The Boston Bruins are really close to breaking an NHL record by having the most wins in a single season. Taylor Hall, a forward on the team, said it’s okay to be proud of that accomplishment. He thinks it’s amazing!
Pavel Zacha scored two goals in the first five minutes and the Bruins (who won the President’s Trophy) managed to get a win against New Jersey, making it their fifth consecutive victory and 12th out of 13 attempts.
Boston has three games remaining to attempt to break the record for regular-season wins that were set by the 1995-96 Red Wings and matched by the 2018-19 Lightning. Neither of these teams were able to claim the Stanley Cup but the Bruins remind us that this should still be their main goal.
Coach Jim Montgomery said that the team needs to win their last game of the season so they stay sharp for a possible long postseason run. He also said that it is special to have their ‘Spoked B’ in the history books because of how many wins they can possibly get during this regular season.
The Bruins have won a special trophy called the Presidents’ Trophy which means they’ve earned the number one seed in the playoffs. Right now, they have 129 points in their standings and there is an old record of 132 points held by another team that played 80 games a while ago.
They will get their first chance to break this record when they play against Philadelphia on Sunday and also play Washington on Tuesday and Montreal on Thursday at home.
Linus Ullmark, who stopped 29 shots, said: “You have to give your best effort for tomorrow’s game. There won’t be any easy wins this time. We should be proud of ourselves but don’t forget that we have another chance tomorrow.”
Jesper Bratt scored a goal and Mackenzie Blackwood made 38 saves for the Devils. This game keeps them one point behind Carolina and two points ahead of the Rangers in the competition for the Metropolitan Division title. Jack Hughes helped with the goal, which he now has 96 points from this season, tying Patrik Eliáš’ team record.
Ryan Graves from the Devils team got a penalty one minute into the game when he stopped Brad Marchand from getting a loose puck close to the net. Even though he disagreed with the call, an official stopped him from going up to Marchand.
A minute later, Zacha tipped in a shot from Hampus Lindholm and then backhanded a rebound off Blackwood’s pads into the net making it 2-0 within five minutes.
The Devils scored a goal and made it 2-1. They had the chance to score another one when Bratt was all alone in front of the goalie, Ullmark. He managed to stop two shots by Hughes and a rebound attempt from Sharangovich though.
The Bruins were able to avoid being punished during a double-minor penalty which straddled two periods.
Blackwood stopped David Pastrnak from scoring during the second period. Despite an attempt to score in the empty net, it appears that Nico Hischier kicked it off the goal line. In the coming days, the Devils will host Buffalo at their home finale while Bruins will face-off against Flyers on Sunday night for their penultimate away game of this season.