Boston Bruins: Looking at the Eastern Conference
By Jay Peterson
For the last half of a decade, the Boston Bruins have been among the most popular teams when it comes to playoff predictions. They were always in talks to not only top their division but also their conference and battle for the Stanley Cup. This year, the Boston Bruins are still in playoff talks, but are seen as a team that will achieve a wild card position or fall short again in the month of April.
Of course where the Bruins land in the standings is largely based on how they play, but there is also the factor of how their opponents do that needs to be included as well. Let us consider the following. If the Boston Bruins were to miss the playoffs again, they would need to have less points than at least three teams in the Atlantic Division and eight teams in total from the Eastern Conference.
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The Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning and Detroit Red Wings were the three Atlantic Division leaders last season. Regardless of how the Bruins play, I believe that Montreal and Tampa Bay will once again have great seasons and share positions one and two on top of the division. Detroit, on the other hand, is without head coach Mike Babcock this season and has two of their best players, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, getting yet another year older. I am not yet saying that this is the year that Detroit finally misses the playoffs, but I do expect that the Bruins will be able to accumulate more points than them.
Staying in the Atlantic Division, it is also important to look at other teams in the division that could have surprising seasons and sneak ahead of Boston. The Ottawa Senators had a magical run last year but I do not expect it to happen again, at least not in that fashion. The Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs are rebuilding and the Florida Panthers are always in the playoff race but are rarely the winners of it. Looking at the competition here, it seems like the Bruins have a fighting chance.
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Now, if the Bruins do find themselves in a Wild Card race, there is now the Metropolitan Division to contend with. For me, the safe bet for this division’s top three teams would be both New York teams and the Pittsburgh Penguins. That leaves us with the Washington Capitals, the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Philadelphia Flyers, the New Jersey Devils and the Carolina Hurricanes. To be honest, aside from maybe the Hurricanes, most of these teams are capable of, at the very least, making a run for a Wild Card position. If the Bruins have a season similar to the one they had last year, many of these teams could very well catch them.
That is why, although it is important to know your enemy, the result of next season has more to do with how the Boston Bruins play than any of their opponents. Keep in mind that, although we can all agree that last year was not a good one for the Boston Bruins, the team still put 96 points. I believe that as long as the Bruins play their game on a consistent basis, everything should fall into place and the teams that deserve to make the playoffs will make the playoffs.