Time for Peter Chiarelli to trade
It’s a big deal
The Bruins’ past two games revealed all too clearly that their team, as currently constituted, is just not the real deal.
Unchanged, the B’s — unless they happen to get mighty lucky — aren’t a genuine threat to win the Stanley Cup.
The second loss to Detroit told us far more than the first. The game in Boston was just one of those nights of misery when nothing goes right. They happen to even the greatest teams.
The 4-2 setback at Joe Louis Arena on Sunday was far more revealing and troubling. The B’s played hard most of the afternoon, executed their system pretty well, and made some good plays. They weren’t outclassed by the very classy and poised Detroit team, they just weren’t good enough to beat it.
Not that we’re saying anything that general manager Peter Chiarelli doesn’t already know, but Sunday’s loss adds new urgency to the necessity of him making a trade for a true impact player before the deadline, now less than two weeks away.
Chiarelli has said we can bet on the Bruins making a deal. But now the shortcomings of this team have been vividly displayed. The area in which help is most needed is on defense, where several players — Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid, Steven Kampfer — are either underachieving or being asked to play roles greater than their current capabilities allow.
The Bruins surely could use another difference-maker up front, too, a guy with speed and talent.
There is a clear indication that Chiarelli is more and more convinced his roster badly needs an upgrade in the way he has flip-flopped on the draft picks he is willing to deal. Up until a week or so ago, he was adamantly against parting with the pick of Toronto, which currently has the fifth-worst record in the league.
But last week, Chiarelli changed his mind. Quite properly so, because that pick might pry loose a quality player.
Indeed, as much as Chiarelli embraces long-range planning and has put his organization in a remarkably strong position (four picks in about the first 55 of this summer’s entry draft), he should be willing to peddle every single pick the B’s have to bring the players this team needs.
Bruins fandom has been remarkably supportive of this team. And why not? The B’s, inconsistent though they are, have produced some nights of absolutely marvelous entertainment at the Garden.
But after the disappointments of the past two decades — a 4-13 record in playoff series, no advancement to the conference finals since 1992 — there has to be a payoff this year.