After months of trying to put a positive spin on a season that frankly hasn’t gone right since the Jeremy Swayman holdout in training camp, the retooling has begun for a Bruins team badly in need of some alterations.
The day started with the news that Brad Marchand is going to miss some time with an upper body injury suffered when he was hit from behind in Pittsburgh, and continued when Trent Frederic was traded on Tuesday to Edmonton, along with Max Jones , for a 21-year-old defenseman prospect Max Wanner, a second-round pick and a fourth-round pick.
The deal was excellent value for an outgoing rental forward from a Bruins perspective, and a good trade that saw the B’s dispatch the Jones contract that had them on the hook for another $1 million next season for a player that did not live up to expectations. Count it as an encouraging first step for GM Don Sweeney as he looks to reshape the current NHL roster and augment their collection of draft pick assets and young prospects. It should be the first of several moves to switch things up and find different answers where the Bruins have few throughout a frustrating campaign.
From a team perspective, it was a tough blow watching a popular teammate like Frederic get moved to Edmonton while a clearly distracted Bruins team dropped a 6-3 decision to the Nashville Predators on the ice at TD Garden on Tuesday night.
“It’s hard to see a guy like that leave,” admitted Charlie Coyle. “He’s been such a good friend and teammate and player. I could go on and on about Trent, but I wouldn’t do it justice at this point. We just need to control what we can control. I say that after we honestly didn’t do that [against Nashville], controlling what we could control.
“I’m biting my words here. But you can’t worry about that extra stuff and you just need to go out and do what you can to help your hockey team that you’re playing for. That’s all you can do. When you start stressing and worrying about the ‘what ifs’…those are things that you can’t control, what other teams are doing. You just need to do your job and that’s what you needed to be focused on and worried about.”
But it’s likely just the first domino to fall for a Black and Gold group in “sell” mode as rumors are swirling that Brandon Carlo could be moved, and Justin Brazeau has been a candidate to get traded as he approaches unrestricted free agency as well.
To a mean the Bruins players are dealing with a very different deadline experience this season as B’s players are getting subtracted from the roster in deals rather than adding on to the group as the Bruins have historically done over the last 10 years.
“You never like that feeling of uncertainty, nobody does. You don’t really like change either, but the approach that we’ve had here is to just go day-by-day, contribute to the group and being the best part of it that I can be,” said Carlo. “I’ve obviously loved being a Boston Bruin and I want to continue to be a Boston Bruin, but in general it’s been different [this season]. We’re usually adding at this point for that final push and this year is a little different.
“But I still have a lot of faith in the guys in this room and I wouldn’t want to be battling with anybody else. For me and for this group, I think it’s about taking things day by day and controlling what we can control. There are some hard realities that might have to be faced, but you just cross those brides when you come to it.”
That’s the reality, however, as the Bruins continue to sink back in the Eastern Conference and now stand in seventh place just above the lowly Buffalo Sabres in the Atlantic Division. So who could be next as the Black and Gold go into a sell mode that hasn’t been seen since Don Sweeney was running the team?
Brazeau looked like a player exhibiting the kind of desperation on Tuesday night that says he A) wants to stay in the lineup and B) wants to stay in the NHL as he’s hit a bit of a wall in the second half of the year while the Bruins will surely entertain trade offers of a draft pick in return for him.
It’s even a very different deadline experience for established guys like Coyle and Carlo, who could hear their names in trade dealings as it seems fairly certain Bruins management is intent on rightly changing up the mix. It feels like at this point this B’s team is far, far away from being able to compete against a deep, determined team like the Florida Panthers, and that should be the measuring stick when making long-term roster plans.
Once a coach firing like the B’s moving on from Jim Montgomery didn’t bring marked improvement, it’s the core group that is looked at next when for an underperforming hockey team as the Bruins have been this season even amidst some admittedly challenging injuries as well.
Boston scored three goals in the loss to lowly Nashville, but they also gave up three goals in less than three minutes after they scored in the kind of soft, non-competitive performance that will easily keep a team out of the postseason.
“We were just not ready to go, I guess. I don’t have too many answers, honestly, and that’s just one of the parts of our game that isn’t up to par right now,” said Coyle, of the B’s coughing up goals right after they scored against Nashville. “Those are big moments in games that can make a big difference, and they made a difference…but we have to take ownership of that.
“No matter what is going on in the game and whatever whistle happens, and especially after giving up or getting a goal, we need to bring that energy and that focus, and come right back at…and show some life. And we didn’t.”
The Bruins have experienced many times this season when their physical and mental mettle has been tested, and they consistently have not been able to adequately respond to that in-game adversity all season long. In the final analysis the B’s need to change up their mix, and they began doing that with a Frederic trade that showed it’s actually going to be a seller’s market where teams making the hard choices will get rewarded.
Credit Sweeney and the B’s for at least recognizing that in a season where so much has gone wrong for them so consistently as they wind down on a lost hockey year. Now they need to keep selling and put the Bruins organization in a position where they can bounce back from a campaign that’s been about as forgettable as it can get.
