Bruins Excel Without Any of Hockey's Biggest Names For a league that has built its recent growth with superstar players, the N.H.L. has an interesting conundrum on its hands in the Boston Bruins. After all, the Bruins are an Original Six team from hockey-mad Massachusetts. Their storied past is filled with names like Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Eddie Shore and Ray Bourque. Boston houses one of the league's most recognizable franchises, and the N.H.L. has recently sold the Bruins by the logo on the front of their sweaters instead of the names on the back. While Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Henrik Lundqvist dominate the conversation when the Penguins, Capitals or Rangers are on, NBC paints Boston as "the big, bad Bruins," even though those days are long gone. Zdeno Chara is about the only thing big or bad on Boston's roster, and his play hasn't been all that great. Still, the Bruins have been very good especially of late. After disposing of the Rangers in five games, they are four wins from their second Stanley Cup finals trip in three years and just eight from their second championship since 2011. To reach the finals again, the Bruins must overcome the star-laden Pittsburgh Penguins. Jarome Iginla and Evgeni Malkin are hockey household names; Kris Letang is a finalist for the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman; and Crosby - besides being a Masterson, Lindsay and Hart trophy nominee - is the face of the league. Chara may be the face of the Bruins, but save him, Patrice Bergeron and the midseason acquisition Jaromir Jagr, few of the faces are recognizable outside Boston proper. Yet that, according to Bruins Coach Claude Julien, is what makes Boston successful. "Our team is where it is because we have good balance," Julien said. We come into every game with the same strong attitude. Even Bergeron is an unlikely superstar. The 27-year-old center isn't a scorer or flashy playmaker. But the 2012 Selke Trophy winner as the top defensive forward excels in the face-off circle and comes up big at key moments. Bergeron scored the tying and winning goals as the Bruins overcame a 4-1 deficit in Game 7 of their quarterfinal series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Bergeron has also rebounded from a litany of head injuries that could have devastated his career, making his a feel-good story. And his isn't the only one. Brad Marchand, a former third-round draft pick, scored both of his playoff goals against the Rangers, including the game-winner in Game 1. Sixty-two players, including Malkin and Ovechkin, were chosen ahead of David Krejci in the 2004 draft. Yet, no player has more postseason points (17) in 2013 than Boston's superstar forward in the making. Nathan Horton, who was traded by the Florida Panthers in 2010, has 12 points in 12 playoff games. And while Boston's top line of Krejci, Horton and Milan Lucic dominated the first-round series against Toronto, it was the Bruins" scrappy fourth line that took over against the Rangers. Shawn Thornton, Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell combined for four goals and six assists in the series, with Campbell potting two in the Bruins" series-clinching, 3-1 win Saturday. "We try hard, and he is an exceptional goalie," Campbell said Saturday, referring to Lundqvist. It's not easy to score on him, so our game is straight forward, not pretty, but that's sometimes how you have to score on guys like that. Julien appreciates what that line gives his club. "These three guys - Paille, Thornton and Campbell - have great chemistry," Julien said before Game 4. I like our enforcers to be able to play. And definitely for us, the fourth line has really ignited our dressing room with its strong play against the Rangers. Tack on six goals from defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Torey Krug, and you have 10 of Boston's 16 goals in five games against the Rangers. And while simply reaching the Stanley Cup finals for the second time in three years is motivation enough, revenge could also come into play. Less than a week before the April 3 trade deadline, Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli thought he had a deal to bring Iginla from Calgary to Boston. Iginla exercised his no-trade clause, vetoing the deal. He ended up in Pittsburgh, which prompted Chiarelli to acquire Jagr. Chiarelli said he had no regrets. "I always thought you had to go through them to get to where we want to go at some point," Chiarelli said Sunday. It's been well-chronicled, the Iginla stuff and the Jagr stuff, so we're happy with who we got. And while Jagr doesn't have a goal in 12 postseason games, Chiarelli knows that Jagr, with Marchand and Bergeron, could be Boston's dominant line against Pittsburgh. "Jags is really compatible with the line on the strong cycle and the wearing down of the opposition," Chiarelli said. I know he's been snake-bitten a little bit, but he's had a lot of chances; he's created a lot of chances. Still, the Bruins know they'll need to raise their level of play to beat the Penguins. We've all watched Pittsburgh play. We've played against them enough and we have a lot of respect for that team," Campbell said. They're not too far removed from winning the Stanley Cup and they know how to win, so I think it will be a great matchup. We're excited about it, and we're going to have to be good.