Kalman: For Bruins In California, Two Points Will Be Enough To Get By
BOSTON (CBS) -- In a Bruins season that was built on setting low expectations and exceeding them, it's time to now lower that bar even more in advance of the toughest road trip of the season.
The Bruins open a three-game California road trip Tuesday against San Jose. The trip continues Friday and Saturday against Anaheim and Los Angeles, respectively. You might recall that in the three games against these teams at TD Garden, the Bruins lost by a combined score of 20-8.
Up until the past couple of weeks it looked like the Bruins were going to barely hang around in the race for a playoff spot during this soft-rebuild season. It didn't matter because that was all they were expected to do at the outset of the season after all the changes general manager Don Sweeney made.
Their 5-0-2 hot streak, however, has them challenging for the Atlantic Division title and thinking about winning rounds of playoffs rather than just playing a round.
Now they're headed to the West Coast, looking like a better team than when they faced the teams from the Golden State earlier this season and it's time to scale back their hopes for continued success.
The Bruins recent run without a loss in regulation includes wins against Chicago, Florida and Tampa Bay, and an overtime loss to Washington, so coach Claude Julien believes the Bruins better equipped to compete with the California clubs.
"Well you know we talked about it being a test here a little while ago with the Chicagos and Washingtons and having to play the two Florida teams, that was a challenge that we took upon ourselves," Julien said. "And now we have got this next challenge which is ... these three games in California which are going to be tough games so we are going to take it as a challenge and look forward to facing it."
The best thing going for the Bruins is that they've built up a nice stockpile of points in the standings. They woke up Monday morning still in first place in the division with 86 points. The Panthers and Lightning both have games in hand and are one point back. But if the Bruins relinquish first place while away, they have a comfortable 10-point lead on ninth-place Philadelphia.
Taking on the three California teams, including Anaheim and Los Angeles in a weekend back-to-back, is a totally different beast than playing at home against Chicago and on the road against the Florida teams. These are heavy teams with tons of experience, strong goaltending and (in Anaheim and Los Angeles' case) intimidating home buildings. Better teams than the Bruins have returned empty-handed from this type of road trip.
So the Bruins shouldn't get carried away by how well they've played recently and instead set their goal for their three games in California at realistic two out of six points. If they beat the Sharks, who are in third place in the Pacific Division and have a 13-15-3 home record, then anything the Bruins do while in Southern California will be icing on the cake. If they get more than two points, well, they can become giddy over again exceeding expectations.
But two points, regardless of how the Bruins get them, will be enough to keep teams outside of the playoff structure at bay.
Many might read this and begin to have flashbacks to last season, when the Bruins saw their double-digit-point leads on Ottawa disintegrate into nothing, eventually leading to Boston missing the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons. Rest assured, there are no teams equal to the Senators of last season. In fact, the Senators of last season did something that had rarely been done before and doesn't figure to be accomplished again any time soon.
Look at the teams that would have to play well enough to knock the Bruins out of the top eight in the Eastern Conference. Detroit was just shut out on home ice by Toronto. Philadelphia has been playing better and is probably the odds-on favorite to win the last wild-card spot. But the Flyers lack depth, so much so that they're relying on Andrew MacDonald to play more than 20 minutes per game on their back end. Carolina's hanging around, and the Hurricanes even beat the Bruins last week. But sooner or later the decision to trade Eric Staal and other veterans will have the desired effect of removing Carolina from playoff contention. New Jersey is just teasing everyone right now and won't be able to hang in the race for much longer without injured goaltender Cory Schneider.
Although a zero-point trip would do a lot to tarnish the Bruins' recently renovated contender image, it wouldn't be the disaster some would make it out to be. The Bruins would probably get enough help from the mediocre competition behind them to maintain a decent lead for a playoff spot and they could return to the East and grind out enough points down the stretch to qualify for the playoffs. No one wants to go 0-fer though, so the Bruins should set their expectations a little higher. Two points would be fine for a Bruins team that's made its living surpassing humble goals.
It's always better to be pleasantly surprised than bitterly disappointed.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.