Anderson: Why I’m Worried About the Bruins’ Playoff Run

By: Nathan Anderson | Follow me on Twitter @nathandrsn

The Bruins have loaded up for a deep playoff run, and if they can get everyone healthy by the time the first round starts, this team will be terrifying for whoever draws them to start the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. They are hurtling towards regular season history, chasing the all-time single-season points and wins records, and they do not seem to be slowing down.

With the additions of Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov, and Garnet Hathaway, the Bruins have improved their depth and brought in guys who will help make them a more formidable team to play than they already were. All three acquisitions play physically and can throw their body around with the toughest players in the league. The Bruins now have not only elite scoring and defensive talent, but they can also beat teams up in a seven-game series.

Despite that, part of me still worries about the upcoming postseason. It is not a logical worry or a worry based on statistics. There is just a visceral worry that bothers me. I am sure others have felt similarly to what I will describe, and I have provided some data to back up my anxiety. This team is simply too good. They have won games at such an impressive pace throughout this regular season that it feels inevitable that they will slow down at some point. The longer they go without slowing down, the more I worry the crash will happen exactly when they cannot afford it.

The best comparison I can make is not even in hockey because the immediate comparison would be the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning. I do not think this team has won like the Lightning did that season, so I do not think that comparison is all that accurate in actuality. We have all heard that comparison or warning enough by now, so I look to last year’s MLB playoffs.

I am a big baseball fan, and when the final horn sounds on the Stanley Cup Finals each year, my attention goes almost exclusively to the MLB. The Los Angeles Dodgers were fantastic for those who did not follow the sport last season. Going into the playoffs, they were heavy favorites to win the World Series. However, whenever a friend asked me who I thought would take home baseball’s greatest prize, I felt a strange sensation telling me, “the Dodgers are just so obvious that they will not follow through.” My gut feeling was proven correct in the playoffs when the Dodgers were eliminated after winning just one playoff game.

That is what worries me about this Bruins team. With their domination of the regular season so far and the destiny that comes into play when you consider that some of the franchise’s most historic players may call it quits this summer, it seems too perfect. I mentioned that I had data to back it up, so I will prove that point now. Six of the ten teams with the most points in a season in NHL history did not win the Stanley Cup. The only franchise in those ten that did manage to win the Cup was the Montreal Canadiens, who did it six times in the 1970s, with four of those seasons also earning them a top-ten points total ever (’73, ’76, ’77, ’78).

Nothing would make me happier than to see this year’s Bruins set a new single-season wins and points record and cap it all off by winning the Stanley Cup. It would be, without a doubt, the greatest season not only in NHL history but in all of American sports history, in my opinion. All the cards seem to be falling into place for that to happen, but I want to remind fans not to get too ahead of themselves. The regular season records would be excellent, but it will mean nothing to us without a Stanley Cup, especially after this trade deadline.