NHL 2023 Futures Spotlight: Boston Bruins Under Wins

The Boston Bruins finished the 2022-2023 NHL season with the best all time record for both points and wins. With 135 points and 65 wins they passed the previous record holder the 2018-2019 Tampa Bay Lightning (128 points). And yet, everything came crashing down in a bewildering first round exit against the scrappy Florida Panthers.

Guess who took their under for wins last year? Yep, your bud Betzky did. But just as all inspiring quote by George Bush Jr goes, “Fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again."

So give me Boston Bruins under 100.5 points at -110 on Bovada.

I’ll even double down and put a half unit on them missing the playoffs for +220. And yes, I still have all of my marbles.

Last season the Bruins looked like they were an old lawnmower that would take some cranks to get started but would eventually get the job done. Marchand had surgery on both of his hips and was supposed to be out until December. He came back 10/27 and had a goal and two assists. Top pairing defenseman Charlie McAvoy was recovering from a shoulder injury and had a similar time table of return as Marchand, yet he was back by the 14th game of the season. Bergeron was another year older, Krecji was coming back to the NHL after a stint in Europe and while Ullmark showed flashes of greatness in his first season with the Bruins, nobody could have predicted the former 6th round pick would win the Vezina. So, naturally I zagged on the B’s and thought they would struggle out the gate in a tough division and not hit their point total. I was wrong. Very very wrong. But this season looks very very different.

The Bruins offseason has been as disappointing as their playoff collapse.

In what looked like a move to shed cap space to re-sign recent acquisitions Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov they traded top 6 forward Taylor Hall for absolutely nothing. But then they weren’t able to lock up either Bertuzzi or Orlov, instead having to sign yardsale rubbish free agents like Morgan Geekie, Jesper Boqvist, Milan Lucic and James van Riemsdyk. The hole gets deeper as heart and soul players like Nick Foligno and Connor Cliffton moved on and most importantly their captain and arguably most important player Patrice Bergeron retired. Many thought players like Bergeron would give it one more spin after a historic season, or that players would take a discount to keep the band together. Nope. Didn’t happen.

How far does the fallout of missing Bergeron go?

Is Marchand the same caliber of player while being centered by Pavel Zacha? Does Pastrnak sniff 40 goals being on a line of Charlie Coyle and Riemsdyk? I wouldn’t put my money on it.

Now it’s not all doom or gloom. The Bruins still have a very strong defensive core and possibly the best goalie tandem in the league. But are previous Vezina winner Ullmark and young stud netminder Swayman able to reach the same heights with a much weaker team in front of them? But I mean just look at this current lineup.

Expected Boston Bruins lineup for tonight against the NY Rangers. Matt Poitras getting a 3rd line C look

Marchand-Coyle-DeBrusk
Boqvist-Zacha-Pastrnak
Frederic-Poitras-Geekie
Greer-Beecher-Brown

Grzelcyk-McAvoy
Lohrei-Carlo
Forbort-Mitchell

Swayman
Bussi

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) October 5, 2023

To make matters worse, there are also three young and hungry teams in the East who will be nipping at their heels to snatch the playoff spot from the B’s. All of the Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings continue to improve and are dark horses to make the postseason. We also saw Eastern rival the Pittsburgh Penguins make a huge addition in trading for Erik Karlsson (all while shedding cap space and trimming fat off their roster mind you).

A 33 point fall feels like a Titanic style crash for Boston.

But let’s not forget they had a 28 point climb between the 2022 season and their most recent historic one. In fact we just saw a 30 point plummet from the Panthers who were the top team in 2021-2022 (122 points) to just sneaking into the playoffs this season (92 points). Boston dominated the three dark horse teams in the Atlantic, sweeping Buffalo, losing to Detroit once and Ottawa once in regulation and once in overtime, securing 17 of 22 points. If these teams split their series vs Boston that would even out the playing field significantly. If any of these teams win their season series vs Boston it could really hurt the Bruins chances to make the postseason.

The East is tougher, the Bruins are older and shallower. The damn beanstalk has been chopped down and we are going to see a giant fall. How much is still to be determined but I will be placing my money on a historic collapse.

Give me Boston Bruins u100.5 at -110 (1u) and Boston to miss the playoffs at +220 (.5u) both on Bovada.

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