The Bruins won again Tuesday night, finishing off a perfect road trip with a 3-0 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago. They’re now 6-0-0, which is tied for the best start to a season in their 100-year history. The only other time Boston opened with an unbeaten streak this long was in 1937.
Matt Poitras scores again as Bruins improve to 6-0-0
You’ll have to excuse some fans if they’re not exactly celebrating the accomplishment, though. They still remember the painful lesson everyone learned last year: Regular-season records mean little if postseason success does not follow.
Fair enough. But the Bruins won’t get a chance to make a deeper playoff run and exorcise last spring’s demons until April. That doesn’t mean that everything that happens between now and then is meaningless.
If you don’t care about the history, fine. Let’s focus on the present, because in the here and now, the Bruins starting strong is actually pretty important.
For starters, there’s what it means for the Bruins’ chances of making the playoffs, which is always the first item teams want to check off their list of goals for the season. While most still expected the Bruins to be a playoff team this season, they certainly weren’t considered a lock given how much they lost over the summer. Add in the fact that there could be more teams in the thick of the playoff race this year (the Red Wings and Flyers, in particular, are off to surprisingly hot starts), and you certainly don’t want to get behind the eight-ball and be forced to chase teams down.
The Bruins are instead banking points and putting an early gap between themselves and some other usual playoff teams who are off to slower starts, like the Lightning (3-2-2), Panthers (3-3-0), Hurricanes (3-4-0) and Penguins (2-4-0).
There is something to be said for the idea that perhaps running away from the league and not fighting for playoff position down the stretch last year did more harm than good. But the Bruins are a long, long ways away from that conversation this year. For now, you would rather be first in the conference than 10th.
Beyond the standings, this fast start is also important because of some of the on-ice developments that are beginning to emerge. At the top of the list is obviously the breakout of 19-year-old center Matt Poitras, who scored again Tuesday night. He now has three goals in his last two games. He leads all NHL rookies in goals and is tied for fourth on the Bruins in points with four. He is tied for the team lead in 5-on-5 goals and points.
Poitras certainly looks like a lock to stick around beyond his nine-game extended tryout at this point. On top of the points, he continues to play good, solid hockey at both ends of the ice. With the Bruins in search of center help following the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, Poitras’s emergence is a crucial development not just for this season, but for the future as well.
Pavel Zacha is growing into his role as a top center as well. He has played a strong two-way game all season and is finally starting to add the points to match in recent games, including scoring his first goal of the season Tuesday night when he tipped in a Kevin Shattenkirk shot.
Another important early-season development: The Bruins’ stars are playing like stars. With less high-end depth than they had last year, Boston needs its best players to lead the way even more than last season. David Pastrnak is doing that with five goals and three assists in six games. So is Brad Marchand, who has four goals and three assists. Charlie McAvoy has been pretty dominant, leading the team in ice time (24:20 per game) and hits (14) while ranking second in Corsi (56.8%), expected goals-for percentage (60.4%) and plus/minus (+6).
Perhaps most importantly, Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman are once again playing like the best goalie tandem in the NHL. Both are now 3-0-0 after Swayman’s 23-save shutout on Tuesday. Neither has allowed more than two goals in a game. Among the 39 goalies who have made at least three starts, they rank first and second in save percentage, with Ullmark at .962 and Swayman at .957. Goaltending needs to be a major strength of the Bruins once again this season, and so far it has been.
Moving on to depth contributors, Don Sweeney’s summer signings are looking pretty good so far. James van Riemsdyk, signed for just $1 million, has three goals and two assists and looks rejuvenated on a better team. He was solid on the top line to open the season, but may have found a longer-term home on the third line with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic. They combined for the Bruins’ third goal Tuesday, with van Riemsdyk leading the rush, feeding Coyle for a shot, and then digging out the rebound and setting up Frederic for the finish.
Morgan Geekie has three points and has been a good running mate for Poitras, doing plenty of dirty work on the forecheck and around the net to help create chances. He has been on the ice for more 5-on-5 goals (8) than any other Bruin and has the best 5-on-5 goal differential (+7) on the team.
Milan Lucic, who has missed the last two games with a lower-body injury, has two points in four games and has shown he’s still capable of moving up from his usual fourth-line role on occasion. Kevin Shattenkirk has been solid on the third D pair, and his ability to consistently find sticks for deflections paid off with his first point as a Bruin on Tuesday.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery knows it hasn’t even been close to perfect yet. He’s still looking for more consistent 5-on-5 offense – not just goals, but possession and chances. The schedule has been favorable, too. He’s seeing progress, though, and he’s seeing an identity beginning to emerge. The second and third periods Tuesday were especially encouraging, as the Bruins outshot the Blackhawks 28-12 and outscored them 3-0 at 5-on-5 play.
“Love the results,” Montgomery said of his team’s 4-0-0 road trip. “Love our goaltending. And starting to see our team identity build. I think the L.A. game and this game tonight, you're starting to see us become a heavy, grinding team, which I think is what we're going to have to be.”
So, how much does this 6-0-0 start matter? In the grand scheme of prioritizing playoff success above all else, maybe not much. But in terms of setting themselves up to make the playoffs in the first place, it’s important. And the on-ice developments that are leading to these wins? Those are important, too.