The Hockey News preseason poll Bruins breakdown

The Boston Bruins had the most votes for the team due for a setback this season.

The Hockey News conducted a preseason NHL poll on awards, expectations and predictions for teams and players ahead of the 2023-24 campaign in which 34 THN staff shared their votes.

The Boston Bruins were the frontrunners in a few categories, but they weren’t exactly wins.

Collecting 17 of 34 votes — 50 per cent and most of any other team — the Bruins claimed the “team due for a setback” title. Staff cited the loss of players like Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Taylor Hall as reasons for a potential slump this season.

Fair enough.

No one, including the guys inside the B’s locker room, truly know what the team is going to look like this year and, more importantly, how competitive of a product they’ll have on the ice. It’s a new era in Boston and that will come with a significant transition period, but also added opportunities for new leaders to step up.

While the organization bid farewell to some of their top-six staples this summer, it has a deep forward pool with the likes of Morgan Geekie, James van Riemsdyk, Jesper Boqvist, Jakub Lauko and AJ Greer determined to fill those holes and prove themselves in training camp and beyond.

It won’t be the same, franchise players like Bergeron and Krejci are irreplaceable, but that doesn’t mean it will be bad. The group must learn how to take from the past and also grow into somewhat of a revised identity.

How long this transition — or setback — period lasts is up to the Bruins.

In the “players due for a setback” category, Linus Ullmark came in second overall with three votes.

The goaltender is coming off of a Vezina Award-winning season with numbers that’ll be hard to top. Through 49 games and 48 starts, Ullmark posted a league-leading 1.89 goals-against average and .938 save percentage.

Ullmark’s 40 regular season victories tied the league-lead with the Colorado Avalanche’s Alexander Georgiev.

There’s no doubt pressure to meet, or exceed, those numbers this season, however that’s not always realistic. A prime example is Igor Shesterkin’s 2022-23 performance following his 2021-22 Vezina win. He was still an outstanding goaltender, but not hitting the same accolades.

Ullmark is in a unique position, though, with the unusually successful goalie tandem the Bruins ran off of last year –– and one they’ll likely stick to this season –– between him and Jeremy Swayman.

The stability and support Ullmark and Swayman offered both each other and the team was a major part of the Bruins’ regular season dominance and leads into the last part of the THN poll.

Swayman tied for first place with six votes for the “backup goalie who is most ready for a starting role.” While Swayman is technically the B’s No. 2, he played 37 games last season and earned the trust of the team and fanbase.

Ending the regular season with a 24-6-4 record, Swayman showed consistency and confidence with a 2.27 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. The Bruins have two excellent options in net –– it will be interesting to see if the way they manage each guy’s playing time changes this season.