Bruins bulk up for battle with acquisitions of Orlov, Hathaway

The recurring theme of General Manager Don Sweeney rewarding his team for fine regular-season performances with a substantial boost at the trade deadline didn’t seem possible in 2023.

And, with a record rivaling the best half dozen campaigns of the NHL’s expansion era (1967-), they deserve it more than ever.

This was the season that could have gone the other way.

Tuukka Rask retired, David Krejci was shaking out 12 months of rust having played essentially no-check hockey in Czechia, and the Bruins were asking a new coach (Jim Montgomery) to get out of the gate strong without Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk and Brad Marchand, who were all on the mend from offseason surgeries.

Bruins acquire defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway from the Capitals for forward Craig Smith, a 2023 first-round pick, 2025 second-round pick and 2024 third-round pick.

What if, in the final year of his contract, David Pastrnak was distracted? What if Patrice Bergeron’s surgically repaired elbow flared up? What if the pace of the hyper-fast NHL had passed Krejci by? What if the goaltending wasn’t spot on? Could Jake DeBrusk put his trade request behind him? Could management forget about it?

So much that could have gone wrong for the Boston Bruins has gone more than right.

McAvoy, Grzelcyk and Marchand: Out there competing and excelling.

Pastrnak: Should have gotten 50 goals in 2019-20, he’ll get it this year and soon.

Bergeron: Being Bergeron, which is up for reinvention every year according to the needs of his team.

Krejci: Keeping up and making his linemates better.

DeBrusk: Back on the ice after his two bone breaks winning the Winter Classic at Fenway Park and fully engaged.

Goaltending: The hug lives on, and on and on and on. Linus Ullmark’s stats are only slightly off of what they were over the first half of the season, but he remains the goal standard, not just the black-and-gold standard. And Jeremy Swayman has quietly found traction and is holding up his end of the league’s most-successful, puck-stopping partnership.

So what do you give the team that has everything?

I honestly expected a couple of insurance-policies in the form of a veteran defenseman and a tenacious forward who would need injuries to get in the playoff lineup.

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Sweeney over delivered with the help of his trusty capologist Evan Gold, prying loose left-shot defender Dmitry Orlov and hard-nosed right winger Garnet Hathaway.

The Bruins acquired Garnet Hathaway.

I know No. 21 is available, but I’d much rather see Keith Robinson hang a 14 in Hathaway’s stall and the team immediately start calling him “Ace.” Orlov wore 9 in Washington; he won’t wear it in Boston. But, if you flip it over into a 6, it sure looks like Mike Reilly won’t be wearing it again for the NHL team.

Inconvenient fact: During Game 4 of the 2021 opening-round playoff series against the Capitals, Orlov hit Kevan Miller high when the Bruins defenseman was dishing the puck on a zone entry. Miller never played again, announcing his retirement after the season.

If Tom Wilson is public-enemy No. 1 when the Caps visit Boston, then Hathaway has been his wingman in mayhem.

Some Boston fans are having a hard time welcoming Hathaway into the black-and-gold fold, but those old enough will recall Chris Nilan, Boston bred but hated as a Hab, that is until he joined the Bruins in 1990 for parts of two seasons.

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Nilan was only five years removed from splitting Terry O’Reilly’s face open with a wild punch shortly before Taz’s 1985 retirement, four years removed from removing Rick Middleton’s teeth with his hockey-stick-shaped toothpick, and three years removed from that famous runway incident that resulted in a swinging plexiglass barrier going up next to the Bruins bench so enemy players leaving the ice could pass without touching off a brawl.

Didn’t matter that Nilan was from West Roxbury and played for Northeastern University (in the Bruins’ first arena). He was despised as a member of the dreaded 1980s Montreal Canadiens.

Oh, the power of laundry.

If the Boston crowd can accept Nilan – the vast majority though not everybody did – the fans will certainly get over any hiccups regarding Hathaway, a Kennebunkport native who played college hockey at Brown.

This will be fine.

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Weren’t the Bruins good enough?

A championship team always needs a little more. If that wasn’t true, Blake Wheeler would be an aging Bruins instead of an aging Winnipeg Jet. And Tony Amonte and Mike Gartner would have Stanley Cup rings.

This coup required no such sacrifice of skill or sentiment. Craig Smith tried hard but turned out to be one of few Bruins who have noticeably struggled in Jim Montgomery’s system. A first-round draft pick that will probably be 32nd overall is also nothing to stress about.

I leave you with this: For almost 30 years, the Bruins posted winning records and in most of those seasons were legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, but Harry Sinden’s legacy as GM was that of penny-pinching miser who cared more for his boss’s bottom line than a shot at glory.

Are the charges legit? Hell no. But the point is those long-suffering fans who held the fort all those almost-but-not-quite years would have gladly scraped the ocean floor for a few years if it meant a real chance at the title.

This is what the Bruins have now. They are all in.

Mick Colageo writes about hockey for The Standard-Times. Follow on Twitter @MickColageo.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Bruins acquisitions get team ready for playoff battles that lie ahead