Boston Bruins not a dark horse but a favorite for Stanley Cup

[BruinLVGA]

I swear to god if boston wins the cup i will burn my own city

Old habits are hard to die, I guess...

 

[Colt.45Orr]

Best post ever.

 

[BruinLVGA]

With so much parity in the nhl, how do you consider Boston THE favourite? How did they leap the Pens and Caps? Last I checked, those are the teams to beat. No just Tampa? Favourite means they are the number 1 choice in the NHL. Do you mean contenders?

"Leap"? Do you think that the Bruins were so far back of the... Pens of all teams, to require a leap?

 

[BruinLVGA]

Best post ever.

It was an easy tap-in. The puck was right at the goal line, so to speak.

 

[zerogoose]

I wouldn't call them a Dark Horse, I give them more credit than that. I also wouldn't call them a favorite though. I'd put them in the "Contenders" category right now among maybe 7-8 other teams. Tampa would be a notch above them all as a "favorite".

 

[OurlordAndSaviorKuch]

Re bolded... So you are a) going to ignore that the backup had 11 straight victories + impressive stats and b) going to infer that the Bruins did not utterly deserve the victory? If it wasn't for your backup, after two periods it should have been 5 or 6-0...

Uhhhhh Because Vasy isn't a Vezina level Goaltender himself lol. And just some scrub totally.

 

[leaffaninvancouver]

Tampa is absolutely the favourite. Bruins have a chance, but as it looks like their first round opponent again is going to be the Leafs. That will be a gruelling series, regardless of who wins and then to most likely face Tampa is a very tall order.

 

[Lightning1995]

Boston is really good and they severely outplayed the Lightning on Thursday.

It’s one game. Boston is dangerous. The Lightning are the favorite but far from a shoe in to reach the SCF. I fear the Caps the most as a Lightning fan.

Also I’m not really sure who concerns me more between Boston and Toronto. I guess Boston due to experience and pedigree. But the Leafs have scoring depth to match up the lines. I just want them to go 7 again.

 

[Matt24]

I expect the same result for them as last year. Emotionally exhausting/gruelling 7 game series against Toronto leads to a relatively easy defeat at the hands of the Lightning. They just don’t have their depth. Sucks that they’re in a division which is going to force them to beat a probable Top 5 team in the league in the first round just to face the league’s best team in the second, but them’s the breaks.

 

[Jmo89]

It's a little strange if they're a dark horse... They're 3rd in the NHL.

I guess anyone is a dark horse when compared to TBay though.

 

[BruinLVGA]

Uhhhhh Because Vasy isn't a Vezina level Goaltender himself lol. And just some scrub totally.

What part of the following don't you understand: Domingue was the ->BEST<- player of your team in that game. Not by a country mile, but by a galaxy. He single handedly kept your team in the game with an heroic performance. Without his incredible play, that game would have probably been a 8-1 demolition, instead of 4-1.
Hence, saying "we played with our back up" as inferring that was a disadvantage for your guys and therefore helped the Bruins win the game is a) not true and b) asinine.

Last but not least... 1) no one obliged you to play with Domingue in the net, it was your coach decision and I assume his policy is to use the best personnel for winning the game. He's paid millions to do exactly that... 2) there's no whatsoever guarantee that your #1 goalie would have done better than Domingue. More so considering that Domingue was stellar.

Clearer now?

PS: but if you want to point the finger at any particular player of yours who was a negative in this game, look at Kucherov. Not only he didn't do much at all, but he let Noel Acciari - not exactly a top player - easily strip the puck off him near the boards and that lead DIRECTLY to the game winning goal, that also led to that 3-goals-in-3-minutes spurt that sank your guys for good. Looking at the league's top scorer gingerly skate 4 feet behind Acciari, who then easily tapped in the rebound for the 2-1, with zero effort in trying to prevent the goal, was A-level cringe worthy.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

The Lightning came into the game tired isn't a fair or valid point? Lol ok

You claimed the Bruins 'did nothing' to affect the result. As though TB pulled its goalie and repeatedly scored own goals.

You cannot deny that, with regards to that post.

 

[yegoldboysclub]

I think Boston will give Tampa a good run for it this season, they are fortunate to be playing Toronto in the first round, who are not a very physical team, I don't expect them to take the Leafs lightly as they did last season. Leafs should be an easy out for the Bruins if they show up.

Tampa vs Boston will be a great series

 

[b in vancouver]

I do think they're the closest team in the league to Tampa.

The additions of Coyle and Johansson filled the two holes the Bruins have had all year at 3c and 2LW. DeBrusk is finding it nowadays. Heinen is looking solid with Bergeron (if not injured he'd be a Hart finalist) Marchand (whom has been on fire recently) and the 4th line is great. So their depth has taken a lot of strides over the past month. Their 12 - 0 - 4 run was mostly before Coyle and Johansson and Pastrnak has missed half of that also. The defence is great with McAvoy playing his best right now and Carlo being a beast. Rask has been phenomenal since his slow start and personal time leave of absence. They're well coached, structured and are relentless on the puck and forecheck.

They're going to be a hard out for anyone in the playoffs.

