When the Boston Bruins lost at home on March 24 to the Toronto Maple Leafs, it could have been the beginning of a downward spiral in terms of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
They were facing a daunting schedule of the Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota Wild, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Dallas Stars. It was a mixture of road, home, road, home schedule. That's bizarre for this time of the year. Regardless, who saw what was about to happen coming?
The Black and Gold ripped off four straight wins, two in regulation over the Wild and Stars, an overtime win over the Sabres, and a shootout win over the Blue Jackets. Again, who saw a 4-0-0 stretch coming after a dreadful loss to the Leafs? The recent stretch hasn't gone lost on one NHL writer.
The Boston Bruins are the biggest risers in one NHL writer's recent power rankings
Austin Nivision of CBS Sports released his latest NHL Power Rankings, and the Bruins were his biggest riser, moving up four spots to No. 8.
"Pavel Zacha has played a huge role in this surprising season for the Bruins. The veteran center has set a new career high in goals (28) and tied his career high in points (59). Like the rest of the Bruins, Zach has outperformed underwhelming underlying metrics, but they've all been doing it for 74 games. Why stop now?" Nivision wrote.
If you take a peek at the seven teams ahead of them, six of the seven the Bruins have either split the season series with or won. The only team they have not beaten yet is the Tampa Bay Lightning, against whom they still have two games left in their final seven this season. They did have a 5-1 lead on the Bolts in February in the Stadium Series game, but you remember how that ended, in a 6-5 shootout loss.
Of the seven teams ahead of them, you can make the case that they are all more talented than the Bruins. Not many people, if any, would deny that. However, under Marco Sturm and the system they play, Boston will be a difficult team to deal with in a playoff series. Five of their final seven games are away from the TD Garden, and to get into the postseason, they'll need to continue their recent road success. If they do, they'll make someone's life miserable for at least four games in the playoffs later this month.