Boston Bruins: Where do we stand as an Atlantic Division heavyweight?
By Luke Ryan
The Boston Bruins will get a truer idea of where they stand within the Atlantic Division by the end of this week.
In their next three games, the Boston Bruins will first face the Tampa Bay Lightning and then the Toronto Maple Leafs (twice). Despite the current standing of the Buffalo Sabres, it’s fair to say these are the two true power-houses of the Atlantic Division.
To be able to pit ourselves against these two teams this early in the year will be a great way to measure where we truly stand.
If we’re out-skilled and out-matched, we know that the Boston Bruins will have a bit of work on their hands to ensure a play-off spot and then (hopefully) advancing past their divisional rivals (again).
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On the flip of that, if the Boston Bruins can come into these fixtures, control play and generally hang with the Lightning and Leafs, then it’s safe to say that making last year’s Stanley Cup Final was no fluke and that we had a chance regardless of a bit of a lucky run of opponents en-route.
We know the Boston Bruins’ first-line is already firing all cylinders, with David Pastrnak‘s MVP performance on Monday the latest feather in their cap.
Beyond that, we have also seen arguably the best goaltending duo in the entire league taking turns in the net game-by-game and still having the same result. Both Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak have a shut-out to their name and have been integral to the five wins so far.
Perhaps the scarier of the two fixtures is the one versus Tampa, who themselves have had a slightly slow start but managed to light up the Leafs 7-3 with Brayden Point returning to action. Between him, Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos and Viktor Hedman, they’re a team that can definitely create some real trouble for Boston.
In fact, last season they netted 15 goals on us across the four fixtures, also taking the win three times out of four. With relatively little significant summer turnover, they’re dangerous though there are cracks in the armor as evidenced by their 73.9% penalty-killing percentage.
If the Boston Bruins can get their power-play units rolling against them, they’re in with a chance.
Toronto, meanwhile, were our opponents on eleven occasions last season, with a further eleven match-ups the year before, courtesy of the NHL playoff bracket format.
Their roster saw significant changes this summer with the departures of Nazem Kadri, Connor Brown, Patrick Marleau and Nikita Zaitsev to name a few. In their place arrived the likes of Alexander Kerfoot, Jason Spezza and Ilya Mikhayev.
Whether these changes prove the difference-maker is hard to tell, but their core group has already started to pick up some decent form; Morgan Reilly has nine assists from the blue-line, Mitch Marner is also on nine points and Auston Matthews is a goal-per-game with 7 from 7.
Given we see them twice in the space of four days, safe to say this one could get feisty. That’s where we can use our physicality to make a difference.
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Whatever happens, the next week will give us an idea of whether we’re taking the whole Atlantic Division or whether we’re going to have to settle for second once more. Maybe even third?