DALLAS — The Bruins do not have as many good players as the Stars.

When the Stars were rocking and rolling in Saturday’s first period, the Bruins were chasing the game, like teams with thinner rosters do against better talent.

Yet it was the Bruins who were laughing after scoring six straight goals and hanging a 7-3 thumping on the Stars. They won wall battles. They found their skating legs. They kept the Stars from getting to their rush game by sending in a heavy forecheck.

The Bruins identified their shortcomings, applied their corrections, and took over the game.

“We kept bringing numbers back,’’ Tuukka Rask said. “They were flipping pucks over us and then just having races. In the first period, they got a couple breakaways because of that. Then we kept having numbers back in the neutral zone. When they couldn’t flip pucks over us, we kept the ice tight and didn’t let them make cross-ice passes, which takes their speed away.’’

This is why qualifying for the playoffs is critical for the Bruins, regardless of the status of their makeover.

The Bruins’ bosses now have a 59-game snapshot of the 2015-16 team. It’s enough data for the hockey operations staff to determine the team’s strengths and weaknesses, especially compared with the teams they could face when April arrives.

After their season-high six-game road trip, the Bruins are in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, 2 points ahead of the eighth-place cutoff. If they play like they did for the final 30 minutes of Saturday’s win, they can hang with anybody in the East during a seven-game series, save for Washington.

Aside from the Capitals, there are no heavyweights in the East. As usual, the iron of the league is in the West, where the streaking Wild, energized under interim coach John Torchetti, may not even qualify for the postseason.

Despite their deficiencies at defense and right wing, the Bruins are still top-heavy enough to ask Rask, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Krejci, and Zdeno Chara to serve as lead dogs in the playoffs. It’s why they’re negotiating an in-between period before the Feb. 29 trade deadline.

The areas they’d like to improve are not necessarily components that are upgraded via traditional rentals of unrestricted free agents-to-be. They need long-term help at defense and right wing. As much as a short-term hire such as Roman Polak would help stabilize the defense, the price for such players (pick and prospect) is too high for the Bruins to consider. Their future depends on their futures.

Chara has two years remaining on his contract. Same with Dennis Seidenberg. The Bruins are terrified of the day when Bergeron’s game starts to show wear and tear. The deeper their pool of prospects is, the better their chances are of hitting on some high-end NHL players to replace their stars.

So when it comes to reinforcing this team for the stretch run and for the next few seasons, the Bruins are best served with hockey trades, such as the one that brought Brett Connolly last year for a pair of picks. Connolly is young, under control, and has room to improve. At the moment, he is not a go-to No. 1 right wing. But he is playing a good grind game next to Marchand and Bergeron, even if he doesn’t develop into the sharpshooting snapper that Lightning scouts once projected him to be.

The teams that do best with rentals before the deadline are the ones that need a final complementary piece to advance to June. Clubs in this category are Chicago, Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Washington. The Bruins are not in this bucket, not when Loui Eriksson’s time is about to expire.

Eriksson is the only Bruin to have played in all 59 games this season. He is likely to play in just four more, if that. The term Eriksson could score on the open market is not a future that corresponds with the Bruins’ team-building plan. As much as Eriksson serves as a do-it-all player for coach Claude Julien, a six-year extension would not be a friendly outcome at the deal’s back end.

Eriksson would help anybody that belongs in the aforementioned category of one piece short of a Cup. His hockey sense, sturdy play in the hard areas, and strong stick are excellent assets. There are few players with his skill set who will become available before the deadline. The Bruins can expect a good return for Eriksson, even if he doesn’t bring back the immediate defensive help they need.

But by trading Eriksson, the Bruins will be diminished. They’ll need to plug all the holes his departure would create: left wing on the second line, penalty kill, net-front on the No. 1 power-play unit. It would be unfair to expect Frank Vatrano to do all those things upon his recall from Providence.

Before the deadline, teams are usually buyers or sellers. The Bruins don’t have their skates firmly planted in either category, aside from the requirement of landing assets for Eriksson. That’s OK. Unless general manager Don Sweeney unearths a trade that will help now and in coming seasons, a forced acquisition of a rental would not be worth the investment.