Lucic-Krejci-Eriksson Line the Great Unsolved Mystery at Boston Bruins Camp

The Boston Bruins have suddenly gone from having two-thirds of their presumptive top-six forwards to the full group. Milan Lucic’s return from injury came roughly 36 hours before the re-signing of Reilly Smith (opposite defenseman Torey Krug, as the club announced on its website Monday morning).

With the latter development, Smith figures to rejoin fellow winger Brad Marchand and center Patrice Bergeron. Those three constituted the second line for the better part of 2013-14 and are the only Bruins troika that can return intact for 2014-15.

Now that Smith and Krug’s contract standstill has ended, Boston’s topmost question mark is back between the boards. The final week-plus of training camp is the time to watch for the foundation of a first line featuring Lucic, Loui Eriksson and center David Krejci.

Granted, while not as familiar as the Marchand-Bergeron-Smith combination, that group has cultivated collaborative success in the past. One of Eriksson’s brighter days in an iffy first year as a Bruin occurred in a momentary promotion up the depth chart.

Spelling an injured Jarome Iginla that day, he tallied a playmaker hat trick and tacked on a fourth assist with Chris Kelly’s empty-netter. His first two helpers in the Bruins’ 5-2 triumph over Philadelphia gave him shared credit with Krejci and Lucic on the same scoring plays.

But one game does not verify a configuration’s effectiveness any more than one song gives a band a legendary discography. Eriksson and Lucic must spend the balance of the preseason setting a tone for a year’s worth of consistency while flanking Krejci.

The primal playmaking pivot himself acknowledged that necessity prior to the line's reunion. As quoted by The (Quincy) Patriot Ledger’s Mike Loftus, Krejci said this past Friday, “Chemistry is something you work on and once it’s there, you continue working on it. You can’t just sit on it. So once (Lucic) comes back, we have to create chemistry again, keep working on it.”

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One night later, Krejci and Eriksson took a breather while Lucic took part in the Bruins’ 3-1 exhibition win at Detroit. The fact that he logged zero shots, three minor penalties and a minus-one rating takes a distant back seat to the fact that it was his first chance to renew his rhythm.

With a slew of subsequent cuts from the training-camp roster, there is a good chance the linemates in question will all dress for each remaining preseason game. At the very least, they ought to play in two of the final three.

Even mild hints of progress as early as Tuesday’s tilt with the New York Islanders will be welcome sights for the two wingers. Eriksson, unlike Lucic, started the preseason in favorable physical condition, a sign that he is comfortably removed from last year’s injury-plagued autumn.

But the best item he can speak of through two extramural preseason ventures is a power-play assist at Washington on Friday. He has otherwise turned in empty minutes while expectedly playing the second-most among Bruins forwards behind Krejci.

Eriksson’s stat line last Tuesday at Montreal: 17 minutes and 56 seconds, a minus-one rating, two shots, a tripping minor, two giveaways and two takeaways. Joe Haggerty of csnne.com subsequently observed in his notebook: “The Swedish winger is expected to step up and fill into Jarome Iginla’s spot this season, but instead Eriksson was more a bystander without a great deal of strength on the puck when it was on his stick.”

Three nights later, Eriksson logged 19:39 on the ice, two minutes in the bin for holding and two more shots. He did garner the secondary helper on Matt Fraser’s 1-1 man-advantage equalizer but needs more eventful shifts at even strength.

Though it is on Eriksson as a professional to manufacture his own motivation, Lucic’s presence going forward may help to instill a helpful line-wide spark. That is assuming he tames his aggression to render it effective rather than counter-intuitive, as it was at times in his Saturday preseason debut.

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While Lucic has never been a conventionally flashy first-liner, he has fit Boston’s mold enough to play the role for the better part of his NHL career. He has not charged up 30-, 26- and 24-goal seasons in 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2013-14, respectively, by accident. The same goes for the fact that he has been among the team’s top five point-getters for each of the past four years.

But Krejci and Lucic alike will only cement a sound 2014-15 if they have a dependable right winger to complement them. With a shortage of quality and seasoning on that flank, the Bruins must bank on Eriksson to deliver that aid.

Multiple sideline stints certainly factored into Eriksson’s false start to his Boston tenure. A final regular-season scoring log of 10 goals and 27 helpers in 61 outings dimmed his Dallas memories.

But even if he retains consistent health this year, the 29-year-old Eriksson will still have new and residual questions hovering over him. His past transcript of five straight 25-goal seasons (or, in the case of 2012-13, the equivalent) does nothing for his present and future.              

Can he replenish his top-six caliber and translate it to a comparable output over a predominantly Eastern Conference itinerary?

It can if his playmaking and finishing proficiency are both back up to par. It can if he restores the conviction that went missing in the first few exhibitions of 2014.

That balance between setup and scoring capability might even benefit his new center and fellow wing.

As Krejci told Nicholas Goss of nesn.com three weeks ago, “Maybe for me personally it means I will get more passes than when Horton or Iginla were skating down the right side and they just shot it. … Maybe I will get more pucks and more passes to have better scoring chances.”

Assuming Eriksson is in adequate physical and psychological shape, the other variable will be Lucic’s commitment to forcing possession time. His return to game action marks his long-awaited chance to translate inflammatory words in the wake of underachievement to actions geared toward redress.

The three starting strikers have a week, one whose game-to-practice ratio fairly simulates a regular-season week, to rehearse before anything counts.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics for this report were found via nhl.com.