The Boston Bruins, as well as the whole NHL, will finish their regular season schedule next Saturday. The Bruins are already in playoff contention, as they clinched the playoff spot last week with a 7-3 win in Florida against the Panthers.
So, what’s up for the Bruins in their final six days of the season? The most important thing will be to keep all the key players healthy as well as recover those guys previously injured. The Bruins got defensemen Torey Krug, Matt Grzelcyk and Kevan Miller back in their last three games. As of now, they seem to not have any other injuries, even though a few players like Chris Wagner were nicked up, but it’s nothing serious.
The Bruins are still pretty much in it. They still have something to play for. They can still clinch the second spot in the Atlantic division, then the second place in the Eastern Conference and also the second spot overall in the NHL. The divisional ranking would mean having home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Their overall conference standing would mean to have home-ice ice advantage in a potential Eastern Conference final. If they clinch second in the NHL, it would mean having home ice in the playoffs unless the Bruins face the Tampa Bay Lightning, which can only happen in the second round of the playoffs. If the Bruins make it past the Lightning, they would love to have home ice beyond that second round.
What do the Bruins need to do in order to clinch those three spots in the standings?
The Bruins still need three more points to clinch home ice against the Maple Leafs in the first round. The Bruins have 103 points, while the Leafs have 97. It would be helpful for the B’s if the Maple Leafs lost three points on their behalf. They still face the New York Islanders, the Carolina Hurricanes, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Montreal Canadiens. It seems like a matter of time when the Bruins clinch the second spot in the Atlantic division.
Boston would need five points to secure the second spot in the East. Just one point below the Bruins in the standings are the Washington Capitals with 102 points. They have a pretty favorable schedule — Florida on the road, Montreal and the New York Islanders on home ice. Then there are the Islanders with 99 points, but since they still face both the Capitals and the Maple Leafs, the Bruins should not be worried about them now. If the Bruins end up tied with the Capitals, Boston likely has the tiebreaker (currently 45-43 in ROWs for the B’s).
Clinching the second spot in the NHL is turning out to be pretty difficult for the Bruins. The Calgary Flames are now in control with 105 points and holding the tiebreaker (49-45 in ROWs for Calgary). The Flames don’t face any of the playoff teams in their final three games in the season. The Bruins would need a nine-point swing to clinch the second overall spot in the NHL, and they can only handle six points by themselves.
And now let’s take a look at some players trying to reach their career-highs in the final three games of the regular season:
- Patrice Bergeron has already exceeded his career-high in points by five. He still needs one more goal to set his new career-high in goals (33) and two more assists to tie his career-high in assists, or three to set a new one.
- David Pastrnak has already set his new career-high in goals (36), but he still needs three more points to tie his career-high in points from the past season (80).
- Brad Marchand has already experienced a career year with exceeding his previous career-high in points by 13. He still needs two more points in order to reach that magic number 100 points.
- David Krejci is just four points away (69) from tying his career-high in points (73) from nine years ago. The Czech center is
close to exceeding his career-high in assists (51) as he sits on 50 helpers right now.
There is still something to play for. Position in the standings heading to the playoffs might not be that much important, but once you are in… You regret not having home ice advantage. As of now, the Bruins would need to start the series on the road against just two opponents: the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames.
