Wow.
It’s already 23 games into the Boston Bruins season. Most people consider hockey a winter sport, but their year is already a quarter of the way over without one snowflake hitting the ground yet.
So we’re officially around the point where sample sizes actually mean something and we can kind of tell what’s going on with the team. Well, how about this: they’re not that good this year.
Wow.
Yes. That’s a serious thought. It’s not a Michael Felger or Dan Shaughnessy (does he even write about the Bruins) hot take. Here’s why.
Look at their record (11-8-4). Technically that’s a losing record if you remember that the last column is overtime losses. So if this was another sport, they’d be 11-12 right now–and they’re still in line to make the playoffs (granted that’s like five months from now).
Surprisingly, the defense isn’t even the issues these days. Granted, it’s not great, but since Tuukka Rask is their primary goalie, they have let up 68 goals this season which is less than average (and a good thing for the Bruins).
In that same span, however, they have only mustered 63 goals.
It’s not shocking though. The team relied so heavily on Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak for scoring last year and each of them had career years, so a little regression from both those guys and Marchand missing a couple weeks with an injury explains that. Now, it should be better for them with Marchand nearing his return, but relying on two guys so heavily isn’t the best way to go about it.
It’s not deadline time yet or anything like that, but maybe we just discovered a need the Bruins should maybe think about addressing at some point. After all, it’s hard to win hockey games when you let up more goals than you can score.