Boston Bruins: Brutal schedule could make or break this season

As the Boston Bruins gear up to face the Carolina Hurricanes tonight, they’re already onto game 5 of a brutal 19 day stretch featuring 11 games.

So far, it’s been plain sailing for the Boston Bruins, who began the 19 day stretch in Montreal with their emphatic 8-1 win. From there on, it’s been relatively comfortable, with the exception of a spirited display by the New York Rangers, pushing us to overtime.

Looking at the 11 games, the Hurricanes present the first true test for the Boston Bruins, while an upcoming game with the second-placed and equal on points, Washington Capitals looms large on the horizon. As do match-ups with Atlantic Division rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers.

While there are only two back-to-back pairs of games on this run; it did begin with three games in four nights. In fact, the players don’t get more than one day between the games until returning from Florida after a December 14th fixture and not having to face the Los Angeles Kings (in Boston thankfully) until December 17th.

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If we look to the positives, by January 1st, we will be at the halfway point of our season and right now have a comfortable lead in our division. Even if we do come unstuck at some point in the next 6 games of this stretch, we have enough of a buffer not to fall from top spot.

Should the Boston Bruins be able to come out the other side of this with their winning streak intact; well, it’s safe to say, the whole league will have to sit up and take notice – it’d be a true marker that the revenge tour isn’t just a locker-room war cry, it’s the real deal.

With Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak maintaining their elite scoring pace and the secondary scoring finally starting to back them up, especially in light of Patrice Bergeron missing time due to injury, it’s pretty clear to us that it’s real.

Hopefully, this run of games doesn’t add too much wear and tear to our star players bodies though. The last thing we need is for one of them to go down injured in mid-December.

All in all, it’s a brutal bit of scheduling. I’m sure that every team in the league has their own qualms with the way the schedule works out, but this seems almost a little bit ridiculous for the Boston Bruins.

Onwards and upwards though; it’s on the Boston Bruins to make good of a bad situation and push through. That’s what championship teams do best – take the adversity and show it where to go!