{"id":492016,"date":"2026-03-07T22:09:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T22:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/492016\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T22:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T22:09:41","slug":"bruins-united-in-playoff-push-after-nhl-trade-deadline-they-have-trust-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/492016\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins united in playoff push after NHL trade deadline: \u2018They have trust in us\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 One year ago, a day after the 2025 trade deadline, new acquisitions Henri Jokiharju, Marat Khusnutdinov, Jakub Lauko and Casey Mittelstadt made their Boston Bruins debuts in a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n

There was nothing like that on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Aspirot (illness) and Alex Steeves (healthy scratch), neither of whom played in the Bruins\u2019 6-3 loss to the Nashville Predators on Thursday, were in Saturday\u2019s lineup for the 3-1 win over the Washington Capitals. Lukas Reichel, Alexis Gendron and Massimo Rizzo, Friday\u2019s pickups<\/a>, were in the AHL.<\/p>\n

Aside from a possible James Hagens arrival once Boston College\u2019s year ends, the Bruins roster will not undergo<\/a> significant change for the rest of the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably a good thing. That means we did a lot of good things,\u201d coach Marco Sturm said of retaining the roster after the deadline. \u201cIt means the players did a lot of good things. It also means we trust in the group we have right now. These guys worked extremely hard to get to this point. We feel pretty comfortable going into the last stretch that these guys can play the same way they have in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

At times, David Pastrnak felt like the last man standing last year. Brad Marchand, Pastrnak\u2019s captain, was traded. Charlie McAvoy, the other primary alternate captain, suffered a season-ending shoulder surgery and infection at the 4 Nations Face-Off. In the game before last year\u2019s deadline, Charlie Coyle and Brandon Carlo joined Pastrnak as alternate captains. Both were traded the next day.<\/p>\n

So to see everybody stay this time made Pastrnak feel very good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love each other in the group,\u201d said the right wing. \u201cEverybody speaks pretty openly the whole season about the group of guys we have in the room and how much we love each other on and off the ice. Management feels the same way. There was nothing to help the group. It just proves they have trust in us. We\u2019re a good group here. We work hard for each other every night. We just need to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

By winning on Saturday, the Bruins stretched their lead over the Capitals to six points for the No. 2 wild-card position. They claimed the two points by executing in what could be considered their three primary strengths: goaltending, power play and shooting above expectation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Swayman stopped 22 of 23 shots. According to MoneyPuck, the ace stopped 1.4 goals above expected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Swayman is likely to cede the net to Joonas Korpisalo on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. But Swayman could start the three following games. The Bruins do not play back-to-back games until March 16 and 17 against the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

Swayman\u2019s game continued to slide after last year\u2019s deadline. Nothing signals a repeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the best feeling ever as a player,\u201d Swayman said of this year\u2019s roster staying together. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to see any guys leave. These are your brothers you started training camp with. Every one of us deserves to be in this locker room. The bond we\u2019ve created is tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the other end, Pavel Zacha scored on the power play to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. The Bruins recorded 11 PP shots over six opportunities. Sturm knows there is work to do. The Bruins are 3 for 19 (15.8 percent) following the Olympics. They have slid to No. 6 overall (25.3 percent).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not there yet,\u201d said Sturm. \u201cI know we scored today. But the flow was a little bit missing today, too. That\u2019s part of the power play, too. Sometimes you get in those little stretches.\u201d<\/p>\n

The power play left offense on the table on Saturday. Viktor Arvidsson did not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The No. 2 right wing scored a five-on-five breakaway goal in the third period for the winning goal. Arvidsson is No. 2 on the team with 13 five-on-five goals. According to Natural Stat Trick, Arvidsson has 11.14 expected goals. The Bruins are relying on the 32-year-old to continue tucking more pucks than expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazing add to our team,\u201d Pastrnak said of the former Edmonton Oiler, acquired for a fifth-round pick on July 1, 2025. \u201cHe\u2019s been playing great. The second line is pretty much the only line that\u2019s been together the whole season. They\u2019ve had chemistry right from the beginning of the year. There\u2019s nights they win the game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins could have moved the pending unrestricted free agent for futures prior to Friday\u2019s deadline. He knew the situation. But trading Arvidsson could have dislodged the No. 2 line if the Bruins didn\u2019t bring back help at wing in another deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arvidsson understood the situation. He was not keen on leaving.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. In my case, I was in a little bit of control,\u201d said Arvidsson, who waived his no-movement protection last year to come to the Bruins. \u201cI\u2019ve just been in the league for so long. I know anything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 One year ago, a day after the 2025 trade deadline, new acquisitions Henri Jokiharju, Marat Khusnutdinov,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[95,191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-492016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-boston-bruins","9":"tag-capitals","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-washington","13":"tag-washington-capitals","14":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}