Morning Skate: New beginnings

FOLKS. It’s Tuesday.

A new day begins, and the second half of the season is officially upon us.

While the Bruins didn’t exactly overhaul their team at the trade deadline, it always feels like the first few games after the deadline have a bit more excitement and a bit more energy.

(Of course, last night’s weird game in Montreal kind of doesn’t count, as it was so soon after the deadline and didn’t feature any new faces.)

After all of the speculation, proposals, rumors, and rumblings, we ended up with just one NHL trade for the Bruins — the Hampus Lindholm deal.

It’s clear that the post-deadline Bruins are better than the pre-deadline Bruins, but the fan reaction to Don Sweeney’s deadline can be described as mixed, at best.

Most (myself included) are questioning the lack of a forward addition — keeping JakeDeBrusk is fine, but not bolstering (even with a third-line guy) a thin forward corps seems risky.

Sweeney isn’t concerned, as he mentioned at his Monday press conference:

“We certainly had an awful lot of inquiries in terms of what we were trying to probably augment our group. Moving the pieces around and where guys were going to play was a little bit of a challenge for us if it didn’t really move the needle. Obviously, we would like to have probably added a little more depth there. But several of our guys have really stepped up and played well and feel that we’re in a good spot overall with our hockey club.”

So there you have it! The Bruins are who they are as currently constructed, for better or for worse.

Let’s see how it goes.

Today’s discussion topic

I won’t bother putting in an official poll, but grade the Bruins’ trade deadline. Please show your work as well.