By: Evan Michael | Follow me on Twitter @00EvanMichael
When the holiday road tripping comes to an end for the Boston Bruins in 2021, the New Year begins back at home — where the heart is, and where the team’s longest homestand is this season — for the first game of 2022 on its first day.
And you better believe the B’s will love hosting Buffalo for this New Year’s Day Matinee to kick off a January that features sixteen games over the course of the month, each spread out over an every-other-day game stretch for the most part. This includes six consecutive games at home between January 13th & 24th for the longest in-Boston stretch of the season.
The only quirky caveats: a couple of back-to-back match-ups at the start and middle of the new year/new month campaign with post-game travel and little rest: the first stretch on the 1st & 2nd against the aforementioned Sabres and then the Detroit Red Wings; the second stretch on the 12th & 13th going from Canada versus the Montreal Canadians back to the U.S. versus the Philadelphia Flyers.
So, with more consistency in the scheduling at this time of the 2021-2022 season for the B’s rather than consecutive games, mini-trips or home-and-homes, let’s focus on a few TEAMS the Bruins will be battling against that could prove worthy calendar match-ups for you to mark down!
A CAPITAL CONNECTION
The Bruins and Caps will play each other twice in January, first in Washington, D.C. at Capital One Arena then later in the month in Boston at TD Garden.
The January 10th road game, as well as the January 20th at-home affair, should be action-packed games with a playoff-like atmosphere, especially coming off the B’s first-round series win versus the Capitals last year (Craig Smith Double-OT GWG goal included below for your viewing pleasure).
There’s also the Zdeno Chara question that looms over any potential B’s/Caps tilt since the former Boston Captain and future NHL Hall of Famer has yet to make a decision on if he’ll play in 2021-2022 or retire. If he does, and if it’s indeed for Washington again, these games will naturally add even more interest on the Bruins’ calendar.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
The Bruins will travel to Colorado on January 26th for what always has the promise to be — or at least what many fans hope could be — a potential Stanley Cup preview match-up. Both teams are perennially in-it-to-win-it every season and can compete at the highest levels when all cylinders are firing.
The Avalanche have bested the B’s in the majority of their games over the past five years (the teams haven’t played since the pre-pandemic days of 2019), both at home and on the road. This should give Boston veterans like Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand extra added motivation to show their new teammates like Nick Foligno and Linus Ullmark how to settle the score.
The B’s will also have the chance to do the same, while staying on the road to round out January, against Phoenix and Dallas before February roles in. This three-game stretch from January 26th – 30th ties for the longest road trip of the month — again with off days built in — for a Boston team that hopes to hit Groundhog Day reliving many W’s!
Leave a Reply