
When the Boston Bruins hosted defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh in their March debut, it didn’t take long for a smattering of "We want the Cup" chants to rain down from the TD Garden balcony.
The start of the National Hockey League postseason was still more than a month away when they were first heard, but Bruins general manager Don Sweeney and the team’s brass went to work at the Feb. 26 trade deadline, pushing all the right buttons to make sure the Boston club — with its great mix of young and old — would have all the right pieces and be in the best position to make a deep run.