When he met with the media last Sunday, Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney sounded like someone who was being realistic about his team’s chances of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs, not good. Since that press conference, his team has dropped two games and fallen four points behind the final two Eastern Conference wild-card spots. After their most recent loss to the New York Islanders, 2-1, on Thursday night, captain Brad Marchand had some eye-opening, but truthful comments about the season.
“Obviously, it hasn't been the season that we've wanted,’’ said Marchand. “We haven't had the success that we would have liked this time of year, but the good thing is that we're coming together over it. At the end of the day, we may not achieve what we hope to this year, but that doesn't mean that we can't build for something greater and bring it back next year. So, we're going to work every single day to continue to improve and build our game, and we're going to claw and fight every single day to get in the playoffs here.”
Hard, but truthful words from Marchand. He is scheduled to be a free agent following the season, and could he be part of some of the trade deadline moves by Sweeney? That remains to be seen, but Marchand telling it like it is should not be surprising to many and reality is setting in that the 2024-25 season has been a disappointing one.
Matthew Poitras practices after scary looking injury
In the second period of the loss to the Islanders, center Matthew Poitras was checked by Brock Nelson into an open door at the New York bench. There are a lot of theories about whether it was intentional or not, but it was a scary looking injury to say the least. He was helped back to the locker room through the Islanders runway.
In a stunning development, Poitras was on the ice for practice on Friday morning at Warrior Ice Arena before the Black and Gold depart for a quick two-game road trip against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota Wild. According to Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald, interim coach Joe Sacco said that Poiras made it through practice and is an option for Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh.
That would be very surprising if Poitras played after the hit. It was a dangerous one that could have knocked him out for a long time. Just the fact that he’s an option is pretty remarkable itself.
Trent Frederic out of walking boot
Trent Frederic, who is going to be a name floated about over the next week ahead of the trade deadline, left the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night with a lower-body injury. He was spotted in a walking boot on Thursday, which would be a tough blow to potential trade deadline plans for Sweeney. Friday, Conroy reported that Frederic is already out of the walking boot. His timetable Thursday was week-to-week, but with the deadline seven days away, I would still expect him to be moved even if he hasn’t been cleared for games.