Who would be Bruins' toughest first-round opponent?
The Bruins tied the NHL’s single-season wins record Saturday night, beating the New Jersey Devils 2-1 at TD Garden behind a pair of goals from Pavel Zacha.
The Bruins improved to 62-12-5, joining the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning as the only teams in NHL history to win 62 games in a season. Boston still has three regular-season games remaining to break the record.
The Bruins came out flying Saturday night, landing 22 shots on goal in the first period. Brad Marchand drew a penalty 1:04 into the game, and that set up Zacha’s first goal. Some great puck movement and a shot mentality -- two things the Bruins’ power play hasn’t had enough of recently -- eventually ended with Zacha tipping in a Hampus Lindholm shot from the point.
Fewer than three minutes later, Zacha struck again. Tyler Bertuzzi made a great transition pass up to Zacha, who then set up David Pastrnak for a one-timer off the rush. That shot went wide, but Zacha was in perfect position to bang in the rebound off the end boards. The former Devil now has his first career 20-goal season and is up to 55 points on the year, 19 over his previous career high.
The Devils did cut the lead to 2-1 shortly after that, with the speed of Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt catching Boston in transition and setting up a breakaway goal for Bratt.
Linus Ullmark prevented the Devils from tying the game early in the second, making three huge saves in quick succession by denying Hughes on a breakaway, turning away Hughes’ rebound bid, and then stopping a point-blank chance from Yegor Sharangovich.
Taylor Hall returned to the Boston lineup for the game, playing his first game since suffering a lower-body injury on Feb. 25. He was third on the team with four shots on goal and had an especially great look late in the second period, only to partially whiff on the shot.
The Bruins activated Hall off long-term injured reserve earlier in the day, moving Nick Foligno and Derek Forbort to LTIR to open up the cap space needed for Hall. Neither Foligno nor Forbort are expected to be ready to return before the start of the playoffs.
Another encouraging sign for the Bruins was the play of Marchand. While his goalless drought did reach 15 games, Marchand was all over the place and was aggressive on the attack. He had five shots on goal in the first period alone, matching his total from the previous three games combined. He also drew the penalty that set up Zacha’s power-play goal.
With the win, the Bruins sweep the season series against New Jersey. They also prevented the Devils from leapfrogging the Carolina Hurricanes into first place in the Metropolitan Division.
“Any time you’re talking about putting your team’s name and putting our spoked B in the history books for most wins ever in the regular season, it’s special,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said of the wins record. “Collectively, I think what’s made this season special is how hard our guys play for each other. So, I think this record is reflective of -- if you think of the word team, I think we describe the word team the way we’ve played this regular season.”
The Bruins now have 129 points on the season, which is tied for the third-most all time. With a maximum of six points remaining on the schedule, they’re three away from tying the record of 132 held by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens and four from breaking it.
While that Habs team did go on to win the Stanley Cup that season, the two teams the Bruins are now tied with at 62 wins hold the unenviable label of being arguably the two best teams to not win the Cup. The 1995-96 Red Wings lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals, while the 2018-19 Lightning got swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round in one of the most shocking upsets in NHL history. Both the Wings and Lightning did go on to win back-to-back Cups in the two years after those playoff failures, though.
Obviously, the Bruins will be hoping to make more like the 1976-77 Canadiens than those Detroit and Tampa teams, especially since they may not have a next year or a year after to run it back with this core depending on what Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci decide to do in the offseason.
While their clear priority remains that ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup, the regular-season records have given the Bruins something to play for down the stretch in games that otherwise would have been meaningless. That could pay off with a more dialed-in game come next week, rather than one that has fallen off.
“Our team is pretty grounded,” Hall said after the game. “We know what the ultimate goal is, but being able to chase history has made these games meaningful, and it’s made us have to dial in maybe more than we would’ve if we were at 57 wins. It’s a great chance for us.”
The Bruins will cap off their fifth consecutive weekend back-to-back on Sunday in Philadelphia before closing out the regular season with games against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday and Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
For more Bruins coverage, tune in to Sunday Skate with Andrew Raycroft and Scott McLaughlin at 10 a.m. on WEEI 93.7 FM, the Audacy app, or by listening online below: