The Boston Bruins found themselves atop the Eastern Conference heading into the All-Star break. It’s a feat that was widely unexpected due to losing players over the summer who were integral to their record-breaking 2022-23 season.
League-wide, the Bruins are tied with the Vancouver Canucks with 71 points. In their own division, as of Monday morning (Feb. 5), the Bruins find themselves ahead of the Florida Panthers with 66 points, the Tampa Bay Lightning with 59, and both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings with 58. The Maple Leafs have played 47 games, two to three fewer games than all of their aforementioned opponents.
Here’s a look at the Bruins’ biggest competition for the Atlantic Division crown this season.
Florida Panthers
The standings tell you the Florida Panthers are Boston’s biggest division threat at the moment. It doesn’t come as a surprise, with the Cats having made their way to the Stanley Cup Final last season – going through Boston (it still stings).
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, at age 35, is having an up year. His 2.51 goals-against average (GAA) in 36 appearances thus far is the best since he turned 30 and his .910 save percentage (SV%) is an improvement over last season. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner, even in the later stages of his career, is a netminder you can never sleep on.
Sam Reinhart leads the team in scoring with 37 goals and 25 assists for 62 points. Following him is Matthew Tkachuk with 51 points, Carter Verhaeghe with 50, and Aleksander Barkov with 48. I’m not a huge fan of judging a player by their plus/minus stats, but Gustav Forsling is a plus-31, nearly double the plus/minus of the next Panthers, Barkov and Aaron Ekblad.
It’s very possible the Bruins and Panthers could be jockeying for the lead toward the end of the season. There is little room for error to clinch the home-ice advantage through the first three playoff rounds.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Bolts are, well, the Bolts.
Tampa Bay’s (aloof) All-Star, Nikita Kucherov, leads the league with 85 points and ranks fourth in goals with 32. As for his teammates, Brayden Point has tallied 25 goals and 29 assists for 54 points, followed by defenseman Victor Hedman with 50 points. Steven Stamkos, at age 33, has notched 21 goals and 26 assists.
Andrei Vasilevskiy was out due to back surgery to begin the season until Nov. 25 when Tampa registered a 8-2 win. His .899 SV% and 2.85 GAA in 26 starts are both the worst of his career, but he has the ability to raise those stats by the end of the season – and, no matter what the stats say, he’s still in many spectators’ eyes a top-tier netminder in the league.
The Lightning are always a thorn in the Bruins’ side and, no matter where the teams are in their storylines, statistics, and final rankings in the standings, the Bolts challenge the B’s in postseason clashes.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Then, there’s the rival Maple Leafs.
Auston Matthews has 40 goals in 46 games and William Nylander has registered 61 points. Mitch Marner has potted 20 goals and added 33 assists for 53 points, while Morgan Rielly has notched 40 points and John Tavares as notched 35. Former-Bruin Tyler Bertuzzi ranks seventh on the team with points, with six goals and 14 assists for 20 points so far this season.
The Leafs’ situation at goaltending has been (seemingly, as always) interesting. They signed 34-year-old Martin Jones (then 33, happy belated birthday) to a one-year $875,000 contract in August. Jones, a former Bruin (at least for a few heartbeats) didn’t see the ice until Dec. 7 and has since become the Leafs’ undisputed starter. His .911 SV% and 2.64 GAA in 17 games are his best since the 2017-18 season.
While he’s only earned one win in his past five games, Jones proved he’s capable with a four-game winning streak, including back-to-back starts against the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks on the road, where he saved 58 of 59 shots.
Ilya Samsonov has made 19 starts this season, with an underwhelming .878 SV% and 3.36 GAA. Rookie Joseph Woll, a former Boston College Eagle, has done well with a .916 SV% and 2.80 GAA in 15 appearances but is currently out with injury.
Detroit Red Wings
For a while now, I’ve been hoping the Red Wings would make their way toward the top of the Atlantic Division. An original-six rivalry could be ignited with some playoff run-ins with Boston or Toronto (or the Montreal Canadiens, but they’re currently seventh in the division with a 20-21-8 record and 48 points).
Alas, the Wings haven’t made the postseason since the 2015-16 campaign. They’ve only made the playoffs twice since the Atlantic Division was formed, and they haven’t finished above fifth in the division since the 2017-18 season.
However, currently tied for fourth with the Leafs (who have three games in hand), there isn’t too much in their rearview mirror to worry about at the moment, at least within the division, ahead of Montreal and the Buffalo Sabres by 10 points. If the season ended today (Feb. 5), they’d have the second Eatern Conference wild-card spot and be up against the Bruins in the first round.
Dylan Larkin leads the team with 23 goals and 24 assists for 47 points in 44 games. Appearing in 50 games each, Alex DeBrincat trails with 43 points, Luca Raymond with 41 and Daniel Sprong with 32. Headline-dominating signing Patrick Kane was placed on injured reserve on Jan. 14 while netminder Ville Husso has been dealing with an injury over the All-Star Break. However, Alex Lyon leads the team’s backstops with a .922 SV% and 2.51 GAA and a 13-6-2 record.
Leading the East
Atop the Eastern Conference, and tied for first in the NHL, Boston (needless to say) is in a prime position to finish with home-ice advantage throughout much, if not all, of the postseason. While the five-point lead against the Panthers is slim with more than 30 games to go, making the playoffs feels like it’s completely in Boston’s hands at the moment.
Meanwhile, losing home-ice advantage in the first round would take a serious lapse in consistency. The Bruins have their stars firing on all cylinders, a great duo in net, and young players stepping up left and right. Depth scoring, an issue in seasons past, has arrived. A trade deadline addition could bolster their ranks on their way to another tremendous regular season.
Come playoffs, however, (as Bruins fans know well) it’s anybody’s game.
