielded strong returns in players like James van Riemsdyk (12 points in 16 games).
But if Boston was going to have any hope of replicating some of the success it achieved during last season’s record-setting run, it was going to need two veterans to pull their weight at the center position.