Boston Bruins: Positives, negatives, and next steps February edition

With their 4-1 win over the New York Rangers on Sunday, the Boston Bruins officially wrapped up their February schedule with seven wins and four losses.

The Bruins’ performance in February featured many notable moments, including a once in a lifetime game at Lake Tahoe against the Philadelphia Flyers, as well as some disappointing moments like the 7-2 bludgeoning they received at the hands of the New York Islanders.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few of the positives and negatives from the month of February and look ahead at what to get excited about in March.

Positives from the Boston Bruins’ February.

Pastrnak has returned.

The Bruins played the first month of the season without their top winger David Pastrnak. Coming off a season in which he was on pace to eclipse the 50-goal mark, the loss of Pastrnak to start the season was felt throughout the lineup as the team struggled to match the scoring potency that Pastrnak brings.

As Pastrnak has healed and returned to the lineup, he has been on an absolute tear through his first month of the season. Pastrnak led all Bruins skaters in goals (nine), assists (eight), points (17), powerplay points (four), and shots on goal (44), while averaging the second highest time on ice for Bruins’ forwards with 18:51 per game for the month of February.

His return to the lineup has helped boost the Bruins’ goals per game from 2.89 in January to 3.09 in February and has pushed both Patrice Bergeron (3 goals, 8 assists) and Brad Marchand (5 goals, 7 assists) to top form.

With Pastrnak back in the lineup, the Bruins “perfection” line once again looks to be firing on all cylinders and remains one of the toughest matchups in the league

Young defensemen have played well.

Heading into the 2020 offseason, the Bruins had some critical decisions to make regarding the future of their defensive corps. With captain Zdeno Chara and offensive-defenseman Torey Krug set to hit free agency, the Bruins made the decision to let both of them walk and opt to move forward with the young and hungry defensive prospects in their pipeline.

While this decision has certainly been criticized by analysts and experts, the young defensive unit has done everything in its power to prove those naysayers wrong.

Charlie McAvoy has started to blossom into an All-Star caliber defenseman and has taken on a leadership role along the Bruins’ blue line. He led the team with an average time on ice of 23:02 in the month of February and led the offensive charge on the blue line with eight points.

With McAvoy leading the way, the Bruins have ushered in a new era on the blue line as they have seen significant contributions from other young defensive prospects such as Brandon Carlo, Jakub Zboril, Connor Clifton, and Jeremy Lauzon.

As these players continue to contribute and develop their game, the Bruins are hopeful they may have an embarrassment of riches along the blue line.

The Bruins are at the top of the Eastern Division.

This one may be considered a cop out, but it truly is an outstanding feat early in the season.

This year’s East Division is a murderer’s row of competition with three teams that made the conference semifinals last year (Bruins, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers), two teams that have won a Stanley Cup in the past five years (Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals), and two teams that have had the number one overall draft pick in each of the last two years (New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils).

As February wraps up, the Bruins find themselves tied for second place in the East with 26 points and trailing only the Capitals, who have 28 points. Although the Capitals have more points, the Bruins have two games in hand on Washington and are in prime position to overtake the Capitals for first in the division.

With the top five teams in the division currently separated by five points and only the top four teams making the postseason, this division is going to be contentious right down to the wire.

In order for the Bruins to avoid being the odd team out, they’ll need to continue to take care of business the way they did in February.