Sports Hub Underground: CONCERNS! For every team in the AFC East

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The New England Patriots are not without their own concerns for the 2023 season. Is the offensive line ever going to get healthy or hold up? Is Mac Jones good enough to overcome their flaws and win them games? Do they have enough weapons?

But, guess what? The Patriots aren't the only team with flaws, questions, or CONCERNS! Which is why I've taken it upon myself to remind fans (and, frankly, some of the media) that the Patriots aren't alone. That other teams, particularly in the AFC East, have concerns of their own.

Just because the Patriots aren't perfect right now doesn't mean the effing Jets or Dolphins are perfect. The Jets' own offensive line appears to be in shambles, and their head coach might be SOFT. The Dolphins, meanwhile, had an injury scare for their left tackle and their own pass protection problems.

The Bills?! Josh Allen is getting in fights. Stefon Diggs is unhappy. One of their tackles just straight-up retired. Clearly means Sean McDermott has lost control, he and Allen and Diggs all hate each other, and the window is closing on them. Am I doing this right?

Anyway, that's a big part of the discussion on the newest episode of the Sports Hub Underground podcast, which you can listen to in the above player. But first, we discuss the retirement of Bruins center David Krejci and the signing of Harvard forward John Farinacci, and what it means for the B's going forward.

Full rundown...

(1:20) Opening banter

(13:17) David Krejci's retirement and what it means for the Bruins

(40:30) Bruins sign Harvard's John Farinacci

(57:09) CONCERNS! for the Patriots, and - get this - the other teams in the AFC East

(1:31:19) Reacting to the Patriots' signing of Ezekiel Elliott

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Matt Dolloff is a writer and podcaster for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Have a news tip, question, or comment for Matt? Yell at him on Twitter @mattdolloff and follow him on Instagram @realmattdolloff. Check out all of Matt's content here.

Don't look now, but we're less than two months away from the start of the 2023-24 NHL season.

I know, I know, I know. Why think about ice when there's still some of that sweet, sweet summer left? Or maybe you'd prefer not to think about the upcoming NHL season given the bummer summer feel of this Bruins offseason, with the cap-strapped B's taking loss after loss following a record-breaking regular season. Those in mourning in regards to Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci after almost two decades of center-ice excellent, yeah, you are both heard and seen.

But the Bruins are going to be back on that horse and reporting for training camp before you know it.

And, boy, do they have a lineup seemingly full of question marks.

It really starts at the center position, where the Bruins are going to ask (and need) somebody to pop out of their career norm and excel in an above-personal-ceiling role for the club. They have countless options on that front, but it's a tall task for whoever Jim Montgomery tabs. The Bruins also have their questions on the backend in terms of best optimizing and maximizing the impact of a defense that's led by Norris contenders Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy, and there's about a billion forwards seemingly batting for bottom-six roles on this year's B's squad.

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Those questions were attempted to be answered on the latest edition of the Sports Hub Underground, with both myself and Matt Dolloff offering up our projected Opening Night lineup for the Bruins.

It was far from an exact science — and each projected lineup featured more than one player moving into a role that'd be considered 'unfamiliar' and 'uncomfortable' this time a year ago — but with this being the spot the Bruins find themselves in for 2023-24, there will almost have to be an element of dart-throwing for the B's out of the gate.

I decided to get weird with it out of the gate this season, with a line that'll feature Brad Marchand to the left of Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic. Now is this a first line or a second line? That's up for interpretation — some will say the line with Marchand on it is the first line while others will say the line with David Pastrnak is the real first line — but for me, it's not a dealbreaker either way. Instead, I'm focused on the idea of basically having a juiced-up version of last year's third line with Marchand in what was Taylor Hall's spot.

Coyle is the de facto Bergeron replacement as a right-shooting center who can be deployed all over the ice, so putting him with Marchand out of the gate for 2023-24 makes all the sense in the world. And as for Frederic, it's clear that he's not what you would consider a top-line player. He might not even be a top-six player for that matter.

