Don’t count the Bruins out of the playoffs just yet

Credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images

While they established themselves as “sellers” at the NHL Trade Deadline, the Boston Bruins are showing they aren’t packing it in for the year quite yet.

On Tuesday night at TD Garden, the Bruins battled hard against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers—the same team general manager Don Sweeney sent captain Brad Marchand to last Friday. Boston rallied with three goals in the third period to take down their Atlantic Division rivals, 3-2.

Along with moving on from Marchand, the Bruins also sent defenseman Brandon Carlo to another team within the division, the Toronto Maple Leafs. This showed that maybe the team was ready to start retooling or rebuilding in hopes of a brighter future, as they’ve had their share of struggles this season.

Yet, the win over the Panthers showed that the guys in the locker room didn’t get the message. The victory pushed Boston up to sixth in the Atlantic, just two points back of the last Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss why the Bruins shouldn’t be counted out of the playoff race yet.

Tyler Yaremchuk: They might have a goalie in Jeremy Swayman. Two games now where he’s looked very, very good. Late in that game, he was sensational. I’m sitting here like, if Jeremy Swayman were to go on a little 10-game run, that probably means Boston’s going on a little 10-game run…I’m not counting Boston out yet.

Frank Seravalli: I’m not either. This is the reason why I’m bullish on them being able to retool their team. Top-10 winger in the game in David Pasternak. Top-10 defenseman in the game in Charlie McEvoy and a top-10 goalie in Jeremy Swayman. If you’re going to reboot things, you’re way better off than a lot of teams that are rebuilding or retooling. So, they’ve got an opportunity and just enough talent to say, “Wait, you don’t think that they can catch the Columbus Blue Jackets?” I think they can.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…