Step away from the Panic Button, Bruins’ fans. The Bruins will definitely make the playoffs this season.
Yes, the Bruins, with 51 points, are in fifth place in the East as of this morning and on paper are only four points from being on the outside looking in, but let’s take a look at the big picture.
The teams trailing the Bruins are the Rangers (50 pts), Senators (48 pts), Canadiens (48 pts), Flyers (47 pts) and Islanders (46 pts). The only teams that should concern Bruins’ fans are the Rangers and Flyers. Yes, they possibly could leap-frog the Bruins in the standings, putting the locals in seventh place but the object of the game is to still be playing come mid-April. Ottawa, Montreal and the NY Islanders are still worse than Boston and will slug it out for the eighth and final playoff spot. Best of all, this is probably the worst case scenario for Boston. Let’s take a look at the more probable future for the locals.
Hockey is a violent game and every team is eventually beset by injuries. Some years they are minimal while other years they are never-ending and sometimes fatal to a team’s postseason chances. This season the Hockey Gods have been unkind to the Bruins when it comes to doling out inuries.
David Krejci came into the year still recovering from surgery and has yet to return to form. The same holds true for Marco Sturm. Chances are that both these players eventually return to form before the regular season ends and will be primed for the playoffs.
Then there has been the relentless spate of in-season injuries. Their best playmaker, Marc Savard, has been limited to 28 games played and will be out of action, in reality, until after the Winter Olympics. Patrice Bergeron, their best player all season long, is now on the mend for approximately three more weeks. Milan Lucic, the heart and soul of the forwards, has been limited to 12 games but is now back in action. All this, yet the Bruins are still in fifth place in their conference.
It is imperative that the Bruins just tread water between now and the end of the Vancouver Olympics. Even if they slide a few points and playoffs spots, that’s fine, as long as their big guns are ready to hit the ice healthy come the beginning of March and begin the team’s final regular season push and having some momentum and confidence for the playoffs.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Degree 01.21.10 at 2:42 am
Thank you for this valuable post. It changed my way
cityville 01.05.11 at 4:09 pm
lol quite a few of the comments visitors enter are a bit spacey, time and again i wonder if they realistically read the content pieces and threads before posting or if perhaps they pretty much read over the post title and come up with only the first thought that one thinks of. anyhow, it is actually useful to read sensible commentary now and then instead of the exact same, classic blog vomit which i constantly discover on the net adios