It appears that the Boston Bruins may be preparing to take on a different role at the NHL trade deadline in less than two weeks.
The Bruins will need a strong showing in their six scheduled games before March 7 to possibly change that position, beginning with a Tuesday visit from the Toronto Maple Leafs, who recently took over the Atlantic Division lead with back-to-back wins since the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
“Well, I think historically we’ve been pretty aggressive when our team’s been in a position,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said Sunday. “I think we’ll take a much more cautious approach as we approach the deadline.”
The injury absence of key defensemen Hampus Lindholm — likely out for the season, Sweeney indicated — and Charlie McAvoy does not help matters, but neither has inconsistent play and a current 0-2-1 skid that dates back to before the break.
On Saturday, Boston spotted the Anaheim Ducks two first-period goals before coming back to tie the score, but ultimately took a 3-2 overtime loss to remain one point behind the Eastern Conference playoff cut line.
“I think we’ve got to treat every game like a playoff game. I think it’s 24 games left,” forward Elias Lindholm said. “We need to win a lot of games to be able to get in, but we can’t look too far ahead.”
“We need to embrace the situation that we’re in as far as playing meaningful games,” interim coach Joe Sacco said. “We’re in a fight right now, and it’s an opportunity for us to make some ground here.”
Sacco and the Bruins experimented with Morgan Geekie on the first power-play unit during Monday’s practice. Geekie scored the game-tying goal in Saturday’s third period, his eighth tally in 12 games.
“We’re going to try different things as we move forward … if we feel it can improve our team,” Sacco said.
The Bruins are 18-9-4 on home ice this season, but they will have to find an answer to their road woes (9-15-3) in a hurry to change their playoff fate. Following a Thursday clash with the New York Islanders, Boston will play 10 of its 14 March games away from home.
The Maple Leafs leapfrogged the Florida Panthers in the division race after sweeping a weekend back-to-back, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 and Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
“These last two games have been really strong by us,” Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll said. “We grabbed the lead, and I think we did a good job of holding it and keeping to our structure.”
The latter game began a four-game road trip for Toronto.
Nick Robertson scored twice against the Blackhawks. The 23-year-old had been on a nine-game goal-less drought.
“We’re just simplifying our game,” Robertson said. “We know our strengths: shooting the puck and playing fast.”
Saturday saw Alex Steeves score his first NHL goal, and his effort was rewarded with Leafs coach Craig Berube deploying the same skater lineup in both ends of the back-to-back.
“He was hard on the forecheck. He plays a simple game. It is direct. That is what I like about it,” Berube said.
However, forward Connor Dewar is ready to return from a nine-game absence due to an upper-body injury.
–Field Level Media
