Bruins can look like contenders one night and pretenders the next; truth lies in between

Don Sweeney could really use a trade-deadline dinger like the one he hit to land Charlie Coyle for Ryan Donato in 2019.

Only this time the challenge that the Boston Bruins general manager faces is not about accenting a top-level lineup to bridge the crevices between them and the Stanley Cup.

It's about the fault lines that rumble underneath on most nights and are sure to swallow them come playoff time.

Yet to effectively mitigate the decline (and 2020 departure) of stalwart defenseman Zdeno Chara, an erosion to the core compounded in 2021 by center David Krejci's NHL retirement, the Bruins took a 17-11-2 record into the weekend.

Like most good teams with fractured lineups and little maneuverability under a stagnant salary cap, the Bruins can look like contenders one night and pretenders the next.

The truth lies somewhere in between.

In the real world, the one where other GM's are smart, acquiring a legitimate replacement for Chara or Krejci is but a sweet dream. Without them, the Bruins are presently clawing their way to a safer place inside the NHL's expansive middle class.

To that end, they have tightened their belts. After losing six times by three or more goals over their first 17 games, the Bruins have lost by three goals only once in their last 13.

And that came on the heels of a 2-0-1 trip through western Canada.

To that end, solid goaltenders Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark will soon share the net with Tuukka Rask, who has completed his rehab following labrum surgery and will be given the opportunity to reclaim his old job.

To that end — stop the presses — the Bruins are playing tough. No longer limited to isolated scrapes involving the likes of Charlie McAvoy, Connor Clifton, Brad Marchand, Nick Foligno or Trent Frederic, this is playing out like a team-wide resolution.

"For me, when you say toughness, I don't think you're necessarily talking about fighting, but just overall intimidation I think is something that, when you're talking about 2011, you had that not only on the back end but you had it on the forward group, too. That's an area that we've discussed," said team president Cam Neely during a Dec. 22 media Zoom. "If something becomes available that we think can not only help you play but also bring that element, I don't think we'd be opposed to it for sure."

No one will confuse this group with the 2011 band featuring Chara in his prime and buttressed by Milan Lucic, Shawn Thornton, Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid and a host of eager backup singers, but something has happened since Neely fielded the question as to whether the 2021-22 Bruins are tough enough to make a deep playoff run.

Since then, their games have had more fists than pacifists.

It is also no coincidence that the secondary scoring so elusive heretofore has suddenly materialized. Eric Haula, Brandon Carlo, Nick Foligno, Curtis Lazar, Oscar Steen, Tomas Nosek and Trent Frederic have all scored goals for Boston in 2022.

Players are no longer flying by the opponent's net, they're getting there and stopping there, screening the goalie, tipping shots and whacking at the rebounds. They are holding their ground in the offensive end and dishing out crosschecks in the defensive end.

Obviously motivated by the opportunity to center Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak, Haula has suddenly gone from being the Bruins' problem to being the opponent's. Hockey's most traveled player of recent years has found inspiration he hasn't shown since helping Vegas reach the Cup final in its inaugural campaign.

Toughness cannot be compartmentalized as a one- or two-player role preferably ignored so long as the powerplay is clicking. As Neely acknowledged, that is not how this game works, especially where it concerns a playoff run.

Is this surge just adrenaline or a sustainable push?

Given the density of a schedule heavily backloaded by pandemic-related postponements, the Bruins will be hard pressed to keep this going without a significant acquisition in advance of the March 21 trade deadline.

With trade requests from Jake DeBrusk and Zach Senyshyn on his desk, the time may be now for Sweeney to reckon with the disappointments of the 2015 NHL Draft. But the greatest among them has to be the ACL injury that cut short defenseman Jakub Zboril's season.

The left shot from Czech Republic had turned a corner in his development and was on track to providing the Bruins with a left-side solution. Should Zboril pick up in the fall where he left off, Sweeney could wind up with two, top-four defensemen from the widely criticized draft (Carlo was his second-round pick).

Mick Colageo writes about hockey for The Standard-Times. Follow on Twitter @MickColageo.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Bruins could use a trade-deadline deal