Few, if any, hockey observers expect the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs to be a coronation for the Boston Bruins.
We all know the track record of Presidents’ Trophy winners; even world-destroying, record-setting ones can find themselves on their keester very quickly in the second season. Just ask the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lighting, who won 62 times in the regular season — just three fewer W’s than this historic Bruins squad — and zero times in the playoffs thanks to a positively stunning first-round sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
You have to go back 10 years to find a first-place finisher that also won the Stanley Cup, as the Chicago Blackhawks did in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign. The last 82-game Presidents’ Trophy winner to claim the Cup was another five years before that when the 2008 championship was claimed by the smothering Detroit Red Wings of Pavel Datsyuk, Nick Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg.
The plain fact is the star of the NHL’s six-month dress rehearsal is very rarely the winner come Oscar night.
And, don’t forget, the Bruins have learned that the hard way, too.
Because Boston hung a banner in the somewhat recent past, they get branded as having championship stuff. But that Cup win was 12 years ago. Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Brad Marchand are the only players from the 2011 squad that ate the Vancouver Canucks’ lunch who are still with the squad now. Between then and now Bergeron nearly retired and Krejci went home to play in Czechia for a season.
This is actually the third time in nine years the B’s have won the Presidents’ Trophy, including a sneaky one in 2019-20 when the pandemic ended their season after 70 games. On both previous occasions, the Bruins failed to make it past Round 2 after winning the regular season. Boston has, of course, been to the final twice since beating Vancouver in 2011 and don’t have another ring to show for it. Four years ago they lost a fourth-round Game 7 on home ice and had to watch St. Louis raise the chalice in their own building.
If you only had knowledge of the past decade of Bruins hockey, you’d be talking about them as a great team that hasn’t quite reached the top of the mountain rather than a franchise of made guys who playoff bona fides can’t be questioned.
Whatever the case, Boston has most definitely earned the top spot in our playoff power rankings. Now let’s see if it can deliver the championship would make amends for some more recent shortcomings and fully validate this team’s standing as one that belongs in the conversation with the very best, no matter how far back you want to look.
1. Boston Bruins (65-12-5) The thing that just might set this B’s team apart from ones that came up short in the past decade is the offence is at another level this year. They’ve always been a rock-solid squad, but this one — with 60-goal man David Pastrnak — can usually find a goal when it needs to.
2. Colorado Avalanche (51-24-7) This team just can’t be put in the same category as the Cup winner from a year ago that had Nazem Kadri as a its 2C and captain Gabriel Landeskog in the lineup (Landeskog’s has been ruled out of the post-season with a knee injury). Still, it seems entirely plausible the Avs could not only win the West, but get to the final in a relatively few amount of games.
3. Toronto Maple Leafs (50-21-11) Ignore the baggage and ask yourself, doesn’t this team just scream break-through squad?
4. Edmonton Oilers (50-23-9) The Oilers had an .800 points percentage over their final 40 games. That’s more than a decent sample size.
5. Carolina Hurricanes (52-21-9) The Canes are probably ranked No. 2 or 3 on this list if Andrei Svechnikov doesn’t go down with a year-ending knee injury in March. They play so hard, but it just feels like they’ll run out of goals eventually.
6. Vegas Golden Knights (51-22-9) By all accounts it seems like captain Mark Stone will be in the lineup for Vegas in Game 1 versus the Winnipeg Jets. What will we get from Jack Eichel now that he’s finally playing in an NHL post-season?
7. New York Rangers (47-22-3) The Blueshirts got a final-four taste last year and have the feel of a squad that’s built for the post-season. Igor Shesterkin had a .940 save percentage in his final 13 outings.
8. New Jersey Devils (52-22-8) The Devils haven’t won a playoff series since beating the Rangers in the 2012 Eastern Conference Final. They’re so fun; so fast; so young; it really just comes down to how much you want to ding them based on inexperience and the fact they don’t playing a grinding playoff style.
9. Dallas Stars (47-21-14) The Stars had the best goal-differential in the West (plus-67) and quietly closed out the season with a strong 13-4-1 record. They also have Jake Oettinger — the guy who nearly won them a first-round series singlehandedly last year — in goal.
10. Los Angeles Kings (47-25-10) This Kings team scores more than the one that was edged in seven games by the Oilers in last year’s first round and should get more saves than a year ago, too. That said, Kevin Fiala’s health status is up in the air right now and L.A. is still going to need all the offence it can find to make this work against Edmonton.
11. Tampa Bay Lightning (46-30-6) Two months ago, it would have been impossible to imagine putting Tampa outside the top 5 in a ranking like this. But it’s been real bumpy for the Bolts down the stretch. They’ll need something special from Andrei Vasilevskiy to make a fourth straight final.
12. Minnesota Wild (46-25-11) The health of Joel Eriksson Ek is obviously a large subplot. Filip Gustavsson’s emergence has been a huge story for the Wild this year, but how much of a stumble would it take to park ‘Gus the Bus’ in favour of highly decorated “backup” Marc-Andre Fleury?
13. Winnipeg Jets (46-33-3) It was such a taxing second half for the Jets trying to stay in the playoffs that the team must be feeling a lot lighter now. Having a goalie like Connor Hellebuyck is always a great starting point in a seven-game series.
14. Seattle Kraken (46-28-8) I mean, nobody around the Kraken is going to say it, but just getting here means this season was a success for Seattle.
15. Florida Panthers (42-32-8) Honestly, I could see bumping Florida up a few slots if they weren’t drawing Boston in Round 1. Let’s see if Alex Lyon’s magic carries over to the post-season.
16. New York Islanders (42-31-9) You could easily argue it’s a mistake making a team with Ilya Sorokin as its goalie last on this list, but even if the Isles were to upset Carolina, it’s hard to imagine them going any further than that.