What a trade window has it been for the Boston Bruins! While out went stars like Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle, there were also incoming in the form of Casey Mittelstadt and Will Zellers. These changes came at a time when the Bruins were languishing at the bottom of the Atlantic Division and needed a miracle to keep their hopes alive for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. These trades might just add fuel to the Bruins’ campaign as head coach, Joe Sacco remained optimistic about his new recruits.

Ahead of the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Sacco appeared in an interview during which he opened up about Mittelstadt. Sacco revealed, “I mean they’re all from the same state of Minnesota right so um I know that he did know Vinni from before whether they trained together or just got to know each other from being in the same area but um no I don’t know that but certainly I think with the three of them right now there is some you know some chemistry there.” Sacco was also referring to Vinni Lettieri, along with the likes of Mittelstadt and Zellers, who all hail from Minnesota.

Similarly, Mittelstadt also believes that some of his teammates coming from the same background would help the team as a whole. He said, “We’re really close and stuff so it’s been uh it’s been fun to kind of reconnect and get to play together again and obviously uh really helps the transition as well.”

Recently, the Bruins’ two-game winning streak was ended by the Senators, who ran riot against the Bruins and won 6-3. As a result, the game against the Lightning becomes all the more important now and the onus will lay on the stars like Mittelstadt and Lettieri to carry their team’s hopes.

As the Bruins look to come back stronger, their defenceman, Nikita Zadorov talked about the team’s up-and-down performances this season. He cited a path forward to overcome their poor run.

Boston Bruins star pulls up a trick up his sleeve

Earlier this week, the Bruins gave their all to prevail in the contest against the Panthers. The former showed their comeback skills as they overcame a 2-goal advantage for their opposition and scored 3 goals in a quick flash to come out on top. Like that performance, Zadorov wants his team to show the same level of consistency.

He revealed, “It’s just been a lot of ups and downs this year, and I think we’re trying to find this consistency, trying to find this momentum. There’s a lot of guys who play with their pride and they play with their heart and they try to prove something for either themselves or management or fans or their teammates. We play for something.”

The path gets tougher and tougher for the Bruins and they will face the Lightning in the game later today. It’ll be interesting to see if the new guys can step up for the Bruins and put up a good show.