By: Amy Tolman | Follow me on Twitter @amy7594
Now that the National Hockey League has made it official, the Boston Bruins will play in the new realigned East Division. It’s bizarre to see all the Canadian teams play each other due to border restrictions, but we’re in a new world with new rules since this COVID-19 pandemic has taken over everything we hold dear.
Opponents
The Bruins will face the New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, and Pittsburg Penguins. The Bruins will play a 56-game regular-season schedule, facing each team in their division eight times.
Taking a look at last season’s calendar from when the season started in November of 2019 to February in 2020, the games played against the above opponents were mostly won by the Bruins. In which they only lost five of the 19 games played. Four of those losses were shootouts, and one was a regulation loss to the Capitals. Before March, when hockey was paused, the Bruins had played these teams two or three times each.
The last game was on March 10, 2020, and it was played against the Flyers, in which the Bruins won 2 – 0. So it was a good ending; a shutout is always good. However, I believe with the off-time by quarantine and the waiting for hockey to come back hasn’t been easy on both the players and the fans. Not having the fans at the arenas when hockey did resume had a huge effect on the Bruins, and also being placed in a closed location where they couldn’t go home at night to their families didn’t help.
For an in-depth look at the matches up between the Bruins and these other teams, take a look at fellow BNG writer Max Mainville‘s article “Boston Bruins: Breaking Down a Possible Division Realignment for 2020-21 Season”
January 3, 2021, is when training camp starts and January 13th is the start of the season. The Stanley Cup playoffs are set to start May 11th.
New Rule Change For The 2020-2021 Season
On December 22, 2020, NHL announced that there will be a rule change to this season. It’s about the blue line and being off-sides. Here is the information that I got from the NHL.com video.
A player is on-side when either of his skates is in contact with the blue line, or on his own side of the line at the instant, the puck completely crossed the leading edge of the blue line.
If a player’s skate has yet to break the “plane” prior to the puck crossing the leading edge, he is deemed to be on-side for the purpose of the off-side rule.
If an off-side is delayed, players from the offending team must clear the zone or tag up with their skate in contact with the blue line.
https://www.nhl.com/video/2020-21-nhl-rule-changes/t-277350912/c-7097210
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