Leafs making waves in the East
Friday night blockbuster could affect power balance
The tide was already rising in the Eastern Conference, but Bruins fans had to be concerned the waters were reaching near flood levels on Friday night.
The New York Islanders made their play to sneak into a wild card spot and bolster their center position for years to come when they obtained Bo Horvat. The New York Rangers made themselves a legitimate Stanley Cup contender with the deal that brought Vladimir Tarasenko. But the deal that went down Friday night hit just a little closer to home.
Their Atlantic Division rival — and long-time patsy — Toronto Maple Leafs pulled off a whopper, obtaining center Ryan O’Reilly, whom Bruins fans know all too well from when he accepted the Conn Smythe Trophy on Garden ice in 2019, and old friend and wrecking ball Noel Acciari for a a bevy of picks, prospects and other pieces. While the Leafs’ goaltending is still unproven and the defense could use bolstering, the team that already had the fourth-best record in the NHL got considerably better overnight.
B’s coach Jim Montgomery was in St. Louis the last two years with O’Reilly.
“It’s a really good acquisition by Toronto. He makes them significantly better,” said Montgomery, who maintained he’d still take his current roster over any other team’s. “They’ve got three big-time centers now and… I know Ryan really well and he’s a really good hockey player. He’s someone that cares about winning and has a lot of winning
habits to his game.”
What remains to be seen is how much the activity of his conference competitors spurs B’s GM Don Sweeney into action, and if it changes the scope of what he wants to do by the March 3 trade deadline.
There aren’t many names to whom the B’s have not been linked lately, but the one that keeps coming up in the last few days has been Columbus Blue Jacket stayat-home left defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, a UFAto-be for whom the Jackets are reportedly looking for three picks, including a firstrounder.
It would be a hefty price for a player not guaranteed to make the Bruins markedly better like O’Reilly/Acciari should do for the Leafs. Gavrikov could take Hampus Lindholm’s penaltykilling minutes to keep the
Swedish workhorse fresher for 5-on-5 but that’s a big bounty to pay for that minimal a bump.
A potential deal for Jakob Chychrun would make a little more sense considering he’s on an excellent contract with term (two more years at an AAV of $4.6 million) though it is debatable just how much that deal would move the needle for the B’s, especially if it means swapping out Matt Grzelcyk to make room.
Yes, they could use a less expensive depth piece on the back end, but the feeling here has long been that they need to bolster the scoring punch in the bottom six. When the B’s went on their 1-3-1 dip recently, it was the goal-scoring that deserted them, not their ability to keep the puck out of the net.
O’Reilly or Acciari would have helped there, but obviously
they’re off the table now. Arizona’s Nick Bjugstad (13 goals, plus-7 in 43 games), long coveted here, is still available. He’d provide a boost.
Or do the in-conference moves cause Sweeney to think bigger? The best player available is San Jose’s Timo Meier. And though there’s not a burning need for a wing now or in the near future — center is the longterm need that requires addressing at some point — the left shot wing who can play either side would give any team a boost. He’s an RFA with a $10 million qualifying offer due in the offseason. Could the B’s simply treat him as a rental and just not qualify him after the season? A third line of Taylor Hall, Charlie Coyle and Meier would be pretty formidable, and a fourth unit of Nick Foligno, Tomas Nosek and
Trent Frederic could cause some issues for teams, too.
It’s a tantalizing thought for a Bruins team that has suddenly found some company in the grouping of Cup favorite. …
Of note
Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron both snapped what for them were long scoring droughts on Thursday in Nashville. Bergeron went into the game on a sixgame pointless streak and Marchand was at five games.
The slumps didn’t exactly set off alarm bells for Montgomery, but they didn’t go unaddressed, either.
“You talk to them, yes, but you’re not as overly concerned with them as you are with most players because of their habits and their ability to look in he mirror and assess their own game is beyond reproach,” said Montgomery.
“I know (Chris Kelly) met with them and talked about being more connected offensively and supporting each other and dealing with frustration. Those are things that Chris Kelly met with them about. I talked to them about when they’re on their game, what goes on? So that mentally, they’re thinking about that… I said to Bergy, ‘Where did you score that goal against Washington at the start of the season?’ to get him thinking about where he was. Stuff like that. Although that goal he scored (in Nashville), that was McDavid-esque, eh? That was nice.” …
The Islanders were missing a Bruin killer in their lineup as Jean-Gabriel Pageau (upper body) is on IR. Josh Bailey also did not make the trip after suffering an injury on Friday.