 

[General Disarray]

Call me a homer but I don't see them getting past the Leafs this year.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Call me a homer but I don't see them getting past the Leafs this year.

At least provide some thoughts on why.

It is very possible Toronto beats Boston.

I too have a gut feeling and it says the Bruins grind out another 6 or 7 game win and lose in a closer-than-last-year series to Tampa.

The Bruins have a somewhat modified style vs the Claude years with more transition and up tempo play while having great goaltending. It is made for the playoffs pending injuries. I just hope Nordstrom is the 13th forward and the 3rd line is:

Heinen-Coyle-Backes

This line following up:

Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Johansson

Looks very formidable and deep.

 

[compan]

It's a little strange if they're a dark horse... They're 3rd in the NHL.

I guess anyone is a dark horse when compared to TBay though.

Tampa is seemingly so far in first place, anybody is a dark horse. They looked human last time we played them though, so there is hope.

 

[General Disarray]

At least provide some thoughts on why.

It is very possible Toronto beats Boston.

I too have a gut feeling and it says the Bruins grind out another 6 or 7 game win and lose i in a closer-than-last-year series to Tampa.

I just think the Leafs are getting better and more experience thanks to the previous 2 years which were great learning experience. Reilly is a legit #1D now which they didn't have before, plus the addition of Muzzin. And of course if Matthews disappears they have Tavares now. This is not the same team as last year.

Boston has gotten better too but I think the Leafs improved more.

 

[BadBruins]

I just think the Leafs are getting better and more experience thanks to the previous 2 years which were great learning experience. Reilly is a legit #1D now which they didn't have before, plus the addition of Muzzin. And of course if Matthews disappears they have Tavares now. This is not the same team as last year.

Boston has gotten better too but I think the Leafs improved more.

Which is why I think it's a faulty exercise to compare last year to this year. It's not the same teams. All regular season indications have them close, with Tampa Bay a clear step ahead. Can't speak for the Leafs, but the Bruins team last spring isn't an accurate representation of this current team. Heck, the last time these teams met two months ago wasn't an accurate representation.

 

[Rschmitz]

You claimed the Bruins 'did nothing' to affect the result. As though TB pulled its goalie and repeatedly scored own goals.

You cannot deny that, with regards to that post.

No, this is what I said.

celebrate it if you want, but it was fairly obvious the Bolts were exhausted and not skating at all last night. I did not see anything that indicated it was Boston that was causing that.

I'd say that you were quoting me out of context but you didn't even quote me properly.

The Bolts weren't skating, they were tired. I'd give Boston credit if they were slowing down the Bolts in the neutral zone and disrupting the transition game, but they weren't. This is a single aspect of the game, Boston still had perform well in other aspects of the game where skating isn't as important.

If you are going to misrepresent what I say so badly with hyperbole, next time at least use proper forum etiquette by quoting me correctly.

 

[CupsOverCash]

No, this is what I said.



I'd say that you were quoting me out of context but you didn't even quote me properly.

The Bolts weren't skating, they were tired. I'd give Boston credit if they were slowing down the Bolts in the neutral zone and disrupting the transition game, but they weren't. This is a single aspect of the game, Boston still had perform well in other aspects of the game where skating isn't as important.

If you are going to misrepresent what I say so badly with hyperbole, next time at least use proper forum etiquette by quoting me correctly.

I think the Bs/Leafs can beat TB in a 7 game series, but its not because of their last regular season performances against them. Its because they are good teams. Regular season means nothing. If people think we will play in the playoffs like how we played in the reg season I suggest looking at last years NJ devils and Bruins.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

They are going to have a tough test most likely right out of the gate.

Boston/Toronto look to be the most likely teams to get screwed this year in matchups. Both project to be among the top four points in the league when the year ends and yet have a 93% chance of playing one another in the first round for their troubles.

 

[alko]

Ok, i admit, i was a little bid wrong. Maybe the Bruins are not so big deal.

 

[FastEddie]

They definitely aren't a dark horse. The second best team in the east, in a conference that is superior right now to the west. Shouldn't be anyone's "dark horse" pick. That said, I think they lack team speed and seem like a conference final out. They also have a very rough path, going through the Leafs and then Tampa(probably) only to get Pittsburgh or Washington in the conference finals. That applies to the Leafs too. It's a rough path.

 

[flying squirrel]

Yeah, calling Boston a dark horse seems odd when they're a 100+ point team. The "Stanley Cup" is tough enough to win, but when there's a lot of solid teams from top to bottom, it gets even tougher. These playoff are very deep, period!

Boston is a solid team, and they'll be a tough out for anyone in the playoffs, but I think fans put to much faith into results of single regular season games. Take this thread for example; the Lightning were playing their 3rd game in 4 days, were due for an off game after winning 10 in a row, and that kind of stuff matters when you're looking any single game result. That's why using the whole regular season to get a better picture of who's who, and not some random regular season game where only a couple season scenarios (NHL teams face yearly) are represented. The Lightning's consistency has been crazy good considering the parity within NHL these days, and the Lightning have found ways to win after many teams brought their A games agaisnt the Lightning all year.