The Boston Bruins took care of business in the end of their four-game road trip. A trip that started with a lack of offense in Anaheim and Los Angeles, and continued with sloppy mistakes in San Jose.

Against the lowly Arizona Coyotes, the Black and Gold needed to make a statement. They did from start to finish – something Claude Julien preached with reporters during his pregame media availability – with a solid 5-2 victory.

“We definitely didn’t want to go home without getting a point on this road trip,” Brad Marchand told the press after his two-goal performance. “You could tell the guys were desperate. We played good right from the get-go. Everyone was buying in and doing what we had to do to win. We’ve got to be happy with this and keep building on it.”

Building on this victory might be a little easier with a four-day layoff between games before welcoming the high powered Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night at the TD Garden. The Black and Gold are hoping that Zdeno Chara and perhaps David Krejci can make a return to the lineup. Both skated this week locally while the team was out west.

Even with Krejci and Chara potentially closer to returning, the reality over the past several weeks still looms large. They’re doing what they have to do to beat the teams they should beat as seen in Saturday’s win over the lowly Coyotes. But as the injuries keep piling up, their inconsistencies are front and center when they face the NHL elite.

“We really wanted to win and we showed it,” goaltender Tuukka Rask told the Bruins media.

“It’s been weird this year. We talk about it a lot and then we show it for 20, 30 minutes where we work really hard, make plays and do good things, but then things just collapse in the games. [Saturday] we really just focused on battling through the game and leaving everything out there, and it really showed. I thought we really played a really solid 60 minutes.”

Saturday’s win bumped the Bruins to 31 points and are now two points ahead of the Florida Panthers for the last wild card spot. But if they want to escape their level of mediocrity and climb back up the standings, they’re going to need to defeat the teams ahead of them.

The only signature win for the Black and Gold came a few weeks ago when they stymied the St. Louis Blues. One signature win, though, does nothing to boost their cause.

There’s no denying the Bruins are going to need to add scoring depth in the next few months. With Peter Chiarelli making the rounds in his visits to Buffalo and Chicago this week, the trade rumors surrounding the Black and Gold are becoming more rampant by the second. Guys like Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle, David Perron and Nail Yakupov and St. Louis’ TJ Oshie, Patrik Berglund have been speculated to garner interest from Chiarelli and company.

With the Bruins reportedly eying a Thursday return for Chara, the Bruins will get some help on the back end. But, even if Krejci is also scheduled to return, they’ll need to add more pieces to the puzzle sooner rather than later. Otherwise, reality might get harsher.