Bruins’ GM must resist urge to attempt a quick fix and stick with his plan
Article by: Dan Ryan

Going into the 2009-2010 season, the only question Boston Bruins fans expected to be facing in February was, “just how big is the B’s lead in the Northeast Division?” Expectations were high, a Stanley Cup seemed well within reach and nearly every single major player from last year’s edition was returning. The last thing Bruins fans thought they’d be worrying about come the Olympic break was fighting for a playoff spot.

But as the calendar ticks towards Feb. 14, the official start of the Olympic break, that’s exactly what the Bruins are doing. In fact, if the season ended today, the B’s would be on the outside looking in, as they currently sit in the ninth spot in the Eastern Conference, one place out of playoff position.

What has caused this dramatic fall from grace? A convergence of factors, the main ones being a lot of injuries and a lot of players who aren’t matching their point totals from last year.

Patrice Bergeron, Marc Savard, Milan Lucic and Andrew Ference have all missed significant time, with their injuries at times overlapping. In fact, at one point earlier this season the B’s were without each of their top-three centers (Bergeron, Savard and David Krejci) all at the same time.

Add in down seasons from players like Tim Thomas, who has yet to regain his Vezina Trophy-winning form of last season, Zdeno Chara, who has been decent but hampered by a finger injury all year, Dennis Wideman, who at times seems to have completely lost his confidence, and Michael Ryder, who hasn’t been holding up his end of the goal-scoring bargain.

In fact, pretty much every player, with the exception of Bergeron and Daniel Paille, has been drastically underperforming, creating a perfect storm that led to the B’s dropping ten straight games at one point over the past month. Before the Bruins beat Montreal this past Sunday, they had only won two games in 2010: the Winter Classic on Jan. 1 and a shootout win over San Jose on Jan. 14.

This disappointing stretch has led to some serious unrest among Bruins fans. Some are calling on GM Peter Chiarelli to do one or more of the following: fire Claude Julien, trade Michael Ryder, trade for Keith Tkachuk, or just trade everyone and start over.

As tough as this stretch has been to watch, at this point Chiarelli’s best move is no move at all.

Let’s not sugar-coat things: the Bruins have been putrid at times this season, lacking effort, losing nearly every puck battle and occasionally looking disinterested in the game.

However, one can’t ignore the mountain of injuries this team has had to climb just to get to this point. Other teams have suffered through more injuries (the Detroit Red Wings come to mind), but the B’s lost key players for long stretches at key pointsof the season, and have suffered the consequences.

The team has just started playing with a full roster again in the past couple of weeks, and the results are starting to show. Going into last night’s game against the Northeast Division-leading Buffalo Sabres, the Bruins were an unsatisfactory 1-2-3 in the past six games, but had outplayed the opposing team in all but one of those six games.

The team has been peppering opposing goalies with shots, but the bounces haven’t been there. They’ve had some bounces go against them, and when a team is mired in a losing skid the likes of the one the Bruins were experiencing, even the smallest bit of bad luck has a way of snowballing out of control.

At this point, it’s extremely unlikely that Chiarelli will make a move before the Olympic break. Truth be told, it’d be best for the team to not make any moves at all, and to either live or die with the current roster. This team as currently assembled is much better than they’ve been playing, and has yet to reach its full potential.

One thing the Bruins do need is a scorer. However, come Deadline Day, veteran scorers are always few and far between, and usually come with a high price tag. Plenty of names have been bandied about, like Tkachuk, Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya, but each would likely cost the Bruins at least a high-end prospect and a second-round draft pick, a price Chiarelli may be (and should be) unwilling to pay.

Tim Thomas’ name has also circulated in trade rumors, as the emergence of Tuukka Rask has led some to declare Thomas expendable. The Olympian-to-be hasn’t been at the top of his game this year, but the team around him hasn’t exactly been lights out either. Trading Thomas to a team desperate for goaltending at the deadline may bring the team a nice return, but if the NHL playoffs have proved anything over the last few years it’s this: two strong goalies are always better than one.

If the Bruins keep playing like they have been, they are unlikely to even challenge for a playoff spot, let alone seriously challenge for the Stanley Cup, and may find themselves in the unenviable position of just barely sneaking into the playoffs, only to be bounced in the first round. In any other year, this would be a disappointing result, as the team wouldn’t be close to winning the Cup and wouldn’t get the benefit of a high draft choice.

But this year is different. Due to this past summer’s trade of Phil Kessel to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Bruins own Toronto’s first round pick in this summer’s draft. The Leafs have been toiling in the league basement since the beginning of the season (they’re currently the third-worst team in the NHL), and there is a great chance that the Bruins will be picking in the top-three, at worst in the top-five.

With the Leafs “tanking” for them, the B’s have no reason to not stick with the plan and try to make a little noise in the playoffs. And here, the word “plan” isn’t being used by accident. For the first time in seemingly decades, the Bruins, as an organization, have a plan. Chiarelli is developing his young talent and working with his coach and scouts to find players best suited to play in Claude Julien’s defense-first system.

The knee-jerk reaction here would be to start unloading players, or to make a big splash to try and right the ship. Before he was traded to the New Jersey Devils, the Bruins were rumored to be a possible landing spot for Ilya Kovalchuk. However, reports suggested that the Bruins would have had to part with Blake Wheeler, David Krejci, a high-end prospect and Toronto’s first-round pick to bring the Russian sniper to the Hub.

Chiarelli resisted the urge to make such a huge deal, and in doing so, made the right decision. As the Bruins have learned first-hand this year, no season ever goes perfectly according to plan.

But if Chiarelli and the Bruins stick to his plan for this organization, this team will be stocked with veteran leadership and a wealth of young talent for years to come.

Is this season a lost cause? No, not at all. In fact, it is the opinion in this space that the Bruins will still get into the playoffs and make some serious noise. But if that doesn’t happen, and this season ends early for the Bruins, Chiarelli will be able to take solace in the fact that the he didn’t blow up his plan for an attempt at a quick fix, and that his team will have plenty of high-end talent and a ton of good young prospects for years to come.