5 Teams with Best Chance to End Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Dreams
As we approach the NHL All-Star break the Boston Bruins have clearly established themselves as the NHL's best team.
Entering play on Saturday their record was 10 points better than any other team in the league, their goal differential was 42 goals better than any other team and they had lost just six of their first 48 games in regulation.
They are a force, and if they can make a big move at the trade deadline to further bolster their roster they should be the runaway favorites to win the Stanley Cup.
But as we all know being the best NHL team in the regular season does not always turn into a Stanley Cup championship at the end of the year. Being the best team in the league after 82 games is a huge accomplishment and should be celebrated, but being able to do that and still get through another two-month grind that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs takes a perfect combination of skill, health and luck.
It is not easy.
If somebody is going to beat the Boston Bruins in the playoffs and end their Stanley Cup dreams, these are five teams that might have the best chance.
Tampa Bay Lightning
1 of 5
No matter who wins a potential Boston-Tampa Bay series, it would be one of the best matchups in the league and probably be six or seven games of brilliant hockey.
Boston is the best team in the league this season.
Tampa Bay has been the most successful team in the league for the past seven years and is always in the running for the Stanley Cup. The Lightning are also not showing any signs of slowing down after three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances and they still have one of the league's best rosters.
Sometimes we tend to take this team and their success for granted because we get bored with them always being good (or simply expect it).
Make no mistake, they are still a force and boast some of the NHL's best players. Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point are all having monster years, they still have quality depth and they are always a potential buyer at the trade deadline no matter what their salary cap situation is.
As if all of that is not enough, they also have the most accomplished goalie currently in the league in Andrei Vasilevskiy to be the last line of defense. When he is on his game he is a game-wrecker for opponents, and it is almost unfair to have a goalie that good behind a team this good. He is money when it comes to the playoffs, and he could ruin any team's Stanley Cup dreams all by himself.
If the Bruins are going to win the Stanley Cup there is a very good chance they will have to get through Tampa Bay in the second round. It will not be easy.
Colorado Avalanche
2 of 5
Never bet against the defending Stanley Cup champions until somebody beats them.
The Avalanche's 2022-23 season might not be going exactly as planned, and they might still find themselves in a fight to actually make the playoffs, but their problem is not one of talent.
It is one of health.
As in, a significant portion of their top players have missed major time this season and left their roster as a shell of what it should be.
At some point you have to imagine that will change a little bit and they will get players like Valeri Nichushkin, Gabriel Landeskog and Bowen Byram back in the lineup. When that happens, and if they can add a second-line center to replace Nazem Kadri, this team will again be one of the best in the league.
When healthy their collection of forwards has a great mix of elite stars (with Nathan MacKinnon leading the way) and strong complementary pieces, while their defense is arguably the best unit from top-to-bottom in the NHL. Cale Makar, Devon Toews, and Samuel Girard would all be top-pairing defenders on any team in the league, while Byram has superstar potential of his own.
They just need all of these guys in the lineup at the same time.
If they get to that point they are perfectly capable of becoming the latest repeat Stanley Cup champions.
Carolina Hurricanes
3 of 5
Given their place in their respective divisions this hypothetical matchup would not happen until the Eastern Conference Final, and what a series that would be.
The Hurricanes already ended the Bruins' playoff run a year ago, winning a tight seven-game series in the first round.
It was a great series, and a rematch might be even better this year since both teams are better than they were a year ago.
Carolina is at a point where Colorado was a year ago. A consistently great regular season team with a great roster that keeps hitting a glass ceiling in the second round. Could this be the year the Hurricanes break through that ceiling and get back to the Stanley Cup Final?
What makes the Hurricanes so dangerous this season is that their roster is already one of the best in the league, and they now have the salary cap space to be major buyers at the trade deadline following Max Pacioretty's injury. Imagine this lineup if it could add another impact forward like Bo Horvat or Timo Meier to go with its already impressive core of Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas.
Carolina does pretty much everything well. They are one of the best 5-on-5 teams in the league and lead the NHL in expected goal share, scoring chance share, high-danger scoring chance share and shot attempt share. Nobody pushes the pace of play like them. They can create chances, they defend, and they have three capable NHL goalies in Frederik Andersen, Antti Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov.
They really do not have a weakness.
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Dallas Stars
4 of 5
Dallas does not seem to get a ton of hype among the potential Stanley Cup contenders (at least not yet) but it has emerged as one of the best teams in the Western Conference and has every ingredient imaginable to win it all.
The Stars' top line of Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz has been one of the best in the NHL over the past two years, and unlike last year they have some secondary scoring behind them to back them up. Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn are having nice bounce back years, while Wyatt Johnson and Mason Marchment have proven to be huge additions to this year's roster.
But that is not what makes the Stars so scary.
That ingredient is in goal.
That is where Jake Oettinger resides and he is quickly emerging as one of the best starting goalies in the league.
He nearly single-handedly dragged the Stars through the first round a year ago against Calgary, and he has picked up where he left off this season. He has a .923 save percentage entering Saturday and is capable of single-handedly stealing games and putting the team on his back.
A great goalie can mask a lot of flaws on an average team and take it pretty far.
A great goalie behind an already good team can make it a Stanley Cup champion.
Toronto Maple Leafs
5 of 5
OK, hear me out here on this and try not to laugh.
You are laughing. I know you are.
I know why you are laughing.
This Toronto core has lost in the first round six years in a row in every manner you could imagine. As an underdog, as a favorite, by losing leads (in games and in series), by getting out played and even with some bad luck. All of it. It has hit for the cycle of postseason incompetence.
The organization as a whole has not won a playoff in two decades, while Boston has been a constant thorn in its side by beating it in the first round in 2013, 2018 and 2019. Like every other Toronto postseason loss, those series have all been incredibly close and gone the distance to a seventh game.
They are always right there. They are always close with a razor thin margin between winning and losing. At some point the right bounce is going to go their way and give them a win.
It might not be a first round matchup this year, but it could happen in the second round and it will probably go to the wire yet again.
No matter what you think of Toronto's past postseason performances, this team is outstanding and it has top-line talent. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares are all impact players, they are a significantly better defensive team than they get credit for being and their goaltending duo of Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov has been a huge surprise.
If that goaltending holds out, this Toronto team might finally have the ability to finally make some noise in the playoffs. They are capable of winning. Even if it has not happened yet with this core of players.
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