from Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic,

Remember how, back at the 2023 NHL trade deadline, there were all those immediate assessments as to who won, who lost, and what might the implications be of all that wheeling and dealing?

A significant percentage of contenders pushed all their chips in, gambling that a few select reinforcements would be the missing ingredient in a Stanley Cup championship.

One round in, you wonder how many teams are replaying, in their minds, the old Connie Francis standard: Who’s Sorry Now?

Of particular note was how the Boston Bruins, who were already on their way to a record-setting regular season, made more moves than you might have imagined to try and get even deeper. So, Dmitry Orlov came over from Washington along with Garnet Hathaway and Tyler Bertuzzi was acquired from Detroit. All are good players. All made the Bruins better on paper.

But championships, as we’ve seen repeatedly over the years, aren’t won on paper.

They are won on the ice.

And sometimes, there is value in leaving well enough alone. That’s a point made to me by the NHL executive who is helping us with predictions in these playoffs. He sent a note, wondering if in the Bruins’ postmortems following a 65-win regular-season performance they’ll ask the question internally: Did we try too hard to improve the team?

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