Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Forget everything you know about parity. If the Boston Bruins keep doing what they’re doing, they will set a new standard for NHL excellence — not just in the salary-cap era, but going back nearly a century.
The Bruins rolled into the holiday break sitting comfortably atop the NHL standings. With a record of 27-4-2 for 56 points in 33 games, they’re six points up on the second-place Carolina Hurricanes and eight ahead of second-place Toronto in the tough Atlantic Division.
They’ve also collected 84.8 percent of their potential points to date. If they can keep this up, they’ll finish the season with 139 points. That’s virtually unprecedented.
Only six teams in NHL history have finished with points percentages of .800 or better. The last time it happened in a full season was 45 years ago, when the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens went 59-10-11 for 129 points in 80 games (.806). In the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign, the Chicago Blackhawks finished at .802, with a record of 36-7-5 for 77 points in 48 games.
The best full season in the salary-cap era belongs to the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning, who finished with 128 points (.781). And the best single season since the NHL started handing out the Presidents’ Trophy in 1986 belongs to the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings, with 131 points and a .799 points percentage.
Just one team in NHL history has ever finished a season with a points percentage above the Bruins’ current .848. In the 1929-30 season, the Bruins topped the 10-team standings with a record of 38-5-1 over 44 games (.875). But they did not win the Stanley Cup — Montreal swept the best-of-three final with wins of 3-0 and 4-3.
Home, Sweet Home
Part of the reason for Boston’s success this season has been its tremendous run on home ice. In late November, the Bruins set a new NHL record with 12 straight home wins to start the season. That streak stretched to 14 before the Vegas Golden Knights earned a shootout win on Dec. 5. Ten days later, the Los Angeles Kings also pulled out a shootout win. And that’s it. The Bruins are 18-0-2 so far this season at TD Garden. Talk about putting on a show for the home fans.
Pasta Takes Shots
David Pastrnak rolled into the holiday break on an 11-game point streak. He scored his 23rd and 24th goals of the season at the Prudential Center on Friday as the Bruins came back to beat the New Jersey Devils 4-3.
The 26-year-old is tied with Jason Robertson and Bo Horvat for third in goals at the holiday break — on pace for 59 goals this season. That would crush his previous high of 48, set in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season.
The secret to his success this year: shooting more. Pastrnak leads all NHL players this season with 168 shots at the holiday break. That’s an average of 5.09 shots per game — more than a shot and a half above his career average of 3.46.
Since 2000, Alex Ovechkin has been the king of volume shooting. He has eight of the top 10 marks during that time, topping out at 6.68 shots per game in the 2008-09 season.
Pastrnak’s performance this year slides him into sixth position on that list — and he has company. Nathan MacKinnon sits fourth on the list, also from his season. He was averaging 5.22 shots a game before he went down with an upper-body injury on Dec. 5. Because he has missed Colorado’s last nine games, he’s at 120 total shots for the year, which ties him for 16th overall.
As for Ovechkin: he sits third at the break with 157 shots in 36 games, or 4.36 shots per game. Even as he climbs the NHL’s all-time goals list, that’s below his career average of 4.75 shots per game.
Ovechkin led the league in shots in nine of his first 10 seasons and, most recently, in his Stanley Cup season in 2017-18.
Ullmark Rewards Bruins’ Faith
The Bruins raised eyebrows with their decision to target Linus Ullmark as the successor to Tuukka Rask two years ago. A sixth-round pick by the Buffalo Sabers in 2012, Ullmark had put up decent numbers in Buffalo, with a 2.78 goals-against average and .912 save percentage over six seasons. But he had never played more than 37 games in an NHL season, and his pro playoff experience was limited to three games with the AHL’s Rochester Americans in 2018.
In his final season with the Sabers before free agency, Ullmark made $2.6 million in 2020-21. That summer, it was a surprise to see the Bruins commit to a four-year deal with a cap hit of $5 million, including a full no-movement clause for the first two years.
It’s an understatement to say that deal has worked out well for both sides: Ullmark’s strong play this season has been a huge part of Boston’s success.
At the break, his .936 save percentage leads all goalies with more than 10 games played. His 1.94 goals-against average ties him for the top spot with Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov. And even though Ullmark sits 15th in total minutes played, in a comfortable rotation with Jeremy Swayman, he leads all goalies with 19 wins — two ahead of second-place Igor Shesterkin, who has made four more starts.
Ullmark is now up to 19-1-1 for the season. And he has only given up more than three goals in a game once, in Boston’s 6-5 overtime win in Pittsburgh on Nov. 1.
He has been a model of consistency, and his excellence is that much more impressive in a season where the average save percentage has dropped to .905, the lowest level since the 2006-07 season.
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