After all the hype, reports and speculation, this is the same Boston Bruins team as it was prior to Friday’s trade deadline, as General Manager Don Sweeney simply found the prices of roster upgrade to be too intrusive to his long-range program.
The one player Rink Rap would have allowed to take a serious bite out of the futures apple is Blues defenseman Colton Parayko, the behemoth right shot who comprised the remaining third of St. Louis’ championship Big 3 defense (with Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester).
Alas, the Buffalo Sabres reportedly reached an agreement with the Blues, but Parayko declined to waive his no-trade clause.
The Providence Bruins did change, as Boston moved on from defenseman Jackson Edward and winger Brett Harrison in favor of some immediate AHL help to offset the season-injury surgery to forward Dans Locmelis. Three new players are joining the AHL Bruins: Alexis Gendron, Maximo Rizzo and former Canucks first-rounder Lukas Reichel. Providence has arguably its best team since the 2004-05 NHL lockout when a 19-year-old Patrice Bergeron centered Brad Boyes. The Philadelphia Phantoms had more future NHLers on their squad and beat Providence in a bloody, six-game series en route to the Calder Cup. Some of those players, Jeff Carter, Patrick Sharp, Mike Richards and Dennis Seidenberg, who would go on to win the Stanley Cup but not as Flyers – they did so with the Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings and, in Seidenberg’s case, the Bruins. This could be the P-Bruins’ first title run since 1999, but you just never know.
Mikey Eyssimont and Henri Jokiharju were back at press level for this afternoon’s game vs. Washington, the trade deadline passed. It would seem, based on how many games both have sat out while healthy this season, that their recent inclusion to the lineup had been to showcase those talents as potential trade fodder should the Bruins need to make a move. Sturm and Sweeney reminded the media that, especially with this dense schedule compressed by an Olympic year, mileage is tough and all hands are needed on deck.
Every word of it is the truth, but it’s not the entire truth. Jokiharju was an 11th-hour solution before July 1, 2025, free agency, once Dante Fabbro was extended by Columbus GM Don Waddell. Jokiharju struggled with Boston’s new man-coverage, D-zone system and found himself in what Blackhawks play-by-play legend Pat Foley called “Chateau Bow-Wow.”
Charlie McAcoy’s jaw-breaking puck stop in Montreal leveraged Jokiharju back into the lineup, and most recently Jokiharju was in the lineup ahead of Andrew Peeke. Much speculation ensued that Peeke, on an expiring contract, was going to be traded, but the theory here has been throughout that it was Jokiharju whom the Bruins were looking to move.
Similarly, Eyssimont was being showcased, while Steeves was told to be patient. When Sturm told the media that no player had done anything wrong to be out of the lineup, it further cemented the belief here that the Bruins had long made up their minds that they want Peeke to extend in Boston.
The thing to remember is, like McAvoy, Peeke and Jokiharju are right-handed shots. It’s extremely important in this era of fast-paced pro hockey that the right shots play on the right and the lefts on the left side of the ice. I’ve heard older Bruins fans counter that Bobby Orr, Brad Park and Raymond Bourque were all left shots playing the right side. All three are Hall of Fame players and arguably among the top 10 ever to play their position.
The Bruins’ depth chart is far deeper with left-shot defensemen: Hampus Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov, Jonathan Aspirot, Mason Lohrei, Jordan Harris and, in Providence, Frederic Brunet. The only viable right-shot recall from the AHL is Victor Soderstrom.
So, while the Bruins remain in a mindset of continued upward mobility as dictated by player development primarily occurring in the NCAA, right defense has been the immediate concern, especially as management has contemplated this team’s upside, as in sooner rather than later.
That’s why Parayko made sense in this space. That’s why the Bruins reportedly went to the mattresses to get Rasmus Andersson here only to bow out when it became apparent Andersson would not consider a contract extension.
Rentals were out of the question for this deadline, but any chance to substantially upgrade the NHL roster in the long term had to be considered. Those scenarios obviously never materialized to Sweeney’s satisfaction.
One last note on the trade deadline: To those who think the Bruins should have traded Peeke and Viktor Arvidsson because they are on expiring contracts, consider assigning value to the experience of making the playoffs as a necessary step among what usually needs three or more incremental improvements to build toward a real run at the Stanley Cup. The journey is real, it’s human, and the theory that a team should only invest in its future until it’s ready to win more likely ensures that said team will never be ready to win. Look up any year’s Cup champion and follow its history or accomplishments, heartbreaks, growing pains and key changes.
THE GAME TODAY VS. WASHINGTON
A lively game full of scoring chances, penalties, as both teams desperately need points in a home stretch of the season for a playoff spot.
Pavel Zacha broke through with a powerplay goal – a bat of the puck out of the air on his own rebound while standing right up to Caps goalie Logan Thompson – at 4:07 of the second period.
In the first period, Jeremy Swayman made two excellent stops on Tom Wilson, one from the slot and the other at the right post on the finishing end of a 2-on-1 pass play at high speed.
Jakob Chychrun, the left defenseman the Bruins were rumored in 2024 to be seeking but who ultimately went to Washington, put on a puck-handling exhibition in the Boston zone, his pursuant Alex Steeves unable to contain him, finally deking the exhausted but rusty Bruins forward and carrying into the slot. Chychrun’s shot was blocked, but Aliaksei Protas slammed in the rebound to tie the game at 1-1.
Two thoughts on the Bruins’ powerplay: 1. Without Steve Spott, one wonders where this Bruins team would be in the standings. When the Bruins get to their game with and against the puck, they are more than formidable at 5v5, but they needed an improved powerplay this season, and Spott has helped them get it with a more-detailed approach with options and outlets. 2. Morgan Geekie made an outstanding read. The puck deflected out of the left circle (where he had hoped to shoot it) to the LW corner, and Geekie had body position to stay between Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary and the puck, but what he did that was impressive was correctly anticipate which side Fehervary would try to cut into Geekie’s path and threw his right arm behind him to deter Fehervary’s path to inside positioning. The results was an extended Boston puck possession and another scoring chance. That’s what hockey coaches are talking about when they reference “the little things.”
It’s 1-1 at second intermission.
THIRD PERIOD
Continuation of a Boston powerplay for most of two minutes, but the Bruins passed up a chance when they went for a perimeter shot when a Caps penalty killer was without a stick. That’s like 5 on 3 1/2.
Caps get the kill.
Viktor Arvidsson gets behind the Washington defense and rips a wrist shot inside the right post – Thompson holds his stick with his left hand – and the Bruins forge ahead, 2-1, early in the third period.
Thompson to the bench with 2:17 remaining in regulation.
Swayman stops a point shot and smothers it for a full change.
Pastrnak rags the puck behind the Caps’ net until Chychrun takes it away and lifts it softly to the Boston zone – no icing – McAvoy gets their first and banks it off the side glass, it goes the distance – icing on Boston with 1:08 remaining.
Elias Lindholm, who did a nice job protecting the puck to finish an earlier breakaway chance, won the faceoff, and after doing his job on the D-zone dot, collects the pass from Pastrnak to score the empty-netter that seals this one (3-1) with 23.2 seconds left.
The Bruins get a much-needed W and head to Pittsburgh tomorrow, needing a road win.
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 