After 27 games, the Boston Bruins are 15-12-0 and are currently in second place in the Atlantic Division, let's review some preseason predictions.
First Article Prediction: Bruins lack talent and miss the playoffs
Back in July, I took a look back at the Bruins' seasons in their first year with a new coach. At the end of that article, I made a few predictions:
1. Jeremy Swayman will have a major comeback
I'm taking this one as a win. Swayman has looked absolutely stellar in net this season, with a record of 11-6-0, a GAA of 2.62, and a SV% of .915. He's tied for 2nd in wins and is 5th in SV% (min 10 games). If the Bruins don't make the playoffs, it likely won't be his fault.
2. The Bruins will lack scoring outside of Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak
Morgan Geekie is on an absolute tear right now, tied for the league lead in goals (20). Pastrnak's goal production is considerably less than Geekie's at 11, but he leads the Bruins with 29 points. The next closest goal scorer is Viktor Arvidsson with just 6. Pavel Zacha is putting up a good number of points right now as a distributor, but this team has gone 9 straight games without scoring more than 3 goals. With Pastrnak out and the defense falling apart from a health perspective, relying solely on Geekie to score just isn't going to cut it. I'm marking this down as another accurate prediction.
3. If Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy can't stay healthy, it could get ugly
Another accurate prediction. The Bruins are now 3-4 since Charlie McAvoy took a puck to the face against Montreal, and the defense has looked shaky at best. We'll go more in-depth on Lindholm later in this article, but it's been clear that the Bruins need the two of them to be healthy if they have any hope for a successful season.
4. Final record of 28-45-9, last in the Eastern Conference, missing playoffs
A third of the way through the season, the B's already have more than half of my predicted total wins. At the writing of this article, they sit in 2nd in the Atlantic, 6th in the conference, and 12th in the league. Mark this one down as half wrong. The Bruins will definitely finish the season with at least 30 wins, and I'd hazard a guess and say that number ends up being closer to 40. While the Bruins are in playoff position right now and were at the all-important milestone of Thanksgiving, there are three teams in the division within 2 points, and every team behind them in the Eastern Conference has games in hand other than the New York Rangers. With the standings changing every day, I'm not going to call missing the playoffs a failed prediction, but I'm not going to call it accurate either.
Second Article Prediction: The most important player this season is Hampus Lindholm
I would say this prediction was nearly dead on. I made this claim back on September 30th, and while I'd argue the most impactful player so far is Morgan Geekie, the B's look way better with Lindholm in the lineup than they do without him. Last season, the Bruins were 8-7-2 with Lindholm. This season, they are 13-6-0 with him and 2-6-0 without him.
That point percentage would have them as the 3rd best team in the league. I don't think we're going to be getting 2022-23 levels of offense out of him, but he is blocking shots at his highest rate since the 2018-19 season. Once McAvoy is back to help him out, the only thing slowing down this Bruins team will be keeping the rest of the roster healthy.