mikelvl
Registered User
It's getting real for the Islanders, figuring out the Stars and remembering the Bruins
Part of a larger article, basically in wait and see mode now that they start playing more regularly.
Part of a larger article, basically in wait and see mode now that they start playing more regularly.
Admit it, you occasionally forget that the Bruins are contenders, right? It’s not because they’re not good — they are, we think. They just aren’t good very often, because they barely play. Their two games this weekend finally pushed them to the 15-game mark, one most teams crossed a week ago or more. Heading into action on Saturday, they were a half-dozen games back of multiple teams in their division.
That meant that if all you did was glance at the standings, they barely looked like a middle-of-the-pack team. Chalk up another one for the “sort by points percentage” crowd, I guess, but it’s still weird to see a team get almost a full week off for the second time this year. The weekend was just their second set of back-to-back games of the year. Some early rest isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it means less down the stretch, and we’ll see if that ends up mattering.
For now, we’ve actually got a few Bruins games to talk about for a change. They beat the Flyers on Saturday, which was their third straight win by identical 5-2 scores. Then they got smoked by the Flames, shut out 4-0 by former Bruin backup Dan Vladar. I guess we split the difference and call the weekend a wash, although that’s a tough way to end a winning streak.
Add it all up, and it’s probably fair to say that the Bruins have been about as advertised. The first line is quite possibly the best in the league, the secondary scoring has been solid, they miss David Krejci, the blueline after Charlie McAvoy makes you wonder some nights, and Bruce Cassidy is good at his job. The big question mark has been in the net, where the early returns on Linus Ullmark have been mixed and it seems clear that, whether their fans want to admit it or not, this team misses Tuukka Rask. We don’t know yet if he’ll be back, and maybe Ullmark sorts it out by the time that’s even worth thinking about. For now, goaltending is a question mark on an otherwise solid team.
How solid? We’ll find out as the schedule starts to fill up, which it will a bit over the next two weeks. They play every second night for six games starting Wednesday, with a western trip to follow after that. That six-pack will include their first meeting with the Lightning on December 4, which will be a good benchmark. Once that stretch is done, we’ll have a better idea of who these guys are. Just remember to sort by points percentage before you draw any conclusions.