But Frederic and Coyle simply work when together.

Together for almost 650 minutes of five-on-five play last year, the Coyle-Frederic combination outscored opponents 35-18 and out-chanced them 354-296. This while beginning less than 50 percent of their shifts in the attacking zone. Now, here's where it gets interesting: When Coyle skated without Frederic on his wing, the Bruins held an on-ice goal edge of 16-14 and had a minus-37 differential on the scoring chance front in over 420 minutes. In essence, Frederic and Coyle should not be split up if the Bruins aim to get the most out of each player.

On line two, the big surprise is not that Pavel Zacha is moving from left wing to center. That was a mere inevitability, it felt like. The big surprise here with my lineup is that Jake DeBrusk is moving back to his natural left wing position for the Bruins after spending the last season and a half thriving as a right winger.

But with the alternative being moving James van Riemsdyk into a top-six role or hoping that a Georgii Merkulov or Jakub Lauko bumps their way into that role, moving DeBrusk seems to be the B's best play at replicating a bit of what that second line looked like late in the regular season with Tyler Bertuzzi at left wing. DeBrusk may not be as much of a 'mucker' as Bertuzzi, but he's still able to score goals from in tight, and possesses a strong retrieval game that can keep possession in the attacking zone and generate some looks for Pastrnak.

Another number of note as it relates to this potential combination: The Bruins scored four goals in just over 33 minutes of five-on-five action with DeBrusk and Pastrnak out there together in 2022-23.

If Coyle and/or Frederic move up the lineup, the Bruins are going to need a new three-zone capable third line to emerge, and the third line admittedly seems like the most logical landing spot for free-agent additions James van Riemsdyk and Morgan Geekie.

The 'JVR' signing was a shrewd move for the Bruins in the sense that if he's utilized properly, he would be a power-play specialist who can bounce-back after bottoming out on the power-play scoring front last season.

And boy did it ever bottom out on him, with the 6-foot-3 wing on the board for just two power-play goals, and in over 130 minutes of power-play time on ice. It was a seven-goal dropoff from his 2021-22 mark, and with just nine forwards scoring fewer power-play goals with at least 130 minutes of man-advantage action. But the analytics indicated that van Riemsdyk was victimized by some plain rotten luck around the night, and the B's hope it trends the other way, as these things often do year-to-year. 

Geekie, meanwhile, will have to find his footing in a more versatile role after thriving as a bottom-six scorer for the Kraken in 2022-23. The Bruins are already expecting to 'round out' his game with a more even distribution of usage, with Geekie expected to log some more defensive-zone action with the Bruins than he did in Seattle.

Lauko, meanwhile, feels deserving of a greater role in 2023-24 after thriving as a penalty-drawing, speedy wing.

One of the few locks on this roster, at least to me, is that it'll be Milan Lucic on the left side of Boston's fourth line. Lucic himself admitted that he knows he's coming to the Bruins in a reduced role and that he expects to give the team 10-to-12 good minutes of hockey every night. That's a fourth-line role most nights.

And as a sucker for a good story, I'd like to see A.J. Greer at right wing. Greer, who fought and clawed his way into a role with the Bruins during last year's training camp, grew up idolizing Lucic and has cited Lucic as his favorite player on multiple occasions. Putting these two bruisers on the wings could give the Bruins a fourth line that simply annoys the opposition.

Especially if Billerica native Marc McLaughlin can bring his skating legs to the middle of that line.

Maybe you're of the belief that Matt Grzelcyk is not a top-pairing defenseman on a Stanley Cup-winning team. There's enough data out there to indicate that you're onto something, and I'd argue that even Jim Montgomery doesn't believe that he is based on the way he utilized Grzelcyk in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

But here's one thing that's not up for debate: The Bruins going to a Grzelcyk-McAvoy pairing in the regular season works and has worked for years. And it should probably be their go-to defensive pairing out of the gate this season.

