Bruins’ Depth On Display But Can Only Be Relied Upon For So Long

It doesn’t seem to matter what has been thrown at the Boston Bruins so far this season. They just keep winning.

The B’s moved to 9-0-1 on Thursday, taking down the Toronto Maple Leafs in a thrilling shootout at TD Garden. It was just the latest instance of Boston finding a way to win, adding to their franchise-record points streak to open a season (10 games).

This early run of success has come despite some intense shuffling up and down the roster, though.

In the early portion of the season, Boston head coach Jim Montgomery made a habit of changing his lines, which led to six different lineup combinations in the first eight games. Milan Lucic and Jakub Lauko’s injuries certainly didn’t help, as both men had to be placed on injured reserve to open up roster spots (and money) for their replacements. The same thing goes for Matt Grzelcyk, who was put on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury and will not be eligible to play until Nov. 25. His placement on LTIR allowed Boston to recall Mason Lohrei, Ian Mitchell and Parker Wotherspoon on Thursday, which was necessary to even field an actual roster against Toronto after Charlie McAvoy found himself shelved due to a four-game suspension.

In short, Bruins transactions have become more common this year than a typical NHL team is used to. Don Sweeney must be exhausted. The Black and Gold keep on winning, though, proving they have a lot more depth than we initially thought.

“It shows our depth,” Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman said of Boston’s points streak Thursday night, per team-provided video. “That’s really important for us. Those guys knew that they came to do a job, and they did so well — seamlessly, in fact. It just goes to show our depth and our attention to detail and our coaching staff giving us a game plan to win.

“It’s special for us, so kudos to them, they played awesome and they really contributed tonight.”

Can it hold up, though?

Individual players won’t necessarily regress, but it’s just become clear that Boston’s current path will lead to a rough patch. The Bruins were not built to survive major injuries, and as the smaller ones pile up, it opens the door for bigger problems.

The Bruins were able to sustain some issues last season, but it’s much harder to have sustained success when you’re relying on your players, especially defensemen, like Lohrei, Mitchell and Wotherspoon. Danton Heinen didn’t even have a contract until Monday, and now he’s getting minutes on the power play.

The Bruins have shown they have the talent to compete, especially with Swayman and Linus Ullmark tending the net, but health will permit just how good they can be moving forward. That, unfortunately, is out of their hands.