Boston Bruins: Hanging In, But Still Not Satisfied
If there is one thing the Boston Bruins are keeping track of this year, it’s their place in the standings. They can’t help it. Last season, they found out they were eliminated from the playoffs half way through the last period of their last regular season game. I’m sure it’s still sticking with a few players now.
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The Bruins are back in eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Not by any particular fault of their own lately. They’ve taken points in nine of their last ten games. It’s just that other teams have kept pace. Still, the Bruins aren’t worried. They’ve got at least two games in hand on every other team above them in the standings, save for the Washington Capitals. They just know they can’t take any game for granted right now.
“Any points are pretty critical this year, said Bruins forward David Krejci. “Last year we missed the playoffs by not many points. We know every single point matters, so we need to do everything we can to get two points [on Saturday]. It always feels like every year I look at the standings 20, 30 or 40 games into the season, and you’re always three games behind the other teams. You always have to catch up.
“Even if your record is good, you always have to catch up. It would be nice for once to have a couple of more games than the other teams, but is what it is. It’s good that we’re in the playoff [position], and we still have games in hand.”
The Bruins will be taking on the Florida Panthers tomorrow afternoon. Once again, it’s a critical two points for the Bruins. If the Bruins fail to beat the Panthers, they’ll fall to fifth in the Atlantic Division, ninth in the Eastern Conference, and be (for the moment) back out of playoff contention. On the other hand, a Bruins win would put the B’s into third place in the division and sixth in the conference.
The Bruins have been playing better hockey. They just have to be consistently consistent. (98.5 Sports Hub Bob Beers still calls them a ‘work in progress’.) The Bruins can’t afford to rest on the laurels, especially after a win against the Montreal Canadiens. Beating the Panthers would be a very important two points for the B’s to hold on as the 2015-16 continues.
“We’re getting some consistency in the standings part of it,” said Claude Julien of the Bruins team. “No doubt. In our game, I think it’s kind of healthy to not be satisfied. When you’re always trying to improve, you’ve got to be happy that you’re getting points in most of those games…but we still want to improve as a team. There are still some areas where until we become a perfect team, we should always not be satisfied. That’s what we’re trying to do here.”
We’ll see how Claude Julien’s dissatisfaction holds up during tomorrow’s game against the Panthers.