Boston Bruins Set To Get Back To The NHL Season

Canada’s Patrice Bergeron and Sweden’s Loui Eriksson. Mandatory Credit: USA Today Sports Images.

Now that Patrice Bergeron and Loui Eriksson have been awarded their Gold and Silver medals respectively, they can now pack up their bags and come back to Boston. With the Bruins set to take on the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday night in New York, it will no doubt be a quick turn around for the two forwards and their fellow Olympians.

Although, I must say I’m happy that Eriksson got the extra ice time. With injuries and having to adjust to Boston he’s stumbled at times and even looked lost, a couple concussions will do that to you, however Loui looked good for Sweden and ended up being an integral piece of a team that took home the Silver medal. It can do nothing but pay dividends for him and the Bruins down the road in my eyes.

The rest of the B’s continued to practice on Saturday and thanks to NESN.com we get to see some of the footage of said practice. I don’t know about you but I like the intensity and speed I’m seeing from these guys, they look ready. The Bruins were on a roll before the Olympic break and hopefully they can get right back to work without missing a beat.

In 15 games leading up to the break, the B’s were 9-4-2 and had outscored their opponents by a combined score of 40-23. That’s pretty good, especially for a team missing one of their defensive anchors in Dennis Seidenberg and being forced to rely on kids like Matt Bartkowski, Torey Krug, Dougie Hamilton and one of the revelations of this season, Kevan Miller.

With the young kids playing so well and Boston currently sitting in 1st place in the Atlantic division, it will be interesting to see if Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli makes a move for a veteran defenseman like Mark Stuart or Henrik Tallinder, or if he’ll decide to stay put and keep building the depth at the blue-line from within. Whatever he does, he seems to usually make the right move or push the right button, so I have faith regardless of what happens. I for one wouldn’t mind seeing a move that involves the New York Rangers Dan Girardi and Ryan Callahan, but this isn’t NHL 14.

In the end I’d have to say the B’s stay put or just do a low-key move by adding a seasoned-veteran, rental-type of defenseman if anything, think Wade Redden or Shane Hnidy kind of acquisition. Nothing flashy but then again, this is Boston, we don’t do flashy.