Why Don Sweeney Feels Bruins ‘Didn’t Burn It Down’ At Trade Deadline

The Boston Bruins made a litany of moves at the NHL trade deadline Friday that completely changed the look of the historic franchise on Saturday.

When the deadline officially passed, the Bruins had traded captain Brad Marchand, forwards Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau, defenseman Brandon Carlo, and AHL forwards Max Jones and Marc McLaughlin.

In return, the Black and Gold received forwards Marat Khusnutdino, Jakub Lauko, Fraser Minten, Casey Mittelstadt and Will Zellers, defensemen Max Wanner and Daniil Misyul and a plethora of draft picks over the next couple of seasons.

Despite all the moves, general manager Don Sweeney was clear in his message when he spoke to the media at Warrior Ice Arena following the deadline.

“Did we come in this morning knowing that we were making every one of these moves? No,” Sweeney said. “… Regardless, that’s a difficult thing. But, the message is clearly not about, you know, we didn’t burn it down. We have a lot of guys. A couple of those guys in particular are injured, that are big, big players and pieces to our group.

“Now, we have to do a better job of building around it and turning the course that says we’re back. And that’s the job.”

Sweeney recognized the team did not perform as well as Boston had hoped coming into the season, including on the power play.

“That’s both with personnel and systematically, maybe, and make some adjustments there,” Sweeney said. “That’s been an area that’s put some stress on the overall offensive production side of things. Which is an area we knew was going to potentially challenged and if we stayed healthy.

“Now, we set out the fact that every guy that maybe hit some high sides, we didn’t predict that they were going to, but we were below that in those areas. Now, defensively, is where the concerns started to come into play, that we were not as tight as what we have been in the past. And good teams get through that. You win in those situations, and we have given it up in those situations.”

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Sweeney continued: “There are areas that we need, we had under performance, and we have roster areas that we needed to address. And that starts with me, and the other areas that the players themselves have to take some (responsibility), and they have, they’ve taken ownership that they haven’t played quite as well. But, you know, the end of the day, we weren’t going to just roll it back. And that’s probably the message, like we needed to turn a page in some regard and do a better job. And that’s what we’ll do.”

The new-look Bruins will be seeking their first win when they play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Puck drop from Amalie Arena is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET and can be seen on ABC.