The Boston Bruins completed a major objective before Monday's NHL trade deadline by significantly bolstering the talent and depth of their blue line.
The addition of top-four defenseman Hampus Lindholm from the Anaheim Ducks and depth defenseman Josh Brown from the Ottawa Senators addressed a weakness that has proved fatal in recent Stanley Cup Playoff runs for Boston.
We even ranked the B's among the winners of the trade deadline.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Boston sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
But despite improving their roster, the Bruins' path to the Stanley Cup Final got much more difficult. How is that possible? Well, the three teams ahead of them in the Atlantic Division all made similar or better moves before Monday's deadline.
How the Lindholm trade gives Bruins excellent defensive foundation long term
"It just looks like the Atlantic is one big arms race," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper told reporters earlier this week.
He couldn't have described the situation any better.
Boston Bruins
Look at the Florida Panthers.
They are all-in trying to win the franchise's first championship. Florida has been leading the Eastern Conference standings most of the season and didn't hesitate to give up prospects and draft picks to improve their roster. The additions of top-six forward Claude Giroux, top-four defenseman Ben Chiarot and depth defenseman Robert Hagg upgraded an already loaded squad that leads the league in scoring.
The two-time defending champion Lightning are still the team to beat in the East. They're enjoying another fantastic regular season and added 20-goal scorer Brandon Hagel last week. The price for Hagel was very steep -- two first-round picks and two prospects -- but when you have a chance to become the first team in nearly 40 years to three-peat, you go for it. Tampa Bay acquired bottom-six forwards Nick Paul and Riley Nash on Monday as well.
Let's not forget the Lightning have the best goalie on the planet in Andrei Vasilevskiy, in addition to a plethora of superstar forwards (Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point) and an elite defenseman in Victor Hedman. Sure, fatigue might become a factor for Tampa Bay at some point given all the games these guys have played since 2020, but it's still so hard to bet against them.
And then there's the Leafs.
Before you laugh at Toronto and bring up this team's painful history of recent playoff meltdowns, remember that this team is quite talented. Auston Matthews is likely going to win the Hart Trophy, and few teams are capable of matching the Leafs' offensive firepower. They rank third in goals scored and own the top-rated power play.
Toronto acquired top-four defenseman Mark Giordano on Sunday, giving its blue line a much-needed injection of talent, depth, leadership and experience. He's the kind of calm, reliable blue line presence Toronto has lacked in recent postseason battles.
If it wasn't apparent before, it's now painfully obvious that the best path to the Stanley Cup Final for the B's is to fall on the Metropolitan Division side of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket.
This doesn't mean the Metro path will be an easy one, however. Far from it, actually.
If the Bruins are the wild card team that plays the Metro winner, that first-round matchup almost certainly will be against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes are one of the best-coached and most well-rounded teams in the league. They also swept their three-game season series versus Boston by a combined score of 16-1.
Regular season success against a specific opponent is no guarantee of similar playoff results -- just ask the 2013 Penguins about the Bruins -- but we do know Carolina won't be afraid of the B's and won't fear playing at the Garden in May.
A second-round matchup versus the Pittsburgh Penguins or New York Rangers would be more favorable than a slugfest against the Panthers or Lightning, though.
The problem for the Bruins is they might end up securing one of the three playoff spots from their own division. They enter Wednesday tied with the Leafs for third place and one point behind the Lightning for second place. It should be noted Boston has played one more game than both Toronto and Tampa Bay.
The overall point is if the Bruins are going to be in the Stanley Cup Final, they'll have to beat at least one of the Lightning, Leafs and Panthers.
And we don't really have a great idea of how well the Bruins stack up against these teams because they haven't played them in a while. The last Bruins-Panthers game was in October. The most recent Bruins-Leafs game was in November. The Bruins have played the Lightning only once since December.
Luckily for the Bruins, they should get a pretty good read on their readiness for the playoffs over the next month because they play the Leafs, Lightning and Panthers a combined five times through the end of the regular season, beginning Thursday at the Garden versus Tampa Bay.
It's going to be a great test for both teams in what should feel like a playoff environment. The Bruins take second place if they win -- a scenario that seemed unthinkable a few months ago.