Bruins can tie wins record on Saturday
The Boston Bruins entered the 2022-23 NHL season with modest expectations. The team amassed 107 points last season, before bowing out in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs. During the summer, the Bruins fired head coach Bruce Cassidy and replaced him with Jim Montgomery. Caesars Sportsbook gave them 25-1 odds to win the Stanley Cup, and we ranked them 14th in our preseason Power Rankings.
Then the season began, and the Bruins have been authoring one of the greatest regular seasons in the modern, salary cap era (since 2005-06).
Through 78 games, the Bruins have skated to a 61-12-5 record, good for 127 points (a franchise record) and an .814 points percentage. They have already clinched the Presidents’ Trophy, become just the fourth team to win 60 games, and are now one game away from tying the NHL record for wins in a season, which they can do Saturday vs. the Devils on ABC (8 p.m. ET).
Watch the Bruins try to make history Saturday night when they host the Devils on ABC/ESPN+ (8 p.m. ET). Boston is one win from tying the NHL record for wins in a season (62).
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Through 78 games, the Bruins are on pace for 64 wins by season’s end and are the fastest team to 50 wins in NHL history. The current record for most wins in a season (62) was set in 1995-96 by the Detroit Red Wings (who finished 62-13-7), and tied in 2018-19 by the Tampa Bay Lightning (62-16-4). Neither team won the Stanley Cup in its respective record-setting season, as the Red Wings lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference finals, and the Lightning were swept in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Bruins are the fastest team in NHL history to reach 100 points, getting there in 61 games, one fewer than the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens. Boston is on pace for 133 points this season. This would put them on pace to break the current record for points in a season held by the same 1976-77 Canadiens (132), who set that mark in an 80-game season. The Canadiens won the Cup that season — over the Bruins.
Goal differential is not an easily projectable stat for a number of reasons. But if we took the Bruins’ current differential — which is best in the league by 60 goals — and extrapolated that out to 82 games, they’d finish at plus-127. That’s a number that would blow by anything in the salary cap era, but would not be too close to the all-time record. The 1976-77 Canadiens are atop the board, at plus-216.
Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman are one of the NHL’s best goaltending duos, and along with a 30-of-31 game by Keith Kinkaid, the group has generated the league’s best team save percentage, ahead of the New York Islanders, at .921. Though not an official league record, the best mark for a team in a single season is .934, set by the 1968-69 St. Louis Blues.
All of those saves have resulted in not many goals for Bruins opponents. Their mark of 2.10 goals against per game is well ahead of the second place Carolina Hurricanes (2.53). The post-1967 expansion record for lowest goals-against average in a season is 1.89, held by the 2011-12 Blues.
The 26-year-old winger is second in the NHL with 57 goals, and is fourth with 104 points, on pace for 60 and 109 respectively. Those totals don’t approach all-time NHL records, but if he hits that goal mark, it would be the fourth-most goals in a season by a Bruin, breaking Phil Esposito’s clean sweep of the top five goal-scoring seasons in B’s history.
By notching his 25th win of the season in his 28th game, Ullmark broke the NHL record for fewest number of games to reach that victory benchmark. He leads the league in wins (38), goals-against average (1.91) and save percentage (.937). The single-season NHL record for wins (48, by Braden Holtby in 2015-16) is in play. The modern-era record for GAA is 1.56 (Brian Elliott, 2011-12) and for save percentage is .940 (also by Elliott in 2011-12). For good measure, Ullmark scored a goal in Boston’s 3-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 25.
Note: All games not on ESPN, TNT or NHL Network are available via NHL Power Play, which is included in an ESPN+ subscription (local blackout restrictions apply).
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April 8: vs. New Jersey Devils
8 ET | ABC, ESPN+
April 9: @ Philadelphia Flyers
6 ET | TNT
April 11: vs. Washington Capitals
7 ET | NHL Power Play on ESPN+
April 13: @ Montreal Canadiens
7 ET | NHL Power Play on ESPN+