Bruins fans have been pretty hard on Boston’s general manager Don Sweeney.
But the moves Sweeney made ahead of last month’s trade deadline should earn the eight-year GM praise from the fans along with his second Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award.
Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway have provided the Bruins with three things teams geared toward a long playoff run need to win four rounds –tenacity, toughness and offense.
The Black and Gold were poised for a long playoff run before Sweeney added the trio, but when Boston was faced with injuries down the stretch, each of them gave head coach Jim Montgomery the wiggle room to tinker with lines and defensive pairings while allowing the team to get healthy.
Orlov has gifted Montgomery with the luxury of rotating the D-core and stacking the blue line with the best options during the best-of-seven series with the Florida Panthers and earned the praise of his teammates in his first four playoff games with the club.
Up front, Hathaway has been the quintessential fourth-line grinder the Bruins faithful have become accustomed to ever since the 2011 Merlot Line of Shawn Thornton, Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell.
The pesky winger has built chemistry with Tomas Nosek and pretty much any winger flanked on the other side, whether it’s Nick Foligno, A.J. Greer, Jakub Lauko or Trent Frederic. Hathaway has logged an average of 10 minutes of ice time each of the four games and has not allowed the antics of the Panthers to get under his skin, even when he took a nasty cross-check from Matthew Tkachuk at the end of the first period in Boston’s Game 4 win.
Bertuzzi, well, he is built for playoffs. That is what we heard when Sweeney acquired him, and he has not disappointed.
Bertuzzi never had the chance to skate in the postseason during his six-year tenure with the Detroit Red Wings and has made the most of his opportunity by notching six points in four games.
He’s impressed Montgomery with his “greasy” play and has his teammates gushing about his ability to turn it up a notch from the regular season to the playoffs.
Bertuzzi and Hathaway have both spoken about the atmosphere playing in front of the Boston faithful noting how well the fans travel, but nothing beats playing in your own barn.
“The crowd, they’re waving their towels. It was pretty surreal,” Bertuzzi said following Game 1. “It was a cool place to be a part of, and I know they’re gonna be behind us the rest of the way.”
The trio will look to help their teammates close out the first-round series on Wednesday night when the Bruins host the Panthers at TD Garden with puck drop slated for 7 p.m. ET. Boston will have an added boost with captain and first-line center Patrice Bergeron expected to make his postseason debut.
