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NHL Notebook: Bruins players under suspicion steal the show………….
Following the NHL trade deadline, the Boston Bruins decided to stick with their current roster, and many players appeared to be operating with a great weight off of their shoulders.
In a 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday afternoon, Pavel Zacha netted two goals after Boston decided against upgrading at the center position, and Jake DeBrusk scored a goal amid much conjecture that he would be moved ahead of free agency. Linus Ullmark made 38 saves and was Boston’s best player.
Our finest player, in Jim Montgomery’s opinion, was Ullmark. It wasn’t even close. He was excellent. I’m glad he remains a Bruin.
Pat Maroon and Andrew Peeke, two heavyweight, physically built players the Bruins added in a playoff-style fashion, gave the impression that the entire team was playing loose, high-energy hockey.
Brad Marchand, who on Saturday afternoon scored his 399th goal in the NHL, stated, “We feel good about our group.” We have the entire year. Before Friday’s trade deadline, we gained two tough components and two wonderful men to the room: Peeke and Maroon. I adore our team, have complete faith in it, and anything can happen when the playoffs roll around. What matters is that we have a group that we firmly believe in.
Conversely, it appeared as though the top players in Pittsburgh were protesting the trade of sniper Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes, their divisional rivals, during the game. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin both finished with zero shots on goal in the defeat, as the Penguins failed to generate any momentum after having 14 attempts on goal in the first period but were unable to get the puck past Ullmark.
The largest breath of relief, though, had to come from Ullmark, who truly couldn’t be faulted for not wanting to spend the next few months away from his family and forgoing a no-trade clause that he had earned in his contract. Ullmark emphasized how much he liked being a Boston Bruins player, but he did not confirm that he used his NTC power to thwart a deal that would have sent him to the LA Kings.
Before the crucial victory over the Penguins, Ullmark had lost six straight decisions. “Oh thank god, yes…it’s tough,” he said. “You want to avoid showing anything, so you try to project a tough exterior beforehand. It’s important to remain emotionless, much like the playoffs. The players have it rough.
“This is the first time I’ve had to deal with being the subject of rumors.” Although you start to hear more and more of those outside noises, it wears you down. I always felt safe. It’s an emotional experience, and you find yourself thinking about your family. You never seem to have the answers to these inquiries. Therefore, I’m relieved that it’s ended and am delighted to be here.
After the winning performance, Jeremy Swayman, his goaltender tandem partner, undoubtedly made sure to enthusiastically celebrate with him that he’s staying.
All of this doesn’t mean that the Bruins won’t bring up Ullmark again in the summer when it would make more sense to deal to a larger pool of bidders, and it also doesn’t mean that DeBrusk and Boston will just walk away from one another in free agency.
This season’s performance and the talent available at the deadline, quite frankly, weren’t worth blowing up the NHL roster or making multiple moves to simply free up enough cap space to bring in a piece that might not even be a game-changer in the end. All it means is that the Bruins accurately assessed this season’s group as a playoff team that could use a little more muscle and attitude.
Along with standout Bruins players like David Pastrnak, Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Swayman, players like Ullmark, DeBrusk, and Zacha will be key contributors if the team manages to engineer a deep Stanley Cup run this spring. If not, Sweeney and company will have far more cap room and flexibility to work with come summertime, giving them the opportunity to drastically alter the team’s identity, something they were unable to accomplish at this week’s trade deadline.
A single instance
1. The season-ending injury to tough defenseman Derek Forbort went unnoticed during the NHL trade deadline. The Bruins will miss him in the playoffs in battle areas surrounding the net and on the penalty kill. Forbort fought a bothersome ailment throughout the season that will require surgery, so it was evident that something wasn’t right. This was evident in the manner he struggled to return after taking a month off to see if his condition improved. Rather, he has finished his season having only appeared in 35 games, his contract with the Bruins is about to expire, and he will probably need to spend the summer recovering from surgery and hunting for work.
Following the trade deadline, Don Sweeney stated, “People should realize that Derek [Forbort] has been playing through two significant injuries.” “One is definitely going to need surgery, and the other one might.” Bravo, and a true monument to Derek’s spirit, for wanting to be the best team player despite suffering from serious injuries and agony. However, things got to the point that he could no longer play.
2. Pat Maroon had a media conference on Saturday afternoon before meeting for the first time with his new colleagues on the Bruins. He smiled broadly and used his typical sense of humor to make veiled references to a long history of trash talk and altercations with the Black and Gold.
His winning record and audacious demeanor in the locker room played a significant role in luring him to the Boston team, and his on-ice abilities will only increase when his back heals from surgery performed in early February. Maroon remarked, “I feel like I’m hated here.” “It will be nice to be on the other side of it; there have been a lot of chirps and fights with these guys over the years.”
3. On Saturday afternoon, David Pastrnak scored his 40th goal for the Boston Bruins, joining an elite club of players that only Cam Neely (four times), Rick Middleton (five times), and Phil Esposito (seven times) had reached as many as four times as Black and Gold players. Before all is said and done, he might be the franchise leader in that area all time.
4. Seeing some of the second annual “Big City Greens Classic” on Disney and Disney XD with my hockey-loving kids was a lot of fun because the animated show used motion capture and tracking technology to track the Bruins and Penguins’ game play as if it were taking place in the animated universe of Big City Greens, complete with show characters. It’s also entertaining to observe how well Brad Marchand fits in with an animated children’s program thanks to his comic acting and voice-over abilities. It was really something extraordinary when the Bruins went on the power play and all of their players transformed into enormous bears on skates.
I hope they continue to do this every year because it’s a kid-friendly presentation that effectively highlights all the cutting-edge technology that both the NHL and ABC/ESPN have at their disposal.
5. It’s interesting to note that before the Bruins decided to trade for Andrew Peeke, player development expert Adam McQuaid watched film of the player’s play with Columbus, according to Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal. When it comes to deals like these, it truly speaks to the strong, consensus-building management group that Sweeney has in place and how well-liked McQuaid is among the team following a fantastic stint as a tough, Cup-winning D-man with the Black and Gold.