Barring an unforeseen (and seemingly improbable) playoff matchup, the Boston Bruins wrapped up their season series with the Columbus Blue Jackets this past Saturday. Winning behind a two-goal night from Milan Lucic and 13 saves from backup Chad Johnson, the Bruins swept the season series with their Metropolitan Division counterpart, but did so without seeing the return of a familiar face and former friend, Nathan Horton. And maybe that was for the best.

All things considered, fans in Boston will be forever grateful for Horton’s contributions to the Black-and-Gold during his brief three-year tenure with the club.

On the Bruins’ top line from day one and through last year’s Stanley Cup Final, Horton racked up 56 goals and 107 points in 169 regular season contests with the club from 2010 to 2013, but undoubtedly made a name for himself when the stakes were at their highest. Despite never skating in an NHL playoff game prior to arriving to Boston from Florida -- Horton’s last playoff game came in 2003 as a member of the Oshawa Generals in the Ontario Hockey League -- Horton was a playoff savant. Horton never buckled under the pressure of an elimination game, and in his only two years as a healthy skater for Boston come playoff time, the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Final.

That was no fluke.

In 2012, when Horton was shelved with concussion like symptoms, the goal-starved Bruins bowed out to the Washington Capitals in round one. But with Horton in the playoff lineup in both 2011 and 2013, the Bruins won seven of eight series (the streak snapped with last year’s Cup loss to Chicago), while the 6-foot-2 winger scored 15 goals and 36 points in just 43 contests.

That was, again, no fluke.

Obviously, the Bruins really wanted to keep Horton in the fold given his playoff success and their love for the core of this club, but it appears as if letting the 28-year-old winger (with two major concussions to his name) leave for Columbus on a seven-year, $37.1 million deal may have actually been a good idea for not only Horton (who desired a quieter life), but also the Bruins.

That’s because through 27 games this year, his replacement, the 36-year-old Jarome Iginla, has proven himself to have been just what the B’s forward core needed.

In his first full season out of a Calgary Flames uniform, Iginla hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire in his first two months as a Bruin, but his presence has become an overwhelming strong influence on the play of his linemates, Milan Lucic and David Krejci. With Iginla still in pursuit of his first Cup, seemingly long gone are the nights where Krejci and Lucic would ‘coast’ and not give the effort that we’ve seen on a fairly regular basis in 2013-14. A former captain and noted workhorse, Iginla has become the driving force of that line’s success this season, even if that’s come at the cost of his own personal success, with No. 12 recording just five goals and 15 points thus far.

As a line, the Lucic-Krejci-Iginla trio has posted 20 goals through 27 games, an ever-so-slight upgrade from the Lucic-Krejci-Horton trio from a year prior. To this point last season, the trio of Lucic-Krejci-Horton had combined for 19 goals. Over the course of an 82-game season (which last season was not), the final year of the former version of the Boston top-line would’ve finished the year with a combined 58 goals. This year, Lucic-Krejci-Iginla have totaled 20 goals and 56 points, putting them at a 61-goal pace for the year.

A three-goal difference, at this rate, is nothing over the top.

But Iginla’s efforts and motivation has been.

Even when he’s not scoring, it seems like Iginla’s out there making things happen with his effort, hustle, and puck possession. He’s as smart as they come, has embraced his role with the team-first Bruins, and has been the shooting force of a Boston top line that’s recorded over 20 percent of the Bruins’ total shots on goal in 2013-14.

One of the many new faces in town this year, Iginla’s done everything he can (and more) to fit in with the core of the Hub’s crew.

“People realize there wasn’t just one or two changes this year, it was more than there has been in a long time. And I think as far as the guys getting along it’s been great. But chemistry on the ice develops with time and through adversity, through tough times, through good times, and through situations like we just talked about; different guys stepping up and scoring goals,” said B’s coach Claude Julien last week.

“It’s an ongoing thing and when those guys will let that evolve throughout the whole year and you just hope it’s at its best always at the right time of the year," Julien added. "Right now I think we have just as good of a crew as we’ve always had and a lot of credit goes to our leaders that create that atmosphere in our room and when it comes to playing together on the ice they seem to be very respectful and supportive of each other.”

Is Iginla better than Horton? I’m not sure that it’s a fair argument as of right now, especially with Horton yet to play a game for the Blue Jackets this season due to his offseason shoulder surgery. But is Iginla a better fit for the Bruins than Horton was? Without a doubt.

And you can even make the case that they haven’t gotten rolling at 100 percent just yet.

“We’ve got a good opportunity to play in offensive situations and part of our job is to help produce some offense. So, we all put pressure on ourselves to do that,” Iginla said of his line last week. “Times we’ve been able to do that this year and it’s not just about production it’s about trying to put pressure on the other team and lots of different things that go into it. But yeah, we definitely put pressure on ourselves to contribute and want to get back at it and do that on a consistent basis.”

Now, I've been of the belief that Iginla's been better over the course of this year's 27-game start than Horton was and/or would have been. That's by no means a knock on Horton's style of play, which brought about an incredible bundle of unforgettable postseason memories, but he was also a player that had a tendency to completely vanish during the regular season. And that was something that, I think anyways, rubbed off on his linemates.

But not this year.

And that undoubtedly seems to come back to Iginla's presence in the room and on the ice.

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