It might have been fun to see the Bruins break the 1976-77 Canadiens’ single-season points record in Montreal on Thursday. That won’t happen, though. These Bruins are simply too good. They broke the record a game early, beating the Washington Capitals 5-2 at TD Garden on Tuesday to move to 133 points on the season, one ahead of that legendary Habs team.
With one game to go, there are no regular-season records left for these Bruins to break. They already had the wins record, and are now two clear of any other team in that category as they sit at a ridiculous 64-12-5.
Everything that’s left for the Bruins to prove will come in the playoffs, which are set to begin either Monday or Tuesday. And it’s their performance there that will decide how this Bruins team is ultimately remembered.
Andrew Raycroft talks Bruins' records, Krejci's health
They will have a spot in history no matter what. Owning the wins and points records guarantees that. But if they don’t win the Stanley Cup, it will be the same spot occupied by the two teams who previously held the wins record, the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning. They’ll go down as an all-time great regular-season team that didn’t finish the job in the postseason.
If they do win the Cup, though, they enter a completely different -- and much more welcome -- discussion, and that is the one about the greatest teams in NHL history.
Even with the Bruins now breaking these regular-season records, there seems to be a lot of hesitation when it comes to talking about these Bruins in terms of being an all-time great team. To an extent, that’s understandable. The toughest part of their season is still to come, and they will not be remembered as all-time greats if they come up short.
But the foundation they have set is undeniable. Having a great regular season is part of the all-time great equation. The 2011-12 Los Angeles Kings were a dominant playoff team en route to winning the Stanley Cup, losing just four games in four rounds, but they are not a contender for the all-time great label because they were not nearly as dominant in the regular season and entered the playoffs as an eight-seed.
Back in 2020, Eric Duhatschek, Scott Burnside and Sean McIndoe of The Athletic all ranked that 1976-77 Habs as the “most dominant” team of the last 50 years, not just because they went 12-2 in the playoffs, including sweeping the Bruins in the Cup Final, but also because they were so dominant in the regular season.
In 2017, an NHL.com poll of fans had that Montreal team third, with the 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers and 1991-92 Pittsburgh Penguins ahead of them. That probably just shows the flaw in fan votes more than anything. The 1983-84 Oilers, who ended the New York Islanders’ dynasty in five games in the Cup Final, are the ones who are generally considered the best of those 1980s Edmonton teams. The 1992-93 Penguins were better than the 91-92 team by virtually every metric, except they didn’t win the Cup.
There are and will continue to be those who argue that no matter what the Bruins’ record is, and even if they do go on to win the Cup, they do not belong in the same conversation as the 76-77 Habs. That instinct is understandable.
That Canadiens team had nine Hall of Famers and dominated in the playoffs even with one of them (Yvan Cournoyer) out injured. And yes, they would have had more than 60 wins and 132 points if the NHL had overtime and/or shootouts back then that would have allowed them to convert some of their 12 ties into wins.
But that Canadiens team also got to play in an era that had no salary cap and near-constant expansion, with the NHL going from six teams in 1966-67 to 18 by 1974-75 (and eventually to 21 by 1979-80). Some of those expansion franchises were awful for many years, and still rank among some of the worst teams in NHL history. Several had to relocate once or twice. One (the Cleveland Barons, formerly the California Golden Seals) had to merge with another (the Minnesota North Stars).
The combination of no salary cap and fledgling franchises led to a massive disparity between the best and worst teams. In that 1976-77 season for instance, five teams had more than 100 points in the regular season. Of the remaining 13 teams, none had more than 83. Seven teams, or 39% of the league, had points percentages of .400 or worse.
The addition of the salary cap after the 2004-05 lockout and greater franchise stability in a now-32-team league has created significantly more parity. This year, for instance, only four teams, or 12.5% of the league, have a points percentage of .400 or worse.
Teams in the salary cap era aren’t supposed to dominate the way the Bruins have this season, and in fact, none have. Going beyond the wins and points, the Bruins are the only team from the cap era that ranks among the top 20 teams in goal differential since 1967. This year’s Anaheim Ducks are the only cap era team to rank in the bottom 20 during that time. Most of the teams on the latter list are expansion franchises in their early years; most of the teams on the former got to beat up on them.
It would be nearly impossible to accumulate nine Hall of Famers in today’s NHL. Talent is too evenly spread out across the league. The 2001-02 Red Wings were the last team to do something like that, and they were able to buy several of them who were in their 30s or 40s -- Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, Chris Chelios, Dominik Hasek -- because there was no salary cap. Their $64 million payroll was $7 million more than any other team that season, and $27 million more than the league average.
In that sense, perhaps the Bruins can’t be “greater” than the 76-77 Canadiens or 83-84 Oilers or even those 01-02 Wings, no matter what they do this postseason. They simply don’t have that many Hall of Famers. Patrice Bergeron is a lock. Brad Marchand should get in. David Pastrnak is well on his way. Charlie McAvoy could have a shot. Taylor Hall might have a case. David Krejci has an uphill battle. So, even generously, we’re talking about maybe five.
Adjusted for era, though, you can certainly make the argument that this is the most impressive regular season in NHL history. The rest of the debate about where this Bruins team ranks among the greats can be had after the postseason.
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