The good news: The Bruins beat the Penguins, 3-2, Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh to end their five-game losing streak. With the Blue Jackets and Red Wings – the two teams they’re chasing for a wild card spot – meeting later Saturday, they will gain ground on one of them.
The bad news: The injuries continue to pile up, this time with captain Brad Marchand leaving the game in the first period and not returning. Boston is already without Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm and Trent Frederic. They survived a scare to Matt Poitras on Thursday.
Regardless of what general manager Don Sweeney is thinking about doing between now and Friday’s trade deadline, Marchand missing time would obviously not be ideal.
First things first: We don’t know as of Saturday postgame how serious Marchand’s injury is. It happened on a power play early in the first period when he went down awkwardly on a hit from P.O Joseph. Joseph got his stick in Marchand’s skates, taking out his left leg. That put Marchand in a vulnerable position as Joseph then checked Marchand and sent his head into the dasher.
The Bruins announced early in the second period that Marchand had an upper-body injury and was “unlikely to return.” Ultimately, he never did return. Interim head coach Joe Sacco did not have an update after the game.
There are two angles at play here. Marchand, of course, is one of several Bruins whose name has popped up in trade rumors. He wants to stay. Sweeney wants to keep him. But if the two sides aren’t close on a contract extension, a trade could be a realistic possibility. If Marchand is out for any amount of time, though, that complicates any trade talks, just like Frederic being out week-to-week complicates those trade talks.
The other angle is the more likely path where Marchand stays put anyways. Regardless of what the front office does, the players who are still in Boston after Friday are going to try to push for a playoff spot. Again, they’re only two points out as of Saturday evening. But making that push becomes significantly tougher if Marchand is out, just like it was already tougher with McAvoy and Lindholm out.
Even at age 36, Marchand is still the Bruins’ second-best offensive player. He’s second on the team in goals (21) and points (47). He had 10 points in the last 10 games entering Saturday. He at least gives the Bruins some offense outside the top line of David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie and Pavel Zacha. If he’s out, it would fall on the likes of Elias Lindholm, Charlie Coyle and Matt Poitras to step up. Lindholm and Coyle, in particular, have not provided enough offense all season, although Coyle did ice Saturday’s win with a late empty-netter.
As it is, the Bruins’ offense is already too reliant on Pastrnak. To his credit, he continues to score at an absurd rate. Pastrnak opened the scoring Saturday just 1:32 into the game, taking a pass from Zacha and racing in alone on Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic before finishing with a nice deke to the forehand. Pastrnak would add an assist on Mason Lohrei’s power-play goal a few minutes later.
Pastrnak’s point streak has now reached 17 games. It was already the longest point streak of his career and the longest in the NHL this season. He has 33 points during the streak, with 15 goals and 18 assists. No one else in the NHL has more than 29 points since the streak began on Jan. 11.
Joonas Korpisalo also stepped up Saturday with 29 saves, including eight of the high-danger variety, which is even more impressive when you consider he hadn’t played since Feb. 5. So, too, did defensemen Brandon Carlo and Nikita Zadorov, who were beasts for a penalty kill that nearly went 7-for-7 if not for a very late power-play goal from Pittsburgh.
So, the Bruins can feel good about the win and making up some ground in the playoff race. But, all eyes will remain on Marchand until we get a further update on Sunday, when Boston is right back on the ice for a 3:30 p.m. ET game in Minnesota.
For more Bruins coverage, tune in to Sunday Skate with Scott McLaughlin, Andrew "Razor" Raycroft and Bridgette Proulx every Sunday 9-11 a.m. Listen on WEEI 93.7 FM, WEEI.com, or the Audacy app.