With the NHL season currently on pause; many questions surround the Bruins, including if they could’ve actually won Lord Stanley.
The last time we saw our Boston Bruins, they shutout the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargos Center with a 2-0 win. That was on March 10th. At the time the Bruins became the first team to 100 points. With the season currently on pause the Bruins sit atop the entire league with a record of 44-14-12 through 70 games played. The Bruins only have 12 games left in the regular season.
With the season on hiatus and no clue as to when or if the season will resume, it brings up many questions that we may never know the answer to. Could David Patranak have scored 50 goals on the season? Would Tuukka Rask have won the Vesina Trophy? Could the Bruins have rebounded and won the Stanley Cup?
A series of questions also follow but these three questions stand out. After a devastating Game 7 loss in the Cup Final last June to the St. Louis Blues, the Bruins were rolling and were consistently the best team from the first game of the season, all the way up to where the season ultimately got paused.
While it’s safe to think that Pastrank would’ve scored 50 goals on the season, given his play this year, that uncertainty still looms on how he will look if and when the season resumes.
Rask has looked as sharp has he did throughout the playoffs last season, given how he has played less games than other goaltenders. Credit to Bruce Cassidy for having two stellar goaltenders in both Rask and Jaroslav Halak , so he can give his number one net minder the proper rest after a deep playoff run.
Other questions that surround the team if Torey Krug could’ve possibly played his final game as a Bruin. Krug’s contract expires at the end of the season where he will become an unrestricted free agent. Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney hopes that Krug didn’t play his final game as a Bruin. Krug fears that he has, but it remaining optimistic that he hasn’t. That depends if either the season resumes or Krug and the team agree to terms on a new contract.
Could the Bruins have actually won the Stanley Cup this year? They certainly have the team. However, their core players from 2011 aren’t getting any younger. Captain Zdeno Chara just recently turned 43, and his playing career after this season remains undetermined.
The longest tenured Boston Athlete (of all four Boston pro teams) Patrice Bergeron is still playing at a high level but he is about to enter possibly the final years of his career. David Krecji is another notable name who is nearing the end as well. Brad Marchand still has five years left on his contract and years left in the tank but his play could slip.
The Bruins championship window is closing, and closing quickly. After two missed opportunities in 2013 and 2019, the time is now for the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup this year. However, if the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t end soon, all the hard work the Bruins did to rebound would be for nothing and quite possibly missed their final chance to win a championship for their aging core.
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