Stars at Bruins

The Boston Bruins don’t want to try to be a team that finds itself chasing the game, and through 20 minutes of tonight’s follow-up to a gutsy, two-win weekend against the Dallas Stars they haven’t looked like that easily satisfied team from earlier in the season.

The Stars are a Stanley Cup contender, albeit a very banged-up version of themselves. Dallas also had Monday off after a Sunday road game in the Eastern Time Zone. The Stars are missing Roope Hintz, their top-line center who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, along with Tyler Seguin (knee – out for the season), D Tyler Myers (day to day – undisclosed), and forwards Nathan Bastian (hand), Michael Bunting (lower), Radek Faksa (lower) and Sam Steel (hip), who are all week to week.

One of the results of this spate of injuries on the eve of the playoffs has been the recall of 29-year-old AHL forward Cameron Hughes, originally a Boston prospect (sixth round, 2015). Hughes, who has two NHL games under his belt with the Bruins (one in 2019-20 and one in 2021) is making his Stars debut here, in Boston.

So, if/when healthy (with the exception of Seguin), what are the Dallas Stars? The strength of this hockey team is in its back end with 6-foot-6 goaltender Jake Oettinger assisted by a Big 3 D of Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and Thomas Harley. That’s their basis for Cup contention.

Now most Cup contenders based on a Big 3 D (as opposed to two elite centermen) still have resident genius on the forward lines, sometimes in the form of an elite, line-driving winger (ie. David Pastrnak or, back when Chicago won three championships over a six-season stretch, Patrick Kane). Dallas does not have such a player. The Stars have several threats but no one player in that mold.

The Bruins, with a defensive core of Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov built around Jeremy Swayman, aspire to the heights of the Dallas Stars. The biggest difference between the teams right now is probably the depth of forward-line talent on the Dallas roster. They have a team in the hunt right now. The Bruins have several players who are ready to make a run, but not an entire team.