Halfway through the season, the Boston Bruins are fourth in the Atlantic Division at 26-14-3, nine points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings with four games in hand. They will be hard-pressed to catch the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs, but look like a solid bet to secure one of the Eastern Conference’s two wild-card playoff berths.
The B’s helped themselves during a heavy January schedule, going 11-4-1 and reversing a downward trend that had been influenced by uneven play, a light schedule and coronavirus-related disruptions. It isn’t all positive, however. Boston stumbled badly in games against the Carolina Hurricanes and Dallas Stars last month, exposing some potential flaws that opponents will seek to exploit.
For now, the B’s are trending in the right direction and getting balanced production across the roster. The team’s salary cap situation will allow for GM Don Sweeney and his management team to bolster the roster in advance of the trade deadline on March 21.  With a strong, but aging veteran core, the team has one more realistic chance at making some postseason noise, but a lot of things will have to break right.
We’ll grade the forwards, defense and goaltending in the first half, plus identify some potential trade targets that could key Boston’s drive for the playoffs.
Forwards: Personnel changes provided needed balanced scoring
Entering the new year, the Bruins offense was headed the wrong way, and a critical decision by head coach Bruce Cassidy may have saved the season. By taking right wing David Pastrnak off the top line with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron and putting him with Taylor Hall, and moving Erik Haula up to be that second line’s center, the first two scoring units took off.
The Pastrnak move was the linchpin of the offensive turnaround. He went without scoring a single goal in seven December games, and had just eight goals in the first two months of the season (19 games). With 12 goals and 19 points last month, Boston’s ace finisher has re-established himself as one of the NHL’s top shooting threats, with 22 goals in 43 games, tying him for 13th.
Hall benefited from the move as well. Like Pastrnak, the former first overall selection in 2010 struggled through December with no goals and questions about his inability to create offense. While Haula is not a recognized top-two line NHL center, he’s doing a serviceable job by playing with speed, pace and getting pucks to his talented linemates.
Marchand has been the team’s top scorer and MVP, working his usual magic with Bergeron, and getting some gritty, opportunistic offense from Craig Smith, who moved up from the third line to the first. Although snubbed for the NHL’s All-Star Weekend, Marchand is a Hart Trophy candidate as the NHL’s most impactful player not only because of his consistent offensive production even in the down moments, but also for his importance on special teams and leadership.
The Bruins are also getting key contributions from the lower lines. Charlie Coyle is having an improved two-way season, already having surpassed last year's goals and points totals. With his size and intelligence, plus timely scoring, the former Terrier from East Weymouth, Mass., is a versatile center who can play up in a pinch and is providing a reliable three-zone effort.
Curtis Lazar, Tomas Nosek and Anton Blidh have all brought offense and energy to the fourth line at various points and also provide Cassidy and his staff with the ability to move around the lineup.
Unit grade: B+
Head of the class: Playing the best hockey of his career at age 33, Marchand is the NHL’s best value with a $6.125 million cap hit per season through 2025.
Need more: Veteran free agent Nick Foligno has battled a series of nagging injuries and is a top culture guy, but one goal and seven points in 26 games is simply not good enough.
Helpful addition: We were told several weeks ago by a connected source that the B’s are interested in Flyers captain Claude Giroux. A lot has to happen, starting with Giroux himself waiving his no-movement clause. The impending unrestricted free agent is a Bruins type of guy and has always enjoyed a reputation for coming up big in the clutch. He’d be a rental, but with Boston’s championship window closing, he’d give the B’s a quality 1-2 punch up the middle. On the downside, if Giroux is indeed on the block, there will be a lot of suitors, which will drive the price up. The B’s don’t have a lot of assets to win a bidding war, and he would be a short-term boost.
Defense: Jekyll and Hyde unit seeks consistency
Charlie McAvoy and Pastrnak are Boston’s best players 25 or under, and he continues to put himself into the top tier among NHL defenders. The 2016 first-rounder would arguably be the player selected right after Auston Matthews if that draft were done over today, and he is without a doubt the best draft pick of Sweeney’s tenure as GM. He can do it all: skate, defend, score and has a magnetic personality that speaks to an ever-growing leadership role with the club.
After McAvoy, things get dicey on the Boston blue line.
Brandon Carlo is a fixture on the second defense pair’s right side, providing anchor minutes and a mobile defensive style that makes him a perfect fit for that role in Boston. The challenge has been to find a consistent partner for the left side (and all pairings for that matter). The lack of a true top left shot player for the top 4 means that the coaches have needed to rotate Matt Grzelcyk (Charlestown, Mass.), Derek Forbort and Mike Reilly around based on matchup plays. It’s not ideal, but not a dire situation either.
Connor Clifton and Urho Vaakanainen (before he got run from behind by Seattle’s Yanni Gourde last week) are good for depth, but Boston’s thin bench on defense is its Achilles heel. They Bruins have little to address the unthinkable: long-term injuries to their key performers.
Helpful addition: Arizona defenseman Jakob Chyrchrun has been linked to trade discussions before. He’s a young, experienced left shot, has upside and is on a value NHL contract. Unfortunately, Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong’s alleged ask is a first-round pick, a quality roster player and top prospect for starters. Other teams are better positioned to make a winning pitch for Chychrun.
Unit grade: C+/B-
Head of the class: How McAvoy goes, so does the B’s defense. His $9.5 million contract extension before the season was the right move, and he’s the present and future of the Boston blue line.
Need more: It was a good thing that Boston added the size and experience of Forbort on the left side, and he’s been effective on the penalty kill. However, there are also times when his stick-on-puck plays aren’t there and he turns pucks over at critical junctures. He needs to tighten up in the second half, but is a respected addition with the physical tools to stabilize that left side if he can find more consistency.
Goaltending: Could steal a playoff series or two
We recently broke down Linus Ullmark’s strong play in net, and the feeling here is that better hockey is ahead for veteran Tuukka Rask. While he deals with discomfort related to his offseason hip surgery, Jeremy Swayman has slotted in seamlessly with Ullmark.
The trio gives Boston quality options. Rask’s grade is incomplete given the small sample size of games after he re-signed, but Ullmark is trending up. Swayman looks like the team’s future, and if anything happens to Boston’s 1 or 2, he’s proven himself capable to handle the chores.
Unit grade: B+
Head of the class: The team breathed a sigh of relief as Ullmark elevated his play last month, but he’ll have to build on the positives to sustain his upward trajectory.
Need more: Context is everything and Rask is coming off major surgery and didn't get much rehabilitation work before he re-joined Boston. He’s too talented and experienced not to get things on track.
Addition who could help: Swayman might be the ultimate wild card. He has the kind of mental toughness to be an emergency option and then run with it.
