The Boston Bruins made their plan for the top defensive pairing very clear going into the season: Derek Forbort was going to get a shot with Charlie McAvoy, but they knew they could always go back to Matt Grzelcyk and McAvoy and have an effective combination.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy went back and forth on Forbort and Grzelcyk the first couple months of the season. But look at the last month or so for the Bruins, and you'll notice it has been almost exclusively Grzlecyk with McAvoy.
"I thought Forbort and McAvoy weren't as solid as they were at the start of the year in terms of moving the puck, so we dropped Forbort down," Cassidy explained over Zoom on Wednesday. "We know what McAvoy and Grzelcyk could do. We said that all along, right? That's an easy switch for us. Those guys have played together so often that we could do that."
The last time Forbort had double-digit five-on-five ice time with McAvoy was the Dec. 9 win over the Edmonton Oilers. Since then, it has been all Grzelcyk -- minus the Dec. 11 win over the Flames when McAvoy split time with Forbort and John Moore at even strength.
The important context in this is that Brandon Carlo had missed some time, the Bruins were not getting enough from Mike Reilly and Jakub Zboril got hurt, forcing the Bruins to get creative with their pairings at times. Once Carlo was healthy and Reilly got back on track, they went back together and have been better.
That was just one of a few indirect factors that led to Grzelcyk's return to the top duo.
"I just felt the team was kind of stopping and starting, a little uneven play," Cassidy said. "So we said, 'Hey, we're going to put (McAvoy and Grzelcyk) together, we know what we're getting every night.' The Reilly-Carlo (pair) eventually sorted itself out when Brandon came back. Then it was, OK, well, Forbort and Clifton are going to have to shore up that third pair and do a good job playing some stout, hard hockey, and they have.
"That's how we landed on it, just going to something I knew would be solid for us and maybe help us offensively with whatever they play on. They certainly seem to generate together more than maybe when they're apart. It's the balance versus loading up argument, we do it with the forwards all the time. In this case we did it with the D."
For now, those six are the ones the Bruins will ride with going forward, with Moore serving as a taxi squad/seventh defenseman. An injury obviously will lead to some changes, with Jack Ahcan and Urho Vaakanainen likely next on the organizational depth chart beyond Moore.
Regardless, it's imperative the Bruins get the most out of McAvoy, and Grzelcyk seems to be the one most capable of ensuring that happens.
