from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

- Based on the buzz headed into the weekend, bodies should be flying like a Cirque de Soleil casting call Sunday and Monday as the NHL trade deadline closes down for yet another year. All sales final, Monday, 3 p.m. ET, and absolutely no refunds.

Despite the flurry of moves throughout the week prior to Friday night — including Boston’s acquisition of Ondrej Kase — the winner to date is Jim Rutherford, the Pittsburgh GM, who closed his big deal early (Feb. 10), finally landing Jason Zucker from the Wild.

Zucker arrived as a sort of a latter-day Chris Kunitz for the Penguins, a guy who can play up and down the forward lines and deliver points wherever he’s slotted. Zucker in his first five games with the flightless birds: three goals and an assist. Impact made....

- With the emergence of David Pastrnak as the Bruins’ No. 1 shooting option, Brad Marchand’s goal scoring has plateaued in recent years

Mind you, the L’il Ball o’Hate averaged 36.5 goals the previous four seasons, so he’s had a penthouse view from that plateau. He could finish with 30-plus again this season, though he’ll have to shake from his recent protracted slumber.

Meanwhile, Marchand is on pace to outdistance his prior season’s assist mark for the fourth straight year.

After posting 24 helpers in 2015-16, he went on to finish with career-best assist totals of 46, 51, and 64, with last season’s motherlode contributing to his first 100-point campaign.

This season, Marchand is tracking to upward of 70 assists — a level we haven’t seen attained here since Marc Savard collected 74 upon his arrival for the 2006-07 season....

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