Lines, Rask's workload among Bruins' X-factors

BOSTON -- With a new general manager, the same coach, and a few tweaks to their roster, the Boston Bruins hope to prove that missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in seven seasons was an anomaly.

Here are three X-factors that could determine whether Don Sweeney's first season as GM and Claude Julien's ninth season as coach result in a return to the postseason:

New line combinations: For the first time since the Bruins' Stanley Cup championship of 2011 there was more than one opening in their top nine entering training camp. Only the pairing of left wing Brad Marchand and center Patrice Bergeron are all but guaranteed to be playing together when the season starts.

Center David Krejci was able to look to his left and see Milan Lucic for most of the past five seasons. Lucic was traded to the Los Angeles Kings this summer, so in addition to having a new right wing for the third straight season, Krejci will have to find a new left wing. Free agent signee Matt Beleskey, coming off an NHL career-high 22 goals with the Anaheim Ducks, might be able to make up for the loss of Lucic.

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"I know what type of player he is. Maybe a little similar to Milan," Krejci said of Beleskey. "But he's a different person and I don't expect him to play the same way as Milan. I want him to play the way he can play, and he'll be effective for our team and for my line. So we're going to talk a lot off and on the ice. Hopefully we can create some chemistry early on and play really good hockey as a line and help the team win hockey games."

Wing Loui Eriksson thrived on the right side of center Carl Soderberg the past two seasons. With Soderberg traded to the Colorado Avalanche, the Bruins have to find a new home for their leader in ice time among forwards. The Bruins also have to sort out where wings Jimmy Hayes, Brett Connolly and David Pastrnak fit, and whether Chris Kelly is going to be a wing again or move back to center.

Rest for Rask: Goaltender Tuukka Rask survived playing 70 games last season. He had a 2.30 goals-against average and .922 save percentage, and kept the Bruins in the hunt for a playoff berth until the last weekend of the season. But don't expect Rask to again match the Bruins record for games played.

The Bruins are hoping at least one goaltender can emerge as a reliable backup to play 20 to 25 games after Niklas Svedberg failed to earn the organization's trust. Malcolm Subban, the Bruins' first-round pick (No. 24) in the 2012 NHL Draft, and Jeremy Smith, a 2007 second-round draft pick (No. 54) of the Nashville Predators, were successful as a tandem with Providence of the American Hockey League. Zane McIntyre left school at North Dakota one year early to turn pro after he was a Hobey Baker Award finalist last season. And just before the start of training camp, the Bruins invited veteran Jonas Gustavsson to camp for a tryout.

Julien said he hopes the Bruins don't have to go through what they dealt with last season in terms of taxing Rask and having no one else to turn to.

"Anytime your backup goaltender is playing really well it just allows your No. 1 guy to get some really good rest," Julien said. "So I kind of have numbers [of games] in mind, but injuries could come into play where it just kind of throws all those numbers out the window, so you don't want to get wrapped up too much in that because you don't know what's going to happen along the way."

Go fourth: When the Bruins were at their best -- winning the Stanley Cup in 2011 and reaching the Final in 2013 -- they were a four-line attack. Their fourth line was populated by players largely known for physicality or penalty killing, but they were able to find chemistry, sustain an attack, and wear down opponents for the other lines. Sometimes they even scored.

As the Bruins sort through their bottom-six options, they have to decide how to strike the balance between grinders and players who can chip in the offense. The players also are going to have to add grit or skill to their game in order to earn a spot. Among the grinders the Bruins have to choose from are Zac Rinaldo (the Bruins traded a third-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft to the Philadelphia Flyers for him), Max Talbot and Joonas Kemppainen, who came over as a free agent from Finland. If rookie Alexander Khokhlachev can supplement his high-end skill with grit, he could make an impact.

"Ideally I'd like to be able to rely on my fourth line to score some goals, but at the same time a lot of those guys from the fourth line will give you either energy or score you some goals or will either be really good defensively where they become valuable penalty killers," Julien said. "I think there's a lot of different things you can look at from a fourth line, and I think we've got the ability this year to maybe make that line a line that's going to give us probably a little bit more firepower, so we'll see as camp goes along."