With 71 points, the Bruins and Vancouver Canucks are tied for first place in the league. As of this morning (Monday, February 5), the Bruins lead their own division with 66 points, followed by the Florida Panthers with 59, the Tampa Bay Lightning with 59, and the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings with 58. Compared to all of their opponents, the Maple Leafs have played two or three fewer games—47 total.
Here is a look at the teams that the Bruins will be facing up against most this season in the Atlantic Division.
Panthers of Florida
The Florida Panthers are currently Boston’s greatest division threat, according to the standings. Given that the Cats advanced to the Stanley Cup Final the previous season—despite the fact that it still hurts—it is not shocking.
Sergei Bobrovsky, the 35-year-old goalie, is enjoying a successful season. In the 36 games he has played so far, his goals-against average (GAA) of 2.51 is the highest since he turned 30, and his save percentage (SV%) of.910 is an improvement over the previous campaign. Even in his latter years, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner is a goaltender to never count out.
Sam Reinhart leads the club in scoring with 62 points, which he scores with 37 goals and 25 assists. Aleksander Barkov with 48, Carter Verhaeghe with 50, and Matthew Tkachuk with 51 points trail him. Although I don’t think much of evaluating players based just on their plus/minus numbers, Gustav Forsling has a plus/minus of +31, which is almost twice as high as the next best Panthers, Aaron Ekblad and Barkov.
The Bruins and Panthers might very well be battling for the lead as the season draws to a close. To secure home-ice advantage through the first three playoff rounds, there isn’t much margin for error.
The Tampa Bay Lightning
Well, the Bolts are the Bolts.
Nikita Kucherov, the (aloof) All-Star for Tampa Bay, leads the league in points (85) and goals (32) scored. Regarding his colleagues, defenseman Victor Hedman leads with 50 points, followed by Brayden Point with 25 goals and 29 assists for 54 points. At 33 years old, Steven Stamkos has tallied 21 goals and 26 assists.
Due to back surgery, Andrei Vasilevskiy missed the first part of the season until Tampa won 8-2 on November 25. Even though his 2.85 GAA and.899 SV% in 26 starts are the lowest of his career, he has the opportunity to improve those numbers before the end of the season. Despite the numbers, many fans still view him as the league’s best goalie.
No matter where the clubs are in their narratives, records, or standings at the end of the season, the Lightning are a constant pain in the Bruins’ side and challenge them in postseason play.
The Toronto Maple Leafs
And there’s the opposing Maple Leafs.
William Nylander has 61 points while Auston Matthews has 40 goals in 46 games. In addition to his 20 goals and 33 assists, Mitch Marner has scored 53 points. Morgan Rielly and John Tavares have each scored 40 and 35 points. Tyler Bertuzzi, a former UCLA player, is now seventh on the squad in terms of points, having scored 20 points this season through six goals and 14 assists.
As always, the Leafs’ goaltender situation has been (apparently) fascinating. August saw the signing of 34-year-old Martin Jones (happily belated birthday, man; he was 33 at the time) to a one-year $875,000 contract. After being a Bruin (for a few heartbeats, at least), Jones didn’t play hockey until December 7 and has since established himself as the Leafs’ first choice. In 17 games, he had his best SV% (.911) and GAA (2.64) since the 2017–18 campaign.