Football fans aren’t the only ones who look forward to Thanksgiving Day. Believe it or not, Thanksgiving marks an important day on the hockey schedule as well. Why exactly?
History tells us that Thanksgiving is when we pretty much find out which NHL teams will qualify for the playoffs at the end of the season.
At first glance, this might seem incredibly stupid since most teams have around 60 games left on their schedules. But, the data show that teams usually have playoff spots locked down by now.
In 2018, Sportsnet had a story that looked at the previous five seasons. In those seasons, 62 out of 80 teams that were in the playoffs on Thanksgiving finished in the playoffs at the end of the year. That’s 77.5%!
This held up for the most part in 2019 as well, so we can expect the same this year. Get ready to wake up on Thanksgiving and find out which teams will compete in the postseason.
Bruins lead the Atlantic and look set for the playoffs
Fortunately for all of us, the Boston Bruins are firmly in the playoff picture right now. That’s one thing for which the coach Bruce Cassidy and management can be thankful.
The Bruins currently sit in first place in the Atlantic Division, a spot they held pretty much all season. The way things look now, unless there are some major injuries, this probably won’t change.
Boston started the season on an absolute tear, and they maintained this high-level virtually all year long. The Bruins did hit a bit of a rough patch in November, but that was mild all things consider.
So far, the Bruins have not gone more than two straight games without a point. Even when they lose, they usually pick up at least a point to climb in the standings.
It’s safe to say that the Bruins are one of the top teams in the league, and we should expect them to be among the final group standing.
Boston can certainly thank it’s league-leading offense for that.