B’s watch as deadline looms
Sweeney yet to pull trigger on deal
EDMONTON — The trade deadline is Monday, but don’t tell NHL general managers that.
Tuesday, six days from the deadline, saw a boom in deals that included several Bruins trade targets. It really began late in the weekend when the Kings sent Tyler
Toffoli to the Canucks, an oftrumored Bruins target, but Tuesday was an illustration of how quick the landscape can change.
Just as soon as it seemed the B’s were in the conversation for Sharks defenseman
Brenden Dillon he was shipped to the Capitals. Their focus has shifted to
Chris Kreider of the Rangers, a player they’ve long coveted, but like the other players there are many contenders. The Blues gave up a lot for defenseman Marco Scandella on Tuesday but are still in the running, as are the Avalanche seeking another scorer to put them over the top.
The Bruins leaped at the opportunity a year ago to add Charlie Coyle and Marcus
Johansson and they were vital for a run to the Cup Final. Bruins general manager Don Sweeney needs something like that up his sleeve for them to make another run.
Facing the Oilers
While the Bruins have won 10 of their last 12 games they’ve still hemorrhaged a huge points lead on the Lightning, who entered Tuesday trailing by a single point in the Atlantic.
The Oilers beat the Bruins at TD Garden in their meeting in early January, and have stayed a contender in the playoff race since, and will threaten the B’s most recent run to begin their western Canada road trip.
“They played well against us in our building,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy told reporters in Edmonton. “I don’t know if we had our A-game, but credit to them too. They did a lot of things well and we didn’t get to our game, so that’ll be our challenge (Wednesday). We’re playing better hockey now as a group; we’re healthy, fortunately.”
The Oilers beat the Bruins 4-1 at home, one of the B’s two regulation losses at TD Garden. That was one of their more pedestrian performances of the season, and while they’ve overcome a lot since then and started to play their best hockey of the year, the gap has still closed on them.
Even with them playing so well of late, the cushion is gone, and they don’t have room for any more games like that, no matter what they’ve done over the past month in the win column.
“Obviously, they’re in a tight playoff race, that division is pretty tight right now,” said Edmonton native Jake
DeBrusk. “A lot of jockeying. Definitely expect a desperate team looking to get two points and we understand that we have a team kind of doing the same thing on our side too. It seems like this time of year, the games kind of get amped up. It’s for seeding, anything to get those two points we understand that no matter who they have in the lineup they’re going to give the best they got.”