Jesus Christ it is dusty in here.
The Bruins have three games to decide their 2015-2016 playoff lives. Given the pre-season predictions, this is pretty much where everyone had Boston pegged. They were either good enough to be a wild card team or barely bad enough to just miss the playoffs. Unfortunately the Wild Card isn’t something the black and gold can hang their hat on because the Islanders virtually have one spot locked up (95 points with 4 games left) and a surging Flyers team still has a game in hand (78 to Boston’s 79). Boston’s only real hope of getting into the playoffs is grabbing the last spot in the Atlantic Division.
That final spot? Well that final spot is being squatted on by the Detroit Red Wings, a franchise that hasn’t missed the playoffs in 25 years.
You’ll notice that I titled this post ‘Bruins Decide Their Fate This Week’ because both Detroit and Philadelphia have a battering ram of a schedule. Outside of the Boston’s gave vs. Detroit, Carolina and Ottawa – unless they get the idea to play spoiler along the way – can give up on the season, pack it in and dream of warmer weather.
Detroit’s Schedule
Detroit’s last three games are either against playoff teams (NY Rangers) or teams that are desperately clawing at a final playoff spot (Philadelphia, Boston). In all reality, you want the Flyers to absolutely decimate the Red Wings, but it comes at a cost. The Flyers winning against Detroit could all but lock up the last wild card spot given what Boston does tonight versus Carolina.
The positives for Boston is that you could put Detroit’s offense in a Sally Struthers commercial and it would fit right in. Detroit is currently sitting 22nd overall in goals per game at 2.56 per game. They’re also 15th is shots for per game which means they can’t put a fucking puck in the ocean. How they’re even sitting in the third spot in the Atlantic is kind of baffling.
If you add in Detroit’s apparent goaltending woes (goals against per game at 18th overall), though to be fair Petr Mzarek has been good this season (24th in SV%, 27th in GAA) [Mind you, these should be higher but NHL.com counts 1 GP when looking up statistics].
If Detroit’s schedule is a battering ram, the Bruins schedule is softer than a sneaker full of diarrhea. Detroit’s remaining opponents have a combined win percentage of .521 while Boston’s remain opponents have a combined win percentage of .464. That alone should tell you that Boston should have the easier time sealing their own fate…
…but they’re the Boston Bruins. If anything, the Bruins have been consistently inconsistent this season with massive victories over Chicago and St. Louis to name a few but then losing to the likes of New Jersey and Columbus. One would think that a schedule consisting of a team that is 26th in goals for per game (Carolina), 28th in goals against per game (Ottawa) and 22nd overall is goals per game (Detroit) would be easy…
…but they’re the Boston Bruins.
How the Bruins react to tonight’s game will be very telling of a team we’re going to see the rest of the week. The optimal outcome this week is Boston comes away with 6 points and everything is wrapped up. Ideally, the Bruins need to win tonight to grab sole possession of third place in the Atlantic Division. Jeremy Jacobs, Chuckles McSpermbaby and Don Sweeney then have to kneel at the Altar of Bobby and pray for Detroit to lose to Philadelphia in regulation before Boston handling their shit vs Detroit Thursday in regulation.
It sets up perfectly for Boston. After, what I believe will be, a tough matchup with Philadelphia in Detroit – they have to travel to Boston for the second game of a back to back. For some weird fucking reason, that stars are aligning for Boston to take their own playoff bull by the horns and decide what they are going to do. They don’t necessarily needs help from other teams to get in, they just need to handle their fucking business.
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