Bruins keeping pace in playoff quest despite injuries to key players

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins and their coaching staff have narrowed their focus. No longer can they look at the season in three-game chunks, five-game chunks, 10-game chunks. They have to look at the next game ahead of them, and the one after that, and the one after that.

It's not necessarily the optimal way to break down a long NHL season, but it's what has become reality after a devastating series of injuries that have knocked out most of Boston's defensemen, including Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy, and their most important forward, Patrice Bergeron.
"When you're healthy, you're thinking more big picture," coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I don't think we have the luxury to think too much about that right now. It's one game at a time and how are we going to win tonight."
The injuries have left the Bruins digging deep into their system, relying on players like defensemen Jeremy Lauzon, Connor Clifton and Jakub Zboril, players who the Bruins didn't envision as emergency call-ups when Cassidy mentioned his discomfort with having too many NHL-caliber defensemen back in September.
And yet, so far, the Bruins have been able to keep pace. They have taken a difficult three-in-four stretch against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, and Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, TSN4, NESN, NHL.TV) and snagged four points already, defeating Pittsburgh 2-1 in overtime and winning 3-2 at Montreal.

They have won tonight and let tomorrow come.
That's partly because of their goaltending, with the tandem of Jaroslav Halak and Tuukka Rask making up for the youth and inexperience of their defense, and partly because the Bruins have found a touch of the secondary scoring that was nonexistent to start the season.
They're going to need both.
That's especially true given the unexpected early-season surges of teams like the Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres, teams that could put the Bruins in jeopardy of missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs if Boston can't at least tread water during the next four weeks. The Sabres took over the top spot in the Atlantic Division on Saturday after defeating the Detroit Red Wings for their ninth consecutive win.
The Bruins, meanwhile, own the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference; they are three points ahead of the Canadiens.
"It's been a pretty close race so far," center David Krejci said. "But I feel like we still haven't played our best game in segments together, to kind of separate ourselves. Obviously, it's going to be a little bit harder with the injuries we've got, but I still believe that the lineup we have, any night we have a good chance to win. There should not be any excuses."
Even though excuses would be easy to make.
The Bruins are looking at a month without their big two. Chara sustained a left MCL injury on Nov. 14 in a game against the Colorado Avalanche, and is set to be re-evaluated approximately four weeks from the injury. Bergeron, meanwhile, sustained a rib and sternoclavicular injury on Nov. 16 in a game against the Dallas Stars, and will also be re-evaluated approximately four weeks from his injury.
Those are huge losses for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations.
And it's not just Chara and Bergeron. The Bruins defense is still without McAvoy, who has not played since Oct. 18. Brandon Carlo has missed the past six games. Kevan Miller missed 13 before returning for the last three. Urho Vaakanainen played two games as a rookie, but he's been out since Oct. 23. John Moore recently missed three games, and Torey Krug is only 12 games deep in his season.
"Like they say, when it rains, it pours," Krejci said.
Still, the Bruins are 3-0-1 since losing Chara and Bergeron. They have seen improvements from the second line, with Danton Heinen and Jake DeBrusk flanking Krejci, a crucial trio while Bergeron's spot is being taken by unproven rookie Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson.

"We need him to be better than average every night," Cassidy said of Krejci. "We've got some young kids in behind him that are going to have to find their way, so he's going to have to carry a bit more water than maybe he normally would."
That's probably not too much to ask from the team's highest-paid player.
Krejci carries a salary cap charge of $7.25 million, more than the $7 million of Rask, the $6.875 million of Bergeron, the $6.67 million of David Pastrnak, or the $6.125 million of Brad Marchand. It's a cap charge that should carry expectations, on the ice, off the ice, on the scoresheet, where Krejci's 19 points (two goals, 17 assists) are fourth on the team.
"I always put pressure on myself," Krejci said.
Right now, the pressure is on all of them. It's on Krejci. It's on Rask, who has bounced back after a slow start to the season and a four-day personal absence from the team to post a .934 save percentage over his past seven games. It's on the young who weren't supposed to be in the NHL. It's on the sophomores who sustained the team last seasons.
It's on everyone.
Because Bergeron and Chara are going to be gone until well into December, with the 2019 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1 coming up fast and the stacked division putting on the pressure. But if the Bruins can survive their absence, they could be stronger for it.
"We're going to take it as a challenge and an opportunity for growth, to have some team togetherness and eke out ugly 2-1 wins. That's kind of been the recipe," forward David Backes said. "We'll keep looking for that. We'll keep adding the points to the standings until somebody tells us we've made the playoffs."