Determined to challenge for the division lead, the Bruins recently won back to back games against the rival Senators, and after a victory in Detroit last night, the Bruins have won 4 games in a row, and have landed in the top 4 slots in the East.
Led by the goaltending tandem of late of MA Fleury, and Pascal LeClaire who picked up the W last night, the team has been playing great hockey and getting plenty of scoring from it's top 2 lines, and the odd contribution offensively, but great defensive play out of its 3rd and 4th lines.
As the trade deadline approaches, it is widely assumed that Pascal Dupuis and possibly Jiri Fischer could be moved at the deadline, as the team continues to gear up for the playoffs.
The teams head office was exstatic to acquire Zbynek Michalek from the Islanders. With an 8 deep defense this season, the team has really been able to follow GM Shucks mold of building from the net outwards. With Fleury & LeClaire in net, the team has 2 young NHL #1's between the pipes, word is teh team is eyeing a specific player with the NJ 2nd in the draft, which is why it wasn't included in teh MIchalek deal. On defense they are lead by CHris Pronger, who is said to be all but untouchable, and after him comes a very solid group that fits their slots quite nicely. Up front Datsyuk and Hossa will be the offensive stars for the forseeable future. With a strong group of defensive forwards, the team believes it should have one of the best defensive teams for years to come.
Other rumours around the team have said that Pascal LeClaire and Niklas Kronwall are the most commonly asked about players. Apparently the team has been close to dealing LeClaire a couple times, but ntohing has materialized as of yet. Kronwall could very well move by the deadline, apparently an agreement was in place to send him West, but the other team decided to shop around at the last minute so the Bruins dealt Nigel Dawes to NYI, while he would have been going with LeClaire somewhere on the Pacific coast.
The team continues to sing the praises of coach Bob Hartley, who had a horrid roster to start the year but kept the team in contention long enough to entice GM Shuck to shop for roster help, what has followed has been one of teh biggest transformations in the league as the Bruins went from a bottom five team, to a posisble top 5 team in the same season. Hartley should be considered the front runner for the Jack Adams award.
