Boston Bruins: On target for a record-breaking season through 11 games
By Luke Ryan
The Boston Bruins, in their first eleven games this season, have for the most part, absolutely dominated anyone that they’ve faced.
Even in their over-time loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Boston Bruins were clearly the dominant side. Likewise, they took the Tampa Bay Lightning to a shoot-out and were a little unlucky against the Colorado Avalanche, forcing their goaltender Philipp Grubauer to make 39 saves on the night.
This dominance is, of course, headlined by the elite scoring of David Pastrnak, whose 5 assists against the New York Rangers on Sunday placed him in sole possession of the NHL scoring lead on 23 points through 11 games. If he continues at that pace, we’re talking 171 points for the season.
The only names around that sort of territory, in terms of points across a whole season, are Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. With those two, we’re talking a very different era of hockey; granted, we’re early in the year, but to be mentioned in the same breath 13% of the way through the season is still impressive nonetheless.
Even if his pace falls away, you’d still be expecting Pastrnak to smash through the 100 points in a season barrier for the first time in his Boston Bruins career.
Even more remarkable is the fact that if he continues scoring goals at his current rate, we’ll see the first player with more than 60 goals since Steven Stamkos achieved that feat in the 2011-12 season. His current pace would place him fifth all-time in terms of goals scored in a season.
Moving on from Pastrnak, his line-mate Brad Marchand is scoring points at a pace nearly as impressive. His 20 points through 11 games puts him on pace for 149 points across the season; again, factoring in that they have to slow down at some point (surely), you’d put relatively safe money on Marchand making it a second consecutive 100-point season for himself.
The pair together are as elite as a duo as any two-some in recent years, though may somehow still find themselves trumped in this season; Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl average nearly three minutes per game more than the Boston Bruins’ pair and thus will simply have more opportunity to score.
Whether they can maintain 23 minutes per game is another question; Pastrnak and Marchand’s 18:34 and 19:50 seem far more sustainable minutes – surely the maintaining under 20 minutes per game lends to stronger play, game by game.