Friday night was the Bruins’ final game before Monday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline. While one game is not going to dramatically alter any team’s deadline approach, everyone wants to play well and feel good about where they’re at going into what could be a tense couple days.
The Bruins did that for the most part. They dominated the second period against the Winnipeg Jets and carried a 2-0 lead into the third. Even though they blew that lead with a disastrous couple minutes early in the third, they bounced back with a go-ahead goal on the power play from Taylor Hall and an empty-netter from Charlie McAvoy to take the 4-2 win. They did it without Patrice Bergeron.
Charlie Coyle stayed hot with three assists. Jake DeBrusk bounced back from a quiet game Thursday with a nice outing. Jack Studnicka looked pretty good in his first opportunity playing between DeBrusk and Brad Marchand. Both Studnicka and DeBrusk assisted on a Marchand goal, with DeBrusk in particular making a great play to settle an aerial pass and get it back to Marchand in front.
But there was one negative that was hard to ignore, and it was at the spot that has been an area of concern since the summer: Second-line center.
The Bruins want to project the image that they are comfortable with Erik Haula as their No. 2 center. There have been times -- long stretches, in fact -- that they legitimately have been. Friday night wasn’t one of those times, though.
Bruce Cassidy dropped Haula off the second line in favor of Tomas Nosek early in the second period and kept his lineup that way for the remainder of the game. The results were mixed.
Haula played well with Nick Foligno and Curtis Lazar on the fourth line, with the Bruins outshooting the Jets 8-0 when they were on the ice. He did take two penalties, though, including one with 1:26 to go that gave Winnipeg a late power play and a chance to tie the game.
Nosek with Hall and David Pastrnak wasn’t as successful. He was on the ice for both of the Jets’ third-period goals, and committed turnovers in the build-up to both. One came with both of those new linemates out there with him, and one came with DeBrusk stuck out for a long shift in place of Pastrnak.
When asked about his center juggling after the game, Cassidy said it wasn’t necessarily about Haula.
“It just seemed like Hall and Pasta in Minnesota got a little frustrated the other night,” he said. “I’m not putting that on Erik, but I don’t want to break those two up. So moving a center around sometimes gets one guy excited. I thought Erik did a really good job with Foligno and Lazar.
“…[Nosek] gets a chance to move up, made a few plays. Couple other instances he needed to be stronger on the puck, so we’ll address that. That was it, just to give the guys a different look on the wings and maybe get a couple centermen going again by playing with some different players. We’ll see how it plays out in Montreal [on Monday], but it worked for us tonight in spots. We’ll see. We’ll see how our lineup looks then, if we go back to it.”
It is fine -- smart, even -- for Cassidy to shift the focus away from Haula when discussing this publicly. Nonetheless, his actions indicate that he is still not completely comfortable with Haula as a No. 2 center. If he were, he wouldn’t be dropping him down to the fourth line at the first sign of trouble, something he has done more than once.
Haula has zero points in the last six games. He has played under 15 minutes in five of those games. He has been a bottom-six forward most of his career. He has also had legitimately good stretches with Hall and Pastrnak that shouldn’t be ignored.
But what this all illustrates is the tenuous nature of Haula being the second-line center. He can hold his own there and be a nice complement to the talents of Hall and Pastrnak when things are going well, but he’s not going to lift them up if one or both are having an off night or week. If things have gotten a bit dicey during a road trip to Chicago, Minnesota and Winnipeg, what happens in a seven-game playoff series against one of the best teams in the league?
Any team with Stanley Cup aspirations would prefer to have more certainty at such an important spot in the lineup. The problem for the Bruins is that the chances of acquiring such a player before Monday afternoon appear to be slim.
Tomas Hertl signed an extension with San Jose rather than push for a trade. Claude Giroux reportedly won’t accept a move to Boston. The Canucks seem unlikely to move J.T. Miller unless someone blows them away. The Bruins have been linked to Winnipeg’s Andrew Copp, but he’s more of a Swiss Army knife that can move around the lineup and provide depth rather than a bona fide No. 2 center. He also had a very quiet game against Boston on Friday.
Maybe Studnicka gets an extended look in the top six at some point. That feels like a bit of a Hail Mary, though, even with his solid performance on Friday. Maybe Don Sweeney has some other card up his sleeve that we're not thinking of. Perhaps a prayer to David Krejci gets answered now that his Czech season is over.
It’s possible the Bruins will be able to overcome any lingering uncertainty at second-line center by upgrading elsewhere -- on defense and/or on the wing. That may be the approach Sweeney needs to take based solely on what’s available and what the prices are.
Haula could still be good enough when this is all said and done, but Friday served as one final pre-trade deadline reminder that this can and probably will get bumpy at times.
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