Remember the gloom and doom that came as the Bruins kept losing guys to injury? The questions that surrounded the team as player after player fell victim to the injury bug?

Well, things are a little brighter in The Hub of Hockey since mid-November.

On Saturday, the Bruins will enter a pivotal Eastern Conference tilt with the Islanders having won seven of their last nine games. The 14 points accumulated in that span have gotten them from near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings all the way to third in the Atlantic Division.

Sure, the Bruins took care of business against teams beneath them in the standings – like the lowly Flyers and Coyotes – over the last few weeks. They’ve also put together some quality wins against some solid squads like the Kings, Sharks, Devils, Penguins and Lightning.

“We’re getting better and that’s what we want to see,” captain Zdeno Chara following Friday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena. “We’ve had some really good games against some really good teams, and we always want to keep getting better. That’s the goal and that’s the mindset.”

A mindset that improves as guys get healthy.

It’s no coincidence that the success came as core players like Brad Marchand, David Krejci and David Backes returned to the lineup. That along with a more balanced lineup is giving Bruce Cassidy and company a better idea of what the team is capable of and meeting his expectations in the long run.

“You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself, but we made the playoffs last year, we were right there in the first round [loss to the Senators] and we expect to build off that,” Cassidy said.

“I guess my expectation is we want to be a good team that gets to be a very good team. We saw it against Pittsburgh, against Tampa Bay and in Nashville – as a coach I probably look at it a different way than you guys – we did a lot of good things against a team that doesn’t lose often in their building, but we had a lot of brain farts. If we can eliminate those we can be a good team, and we’re starting to see that. I’m not going to measure every game, but in general, I like the way we’re trending.”

Some high expectations indeed for a team that struggled to meet their identity during the injury-plagued first month and a half of the season.

One silver lining with all the injuries? The accelerated development of the handful of young Bruins.

Highlighted by early Calder Trophy candidate Charlie McAvoy, a versatile Danton Heinen, 2015 first round pick Jake DeBrusk and former Notre Dame standout Anders Bjork, the Bruins’ youngsters were thrown into the fire as a result of the numerous wounds sustained by the veterans.

There’s been mistakes along the way – some more harmful than others – but the learning process can only benefit the talented rookie class in the long run.

“When you have guys that are able to play 15-20 minutes a night where normally they might be only be playing 8-12 [minutes], it’s a big difference,” Marchand said about the Boston youngsters. “Having the opportunity to make mistakes – and be comfortable making mistakes and learning from them – you have to be able to do that.”

Given the circumstances, the fact that the Bruins are in a decent spot nearly one-third through the 2017-18 season is a pretty remarkable accomplishment in and of itself. With games in hand on everyone in the East, there’s more reason for optimism surrounding the Black and Gold compared to the first 15 games or so.

But there’s also room for improvement in certain areas like cleaning up the costly defensive breakdowns – as seen in Monday’s loss against the Predators – and getting more attention to detail in the final minute of a period.

The Bruins have been doing well of late with Adam McQuaid, Ryan Spooner and Peter Cehlarik the only three players left on injured reserve. But Marchand and company know they have to stay ahead of the curve if they want to obtain their return trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“We still have a lot to learn, and some areas to clean up” Marchand added, “but it’s a lot easier to do that when you have a healthy team. We still have some guys out, but we’re definitely a lot closer to being healthy right now than at most points during the season. It makes it a lot easier to work on your game and build as a group, and you know we’re continuing to do that.”