Well look who’s on top now, the Boston Bruins.
For the second consecutive season in the Northeast division, a surprise team has flown off to a hot start and placed themselves at the top of the division, overtaking the Montreal Canadiens—the favorites in the Northeast heading into this season—for first place in the division and second place in the conference.
But how have the Bruins done it? Going up against skill teams like the Canadiens, high-scoring teams like the Buffalo Sabres, and hard-working teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Bruins haven’t had an easy task throughout the first two months of the season, but they’ve adapted to whatever style they’ve been faced with.
For the most part, there isn’t really an overly-impressive aspect of this team. While they do have the number-nine ranked powerplay in the league (20.3%), their penalty killing is pretty average—actually exactly middle-of-the-road—coming in at fifteenth at 81.8%.
Wait, a team that’s winning without special teams prominence?
Sidenote: Want proof? Nine of the 14 teams ahead of the Bruins in Penalty Kill percentage are currently playoff-bound while the Philadelphia Flyers are on the cusp, tied with New Jersey for eighth in the East.
Five of the eight teams ahead of the Bruins in Power Play percentage are in the playoffs as well, with both Philadelphia (again) and Toronto tied for the 8th and final spot. While the Power Play proficiency is great, it’s interesting to see the Bruins just out of first in the conference with a fifteenth ranked penalty kill.
For the Bruins, it’s been classic bangin’, crashin’, smash mouth hockey, with some old-time scoring flair. As it stands, the Bruins are one of 12 teams in the NHL to average 3 or more goals per game, putting themselves in NHL elitist company including the Detroit Red Wings, San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Washington Capitals—those four are some pretty vaunted offensive attacks based on namesakes alone,
While the Bruins have begun developing a scoring attack based around the play-making of Marc Savard (15 assists and 21 points in 18 games) and Phil Kessel’s finishing ability (8 goals in 18 games), there’s something you may not know about them.
They’ve put up the second-lowest goals-allowed per game average in the NHL, right behind the stingy Minnesota Wild. That’s right…the Boston Bruins are second in that.
Not too bad for a team who allowed .11 more goals per game than they scored eh?
As the Bruins have locked in defensively (The Bruins and the San Jose Sharks have the fewest players with minus ratings on their team in the NHL with three each) and have shored up their play in their own end, they’ve also been working on nailing the tangibles of hockey.
As it stands, the Bruins sit sixth in the NHL in faceoff percentage at 52.4%, nearly a full 3% better than they were last season. They’ve also averaged the eighth-most shots in the NHL per game at 31.2, and with a total of 561 shots, they’ve scored on 9% of them.
While they’ve allowed about the same amount of shots (31.6 per game, good for 24th in the league), they also have their secret weapon tending the twine for them: Tim Thomas.
Coming in to the season, I wasn’t convinced that a 34-year old with only 177 games of NHL experience could be anything but a tandem goalie. Fortunately enough, the Bruins had the perfect tandem goalie to form the second part of this duo in Manny Fernandez.
As the season kicked off however, Thomas and his unpredictable style began to take over, proving that some of those stat lines from the past few seasons (a 2.44 goals-against average in 2007/08 and a 30-win 2006/07) may not have been flukes for the late-bloomer.
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about 1 month ago
I said at the very beginning of the season that the Bruins are going to be the team that outworks you every night. And most of the time, the hardest working team is the one that is going to win. And what do you know, they're winning. Great job, BT, nice recap of their season and success so far!
about 1 month ago
Nice assessment, Bryan. The records for both the Bruins and Sharks are not an aberration. Of course, there's a whole lot of hockey left. Tim Thomas has been a savior so far. Is it proper for the announcer to say "Glove savior by Thomas?" (Maybe not proper, but accurate.)
about 1 month ago
Nice re-cap Bryan.
The Bruins have put it together nicely. Phil Kessel is turning into a real solid NHL Player. The new guys are really starting to come together.
Tim Thomas and for that matter, Manny Fernandez are doing the job real well right now.
It is funny when they do get a lead and head into the third, you can almost feel that they are not confident on the ice. Tim Thomas said the best defense in the third is their offense. They need to keep attacking in the third like they do in the first.
I think one of the biggest contributors this season has been the play of Andrew Ferrence. He makes the defense play a but more offensively. Now that he is hurt you really see his worth.
Still a long way to go and if they can take each game as their last, they should have a solid spot in the playoffs.
about 1 month ago
You're welcome, Bruins fans.
about 1 month ago
Nice piece BT. I'm loving the play of Tim Thomas as he is one of my fantasy goaltenders. Bergeron does have to get it going though. He may not be 100% still.
about 1 month ago
A point about the PK - you might call it "average" based on season statistics, but when you look more closely, you can see that the Bruins had the worst PK in the NHL after the first few games of the season and have steadily improved, working their way up the statistical ladder to the middle of the pack. I believe that in their last 30 or so PK situations, they have allowed only one or two goals, an astounding success rate.
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