NASHVILLE — The Bruins improved to a league-best 40-8-5 Tuesday night with an overtime win over the Stars in Dallas and won’t open the playoffs for another nine weeks. Despite a couple of concerning wrinkles of late, mainly a powerless power play (0-for-20 the last six games), they are positioned for a solid postseason run.
Which could mean general manager Don Sweeney decides to stand pat leading up to the March 3 trade deadline.
But don’t count on it.
Sweeney has been an active deadline deal-maker ever since taking over the front office in 2015. He made an excellent pickup with the Marcus Johansson acquisition prior to the run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. Rick Nash was the No. 1 get at the ‘18 trade deadline and the big winger still could be central to the offense today if his one concussion too many hadn’t happened days after he joined the Black and Gold. Adding Hampus Lindholm last March, along with signing him to an eight-year contract extension, one day could stand as the best move of Sweeney’s tenure.
Sweeney could opt again to add to his backline, although a major play back there likely would mean having to surrender either Matt Grzelcyk or Brandon Carlo.
Both Grzelcyk and Carlo steadily have built their NHL bona fides, are very well liked in the room, and it’s very unlikely Sweeney would part with either defenseman unless the return included someone with size and snarl. Exhibit A: Colorado’s acquisition a year ago of Josh Manson, who proved to be a key piece in the Avalanche winning the Cup.
If Sweeney is going to cull from the current varsity roster — something, frankly, he just hasn’t done previously — then it would have to be with an eye toward: 1. Adding help at center for today; 2. Adding at center for tomorrow.
Tricky? Of course. But so was landing Lindholm, a today/tomorrow move Sweeney pulled off again without paring current roster assets. The closest to that kind of a loss was defenseman Urho Vaakanainen, who still looks like more of a prospect than a key part in Anaheim
Top centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci have struggled recently. Up to this rough patch, both have been excellent, each delivering, much like the team, well beyond expectations. Bergeron is 37 and Krejci 36. Their games have begun to show their age.
If that surprises anyone, Father Time would like a word after class.
Together, Bergeron and Krejci have combined for 2,279 regular-season games. For each, the last half-dozen of those games have been lackluster. Bergeron has gone 0-0–0 and minus-2 with 13 shots on net. A slightly more effective Krejci has collected four assists, logged an even on plus-minus, and landed eight shots. And again, the power play has flatlined.
Their skills and knowledge are such that it would be no surprise to see Bergeron and Krejci go, say, a combined 3-3–6 Thursday night when the Bruins take on the Predators — possibly with Jake DeBrusk back on board. Their dip of late only suggests, strongly, what we knew from the start, that the grueling 82-game season would weigh on them. Come mid-April, they’ll be faced yet again with the reality of needing 16 more wins, extracted from as many as 28 more games, to get their names carved in the Cup a second time.
Sweeney knows this. He knew it going into the season. He also knows he doesn’t have a fix on hand, be it among his varsity members or his Providence WannaBs.
Though it has been encouraging to see Pavel Zacha gaining confidence of late, a sign that he might one day soon be able to handle No. 1 or No. 2 pivot duty. But he’s not there yet.
Meanwhile, the Blues, fading fast in the West, have begun to shed assets. The Blues finally wheeled winger Vladimir Tarasenko to the Rangers and one longtime club manager confirmed Wednesday they stand ready to move veteran pivot Ryan O’Reilly. They’ve come to realize it’s makeover time and O’Reilly, with an expiring cap number of $7.5 million, doesn’t figure in the makeover.
O’Reilly, essential to the Blues’ win over the Bruins in the ‘19 Final, last week celebrated his 32nd birthday. For his career, he has logged 977 games and collected 690 points.
He’s neither Bergeron nor Krejci, but rather a 6-foot-1-inch, 207-pound blend of the two of them — forever reliable on faceoffs, consistent on offense, held in high regard among teammates. He won the Selke Trophy for 2018-19. In their pain of Game 7 at the Garden, Bruins fans might remember O’Reilly was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner for the ‘19 playoffs.
If Bergeron and Krejci both call it quits after this season, adding O’Reilly now, then extending him like Lindholm, albeit for 3-4 years, could be the perfect bridge answer in the top six. He would arrive as immediate relief, then be around to stabilize the top end of the offense going forward.
There will be loads of chatter in the days ahead about a landing spot for Arizona’s Jakob Chychrun and the Blue Jackets’ Vladislav Gavrikov. Both defensemen have been told to sit out by their respective clubs. They’ll be dealt. The rumor mill has the Bruins kicking tires on both.
If the Blues, though, are truly committed to moving O’Reilly, as the Ducks were with Lindholm a year ago, then that’s the deal Sweeney needs to make. For a better chance at a Cup now, and for shots at more as the post-Bergeron-Krejci era arrives.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.