The Boston Bruins entered the 2022-23 NHL season with modest expectations. The team amassed 107 points last season, before bowing out in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs. During the summer, the Bruins fired head coach Bruce Cassidy and replaced him with Jim Montgomery. Caesars Sportsbook gave them 25-1 odds to win the Stanley Cup, and we ranked them 14th in our preseason Power Rankings.
Then the season began, and the Bruins have been authoring one of the greatest regular seasons in the modern, salary cap era (since 2005-06).
Through 80 games, the Bruins have skated to a 63-12-5 record, good for 131 points (a franchise record) and an .819 points percentage. They have clinched the Presidents’ Trophy, become just the fourth team to win 60 games, and set the record for wins in a season with 63.
Wins: 63
Through 80 games, the Bruins are on pace for 64 wins by season’s end and are the fastest team to 50 wins in NHL history. They set the NHL record with 63 wins, passing the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings (who finished 62-13-7) and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning (62-16-4). Neither team won the Stanley Cup in its respective record-setting season, as the Red Wings lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference finals, and the Lightning were swept in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Points: 131
The Bruins are the fastest team in NHL history to reach 100 points, getting there in 61 games, one fewer than the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens. Boston is on pace for 134 points this season. This would put them on pace to break the current record for points in a season held by the same 1976-77 Canadiens (132), who set that mark in an 80-game season. The Canadiens won the Cup that season — over the Bruins.
Goal differential: +124
Goal differential is not an easily projectable stat for a number of reasons. But if we took the Bruins’ current differential — which is best in the league by 60 goals — and extrapolated that out to 82 games, they’d finish at plus-127. That’s a number that would blow by anything in the salary cap era, but would not be too close to the all-time record. The 1976-77 Canadiens are atop the board, at plus-216.
Team save percentage: .932
Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman are one of the NHL’s best goaltending duos, and along with a 30-of-31 game by Keith Kinkaid, the group has generated the league’s best team save percentage, ahead of the New York Islanders, at .922. Though not an official league record, the best mark for a team in a single season is .934, set by the 1968-69 St. Louis Blues.
Goals against per game: 2.09
All of those saves have resulted in not many goals for Bruins opponents. Their mark of 2.09 goals against per game is well ahead of the second place Carolina Hurricanes (2.54). The post-1967 expansion record for lowest goals-against average in a season is 1.89, held by the 2011-12 Blues.
David Pastrnak
The 26-year-old winger is second in the NHL with 60 goals, and is fourth with 108 points, on pace for 61 and 110 respectively. Those totals don’t approach all-time NHL records, but if he hits that goal mark, it would be the fourth-most goals in a season by a Bruin, breaking Phil Esposito’s clean sweep of the top five goal-scoring seasons in B’s history.
Linus Ullmark
By notching his 25th win of the season in his 28th game, Ullmark broke the NHL record for fewest number of games to reach that victory benchmark. He leads the league in wins (39), goals-against average (1.89) and save percentage (.938). The single-season NHL record for wins (48, by Braden Holtby in 2015-16) is in play. The modern-era record for GAA is 1.56 (Brian Elliott, 2011-12) and for save percentage is .940 (also by Elliott in 2011-12). For good measure, Ullmark scored a goal in Boston’s 3-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 25.
1:20
Patrice Bergeron: Reaching 62 wins is special
Captain Patrice Bergeron reflects on the Bruins’ 62-win milestone and how they’re approaching their final three games.
Bruins’ upcoming games
Note: All games not on ESPN, TNT or NHL Network are available via NHL Power Play, which is included in an ESPN+ subscription (local blackout restrictions apply).
April 11: vs. Washington Capitals
7 ET | NHL Power Play on ESPN+
April 13: @ Montreal Canadiens
7 ET | NHL Power Play on ESPN+
