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At 27, defenseman Charlie McAvoy is entering his ninth NHL season with the Bruins.Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe<\/p>\nLeadership can come from every corner of a dressing room and every seat on the bench. There\u2019s no rule that says you need a \u201cC\u201d or an \u201cA\u201d stitched to your sweater to be one of the pillars of strength on a roster.<\/p>\n
Be consistent, be communicative, and have your teammates\u2019 backs. Those are the key qualities.<\/p>\n
At 27, defenseman Charlie McAvoy is entering his ninth NHL season with the Bruins.Ken McGagh for The Boston Globe<\/p>\n
Pastrnak and McAvoy acknowledged that despite a string of strong captains \u2014 Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, and Marchand \u2014 the franchise\u2019s leadership always has been by committee.<\/p>\n
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Pastrnak was exceptional during his run as the franchise\u2019s de facto captain last season<\/a> with McAvoy on the shelf and Marchand in the Sunshine State. Pastrnak was accountable and accommodating as the Bruins stumbled down the stretch and missed the playoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s different [without a captain to start the season], but at the same time, if you look at the big picture, it\u2019s always the leadership in this organization, it\u2019s not one guy. It\u2019s always been a group of leaders, and we have a bunch of new guys, some experienced guys, and some guys who\u2019ve been in the league for a while,\u201d said Pastrnak, who at 29 is heading into his 12th season. \u201cThe leadership group is going to play itself [out] in time but [beginning of] September, I think everybody is worried about being 100 percent ready to go for training camp. Obviously, the season didn\u2019t end the way we wanted it, and we all know and are aware it\u2019s unacceptable for an organization like this. <\/p>\n \u201cTraining camp is going to be hard, and we know it. Mentally now, it\u2019s Day 1, you\u2019re just trying to settle in, a bunch of guys traveled from Europe and getting [acclimated to] the time change, so it\u2019s important to make everyone feel welcome and get ready for the hard work ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n McAvoy agreed that it will continue to be leadership by committee but recognized there could be some tweaks along the way, though he declined to get into specifics. <\/p>\n \u201cWithout getting too far into any of that, we did stop to take an acknowledgment that it is a new day and age. We\u2019re trying to usher in a new group of guys that are from a different generation,\u201d said the 27-year-old McAvoy before pausing and adding with a light laugh, \u201cI\u2019m aging myself, we\u2019re not that old … but it is different times. Maybe some of the things that went on and how we were molded by the group in front of us is not necessarily how we could reach the younger guys the best. We\u2019re taking that into account. I think you have to always be learning on the fly. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have great resources in trying to put this together, so it\u2019s been nothing but exciting in the meetings that we\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n McAvoy, who declared himself a full-go following a shoulder injury and subsequent infection<\/a> suffered at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, said it\u2019s also important to remain true to yourself.<\/p>\n \u201cI think part of being a leader is you don\u2019t want to change too much of who you are. I think all of us have been selected to be a part of this leadership group moving forward for who we are and not who they want us to be someone else,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I think we have to remember that, but that doesn\u2019t mean that we can\u2019t become better versions of ourselves, better hockey players, better people. So, I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re striving to do.\u201d<\/p>\n General manager Don Sweeney told the Globe at the NHL Combine<\/a> in June that a captain by committee, which could include having three alternates, is something that could work. He also didn\u2019t rule out naming a captain.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, it\u2019s got to be an organizational decision,\u201d said Sweeney, who was an alternate Bruins captain at times. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a new head coach; he\u2019s got to get a feel for the people that he\u2019s going to implicitly trust. We think we have a lot of great candidates, but that\u2019s going to be more of a natural organic process to allow somebody to sort of emerge. But while they\u2019re being supported by a group of guys that we have to do it together, you have to reestablish that together. <\/p>\n \u201cYou had guys that were out of the locker room in Hampus [Lindholm\u2019s] case for months, Charlie for months. You watch David, who everybody knows after the deadline sort of stepped forward. His own play didn\u2019t drop off, but he was much more vocal even with [the media]. So, those are great signs and they\u2019re just a player recognizing the situation and deciding, \u2018OK, maybe it\u2019s my time.\u2019 But we\u2019re going to allow that to unfold naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @globejimmcbride<\/a>.<\/p>\n