B's Even Record Up After Cold Start

A couple of days away from puck drop on the 2022-23 EHE regular season, things were looking good for the Boston Bruins. They had a strong-looking lineup, a 3-0 pre-season record (12-6 scoring edge), and plenty of optimism surrounding the team.

Suddenly, as if a switch somewhere was flipped, it all started to go wrong. The Bruins dropped their final pre-season game 5-4, though it wasn't the result that was a concern - it was injuries to star forwards Filip Forsberg and Dylan Larkin, set to keep Forsberg out a week and Larkin out for about three.

Then the Bruins came out flat on opening night and laid an egg in a 7-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. A relatively tight game early completely fell apart with back-to-back Pittsburgh goals a minute apart early in the 3rd, and the Bruins allowed two more later on. Things got worse two days later when the Bruins barely put up a fight in a listless 5-1 rout at the hands of the Dallas Stars.

A quick look at the schedule showed powerhouse Philadelphia and Buffalo squads coming up next. Forsberg's impending return did nothing to quell the Bruins' struggles as a nightmare 0-4 start quickly became reality. They were outscored 20-8. Evgeni Malkin and Jack Eichel had 3 points between them. Jacob Markstrom sported an 0.875 SV% and a GAA over 5.00. And while 82 games is plenty of time to recover from a 4-game slide, the Bruins needed to make sure they didn't let this cold spell get out of control, and they were going to have to do it without a star forward with Larkin still two weeks away from a return.

Flash forward four more games and the Bruins are doing what they can to bury those dark days far in the ground where they belong, though that doesn't mean there wasn't a twinge of anxiety as their season teetered on the edge of a seemingly-unthinkable disaster out of the gate.

"Nobody ever wants to see two top guys go down and then start the season losing four straight - it doesn't matter how good you are, how much confidence you have in your group, you know you need to get that train back on the right track in a hurry," said GM Trevor Cook. "And fortunately we had the guys to get that started and now it's just one day at a time and we don't really want to think about how those first four games went. That's a distant memory now."

The Bruins put up a 3-2 win over San Jose, then handed the 6-0-0 Panthers their first loss of the season with an OT win before sending a much more convincing message that they were back on track with a 7-0 win over Carolina. Tonight, the Bruins evened their record back up at 4-4-0 with a second win over Florida. The Bruins conceded the first goal of the game to the Panthers (now 6-1-1) before answering with four straight en route to a 5-3 victory.

Matthew Tkachuk, who had just 66 points last season, stepped up and put the team on his back with 13 points over those 8 games - 9 in the Bruins four-game winning streak, including two game-winning goals.

And now the GM will get a first look at the lineup he envisioned all along. The Bruins have four days off after a fairly compact schedule to start the season, which will give some much-needed rest to guys like John Carlson, Jack Eichel, and Matt Tkachuk who have been playing heavy minutes. It will give still-slightly-banged-up Filip Forsberg a chance to get back to 100%. And it will be Dylan Larkin's Bruins debut when they take on Detroit on January 22nd.

Larkin, who had 4 points in the pre-season, can't wait to get back on the ice. "It was pretty unfortunate timing to get hurt there but you know, luckily it was nothing too major and I'm happy to get back out there, really looking forward to it. Just excited to be back out there with the guys and do what I can to help this team win."

Tommy Barr

Nice read. Didnt think it would be long before the Bruins bounced back. Though its always scary to start off playing catch up.

B's Even Record Up After Cold Start
Win 4th straight after 0-4 start, Larkin set to return

• 1 teams Like this  1 year

Kyle Phillips

The B’s are trending up…bad news for the rest of the Atlantic (and the rest of the league, really).

B's Even Record Up After Cold Start
Win 4th straight after 0-4 start, Larkin set to return

• 1 teams Like this  1 year