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If you’d asked most hockey fans in New England what team would top the standings in the NHL on Nov. 17, very few would have named the Boston Bruins. The B’s were picked to finish 7th in the Eastern Conference and be bounced in the first round of the playoffs this season by Sports Illustrated. Most writers in the Boston papers wrote off this team, called it a “product of a front office that has no desire to win a Stanley Cup.”
Why does the Bruins brass get such a raw deal? It could be that fans still have a bad taste in their mouths after the Ray Bourque debacle a few years ago. Or maybe it’s just easier for us New England fans to have low expectations after what happened to the Red Sox this fall. Either way, so far this season the Bruins have made the critics look like fools.
We’re nearly a quarter of the way through the season and their 10-2-3-3 record is good for tops in the NHL, which really shouldn’t come as a surprise. This is a team that two years ago finished second in the NHL in points, and last year was a playoff squad that would likely have gone deep into the post season if not for a late coaching change that was widely criticized by the players. Let’s not forget that last year’s team was hindered by long term injuries to Sergei Samsonov and Martin LaPointe.
The harshest critics of the Bruins claim that the team doesn’t have enough talent and that the owners are unwilling to shell out the cash to acquire such talent. Need we be reminded of how well purchasing a championship with high priced talent worked out for the New York Yankees this year? Not to mention the fact that the Bruins were embarrassed in last year’s playoffs by a New Jersey Devils team with a pay-roll that is a mere fraction of the Bruins.’
It is nearly impossible to deny the talent that the Bruins have on their roster. Captain Joe Thornton is widely recognized as one of the best players in the league, and finished second in the MVP voting last season. The Bruins were the only team with two players in the top 10 in points last year, with Thornton and Glen Murray. Not to mention finesse goal scorers Sergei Samsonov and Martin LaPointe, alongside the NHL’s fastest skater and short-handed goal specialist Brian Rolston. The Bruins have five players who would be legitimate leading scorers on most NHL teams. What more can you ask for?
The team’s goaltending has been questioned in recent years, and the team took a lot of heat for allowing Byron Dafoe to walk a few years ago. But the B’s knew they were sitting on a gold mine in 23-year-old Andrew Raycroft. He is a great young talent who is very calm and collected in the net. He’s the type of goalie who instills confidence in his defense. His 93.8 save percentage is good for third in the NHL. Not bad for a kid who only played five games last year. He and veteran Felix Potvin should give the Bruins a chance to win every game this season.
You’ve heard a lot of talk about an 18-year-old basketball star this year, but how about the Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron, who leads all NHL rookies with 11 points. Born July 24, 1985, he’s younger than most students on this campus. Combine all that with hard-nosed blue liners like Mike Knuble, Dan McGillis and Hal Gill and what you get is a pretty darn good hockey team.
It’s probably going to take a trip to the Eastern Conference finals or beyond for this team to finally get some respect in New England, and in a business where winning is all that matters, that’s understandable. But don’t knock their talent, their skill or their ability to get it done on the ice. Most general managers would give up quite a bit to get some of these Bruins, and most teams in the NHL would kill for a 10-2-3-2 start.
