Bruins Don't Need Major Shakeup To Solve Short-Term Problems
BOSTON (CBS) -- There are two ways you can look at the Boston Bruins season heading into the trade deadline.
You could take the alarmist view and see a team torn apart by Tim Thomas' controversial political views, a team in freefall in the Eastern Conference standings and a team desperate for a "shakeup" to get hot down the stretch and have a chance to win a playoff series or two.
Or you could look at it like this: First place in the Northeast Division with five games in hand over the second-place team, second place in the Eastern Conference, the reigning Vezina and Conn Smythe winner in the crease, almost the entire roster of last year's Stanley Cup-winning team still skating, No. 1 in the NHL in goals scored and No. 3 in the NHL in goals allowed.
To put it simply, the Bruins are going to be just fine.
Of course, they're unquestionably in a bit of a downswing. They haven't won two straight games since the beginning of January, and they're 4-5-1 in their last 10. The low point came Wednesday night, when they were blown out of the building in Buffalo in a 6-0 stomping. Neither Tuukka Rask (seven saves on 10 shots) or Tim Thomas (16 saves on 19 shots) could stop anything, and nobody could get anything past Ryan Miller, who allowed four goals in just two periods against the Bruins back in November.
Infinitely compounding the situation is Thomas creating a stir with his Facebook post, in which he said, "I stand with the Catholics in the fight for religious freedom." Thomas refused to answer questions about his views on Thursday, leading to hours upon hours of sports talk radio debate regarding the netminder and whether he's becoming a divisive figure in the B's dressing room. The discussion continues and doesn't appear to be going away any time soon.
Put it all together, and the panic button is flashing, beeping and begging to be pushed.
But it shouldn't, and Peter Chiarelli is smart enough to know that.
"I'd like to add a defenseman and a forward, without subtracting anything," Chiarelli told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher and Rich on Wednesday morning, acknowledging that his roster is as balanced as he could ever want.
He's been incredibly savvy at deadlines past. In 2009, he acquired Mark Recchi for spare parts, and Recchi became a veteran leader for the next two and a half seasons. In 2010, he added free-agent forward Miroslav Satan, who ended up scoring five goals and adding five assists in 13 playoff games. And last year, aside from making the rare splashy acquisition of Tomas Kaberle, Chiarelli acquired two value players in Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley. He needed to include well-respected Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart in the deal for Peverley, but he recognized a deficiency (due to Savard's absence) and did what he needed to fix it.
This year, despite the current slump, there is no deficiency. If there is one concern worth worrying about, though, it's the health of Nathan Horton. Initially diagnosed with just a "mild concussion" after being hit in Philadelphia on Jan. 22, Horton has yet to return to the lineup and he suffered more setbacks this week. With the head injury being his second in eight months, and with Marc Savard's saga still fresh in every hockey fan's mind, we all know that a speedy and healthy return to the ice is not guaranteed.
But the Thomas political comments? They are newsworthy, for sure, but to think they have any effect on that team is sheer lunacy. Do you think Zdeno Chara is worried about what Thomas thinks about healthcare? Will Patrice Bergeron decide not to backcheck because Thomas is outspoken with his beliefs? Will Claude Julien play Rask over Thomas because of it?
Of course not.
"It's probably something that people would think [is affecting chemistry] because of how poorly we've played lately, but I can assure you that there's no issues in the dressing room, there never will be and that's where we've got a really good group of players in there that don't let those kind of things bog them down," Julien said on Thursday in the middle of the media firestorm. "And it hasn't. If it had, I'm telling you right now, I'd feel it. There's absolutely nothing going on. The guys are just going about their business. So certainly it's not a distraction and never will be used as an excuse, because it isn't one."
Still, the trade talk is flying. It always does at this time of year, but it's important to remember that the team struggling right now is the same one that was nearly unbeatable for the last two months of 2011, and it's the same team that reached hockey's pinnacle just eight months ago.
What it all comes down to is that an 82-game season has a lot of ups and downs. There are winning stretches (like the one from Nov. 1-Jan. 12, when the Bruins went 25-4-1) and there are going to be losing stretches. There are going to be story lines off the ice, trade rumors and injuries, slumps for scorers and goalies, and there are going to be moments where it becomes difficult to remember that the team is in a position in which 20 or so other teams would love to be.
