Boston Bruins: Power Ranking the Atlantic after week one

I don’t even think this can be chalked up to bias. Bruins fans have learned to never doubt this team in the past couple years, but I think few of us expected the boys to have such success on this taunting west coast road trip to begin the year.

After a very impressive 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars, the Boston Bruins followed it up on Saturday night with a 1-0 shutout victory for Jaroslav Halak against the Arizona Coyotes.

If that wasn’t enough, Brad Marchand led a somewhat comeback victory against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday evening, playing in one of the toughest road buildings in the league.

Patrice Bergeron and the first line were quiet throughout the first two games of the season, but just when most would expect it, they showed up for a dominant effort on Tuesday.

Brett Ritchie has been a pleasant surprise to start the season, as he aims to fill a fourth line role left void by a Noel Acciari departure.

Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak seem to be continuing where they left off last season, and I would expect that we see a near 50/50 split in playing time through the first half of the year. Tuukka Rask ended the game on Tuesday with what appeared to be a concerning injury, so we’ll work on keeping you updated as more information is released by the team.

Up next for the B’s is a match-up against the Colorado Avalanche before coming home to TD Garden for their home opener against P.K. Subban and his new team, the New Jersey Devils, Saturday night at 7PM ET.

I fully expect second-line youngster, Jake DeBrusk, to get it going at home this weekend in what will likely be a raucous Saturday night Boston crowd.

My Weekend Prediction: Bruins top the Devils 3-2 at home. DeBrusk tallies a goal and finishes with a +2 rating, racking up 4 shots on net and giving the Bruins faithful what they want, a now-famous Jake DeBrusk goal celebration.