Maybe we are taking some of it for granted.
With three games to go in the 2023-2024 regular season, there’s still plenty to be decided for the Boston Bruins.
Who will they play in the first round? Will they have any more playoff success than last year? Who’s going to step up when the lights get brighter?
We’ll have plenty of time to dissect and discuss what’s hopefully a long playoff run — but with a brief interlude between games this week, now seems like a decent time to soak it all in.
Namely, that none of us expected this, and that we might all be taking it for granted just a little bit (or maybe I’m just speaking for myself).
A run of results that will be hard to replicate
Since the start of last regular season, the Bruins have won 111 of their last 161 regular season games.
If you look at points, there have been 322 points there for the taking over that span; the Bruins have earned 242 of them.
“Big deal,” you say angrily, channeling bitterness from other aspects of your life. “They haven’t won shit.”
And while that’s a very poor outlook to have on life in general, you’re not wrong. Last year’s team was historic, but ultimately failed — that’s the end of that.
One hell of a “down year”
It’s more this season where it starts to get a bit silly and where the appreciation kicks in: the Bruins simply weren’t supposed to be good, let alone as good as they have been.
There are plenty who will say “not me, I knew they’d still be contending for the Presidents’ Trophy!”
But that really isn’t the case. This was supposed to be the year Toronto takes over, Ottawa and Buffalo grow up, and the Bruins fight for scraps.
Going back and reading some preseason comments from this website, which features the smartest commenters in the universe, unearths some pretty reasonable takes at the time:
- “This season is a write-off.”
- “I’d be happy with them hanging around the wild card race.”
- “There are four or five teams better than them in the East, and the gap is pretty significant.”
- “Maybe they’ll make the playoffs.”
To be clear, this isn’t meant to criticize anyone for not having a crystal ball — I didn’t think the Bruins would be a first-place team on April 12, 2024 either.
Instead, it’s meant to highlight just how ridiculous (to be frank) this season has been to this point.
After the crash-and-burn end to last season, the Bruins lost Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Dmitry Orlov, among a few others.
Those guys were replaced with Morgan Geekie, Jesper Boqvist, James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Parker Wotherspoon (who?!), plus a few additional depth signings.
The mythical “trade for a top-2 center” never came. Bergeron didn’t un-retire. Fabian Lysell didn’t take the next step. Matt Poitras showed flashes then got hurt.
And yet…the Bruins have kept on truckin’.
Players stepping up across the board
Charlie Coyle, thrust into a bigger role, is having a career year. Pavel Zacha will have a career year with two more points (and his previous best year was last year), which you’d expect him to get between now and Tuesday night.
Danton Heinen has been a winning lottery ticket. Trent Frederic is having (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) a career year.
Hampus Lindholm has steadied himself. Wotherspoon has been a gem of a find. The goalies remain outstanding, if not elite.
Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak continue to exceed expectations, which is surprising given how much is expected of each.
The list goes on.
It’s not like the Bruins are riding some out-of-this-world heater either, floating in a bubble that’s bound to pop.
Their team shooting percentage is 11%, just 0.8% above the league average. Their team PDO is a shade over 102, which isn’t crazy.
They have the league’s fifth-best defense, even if their offense (11th) and power play (13th) have sputtered a bit.
Management deserves credit too
The players win or lose the games, but Jim Montgomery and his staff deserve credit too, as does Don Sweeney.
While Montgomery has a tendency to mix up his lines until we’re all dizzy, there’s no denying that he has gotten a lot of juice out of this group.
The coaching job this year is arguably more impressive than last year’s record-breaking season, considering the pieces at his disposal.
Sweeney, too, has worked wonders with his own tools (though it’s fair to note that the cap crunch he’s facing is his own doing).
I’m sure I wasn’t alone in scoffing a bit at the eye-raising bargain shopping on and after July 1, 2023, especially given the team’s (seemingly) glaring needs.
However, Sweeney has hit more than he’s missed: we already covered Heinen and Wotherspoon, but even guys like Geekie and Boqvist have filled their roles nicely.
What is the point of all of this?
Good question! I guess I’m just using my platform to force you all to see me wax poetically about a season that has exceeded my expectations.
After all, if you don’t force people to read your ramblings, what’s the point in running a website?
This team hasn’t won anything. It hasn’t improved on last year’s results. It still faces a first-round playoff match-up that may have it as the underdog.
Given the results to this point, fans will be expecting some kind of playoff run.
It’d be perfectly “sports” for this team to somehow run to the Stanley Cup Final after the historically good team flopped in the first round, but I guess we’ll see.
Going into this season with lower expectations doesn’t necessarily mean that there are no expectations of this team now.
To me, this year just has a had a different feel to it. Saying it’s been more “fun” probably isn’t fair, but more surprising? More intriguing?
Maybe the “surprise” aspect is what makes it a different kind of fun. It’s like reaching into your coat pocket to grab a dollar and pulling out a twenty.
After all, it was supposed to be a bridge year, right?
Maybe the bridge can put off next year for a while longer.