Bruins DieHard: B's Make Moves At Deadline
BOSTON (CBS) - The trade deadline has come and gone and the Boston Bruins did nothing until the last two minutes before the bell. Lots of speculation about who and what they would get or what they wanted but from all media sources, you knew there wasn't going to be much dealing.
First of all, there was not a lot of quality players in Providence that they could dangle and get quality back. Also, if they were going to go after some big ranking player, what player or players on the varsity roster would they be willing to give up? Simply not much.
The Bruins did acquire forward Brian Rolston and defenseman Mike Mottau from the New York Islanders for minor leaguers Marc Cantin and Yannick Riendeau. Who? See what I mean. Mottau, from Quincy, Mass., and Boston College is a 33-year-old journeyman defenseman who has only played 20 games after suffering a concussion in December. Rolston is 39 and will begin his second stint with the Bruins and brings experience and another stabilizing figure in the locker room.
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Boston is pretty happy with its nucleus and doesn't feel they have to disturb much from the team that won the Cup back in June. With that said, last year's team marched through the playoffs with many of their players uninjured. It's a totally different scenario right now as Nathan Horton remains on the sidelines, Rich Peverley is not due back likely until the playoffs, and Ottawa's Chris Neil put defenseman Johnny Boychuk in a "fog". This is not the way you want to head to the home stretch of the season in a tough battle to remain comfortably in the No. 2 position in the East with Tuesday's opponent, the Senators, hot on their trail.
One last transaction by the Bruins was the acquisition of so-called shot blocker extraordinaire Greg Zanon from the Minnesota Wild for defenseman Steven Kampfer. Kampfer has been up and down for the past two seasons and really never looked to pan out to much more than a spare part. The 31-year-old Zanon looks to be a solid stay-at-home D-man that is pretty durable, averaging 79 games the last five years, three with Nashville.
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The next 22 games will show us a lot and what Boston fans are looking for is consistency heading into the playoffs. Coming off a 3-2-1 record on the just concluded road trip, the Bruins haven't won back-to-back games in more than a month and a half but look to correct that with their end of the home and home with Ottawa on Tuesday, the start of a three-game home stand.
Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and at twitter @bruins_diehard.
