Late on Feb. 15, the process of rebuilding and re-energizing the Boston Bruins began.
First, there was the acquisition of Chris Kelly from Ottawa, followed by Rich Peverley from Atlanta, and then the prized piece, puck-moving defenseman Tomas Kaberle from Toronto.
No one, not even general manager Peter Chiarelli and his team of constituents could have realistically envisioned what has happened since. Following Saturday night’s overtime defeat to Pittsburgh, the Bruins have taken points in eight straight, including seven wins, with six of those coming on the road.
What’s flown somewhat under the radar, however, are the big club's smaller additions to provide depth for the stretch run and support for its struggling farm club in Providence.
In danger of missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season for the first time in the franchise's 19-year history, the P-Bruins reloaded courtesy of a series of transactions over the last two-plus weeks.
The remainder of Providence’s season was quickly put into concern with Boston’s Feb. 18 trade for Kaberle as 2008 first-round pick Joe Colborne was sent the other way. With 26 points in 55 AHL games, while also serving as the P-Bruins' most consistent presence on the power pla,y the move left a big gap at center.
On that same day, that size was recouped and then some with the acquisition of 6'7" defenseman Boris Valabik from the Thrashers’ organization, another piece in the deal that shipped Mark Stuart and Blake Wheeler out of town. At the time, the NHL-experienced Valabik gave Providence eight defensemen, a signal of more moves to come.
Nine days later, late in the evening on Feb. 27, the Bruins made a minor league deal with Anaheim that sent extra defenseman Sean Zimmerman and the one-dimensional Brian McGrattan to Syracuse in exchange for forwards David Laliberte and Stefan Chaput. Both were brought in to help fill some of the offensive void left by the loss of Colborne. Laliberte, though having a down year with only eight goals at the time of the deal, is a former 28-goal scorer in the AHL, and Chaput is an energetic centerman coming off a career-year in Albany.
The moves didn’t stop there.
Though the goaltending duo of Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask has been a stabilizing defensive force up in Boston all year, the trio of Nolan Schaefer, Michael Hutchinson and Matt Dalton had been hampered by inconsistency since the very first game of the season. With the parent Bruins poised for a deep playoff run, they needed a reliable third option in net in Providence in case of injury, and that option simply was not there.
So, on Feb. 28, the B’s dealt long-time P-Bruins defenseman Jeff Penner and the restricted rights to Mikko Lehtonen to Minnesota for young Anton Khudobin, a 24-year-old All-Star with a winning track record in both the NHL and AHL.
Yes, the loss of Penner was a substantial one for Providence as good AHL blue-liners can be hard to come by, but often you have to sacrifice something of value in order to get the same, and that was a gamble Boston was willing to take in the form of Khudobin, who has a career 4-1-0 big league record, one shutout, a 1.39 GAA and .959 save percentage.
By picking up Khudobin, the writing was on the wall for the veteran Schaefer, and it didn’t read as he may have liked as a Providence College alum. Off to a 9-16-1 start in 30 games this season, Schaefer was loaned Friday to Hershey, a perennial AHL powerhouse. Schaefer is slated to see a considerable bump in playing time en route to what could be a deep Calder Cup chase in a return to one of his former teams. In the long run, the grass may prove to be greener for an eighth-year pro hoping to earn another NHL contract next year.
Defensively, the losses of Penner and Zimmerman, plus the broken hand suffered by Nate McIver on Feb. 26, left a team that once had a surplus of bodies on the blue-line needing reinforcements, leading to the recalls of Ryan Donald and Alain Goulet from Reading. The moves were fortunate in timing as Matt Bartkowski was soon after summoned to Boston for the third time this season to fill in following the injury to his former roommate Steve Kampfer.
Since the dealing began, the P-Bruins, like their friends up I-95, have found good success, going 5-2-0-1. But, the true excitement shined through this past weekend in Rhode Island as all of the pieces were assembled for the first time, resulting in a 4-2 victory over Charlotte on Friday and a 6-0 thumping of Bridgeport on Sunday afternoon.
Old faces and new friends gathered to guide Providence to the offensive barrage, led by four goals and seven points from alternate captain Trent Whitfield. The offense was assisted by seven points from three new Bruins as Chaput scored against his former Checkers teammates, Goulet found the back of the net while adding three assists, and Laliberte struck for a goal and an assist. In net, Khudobin recorded his 20th and 21st wins of the AHL season and his first two as a P-Bruin, thanks to several dynamic stops and 45 saves in all.
As important as any area, however, was special teams, a weakness throughout the year for the gang from the Ocean State. Entering Friday ranked 30th in the league on the power play and 29th on the penalty kill, Providence converted five times on 12 man-advantage chances and killed all 14 minor penalties it was assessed.
Now, with 17 games remaining in the regular season, the playoff push is on. The P-Bruins sit nine points out of a postseason spot with three teams to overcome: Connecticut, Worcester and Springfield. As usual, fate is in their hands as 16 of the final 17 contests are scheduled within the division, and eight of those meetings are with the Whale, Sharks and Falcons.
What happens next for Boston is sure to be a lot of fun to watch and we may all be fortunate enough to be talking about it in June.
What happens next for Providence will likely come down to the wire, just as it did a year ago. Maybe the excitement generated by this weekend's wins at the Dunkin' Donuts Center can be chalked up as 'just two games.' We don’t know yet.
But, boy, what a weekend.
