Bruins hope trades for Johansson, Coyle enough to keep winning

BOSTON -- With the way the Boston Bruins are playing of late -- on a 13-game point streak (9-0-4), including taking nine of 10 points on their just-completed five-game West Coast road trip -- they could have been content at the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline knowing they will be adding a big scorer in in two or three weeks: forward David Pastrnak.

Instead the Bruins, understanding that the Atlantic Division might be the toughest in the NHL, shored up their forward depth with a trade for Marcus Johansson of the New Jersey Devils on Monday to go along with the acquisition of Charlie Coyle from the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 20.
The Bruins sent a second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and a fourth-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft to the Devils for Johansson, who can become an unrestricted free agent July 1. The Bruins acquired Coyle for forward Ryan Donato and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2019.
All that, in addition to the eventual return of Pastrnak, their leading scorer (31 goals) who skated on Monday for the first time since having surgery on his left thumb after a fall on Feb. 10.
The question, as it always is at the trade deadline, which was at 3 p.m. ET on Monday, is whether it will be enough.

"We're committed to what we're trying to do, but it's a balancing act," general manager Don Sweeney said of keeping the team's top prospects while trying to improve at the same time. "Your team gets in a position where you're -- I don't know where we're going to end up -- but right now we sit pretty well in the standings and we need to maintain that. I don't think this town would accept anything else but to try and win, and our players don't want to either."
Boston (36-17-9) is in second place in the Atlantic, 19 points behind the top team in the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and one point ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Bruins have taken off in February, going 9-0-2, passing the Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens in that span.
The Bruins were always in need of a third-line center and a top-six wing, holes that had been glaring throughout the season. It had been obvious as early as training camp that the Bruins did not have enough depth on their forward lines, that they were too top-heavy with the first line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Pastrnak.
And although they managed to stay afloat through most of the season with a rotating cast in the third-line center role -- Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, Colby Cave and Trent Frederic, among others -- they have not gotten the secondary scoring that will be necessary to get by the Lightning and Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That's why fortifying those spots was crucial, even if the players who came to Boston in the past six days might not have met the exacting standards of the Bruins faithful.
"We were in on a bunch of things to explore what [could] have improved our club for now and moving forward without necessarily handcuffing ourselves and continuing to keep a long-term vision in place," Sweeney said. "But we are also trying to win."

That's always the difficulty.
With Mark Stone headed from the Ottawa Senators to the Vegas Golden Knights, Wayne Simmonds shipped from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Nashville Predators, and Kevin Hayes going from the New York Rangers to the Winnipeg Jets ahead of the trade deadline, the Bruins made do with a lower-tier acquisition, Johansson, who has 27 points (12 goals, 15 assists) in 48 games this season, though he has 12 (six goals, six assists) in his past 13 games.
Johansson can play center or wing, allowing coach Bruce Cassidy to swap Johansson and Coyle between the second-line wing and third-line center positions, though the Bruins appear to prefer Coyle at center for the moment.
"I think for us Marcus represents a lot of versatility and production in a top-nine role and something that we felt that coming down the stretch we could still use that," Sweeney said.
"I think adding to the depth, it's not an [indictment] of [Peter] Cehlarik and/or [Karson] Kuhlman. … I think they've done a great job and worked their way into being a big part of our group, but I think overall we all acknowledged internally that we could use a little more depth, especially knowing that [Pastrnak] wouldn't be with us for two more weeks."
As for Pastrnak, the right wing will remain in a cast for two more weeks, then will transition to a splint. At that point, there will be no more restrictions, and it will be a matter of his level of comfort as he makes his return.
"First thing he said to me is, 'I'll be back sooner than what anybody expects,'" Sweeney said. "I think he'll be perfectly fine. … I spoke to the doctor today and he feels great about where David's at."
Now it's whether the Bruins feel great about where they are. Their main opponents in the Atlantic were relatively quiet Monday, the Lightning making no deals and the Maple Leafs trading center Par Lindholm to the Jets for left wing Nic Petan.
They'll only know whether they made the right decisions -- whether they added the right pieces -- when the dust settles in April or May or June.
"It's going to be a grind," Sweeney said. "I think every team feels that way. So we've got work to do, but I'm excited for our guys and where they're at. … I think they're appreciative that we've continued to add to the group and not necessarily take away.
"We lost a good young player [Donato] by all accounts. Obviously, I'm on record as saying that, and that always hurts. But our guys are in a position of trying to win and it's a tough task. [There's a] long road ahead."