Bruins must use trade deadline to establish an identity
COMMENTARY
The Boston Bruins are in purgatory, a mishmash of streakiness that has surprisingly put the team in playoff position after last summer’s purge, but with an inconsistency that is the equation resulting from the sum of its parts.
At 26-18-5, the Bruins, who open the post-All-Star break of their NHL schedule Tuesday night at home vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs, currently sit in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with 57 points, good enough for a shaky hold on the top wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. They’re also only a point behind both the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning in the division, six behind the Atlantic-leading Florida Panthers.
That’s probably a far cry from where many saw the Bruins heading during the 2015-16 season after jettisoning the likes of Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton in a restructuring of the team under new general manager Don Sweeney, who took over a roster of overpriced imperfection from Peter Chiarelli, and somehow has it pointed upward, despite its litany of imperfections.
“We’re in a decent spot, but a lot’s going to change from here to the end of the season,’’ forward Brad Marchand told the team’s web site. “[There’s] almost 35 games left, so a lot can happen, and we saw that last year. It doesn’t really matter where we are right now; it’s more about where we are at the end of the year.’’
For all their faults, the Bruins have turned into what looks and feels like a playoff team, something they, perhaps, should have been last season if not for falling a mere two points shy with an admirable 96. Despite all the change that Boston endured, that’s a credit to the consistency of guys like Patrice Bergeron (who might be en route to his finest, personal season yet with 19 goals and 44 points), David Krejci (in his recent absence due to injury, the Bruins were a two-way mess, including in the Jan. 1 embarrassment to the Montreal Canadiens), and Tuukka Rask (who has steadily rebounded from a rocky start to reclaim his status as one of the best goalies in the NHL with a .917 save percentage). It’s also a testament to Claude Julien, the man who didn’t know if he’d have a job in Boston as late as last summer, but has managed to adjust his coaching style to a degree that probably has him in the running for Jack Adams honors.
But now it’s up to Sweeney and team president Cam Neely to figure out if they should be swimming upstream, or planning long-term. The Bruins desperately need defensemen, yet it remains to be seen if Sweeney will have the chips — and stones — needed to pull off a defining trade, and all signs point to the Bruins needing to be waning from contention in order for it to happen.
Twenty-seven days remain until the Feb. 29 NHL trading deadline, and, much like its season as a whole, the Bruins are in limbo, particularly when it comes to solving the Loui Eriksson situation. The 30-year-old will be a free agent after the season, and could be a highly-sought player at the trading deadline for a contender looking to add a bit of a scoring touch. He’s on pace to have his best season in a Bruins uniform, with 15 goals and 24 assists heading into Tuesday night, still far off the pace from his 71 and 73-point seasons he put up with the Dallas Stars from 2009-12.
The Bruins are better when Eriksson is on the ice. He’s second only to Bergeron in points, and has one fewer power play goal (eight) than the team’s lone All-Star. But TSN’s Darren Dreger suggested last month that preliminary contract discussions with the winger were throwing around numbers in excess of five or six years for around $6 million per.
No.
Sweeney isn’t going to give the lone piece remaining on the Bruins from the disastrous Tyler Sequin trade the $30-$36 million he’s reportedly seeking at the age of 30. He can’t.
But the Bruins also can’t replace Eriksson’s production this season, something of dire consequence if they want to continue their playoff push. Nor can they allow him to walk via free agency over the summer without getting an asset in return.
Remember when Chiarelli failed to get anything for Carl Soderbergh at last season’s deadline?
“I’d like to keep Loui, period, just like the guys that have left us, I would have loved to have kept,’’ Julien said Monday. “As a coach, would I like to have Looch? Would I like to have those other guys? Hamilton? Sure, [but] we couldn’t keep them for different reasons. You get some good players that end up leaving for reasons that we can’t control, so you’ve got to have the confidence in your upper management that they’re going to make the right decision. I can’t do anything about it. I can only coach what I have right now. I enjoy having him. I think he’s a great player and we’ll see where it goes from there.’’
Eriksson has a limited no-trade clause which makes things a bit more sticky for Sweeney, but there might be a fit with the Minnesota Wild, who are seeking some scoring help and would have a crop of young defensemen to dangle in Matt Dumba, Jonas Brodin and Marco Scandella.
“I’m just going to try to focus on my game and try to help the team as much as I can and play good,’’ Eriksson said on Monday. “All the other things, I can’t really control right now, and all I can do is go out there and play hockey and like I said, help the team a lot and play good. So that’s all I’m going to focus on.’’
It’s a crazy stretch to focus on in February. The Bruins play 14 games in 27 days this month, and by the time they host the Lightning on Feb. 28, need to have a firm grasp on what, exactly, they are.
A playoff team? Great. A Cup contender? Probably not.
Eriksson is integral to their success, but he’s also a means to assuring the Bruins can retain some assets in lieu of waving goodbye to him in July. Sweeney is stuck in the middle. The Bruins aren’t good enough to morph into “go for it’’ mode, nor does the core of players in their prime with a crop of emerging youth signal a rebuilding effort either.
They’re probably damned either way.
Contact Eric Wilbur at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @GlobeEricWilbur and Facebook www.facebook.com/GlobeEricWilbur
36 images that will remind you how tough the ‘Big Bad Bruins’ were
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