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Boston Bruins: 5 burning questions heading into the 2018-19 season

By Bruin Belisle

BOSTON, MA - APRIL 21: Boston's tip line of Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron (37), Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) and Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) skate out for a face off during Game 5 of the First Round for the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 21, 2018, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Maple Leafs defeated the Bruins 4-3. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 21: Boston's tip line of Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron (37), Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) and Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) skate out for a face off during Game 5 of the First Round for the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 21, 2018, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Maple Leafs defeated the Bruins 4-3. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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BOSTON, MA – OCTOBER 06: The Boston Bruins raise their 2011-11 Stanley Cup Championship Banner before the start of the home opener against the Philadelphia Flyers on October 6, 2011 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

1. Can the Bruins win the Stanley Cup?

The most important question. After running out of gas and being handled by the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games last May, have the Bruins done enough to avoid the same fate this year?

General Manager Don Sweeny hit his checklist of items to address this offseason: bottom-six depth, toughness and a viable backup goaltender with both starter and playoff experience, keeping young prospects in Boston uniforms and locking down defensemen (signed Grzelcyk, added Moore).

Sure, the Bruins didn’t get a guy like John Tavares. but they also didn’t need a guy like John Tavares. (Okay, a guy like that would be nice, but someone pull up his playoff resume for me real quick? Thanks.)

Joking aside, the Bruins are better this season than they were last season. More importantly, they know they are. The B’s weren’t supposed to be great last year but they were right in the mix as Cup contenders.

With the core of the team coming back and the young players now possessing valuable playoff experience, they can only go up from here. As the age-old saying goes: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Read. Each NHL team's most famous superfan. light

There are potentially six true contenders for the Stanley Cup next season (not in this particular order): the Tampa Bay Lightning, Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vegas Golden Knights and Boston Bruins.

Anything can happen in the NHL, especially when it comes to playoff time, but we can narrow that list by using logic and say that the Knights will likely regress after their fantastic overachieving 2017-18 season and the Leafs won’t win because they are the Leafs (and that means they’d have to get by Boston in an elimination game).

This Bruins team is set up to compete with anyone next year. So that leaves us with this final question: Will the Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 2018-19?

Short answer: Yes.

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