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B's hope veteran depth will be boost on road ahead

The Enterprise - 2/27/2018

BOSTON - Is everybody ready?

The Bruins hooked a big fish and three small ones, so they feel prepared.

The Lightning also ordered large, and while the Maple Leafs were a little pickier, they were at the table, too.

From now through the first weekend in April, those three teams, all fortified by acquisitions made before Monday's 3 p.m. NHL trade deadline, will compete for first place in the Atlantic Division and, in all likelihood, the Eastern Conference. The second-and third-place teams will meet each other in the first round of the playoffs; the leader will meet a wild-card qualifier.

The race resumes for the B's on Tuesday night, when they start a six-game home-stand against the Hurricanes (7:05, NESN, WBZ-FM/98.5) in new power forward Rick Nash's first TD Garden appearance in a Bruins uniform.

The B's also have a small army of depth acquisitions available in defenseman Nick Holden (acquired last Tuesday) and forwards Brian Gionta (signed on Sunday) and Tommy Wingels, a last-minute add on Monday. The Bruins owe the Blackhawks a fourth-round pick in 2019 if they re-sign the 29-year-old after this season, or make it past the first round of this season's playoffs. Otherwise, it's a 2019 fifth-rounder.

If the Bruins added all those players with the intention of using them regularly, they'd no longer be the surprising young team that played so well, but they convinced general manager Don Sweeney they deserved a boost (i.e., Nash) to make a serious push for the Stanley Cup.

Sweeney didn't obtain Holden, Gionta or Wingels to play every night, but he doesn't envision them sitting around for the last 22 games of the regular season, either.

"They're all good players that we think can help us," Sweeney said on Tuesday. "When and if they play (is) to be determined.

"But I think we're going to need everybody between now and the end of the line, if we get to where we want to go."

The Bruins, who started a potentially withering stretch of 24 games in 44 nights over the weekend by losing consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Nov. 11-15, won't get a break from that pace through the end of the regular season. The idea that players may need, want, benefit from or be forced by injury to take time off over the next six weeks is logical.

And the potential exists for some of the younger players, like the rookie crew of forwards Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen and Sean Kuraly, plus defensemen Matt Grzelcyk and perhaps even top-pairing standout Charlie McAvoy, to fade or falter down the stretch.

"We made a move this year to really integrate some of the younger players, and give credit to them," Sweeney said. "But it's a long schedule, and they're going through that for the first time. I think that some of the guys who have been there can help them continue to wade through that.

"It's always about the performance, but I think having some veteran players around who have been through this will help the (young) guys, guide them down the right path."

That road will be long, and while Nash gives the B's a big (6-3, 211), proven, every-night second line/first power play scoring option, they're still going to need energy to keep up with the division-leading Lightning, who raided the rebuilding Rangers (as the B's did for Nash and Holden) for prized defenseman Ryan McDonagh on Tuesday, and the Leafs, who added veteran center and longtime Bruins nemesis Tomas Plekanec. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins, Devils and Blue Jackets - all potential Round 1 opponents if the B's win the Atlantic - made significant moves at the deadline, too.

"I can't do anything about any other team but this one," Sweeney said.

"Everybody's jockeying, and there's a timeline. We went in our direction, they went in theirs. I'm sure they feel good about (their acquisitions), as we do about ours."