By: Joe Ballway, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer

It looked like the Bruins were in for a fresh start after the Olympic break. Winners of four straight heading into the layoff, they appeared to finally be gaining steam and getting healthy.

But five games later, it’s the same old story.

Injuries and inconsistency.

The same two factors that have plagued the Bruins through this entire season of disappointment and bizarre twists are unwilling to disappear. The Bruins are just 2-2-1 since returning from their two-week hiatus, and as usual, they pretty much look asleep at the wheel. They blew three separate one-goal leads to the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, eventually losing in overtime. Tim Thomas finally had one of his signature games, flopping left and right to make impossible saves, but per usual, the whole team couldn’t find its game simultaneously.

To make matters worse, they may have lost Marc Savard–their most valuable forward–for the season after he suffered a grade 2 concussion on a nasty hit from Pittsburgh forward Matt Cooke. Zdeno Chara also missed the Toronto game and has been listed as day-to-day with a minor lower-body injury.

Perhaps of equal concern is that the Bruins, in desperate need of scoring, virtually stood pat on deadline day. They unloaded Derek Morris’ salary to Phoenix and cleared up some cap space by replacing him with Dennis Seidenberg–a cheaper, yet similarly capable defenseman from Florida.

But they did nothing to boost the forward lines. It appears Chiarelli had an offensive acquisition in mind when he dumped Morris, but to the surprise of many, nothing came of it. The Bruins, who don’t even have a 40-point scorer at this point, are going to have to claw their way into the playoffs with the same anemic offense they’ve employed all season long.

The loss of Savard certainly isn’t going to help, either. One has to wonder if Chiarelli would have pushed harder for a forward deal had Savard been injured prior to the deadline. But it’s too late now.

We’ll just have to wait and see if the Bruins can salvage their season with the cards they’ve been dealt. But there’s no use in predicting–this team is too impossible to figure out.

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