It’s about time.

Year after year, the script has been mostly the same. Save for the really lean years in the mid-90s, the Boston Bruins have built a 32-year-old tradition of coming up short when it counts. There were the epic battles with the Canadians in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and the surprising run to first place in 2002 that eventually ended up in shambles after a first-round whooping by those hated Habs. Last year, Bruins fans came to understand that yes, it was a good enough team to make the playoffs, but no, it wasn’t nearly good enough to advance.

That may have all changed yesterday, because of one man from Chelyabinsk, Russia. The Bruins acquired hotshot defenseman Sergei Gonchar from the Washington Capitals yesterday, and that alone might be enough to signal a paradigm shift in the way the club is run.

Sure, there have been big trades in the past few years. Bringing Jason Allison in worked for a while, although it seems now that Glen Murray was the best addition from that move. And the blockbuster that sent Ray Bourque to Colorado was one of the biggest moves of the 2000 season, but it had little to do with improving the Bruins, and more to do with giving an aging superstar a shot at Lord Stanley’s chalice.

This trade, however, is all about shoring up the B’s as they prepare for the Cup playoffs. Though the loss of Shaone Morrisson – not to mention the pair of high draft picks – could be a stinger in the future. It’s long overdue that the club starts thinking about making a real run, now. The move was clearly designed to ensure that the mess of 2002 or 2003 doesn’t happen once again.

Gonchar has been one of the only bright spots for a Capitals team that found a way to sink further into mediocrity this year. Now, he’s just the latest Washington star to head out of town on a train bound for the postseason. He is the most recent victim – using that term very lightly – of a fire sale being put on by a club that just can’t figure out how to get out of its own way. Now, Boston is the benefactor of one of the game’s best defenseman.

The trade represents a new willingness by the usually conservative Bruins management to go out and make something happen in order to improve the quality of play, and not just the bottom line. In fact, it’s almost so uncharacteristic that you’d wonder if rookie coach Mike Sullivan slipped this one to the NHL while Scrooge Jacobs and Harry Sinden II weren’t looking. This is the kind of trade that contenders make, the kind of move that previously was only reserved for the Colorados, Detroits, and Torontos of the NHL universe.

And in the end, it makes sense. That might be the most mind-blowing part of this whole thing. Once Montreal picked up Alexei Kovalev, the Habs were clearly out of the superstar sweepstakes. That left only a few other options, because there isn’t exactly a throng of strong teams in the East. The Bruins, who have done very well without a scoring defenseman all year, saw the need for an extra push heading into the spring, and rather than picking up an aging veteran at the end of his career (see: Coffey, Paul), they actually made the move that anyone who’s been following the spoked ‘B’ this year wanted.

It also represents a tremendous improvement on the ice. For the first half of 2003-04, the Bruins were simply trying to put up an average defense. The defensive pairs began to bear a striking resemblance to the doomed “closer by committee” crew of Red Sox pitchers early last summer. But for the spectacular work of “rookie” Andrew Raycroft in net, the defense was by far the biggest liability. Through patience and quality moves like the one that brought the season’s biggest surprise, Jiri Slegr, the defense is better than average, and now it has a sharpshooter among the ranks.

The players like the move too. Not that they would likely say otherwise, but the enthusiasm is clear.

“It’s a good sign when a lot of the other teams are starting to make deals and we get involved,” Raycroft said on the team’s Web site. “You know, as a player, it’s nice to see that happen and to see us improve. Now its up to us, management did and good job and now its up to us.”

Is another early-round bow out in the future? Possibly. But if nothing else can be taken from the Gonchar move, this team is not the same stubborn, overly cautious club that showed signs of brilliance but fell hard. Couple that with the fact that O’Connell still looking for a forward who can bring some more goals, and this should be a very entertaining spring on Causeway Street.

Andrew Merritt is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].