Together for over 1,362 minutes of five-on-five action over the last three years, Grzelcyk-McAvoy have posted on-ice edges in shots (846-530), scoring chances (711-525), and goals (86-32). I mean, these numbers are simply staggering. Arguably the best in the league in terms of their offensive impact.

Whether or not it works in the postseason is a different discussion, and not one you should be having when simply building what is an Opening Night lineup. In the now, and with the Bruins short on alternatives, this is their move that's guaranteed to bring results without frontloading their defense in terms of its talent deployment.

Another familiar pairing, the Bruins should stick with last year's second pairing look that featured Hampus Lindholm to the left of Brandon Carlo. With Lindholm at 6-foot-4 and Carlo at 6-foot-5, this is a duo that covers a lot of range with their reaches, and has its obvious pace-pusher (Lindholm) and its stay-at-home type (Carlo). I thought this pairing was really strong at points in Boston's first-round series with Florida (they made Aleksander Barkov disappear at one point) and you shouldn't let the broken foot sour you on what was an otherwise excellent, Norris-caliber season from Lindholm. This is a fantastic second-pairing option for any team, but especially for a Bruins team that's likely going to have win some uglier affairs in 2023-24.

A third-pairing defenseman making $3 million is, in theory, too rich for the blood of a cap-crunched team like the Bruins. But Derek Forbort's willingness to do the dirty work and put his body in harm's way is something that brings legitimate value to the club, and why I think he's a borderline lock to make this team and avoid getting Mike Reilly'd down to the minors despite his price tag. A go-to penalty-killing defenseman since he came to town in 2021, Forbort does a lot of the work that the Bruins would prefer to keep some of their upper-echelon away from if they can help it.

(Again, look at it this way: If someone is going to break their finger or get hobbled for five weeks because of a blocked shot like Forbort did last year, the Bruins would prefer that it’s Forbort over a McAvoy or a Lindholm. And Forbort is willing to absorb that pain. There is something to be said for that when it comes to his value and it’s trickle-up effect.)

Shattenkirk, meanwhile, takes on the role of 'Connor Clifton' in this lineup as Boston's right-side, third-pairing defenseman. A veteran of 891 NHL games since 2010-11, Shatenkirk is coming off a 2022-23 season that featured four goals and 27 points, along with 79 hits and 115 blocked shots, in 75 games for the Ducks.

The Bruins are not trading a goalie. It's instead going to be the backbone of their success in 2023-24. This was always the most likely scenario for the club, and became locked in when the trade market failed to materialize into anything real for the club. (No, the Bruins should not ditch the Vezina winner for 'cap relief' and nothing more because that Vezina winner is worth more wins to them than any of the other players they would've spent his $5 million on.)

With the Bruins almost guaranteed to have to go with a two-scratch look due to cap constraints, I think they're almost going to have to prioritize positional versatility with their 13th forward, which is why I'm giving the nod to Jesper Boqvist. A forward capable of playing all three forward positions, the left-shooting Boqvist is coming to Boston after a 2022-23 that featured 10 goals and 21 points in 70 games for the Devils.

In this scenario, Boqvist earns a nod over veteran journeyman Patrick Brown, but a big reason why I have that being the case is McLaughlin emerging as Boston's fourth-line center. Both Brown and McLaughlin are right-shooting centers, and the B's may have a need for a lefty pivot. Boqvist, while not an established faceoff option (not even close, actually!), has experience taking draws at this level and gives the club just another option in the toolbox.

And on the backend, Jakub Zboril appears in line to be Boston's defensive healthy scratch.

Now, Zboril will have plenty of competition for this role — Ian Mitchell and Reilly Walsh are two notable names on that front — but Zboril's experience playing both the left and right side at the NHL level should help his case.

That is unless the Bruins look at Zboril's $1.137 million cap hit a a bit much for that role, and decide that waiving him down to Providence is worth the gamble for say a cheaper option because it would just barely allow them to go with a three-scratch roster complexion. (I'd have them at just over $4,000 in cap space if they were to do that depending on the third scratch called up in Zboril's place.)

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