For the small however vocal subset of Bruins followers who had been hoping their crew tanked this season and joined the chase for prime prospects Gavin McKenna or Keaton Verhoeff, we’ve got some heartbreaking information for you.
The Bruins would possibly truly be fairly good.
Don’t get me flawed. It could be smart to carry again a bit of your coronary heart earlier than throwing all of it on the bandwagon.
Each recreation on this present seven-game win streak that has them at 11-7 has been a battle – even Tuesday’s 5-3 win over Toronto when the Maple Leafs regarded disinterested to start out after which misplaced Auston Matthews in the course of the sport. Three of their seven wins have gone to further time. They’re about to embark on considered one of their hardest stretches of the season – highway video games in Ottawa on Thursday and Montreal on Saturday, a house contest in opposition to Carolina on Monday after which a four-game roadie in opposition to the three very robust California groups earlier than ending up with a recreation on Lengthy Island on Thanksgiving eve.
And right here’s another cautionary story. The Buffalo Sabres, mired in a 14-year playoff drought, as soon as ripped off a 10-game win streak in November 2018. Then they went proper again to being the Sabres.
However with all these Nervous Nelly {qualifications} being identified, it’s exhausting to not suppose this Bruins crew can be very a lot in playoff competition all season lengthy.
There are a number of causes for this. However the principle underlying one is competitiveness. The “piss and vinegar” that crew president Cam Neely talked about within the brass’ preseason presser has risen to the highest throughout this present win streak. It was by no means extra evident than on Tuesday on the Backyard. The B’s had overwhelmed the Maple Leafs on Saturday, snapping Toronto’s three-game win streak, after which the Leafs misplaced to Carolina on Sunday. You’d have figured Toronto would no less than begin robust on Tuesday, proper? Improper. They regarded like so many groups who confirmed up on the outdated Backyard years in the past and needed no a part of the bodily opposing crew throughout from them. Sure, the awful goaltending they acquired didn’t assist crew, however the B’s had been throughout them within the early going.
Nikita Zadorov (fourth within the league in hits with 65) has been an absolute handful this season from a bodily standpoint whereas Mark Kastelic, Tanner Jeannot and Sean Kuraly have all introduced their very own types of edge to the desk. And the very best information? It’s spreading. When Toronto’s Bobby McMann caught Hampus Lindholm with a harmful late hit within the third interval, the primary participant into the fray was the B’s present first-line middle, 5-foot-11 Marat Khusnutdinov.
“The good half about our crew proper now’s if one man says one thing from the opposite crew, we’ve got the entire bench standing up,” mentioned coach Marco Sturm on Tuesday. “They will play that recreation, however we can be ready for that, that’s for positive.”
GM Don Sweeney’s prime aim for 2025-26 B’s was to verify they had been not the “simple out” they had been final yr. It seems like that’s completed. What nobody noticed coming, not even Sweeney, was the speed at which they’re scoring objectives. Going into Wednesday’s video games, the B’s had been ranked sixth within the league at 3.39 objectives per recreation.
Zadorov has not solely been the epitome of the Large, Dangerous Bruin, however since being paired with Charlie McAvoy – first within the win over the Colorado Avalanche (the B’s are nonetheless the one crew to notch a regulation win over the Rocky Mountain juggernaut) after which in the beginning of the present win streak – he’s allowed McAvoy to be his greatest self (the turnover on Steven Lorentz shorthanded aim however). Although he’s nonetheless searching for his first aim, McAvoy leads the crew in assists with 14, together with six in his final 4 video games.
Morgan Geekie, who leads the crew in objectives with 11, is exhibiting that his 33-goal season final yr was no fluke. Everybody else is chipping in. McAvoy, Andrew Peeke, Henri Jokiharju are the one regulars nonetheless searching for their first objectives.
However it’s clear that the straw that stirs the drink, as Reggie Jackson would say, is David Pastrnak. That a lot was clear when all the bench emptied to congratulate him on his four-hundredth aim, an awesome milestone however possibly not fairly a stop-the-game type of plateau. Particular gamers convey that out in others.
Pastrnak, who leads the crew in factors (10-12-22), is probably not everybody’s concept of a frontrunner, particularly for a buttoned-down group just like the B’s. He might not all the time be the first-in-last-out type of man on apply days. And he tries issues on the ice that 99 p.c of gamers shouldn’t. Generally, even he shouldn’t. However he has developed since being the goofy, happy-go-lucky child when he entered the league 11 years in the past, with out dropping that exuberance.
“He does it his means,” mentioned Sturm, likening him a bit to Alex Ovechkin. “Undoubtedly not like a (Zdeno) Chara or possibly even (Patrice) Bergeron. So once more, that’s the way in which he’s. And the way in which he’s enjoyable to be round, the fellows really feel it. He tries to remain constructive, and the stuff he does on the ice, that’s on prime of it. In order that’s the place everyone seems to be like ‘Wow, he’s the entire deal.’ So we’re all rooting for him.”
This B’s crew is an extension of Pastrnak – it’s enjoyable.
So, for now no less than, stopping obsessing about what sort of bundle Pavel Zacha may reap on the commerce deadline, all you armchair basic managers. It’s time to benefit from the Bruins’ hockey season that a lot of you didn’t suppose would occur.
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