The Boston Bruins found themselves atop the Eastern Conference heading into the All-Star break. It’s a feat that was widely unexpected due to losing players over the summer who were integral to their record-breaking 2022-23 season.
League-wide, the Bruins are tied with the Vancouver Canucks with 71 points. In their own division, as of Monday morning (Feb. 5), the Bruins find themselves ahead of the Florida Panthers with 66 points, the Tampa Bay Lightning with 59, and both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings with 58. The Maple Leafs have played 47 games, two to three fewer games than all of their aforementioned opponents.
Here’s a look at the Bruins’ biggest competition for the Atlantic Division crown this season.
Florida Panthers
The standings tell you the Florida Panthers are Boston’s biggest division threat at the moment. It doesn’t come as a surprise, with the Cats having made their way to the Stanley Cup Final last season – going through Boston (it still stings).
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, at age 35, is having an up year. His 2.51 goals-against average (GAA) in 36 appearances thus far is the best since he turned 30 and his .910 save percentage (SV%) is an improvement over last season. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner, even in the later stages of his career, is a netminder you can never sleep on.
Sam Reinhart leads the team in scoring with 37 goals and 25 assists for 62 points. Following him is Matthew Tkachuk with 51 points, Carter Verhaeghe with 50, and Aleksander Barkov with 48. I’m not a huge fan of judging a player by their plus/minus stats, but Gustav Forsling is a plus-31, nearly double the plus/minus of the next Panthers, Barkov and Aaron Ekblad.
It’s very possible the Bruins and Panthers could be jockeying for the lead toward the end of the season. There is little room for error to clinch the home-ice advantage through the first three playoff rounds.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Bolts are, well, the Bolts.
Tampa Bay’s (aloof) All-Star, Nikita Kucherov, leads the league with 85 points and ranks fourth in goals with 32. As for his teammates, Brayden Point has tallied 25 goals and 29 assists for 54 points, followed by defenseman Victor…
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