Boston Bruins: 5 Biggest Obstacles Right Now to a Repeat Stanley Cup

Unbeaten this month at 9-0-0 and suddenly in a virtual tie for first place in the Northeast Division, the Boston Bruins have all but razed any concerns about following the dubious skate-steps of the 1995-96 New Jersey Devils and 2006-07 Carolina Hurricanes.

With that being said, in the 17 years since the NHL lockout, there is at least one phenomenon that has occurred even less frequently than a defending Stanley Cup champion missing the very next postseason. That would be a defending champion repeating its feat the following June.

In order to defy logic and give themselves their second Duck Boat parade in as many years, the Bruins will need to penetrate the following five internal and external hindrances.

So Much Grind, Such a Short Time

The Bruins have most likely seen the worst of their post-championship hangover, having spent the better part of this second month of the season kicking ice chips over the first month. And with the first quarter of the schedule completed, they have as good a chance as anybody to nab first place in the Northeast Division.

All's well and good for the moment, but the same mantra that has been reiterated in some of the best and worst times of recent regular seasons must be brought up again. The question is not so much what the Bruins achieve now, but rather what they do starting after the first week of April.

The simple fact is not very many NHL teams are capable of manufacturing enough energy to successfully pull of an eight- or nine-month run in back-to-back years.

In the last decade, the only teams to reach back-to-back Stanley Cup finals have been the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings, who split consecutive meetings in 2008 and 2009.

The only other teams in recent history who have moved beyond the second round in consecutive years are the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks. The Sharks sputtered without hesitation in both the 2010 and 2011 conference finals while Chicago went the distance in 2010, but not before a learning experience against Detroit in 2009.

Boston will simply have to defy normalcy to do deep again in 2012, especially with such a multitude of holdovers from 2011. Their exceptional youth may help in that department, especially with Tyler Seguin piloting the offense, but there are no guarantees.

The Other Black and Gold

To say nothing of a natural concern for the individual player’s long-term well-being, it must pain the Bruins faithful to see how consummately the Penguins have handled the process of reintegrating Sidney Crosby.

Boston’s prized playmaker Marc Savard returned only two months after his Grade II concussion in 2010, then took seven more months off before coming back for a 25-game stint that culminated in another concussion. He was formally shelved on Feb. 7 of last season and will not be back again to contribute anytime soon, if at all.

Conversely, Crosby, who led the Pens with 32 goals in 2010-11 despite playing in only half of the regular season, had been out of action since Jan. 5. A good 10-plus months later, he broke back into the lineup on Monday (oh, did he ever) and has as many as 61 regular season games yet to come.

With a healthy Crosby, a healthy Evgeni Malkin, a healthy Jordan Staal and more of the same from the surprising James Neal, Pittsburgh promises to be lethal again. And in the event of a playoff encounter, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is more than capable of forging an arm-wrestling match with Tim Thomas or Tuukka Rask.

And remember that the Bruins have yet to commence their four-game season series with the Penguins, who without Crosby still managed to take two 3-2 victories away from Boston last winter.

Copycat Capitals?

Despite their postseason track record and their present posture in the NHL standings, the Washington Capitals are still not to be overlooked in the long run.

Keep in mind that, as recently as six months ago, the Bruins and their fans were in the same skates as the Washington faithful. The Caps are still a team to watch throughout the regular season, despite growing increasingly weary of first- and second-round letdowns in the playoffs.

One by one, from the Penguins to the Blackhawks to the Bruins, long-tenured NHL franchises have formulated a pattern of rising out of irrelevance en route to the summit within three or four years.

The Capitals should have more than enough incentive to follow suit in 2012. And if they apply their offensive assets and can just get their act together in the crease, their hopes are reasonable.

Make a similar note on the Philadelphia Flyers, who likewise don’t need to change much within their strike force but could stand to spruce up the stoppers.

King Henrik and His Praetorian Guards

Since the Bruins replenished their relevance with the advent of Claude Julien, New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist has gone 9-5-2 against Boston. He has never allowed more than three goals in a single one of those 16 encounters, laid four regulation goose-eggs and only once lost by a multi-goal margin.

Could he translate that success to a do-or-die stretch of four to seven postseason confrontations? Maybe not in the past, but with his team on the rise this year, that could change.

With youngsters like Derek Stepan a year wiser, captain Ryan Callahan healthy and the addition of former Conn Smythe winner Brad Richards, Lundqvist could get enough support to steal most any series.

Wild West

Even if the Bruins can surmount and/or dodge all of the aforementioned hurdles and return to the final frontier, there are enough Western Conference forces to pose more than a formidable challenge.

The Sharks are the Capitals of their conference. The 2010 champion Blackhawks look as though they are raring to make another run after last year’s dismantling and reconstruction (although they, too, have that same goaltending caveat as Washington and Philadelphia). And the Red Wings are, well, the Red Wings.

And that’s just naming three prime suspects. Only the hockey gods know who else could burgeon between now and the conclusion of the regular season.