Bruins set new NHL record as fastest team to 80 points
BOSTON -- The Bruins are absolutely rolling, racking up wins and points whenever they take the ice. As we get further into the season, the Bruins are starting to pose a serious threat to the NHL record books.
One record fell on Tuesday night, with the Bruins notching their 38th win of the year thanks to a 4-2 win over the Canadiens in Montreal. Sitting at 38-5-4 on the season, the Bruins have already hit the 80-point mark. In late January.
That's a whole lot of points in not a lot of time. You could even call it, historic.
The Bruins became the fastest team in NHL history to hit the 80-point plateau, reaching the mark in just 47 games. That's two games quicker than the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers and 1943-44 Montreal Canadiens, both of whom reached the mark in 49 games:
2022-23 Boston Bruins: 47 games
1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers: 49 games
1943-44 Montreal Canadiens: 49 games
1983-84 Edmonton Oilers: 50 games
1975-76 Montreal Canadiens: 50 games
1944-45 Montreal Canadiens: 50 games
We're still a few months away from knowing how the Bruins will end this truly epic run. But we know what that rest of the pack was able to accomplish, and only one of those teams didn't win it all by season's end.
The 1979-80 Flyers finished with a season-high 116 points and went 15-4 in the playoffs en route to a Stanley Cup title.
The 1943-44 Canadiens played just 50 games, but they went 38-5-7 for 83 points and went on to win a Stanley Cup crown, going 8-1 in the playoffs. They followed that up with an 80-point season in 1944-45, going 38-8-4 in the regular season, but lost to Toronto in the semis.
But the 1975-76 Habs were able to win a Cup after their 58-11-11 regular season, racking up 127 points in the process. Those Canadiens lost just one playoff game on their way to a Cup, the first of four straight Stanley Cup titles for Montreal.
The 1983-84 Oilers dominated the rest of the league, finishing with a 57-18-5 record and 119 points on Wayne Gretzky's 205-point season (87 goals, 118 assists). They went 15-4 in the playoffs and lifted Lord Stanley's Cup at the end of the season.
So it would appear as though history is on Boston's side. And at the moment, they're on pace to shatter the record for most points in the season, which was set by the 1976-77 Canadiens, who went 60-8-12 for 132 points.
The Bruins are currently on pace for 66 wins (which would also be an NHL record) and a 139-point season. Yeesh.
