Yet Another Championship for the City of Boston

Hard to believe we’re halfway through training camp. In fact, the NHL regular season starts in just 13 days. That means it’s really time to put our reps on the line and make a Stanley Cup Pick.

I love the Blackhawks, but goaltending may prevent them from sealing the deal in the Final. This year, I like the Boston Bruins.

They have all the ingredients of a championship team. They’re deep as can be at center, with creative playmaker Marc Savard running the show, David Krejci emerging as one of the game’s best two-way players and Patrice Bergeron very talented despite his injury woes. They’re absolutely massive on the wings, with monsters Milan Lucic, Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder clogging opposing teams’ slots. They have the reigning Vezina Trophy winner in goal with Tim Thomas and the reigning Norris Trophy winner on defense in Zdeno Chara. All Boston really needs for a championship is some defensive depth, and they could have that within days.

The Bruins are expected to deal Phil Kessel soon – especially since they’d rather control where he goes than have a team snake him with an offer sheet. That deal could very well net them another top-four defenseman; they originally tried to deal Kessel for Tomas Kaberle, so they’re clearly on the market for a blueliner.

The Bruins are big, strong, young, cohesive, and they blend offense and defense as well as any team in the league. I like their Stanley Cup odds for 2009-10.