The hardest thing to do sometimes is to stand there and do nothing. The Bruins did more than stand around earlier this week as the final hours to the NHL trade deadline counted down, but in the end, they were exactly the same team Tuesday night as they were Tuesday morning.
That's OK. They're playing much better these days, and have a reasonable shot at making the playoffs (edit: this is NOT a typographical error or psychogenic fugue). They're not necessarily dealing from abundant strength, but they're not dealing from pathetic weakness, either. Here in the Hub of Hockey Heartbreak, that's progress.
Come Deadline Day, the Bruins' front office took a stab, stayed engaged in a couple of deals, and in the end, settled for a load of empty coffee cups, wrinkled pants, pizza crusts, and crumpled sheets of doodle paper - the standard detritus of spending Trade Day in the war room.
"A long day," noted general manager Peter Chiarelli, looking like he must have looked during exam week during his four seasons just down the river at the World's Greatest University.
According to Chiarelli, he was in serious negotiations on two deals, and though he would not reveal the targets, one was Marian Hossa, who happened to be here at the Garden last night, only decked out in another city's shades of Black and Gold. The Penguins landed the 29-year-old Hossa, beating out the Bruins with a package that included two roster players (Erik Christensen and Colby Armstrong), their top pick in last year's draft (Angelo Esposito), and a first-round pick in June's draft.
The Penguins also picked up forward Pascal Dupuis in the swap with Atlanta. Wherever this deal leads for the Penguins - question Numero Uno: Will they be able to keep Hossa after this season? - Dupuis will be but a footnote in the "Hossa" deal.
Truth is, he's far better than a footnote, having been well-trained in the art of the defensive grind by Wild coach Jacques Lemaire during his days with the St. Paul Trappist Wonks.
Dupuis has real wheels, Phil Kessel-like wheels, and in flashes last night looked electrifying on a line with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora. He got the Pittsburgh goal in its 5-1 loss. Compared with his days in St. Paul, it must have felt like an out-of-body experience to be flying through open ice, playing Randy Moss to Malkin's Tom Brady.
Chiarelli's other target Tuesday, according to sources around the league, was center/wing Tuomo Ruutu, chosen ninth overall by the Blackhawks in the 2001 draft. Ruutu, 25, ended up getting flipped to the Hurricanes for widebody winger Andrew Ladd, the fourth pick in the 2004 draft. Like Hossa, the 6-foot Ruutu would have been an enticing addition to the Boston forward corps.
Not very hard to figure what the Bruins were shopping in both cases, is it? Without question, Kessel was the bait on Boston's hook, and in the end, he wasn't enough for either team to bite.
It doesn't appear Ladd will have Kessel's offensive upside (still to be determined, by the way), but the Blackhawks have plenty of goals and assists waiting in the likes of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Which, by the way, was why they felt they could part with the slick, if enigmatic, Ruutu.
Like the Bruins, the Hawks wanted to add size and sturdiness up front, and they got that in Ladd, who should be in for some fun playing the muscle alongside Kane and Toews - the matching centerpieces of the Indian Head franchise for the next few years.
The Bruins would have been better positioned for a playoff run had they landed Hossa or Ruutu. No question. But while the Penguins could shed two roster players, a prime prospect, and a first-rounder, the Bruins don't have that kind of extra stock on the shelf.
Had the Bruins been able to talk to Hossa about a contract extension, and had that deal in hand, then perhaps they could have given up three bodies and a pick. Perhaps. Remember, this is a club that has missed the postseason three years running, and giving away roster assets isn't a luxury the franchise can afford right now, especially with the playoffs shaping up as a reasonable expectation around here for the first time since the spring of 2004.
Painful as it is to remember, Boston's strategy headed into the 2004-05 lockout played a large part in what it couldn't afford to do at the trade deadline. When they let Brian Rolston, Mike Knuble, Sergei Gonchar, and Michael Nylander walk out of town as free agents, figuring they could cherry-pick in free agency when the lockout ended, they set the franchise back for years.
Come the end of the lockout, there were precious few cherries to pick, the Bruins left to sift through the odd lot box for the all-but-finished Brian Leetch.
Almost 48 months later, dealing with a much more confining payroll system, they are still attempting to replenish the playing stock to a point where they could go seven games deep into a playoff round as they did against the Canadiens in '04, or do some business on Deadline Day.
Now winners of a season-high five straight games, they're still not as talented as they were four springs gone by, but they've finally . . . got . . . some . . . game . . . going.
Yes, a deal or two might have made them better. But there is also the chance that this is finally the start of a little chemistry on Causeway Street, and if that's the case, then maybe the deals Chiarelli couldn't make were two of the best he'll never make.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com.
