Bruins: What the Atlantic looks like through first two weeks
Believe it or not Boston Bruins fans, but the NHL season is already two weeks old.
While the Bruins have only played four games thus far, plenty of other teams already have five or six games done in their season. In fact, looking at the Atlantic Division, the Bruins are the only team to not play five games yet.
If you’ve checked out the standings, you’ll be pretty surprised to see who is close to the top. I’ll give you a hint – it’s two teams that were expected to be at the bottom of the barrel. As mentioned, it’s super early in the season, but there have been some shocking starts to the years for a few squads in the division.
Even so, there has been enough hockey to get a feel where each team is at to start the season. So let’s take our first dive into the division and see how the rest of the Atlantic foes have played to begin the year.
Florida Panthers (5-0-0, 10 points)
The Panthers got rolling last year and everyone waited for them to fall off. It never happened and Florida has picked up right where it left off last season, ripping off five straight wins to start the season. It’s not against chumps either – the team has wins over the Penguins, Islanders, Lightning, Avalanche and Flyers.
The offense is humming for the Panthers, who have scored at least four goals in every game. They’ve outscored their opponents 23-9 so far. Jonathan Huberdeau continues to be one of the most underrated forwards in the league, leading the way with six points. Anton Lundell is going to be a sneaky Calder Trophy candidate with five points already. Sam Bennett fits in perfectly on this team, with a team-high four goals. Oh, and both Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight have sub-2.00 GAA and SV% above .940. Everything is clicking early for the Cats.
Buffalo Sabres (3-1-1, seven points)
A likely misleading start, but this is not at all the Sabres team people expected. Everyone thought they would roll over and just get slaughtered all year. Nope, this team is here to compete and they won’t make any game easy.
You look at their wins and they are against the Canadiens, Coyotes and Canucks. Not exactly top contenders. The Bruins beat them, as well as the Devils. Again, not a team that will be competing by the end, but credit where credit is due, Don Granato has this team playing competitive hockey and Buffalo won’t be a complete joke like most thought.
(If you do want a chuckle, Colin Miller leads this team in points and Zemgus Girgensons and Kyle Okposo are in a tie with Victor Olofsson for second. Who would have guessed?!)
Detroit Red Wings (3-2-1, seven points)
Another one of the more misleading teams, but the Red Wings have had flashes where they look real good, especially their youngsters. Lucas Raymond is fresh off of a hat trick, the first Red Wings player 19 or younger to score a hat trick since Steve Yzerman in 1985 and just the third player that age or younger to score four points in a game, joining Yzerman and Gordie Howe. He is first among rookies in scoring (seven points) and behind him is fellow Red Wing Moritz Seider (five).
Detroit has wins over the Canucks, Blue Jackets and Blackhawks, so not exactly extremely impressive. They also got beat up pretty good by the Canadians 6-1 for the Habs lone win. With the Capitals, Panthers and Maple Leafs up next, this team will fall before October is over, but it’ll be fun to follow Raymond and Seider.
Boston Bruins (3-1-0, six points)
I won’t dive into the Bruins as much, but they’ve looked about as good as expected. The top line is leading the way, as Brad Marchand has seven points and David Pastrnak has five. Linus Ullmark has looked a lot better in net than in the preseason and while Jeremy Swayman struggled last time out, you get the feeling that was an outlier that was inevitable.
The Bruins do have an extremely tough and telling stretch to end October with two games against the Panthers and one against the Hurricanes in a four-day stretch. I would say it’s their first true tests of the season to gauge where they are at in comparison to the other top teams in the league.
Tampa Bay Lightning (2-2-1, five points)
The Lightning certainly have not looked like the dangerous team we’re used to seeing that won back-to-back Cups. Granted the losses have come to the Penguins, Panthers and Avalanche, but still, it hasn’t been pretty. Losing Nikita Kucherov will hurt. No, you will not find a corny LTIR joke here, it’s not on purpose, this team will actually feel the effects of his absence.
On a positive note, it’s been nice seeing Steven Stamkos get back to form with nine points in five games. And Victor Hedman (seven assists) is looking more and more like the top defenseman in the league we were used to seeing before last season. More than likely, the Lightning get rid of the championship hangover and find their footing, but they will have to navigate through this without their top player.
Toronto Maple Leafs (2-3-1, five points)
Tough goings for the Maple Leafs early on. They have now lost three on a row, with their most recent defeat coming in the form of a slaughter from the Penguins 7-1. To make matters worse, Pittsburgh was without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Oh yes, and Kris Letang. And Bryan Rust. And Jeff Carter. You get the point.
Auston Matthew does not have a point in three games played. Mitch Marner has not scored in six. Only three players have more than one goal – William Nylander, Michael Bunting and Jason Spezza, who leads the team with three. The only wins have come against the Canadiens and the Senators. Yeah, things don’t look great in Toronto right now and Maple Leaf fans will definitely, absolutely, 100% be rationale about this start.
Ottawa Senators (2-3-0, four points)
The Senators only know how to play close games. Four of their five matches to start have been one-goal affairs. The other was a two-goal game. Similar to last season, they’re not going to win a ton, but they’re going to be a gritty, annoying team to play with Brady Tkachuk leading the way.
Injuries have been the big story so far (now that the Tkachuk contract standoff is over). Matt Murray is going on the IR after starting just one game and Shane Pinto is expected to be out one-to-two weeks. Anton Forsberg will take over as the starter for Murray. The Sens will continue to rely on their youth to keep them in games, but expect more of the same from what we’ve seen so far.
Montreal Canadiens (1-5-0, two points)
Maybe losing Shea Weber, Philip Danault, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and then Carey Price does make a difference. I don’t think people expected the Canadiens to be good, but did we expect them to be this bad?
After scoring just four goals in the first five games, which were all losses, the offense finally came alive for the first victory in the 6-1 beating of the Red Wings. But the offense is still a major concern. Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield each have just one assist a piece. Brendan Gallagher and Jeff Petry are pointless. Jonathan Drouin leads the team with five points and has been a feel-good story to start the season, but outside of that, the Habs are in trouble.
Next. Recap: Marchand stays hot as Bruins take down Sharks 4-3. dark
Every two weeks, I’ll be going through the division and looking how each team is doing. So far, the Bruins are in a good spot and would be higher if the NHL actually you know, scheduled them the same as they did every one else.